Rock N' Roll Standards Part 1

Recently there's been a renewed interest in "The Great American Song Book". Not sure what that is? It's pretty much the collection of popular songs written by the composers of the 1920s-1950s primarily.

The Great American Song Book comprises of songs composed by Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and the like. During this age of music the cover reigned supreme as artists such as Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Dean Martin, Perry Como, Bing Crosby, Peggy Lee, Burl Ives, and Sammy Davis JR all did their own versions of popular songs.

Some of those singers we still listen to, albiet only at Christmas time (Bing Crosby and Burl Ives).

So, Rod Stewart and the like are making modern covers of such often romantic yet nearly forgotten songs that show elegance and class.

My question is, what about the Rock N' Roll standards?

An even better question is, what *ARE* the Rock N' Roll standards?

In my opinion Rock N' Roll can be broken down into at least three minimum great composers. Bare in mind, this is for simplification purposes the big three that come initially to my mind!

The first of course is Chuck Berry. He gave us such songs as "Johnny B. Goode", "Little Queenie", "Brown Eyed Handsome Man", "Roll Over Beethoven", "Memphis, Tennessee", "Thirty Days", "Rock And Roll Music", "Reelin' And Rockin'", and more.

Out of the 1950s he's the most prolific composer though both Little Richard and Buddy Holly represent some of the other greatest composers of rock mmusic from that same era.

Then there's Bob Dylan. I think today a lotta people tend to forget just how influential Dylan was for his time. I mean, the easiest way to have a Top 40 hit in the 1960s was to cover a Bob Dylan tune.

The Byrds covered Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man". Manfred Mann covered Dylan's "The Mighty Quinn". Jimi Hendrix covered Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower". The Turtles covered Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe". In the 1970s Olivia Newton-John covered Dylan's "If Not For You". In the 1990s Guns N' Roses had a huge hit covering Dylan's "Knockin' On Heaven's Door".

Any arguments against Bob Dylan yet?

Now, I'm gonna mention that for right now I'm not including writing teams such as Lennon/McCartney, Goffen/King, Leiber/Stroller, and the like. So please stick with me here!

For the third I'm gonna say John Fogerty.

What? Really?

Here's why, ok?

John Fogerty was the song writing machine behind Creedence Clearwater Revival. He wrote seminal songs such as "Proud Mary", "Have You Ever Seen The Rain?", "Down On The Corner", "Green River", "Lodi", "Fortunate Son", and more.

In his solo career he's written hits ranging from "Rockin' All Over The World" to "Centerfield". And when you get into his more recent material he still has solid rock songs such as "Hot Rod Heart" and "She's Got Baggage".

Now, the thing is, there's been more covers of John Fogerty's songs than there have been of Tom Petty's.

I mean, Tom Petty is a great song writer, but the only cover I can think of is Def Leppard's cover of "American Girl". Oh, and Johnny Cash's cover of "I Won't Back Down". And I think I heard a recent cover of "Free Fallin'", but the covers are really far and between on Petty's works.

Whereas Fogerty's songs have been real hits for others, like Ike & Tina Turner's cover of "Proud Mary", or Status Quo's cover of "Rockin' All Over The World". Even Jerry Reed and Elton John have covered Fogerty's songs he wrote for Creedence.

Although these song writers have been influential, and prolific, even iconic, are any of their songs truly Rock N' Roll standards?

It's easy to say that "Johnny B. Goode" is a Rock N' Roll standard, because it's been covered so many times as well as have "Roll Over Beethoven" and "Memphis, Tennessee" been covered numerous times as well.

"Proud Mary" is definitely a standard by now, but many other covers of Fogerty's works haven't had quite the same commercial success as that one song.

For Bob Dylan, well, the only songs of his I've heard covered numerous times that still hold up are "All Along The Watchtower" and "It Ain't Me Babe" (covered by The Turtles, a duet between Johnny Cash and June Carter, and most recently online by Never Shout Never whom is a young new acoustic musician heavily inspired by Bob Dylan).

Those songs truly withstand the "Garage Test".

But...what is the "Garage Test"?

That'll be covered in Part 2!

Sincerely,
Bob