A year before Elvis appeared on 'Ed Sullivan,' Bill Haley brought rock 'n' roll to the program

Elvis Presley's first 'Ed Sullivan Show' appearance was his first public controversy

His 1956 appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" featured a raucous performance of “Hound Dog” and an abundance of suggestive hip-shaking from the fresh-faced 21-year-old. The appearance rocketed Presley to superstar status and threw him into his first public controversy.

Take a look at an early rock 'n' roll artifact

This 1956 jukebox musical, "Rock, Rock, Rock!," is an early example of the burgeoning rock 'n' roll culture—with performances from Chuck Berry, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, D.J. Alan Freed, and several others. It was also a catalyst, sending the new youth culture into theaters around the country.

Ed Sullivan launched Beatlemania in America

By 1964, The Beatles were relative unknowns in the US, due to Capitol's lukewarm support. That changed when they were booked on The Ed Sullivan Show, a popular program that hosted Elvis Presley's breakout performance. The Beatles' appearance introduced them to an American audience.

Elvis was allegedly chided for playing rock 'n' roll at the Grand Ole Opry

Elvis Presley had deep roots in country music, though the Grand Ole Opry and its audience weren’t happy with Presley’s rocking take when he performed for his first (and only) time in 1954. Afterwards, the Opry’s manager Jim Denny allegedly told Presley, “Don’t quit your day job.”

Rock 'n' roll's history in 60 seconds

In the late 1940s, rock 'n' roll emerged from a mix of blues, country, gospel, and jazz. It gained traction through radio, rebellious icons, and evolving sound. This overview traces the genre’s roots, rise, and lasting influence—from early pioneers to the British Invasion and beyond.

Rock expanded to Africa, where it was used as a political artform

The Nigerian rock scene began after Bill Haley’s "Rock Around the Clock" film premiered in the country, inspiring young people to take up electric guitars. The music was also an integral part of the country’s civil war, with conscripted bands entertaining soldiers on both sides of the conflict.

A DJ helped popularize the term 'rock 'n' roll' to resell R&B to a broad audience

Cleveland DJ Alan Freed launched his radio show "Moondog's Rock 'n' Roll Party," rebranding R&B records, largely performed by Black artists, as "rock 'n' roll" to appeal to a largely white audience. The name was a double-entendre, describing the sound and the sexual activities it was said to induce.

Sun Records was responsible for some of rock 'n' roll's biggest artists

Memphis' Sun Records was one of the most important labels in American musical history, releasing pivotal records by Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, and countless others.

James Brown was considered one of rock's greatest performers

"The T.A.M.I. Show" is a 1964 film featuring live performances from the biggest names in rock 'n' roll: Chuck Berry, the Beach Boys, and the Supremes. The most memorable performance from James Brown and his band the Famous Flames, is regarded as one of the greatest performances in pop music.

70 years ago today, city officials in Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll to protect its youth from corruption after witnessing a 'provocative' concert the night before.

Fearing the corruption of its youth, Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll in 1956.

Watch 5 decades of Times Square ball drops

Dick Clark started hosting his “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” show in 1972, which has become an annual television staple. This compilation includes five decades' worth of ball drops, allowing you to watch how the tradition subtly evolved.

Chubby Checker’s ‘The Twist’ reached number one in two separate years

The song topped the Hot 100 in 1960 thanks to a performance on the popular TV show “American Bandstand,” which led to a “Twist” dance craze. Checker recorded twist-themed follow-up singles, helping to propel “The Twist” back up the chart in 1962.

The Clash's 'London Calling' cover parodied Elvis

The English band used Presley’s 1959 debut album as the template for the cover of its third record, an ambitious double album that explored rockabilly, reggae, ska, R&B, jazz and pop.

A 6-year-old Bruno Mars appeared on 'The Arsenio Hall Show'

Hall began performing magic as a child and at 15 appeared on "Soul!," the first American late-night show hosted by a Black man (Ellis Haizlip). When Hall got his own show in 1989, he was always on the lookout for young talent. That eventually led him to a young Elvis impersonator from Hawaii who'd later go by Bruno Mars.

Watch a 1934 short film starring jazz legend Cab Calloway, a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance's music scene

In 1984, Dylan began experimenting with punk

When Bob Dylan was asked to appear on David Letterman’s relatively new late-night show, he decided to call an audible. He’d been intrigued by LA’s exploding post-punk scene and had spent time jamming with one of its bands, the Plugz, whom he decided to bring to Letterman as his backing band. The appearance sounds unlike anything else in his catalog and is one of his more fascinating creative reinventions in a career loaded with them.

