Pop concerts this real gone daddy would love to have attended

Taunton? Yes, Taunton. Wherever, I bet it was fun (although I might have given Vince Eager a miss). Cochran, 21 at the time, was to die following a car crash in Chippenham two months later...

From the Vipers to the Kinks: How British rock 'n' roll records caught up with the Americans, 1957-1964

Vince Taylor & His Playboys

Catching up took a while, but that's not surprising, given that rock 'n' roll was a purely American phenomenon, and that, while it boasted its fair share of jazzers and folkers, Britain wasn't exactly awash with performers steeped in the blues, country or bluegrass.

So farewell, George Martin, famed producer of The Vipers Skiffle Group!

But, of course, George Martin is probably better known for his work with...

Isolated music tracks are an absolute delight for obsessives - The Band, Beach Boys, ZZ Top, Stones, Beatles...and Linda McCartney!

I salute the mighty organ - the instrument that went from zero to hero in 1960s pop music

Organs became big in 1959 when they featured as lead instrument in three major pop hits – Dave “Baby” Cortez’s chart-topping “The Happy Organ” (not to mention "The Whistling Organ" - now there's a novelty!), “White Silver Sands” by the Bill Black Combo, and Johnny and the Hurricane’s “Red River Rock”. Within a few short years, organs had shaken off their cheerful, vaguely comic “novelty” tag and were all over the pop charts: by the mid-Sixties, they were dead hip.

The Fulminators pay tribute to The Marauders' "That's What I Want" - an obscure UK pop classic from 1963

So farewell, then, Reg Presley – who "put a little bit of fucking fairy dust over the baaastard!”

Quite apart from their music, 1960s pop group The Troggs have bequeathed us a unique insight into the creative process:

Some spiffingly beat-tastic platters, from J.B. Lenoir and Slim Harpo to Simon Scott and Ronnie Hayward

"Misirlou", "Walk, Don't Run", "Rock Around the Clock" and other originals that were no such thing

"Misirlou" (1927) by Tetos Demetriades

"Good morning, America, how are you?" - train songs are the best

The history of a famous bass riff - from "Summertime" to "Black Night"

Chuck Berry cover versions are the best of their kind - here's my Top Ten

What’s always driven Chuck Berry fans mad is his apparent lack of regard for his own music. Dave Edmunds was once approached to produce a new album for the legend, but refused on the grounds that he didn’t want to waste his time on someone who seemed happy to slaughter his own classics live on stage. (The way Berry ignored the fact there were no guitar breaks on the recording of "Let It Rock" really annoyed Edmunds.) 

Eric Burdon, Steve Winwood, Long John Baldry - where did all the great British rock voices go?

The Rolling Stones in 1968: the greatest return to form in music history