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The Soundtrack of 1956: What A Year To Be Born

1956 was the year the world cracked open. Not with a bang, exactly, but with a guitar riff, a swivel of the hips, and a voice that sounded like nothing anyone had heard on a mainstream record. Elvis Presley released four singles that year that changed popular music forever. The teenagers screamed. The newspapers panicked. Parents across two continents decided civilisation was finished.


But 1956 was more complicated than that. Alongside the revolution, the old world carried on. Doris Day sang about whatever would be. Dean Martin remembered memories made of this. Frank Sinatra crooned about love and marriage. The charts were a battlefield between two eras, and both sides thought they were winning.


In Britain, the picture was even stranger. Tommy Steele became the country's first rock and roll star, more or less by accident. Lonnie Donegan sparked a skiffle craze that would eventually produce the Beatles. And at the very top of the charts, Winifred Atwell was playing boogie-woogie piano on an instrument she had bought for fifty shillings from a junk shop, while a former variety singer called Frankie Vaughan was putting his best foot forward and walking straight to number one.


This playlist captures all of it: the moment rock and roll arrived and the moment the old world tried to hold its ground. The year 1956 was not quite the start of the modern age, but it was the year you could hear it coming.


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  1. Heartbreak Hotel — Elvis Presley
  2. Rock Island Line — Lonnie Donegan
  3. The Poor People of Paris — Winifred Atwell
  4. Blue Suede Shoes — Carl Perkins
  5. Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera) — Doris Day
  6. Roll Over Beethoven — Chuck Berry
  7. Singing the Blues — Guy Mitchell
  8. Why Do Fools Fall in Love — Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers
  9. Love Me Tender — Elvis Presley
  10. The Green Door — Frankie Vaughan
  11. Long Tall Sally — Little Richard
  12. Memories Are Made of This — Dean Martin
  13. Be-Bop-A-Lula — Gene Vincent
  14. Lay Down Your Arms — Anne Shelton
  15. Blueberry Hill — Fats Domino
  16. The Ying Tong Song / Bloodnok’s Rock ’N’ Roll Call — The Goons
  17. I Walk the Line — Johnny Cash
  18. Hot Diggity (Dog Ziggity Boom) — Perry Como
  19. The Great Pretender — The Platters
  20. Rock with the Caveman — Tommy Steele
  21. Just Walkin’ in the Rain — Johnnie Ray
  22. Don’t Be Cruel — Elvis Presley
  23. Fever — Little Willie John
  24. Rock and Roll Waltz — Kay Starr
  25. The Wayward Wind — Gogi Grant
  26. See You Later, Alligator — Bill Haley & His Comets
  27. A Woman in Love — Frankie Laine
  28. My Prayer — The Platters
  29. Sixteen Tons — Tennessee Ernie Ford
  30. Hound Dog — Elvis Presley
  31. Mountain Greenery — Mel Tormé
  32. I’m in Love Again — Fats Domino
  33. No Other Love — Ronnie Hilton
  34. Please, Please, Please — James Brown & The Famous Flames
  35. True Love — Bing Crosby & Grace Kelly
  36. Rockin’ Through the Rye — Bill Haley & His Comets
  37. A Tear Fell — Teresa Brewer
  38. I Want You, I Need You, I Love You — Elvis Presley
  39. Walk Hand in Hand — Tony Martin
  40. Rip It Up — Little Richard
  41. Tonight You Belong to Me — Patience & Prudence
  42. Make It a Party — Winifred Atwell
  43. I’ll Be Home — Pat Boone
  44. Rock Around the Clock — Bill Haley & His Comets
  45. Standing on the Corner — The Four Lads
  46. Lost John — Lonnie Donegan
  47. Canadian Sunset — Hugo Winterhalter & Eddie Heywood
  48. Crazy Arms — Ray Price
  49. Friendly Persuasion — Pat Boone
  50. Honky Tonk (Parts 1 & 2) — Bill Doggett
  51. Love and Marriage — Frank Sinatra
  52. The Saints Rock ’N’ Roll — Bill Haley & His Comets
  53. Born to Be with You — The Chordettes
  54. In the Still of the Night — The Five Satins
  55. St. Therese of the Roses — Malcolm Vaughan
  56. Since I Met You Baby — Ivory Joe Hunter
  57. I Almost Lost My Mind — Pat Boone
  58. Moonglow and Theme from Picnic — Morris Stoloff
  59. Cindy, Oh Cindy — Eddie Fisher
  60. A Sweet Old Fashioned Girl — Teresa Brewer
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