History of Rock and Roll Demo (24:15)

The History of Rock and Roll Demo was first distributed in 1969, when Drake-Chenault and American Independent Radio were succesfully syndicating the magic of KHJ worldwide. Originally produced by Ron Jacobs for KHJ, it aired February 21-23, 1969.

Introduced as a KHJ Rockumentary, the credits for this most celebrated of all Top-40 radio specials are taken from this demo tape for the syndicated program:

"The History of the History of Rock and Roll begins with Bill Drake, who conceived it; Ron Jacobs produced it, generally after Pete Johnson wrote it. Ellen Pelissero directed it. Production Coordinator was Sandy Gibson, and Vicki Larson was Music Coordinator. Sound supervision and production techniques by Bill Mouzis."

Three different narrators appear on this version of the demo: Mark Elliot does the intro, Robert W. Morgan narrates from "Tribute to the early blues" through "Alan Freed, 1952" and Harvey Miller (Humble Harve) narrates from "Broadway Musicals" through "Credits and Copyright Notice". Thanks to Ray Randolph and Ron Jacobs for providing additional background information. (Jacobs says the original KHJ version was much better than the syndicated version.)

The History of Rock and Roll was immensely successful and broadcast by stations all over the world. As late as 1981, the program (with an additional 2 hours added to the original 50) was still available. For all I know, it's available today, though I don't know who actually owns the rights other than The History of Rock and Roll, Incorporated.

The program itself was a massive undertaking, and included rare interviews and exhaustive retrospectives of the roots of rock 'n' roll. According to the demo, "the initial cost of the program exceeded $75,000 and expended over 12,000 man-hours of research, writing and production." (Simple math reveals the cost of those man-hours at a little over $6 an hour - which seems hard to believe, but it was nearly 30 years ago.)

Highlights of this demo are linked for your convenience. Enjoy!

Introduction

Tribute to early blues and R&B Influences

In the Beginning

Fats Domino

Ray Charles

Little Richard

Sam Cooke

Smokey Robinson

Early Elvis (Carl Perkins Interview)

Joni Mitchell

Bob Dylan

Frank Sinatra

Alan Freed, 1952 Introduced by Radio Archivist Charles Hefty

Broadway Musicals, 5th Dimension

Monterey Pop Festival and Woodstock

The Beatles Solo

Elvis Comeback

Alan Freed Again

Closing and Details

Credits and Copyright Notice

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