Rock Stars on the Record by Eric Spitznagel

Author:Eric Spitznagel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: Diversion Books
Published: 2020-12-14T00:00:00+00:00

The one-time king of bubblegum pop, with irresistibly catchy songs that made your grand-parents swoon, like “Sheila” (1962)—which he wrote when he was just fourteen—and “Dizzy” (1969). The crooner from Atlanta, Georgia, gave the Beatles a run for their money, and has been inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, and the Iowa Rock and Roll Association Hall of Fame.

The album: Jerry Lee Lewis,

“Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” single (1957)

Do you remember your first big musical purchase?

My father bought me my first guitar at Sears Roebuck. It was called a Silvertone guitar. It had a neck on it like a two-by-four. It was a real challenge to wrap my little hands around the neck of this guitar and play chords, but somehow I managed.

Which came first, a guitar or a record player?

The record player. My dad also bought my record player from Sears. They bought everything at Sears. Back then we didn’t have Sam’s Club and Walmart and all that; Sears Roebuck was the place of choice. They bought me a Silvertone record player.

Silvertone? Just like the guitar?

That’s right, yeah. I used to keep that right next to my bed, listening to music all night. It’s funny, my mom was always questioning why it was so hard for me to wake up in the morning and go to school. Little did she know that after she and my father went to bed, I put my record player on really low until one or two in the morning, listening to R&B stations.

You didn’t own any records?

Not at first. Radio was it. That’s where we got our music. And of course, I loved hanging around the record stores. And there weren’t that many record stores back then.

Wait, let me guess. You went to Sears?

[Laughs.] That’s right! Sears had a record department. You’d go to Sears for records; then they started building independent record stores in the community. I used to love to go to record stores just to hang out and smell the vinyl. I’d read all the liner notes on albums. I could spend hours reading that stuff.

Even when you didn’t know anything about the artist?

Oh, yeah. That’s how you got the full story. It was very informative. Back in those days, rock performers and pop performers got much less publicity. The publicity started, really, in the sixties. But in the fifties, there weren’t magazines that really told you all that much about rock ’n’ roll. You had to search it out and find it yourself, and sometimes the albums were the only place to get any real information. It’s nothing like what we have today. It was very primitive.

Is that what helped you decide what to buy?

Oh, we weren’t buying anything. I couldn’t afford any records. Even the 45s were too pricey for me. So, I’d just hang around and look at them and test them on the system in the store.

Would you go looking for a specific artist or song, or just to explore?

My first searches were for Buddy Holly and Little Richard.

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