Top 10 Hits from 1957: The Year That Launched Rock ’n’ Roll episode artwork

EPISODE · Dec 2, 2025 · 32 MIN

Top 10 Hits from 1957: The Year That Launched Rock ’n’ Roll

from Professor of Rock

Coming up, the fantastic stories from the creme of the crop from a pivotal year in the formation of the Rock Era: 1957. Including a classic hit we all sing along to, but decades after it was a smash, nobody knows who sang it. It was recorded by two competing bands who were touring and recording under the same name, the Del-Vikings! But the two singers sounded so much alike that nobody knows who really sang it. Let’s see if we can solve it. Then there is the breakout single That'll Be the Day from one of rock’s greatest legends, Buddy Holly, who stole the lyric from a movie. He knew the song was a hit. But he was told by his producer that it was “the worst song he’d ever heard, so he set out to prove him wrong all the way to #1. Then there was Jerry Lee Lewis, who was playing to such a rough crowd that they were throwing bottles, and then they ran out of songs… Fearing for their life, they launched into a song they barely knew and had to adlib the whole thing. The crowd loved it so much that they made them play it 23 more times. By the end, they knew it would be a smash, and they were right! Our countdown of the Top 10 Songs of 1957 is NEXT…on Professor of Rock.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Top 10 Hits from 1957: The Year That Launched Rock ’n’ Roll

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