Watch Billie Holiday perform in 'The Sound of Jazz'

The 1957 CBS special, part of its series "The Seven Lively Arts," was a landmark broadcast that brought some of jazz's biggest names—including Holiday, Thelonious Monk, and Count Basie—to a national audience. Watch Holiday offer a stirring rendition of "Fine and Mellow" below.

Every ‘SNL’ host who's doubled as musical guest

This chronological list details every entertainer who’s both hosted and performed as musical guest through the show’s five decades. You’ll find some interesting tidbits, like Paul Simon breaking ground as the first to do it in 1975, and some serious headscratchers, like Garth Brooks performing as his alter ego Chris Gaines.

The Sugarhill Gang’s ‘Rapper’s Delight’ introduced hip-hop to the masses

While it’s not technically the first hip-hop song set to record—that’s Fatback Band’s “King Tim III (Personality Jock)”—1979’s ”Rapper’s Delight” is the song that proved rap was worth putting on wax and introducing the music to a broader audience by reaching the US top 40.

The Shirelles' 'Will You Love Me Tomorrow' was the first girl group record to reach number one

The 1960 song, composed by husband-and-wife Brill Building occupants Gerry Goffin and Carole King, was more than a little suggestive. The main character wondered if her partner would abandon her after a night of passion, leading to some stations banning the record. But it also propelled the song to the top of the Billboard Hot 100.

'Truth or Consequences' was the first TV quiz show

The game—which forced contestants who answered questions incorrectly to face "consequences" in the form of wacky stunts—debuted in 1941 with a one-off experimental broadcast on WNBT, then reappeared on NBC in 1950. In 1956, a fresh-faced Bob Barker made his television debut as the show's new host.

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

HBO premiered the modern stand-up special in 1975

When they appeared on TV, stand-ups were typically limited to five-minute spots on late-night talk shows, like "The Tonight Show." That changed with the fledgling HBO, which offered comics hourlong slots. The first was "An Evening with Robert Klein," a special that would define "the hour" for decades.

David Bowie tried to hire Norman Rockwell for the cover of 'Young Americans'

The Thin White Duke thought the iconic artist, known for his classic Americana, would be the perfect artist for his campy 1975 album, “Young Americans.” Bowie called the Rockwell residence and made the request, but was told that Rockwell would need around six months to complete the painting, which Bowie felt was too long.

2025 marked the first time in 35 years a hip-hop song wasn't in the top 40

The Billboard Hot 100 chart dated October 25, 2025, didn't have any rap or hip-hop songs in its top 40 singles, something that hadn't happened since Feb. 2, 1990. One explanation is a Billboard methodology change, and another is Taylor Swift's "The Life of a Showgirl."

'9 to 5' was Dolly Parton's first No. 1 pop hit

1977’s “Here You Come Again” reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, but “9 to 5,” the 1980 song for a film of the same name (starring Parton alongside Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin) was the first to reach the top.

The history of rickrolls (this isn't one)

Rickrolling describes a bait-and-switch meme in which a seemingly relevant hyperlink takes clickers to videos or gifs of Rick Astley’s 1987 single, “Never Gonna Give You Up." It's possible this seemingly ubiquitous internet prank can be traced to a 2006 segment of a radio show in rural Michigan. Erik Helwig called into the show during a listener comment segment and, without saying anything, played Astley's single for all those tuning in.

The Beatles' US label rejected the band's first two singles, 'Please Please Me' and 'From Me to You,' with one executive calling the band 'dead in the water.'

The distributor behind 'Rocky Horror' pulled the film from its scheduled national release, believing it would be a failure, though it eventually amassed a dedicated fanbase through midnight showings, a trend that continues over 50 years later.

The Ramones' 'Pet Sematary,' the theme song for the Stephen King novel of the same name, was written while the band was admiring the writer's collection of horror memorabilia.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

A small portion of The Winstons' 'Amen, Brother,' an obscure '60s gospel record, is the basis for thousands of hip-hop tracks, making it one of the most sampled records ever that's informally known as 'the Amen break.'

Quincy Jones' 'Big Band Bossa Nova' helped introduce bossa nova—a jazz-influenced Brazilian genre—to the US

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

In preparation for this weekend's Eurovision finale, which is something like the World Cup of pop music, here's a young Céline Dion performing (for Switzerland?) at the 1988 competition.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

In its famous catalog, Sears sold $600 DIY house kits from 1908 through the 1940s, resulting in an estimated 100,000 'Sears and Roebuck homes.'

After her fellow cult members tried to kill her with an LSD-infused hamburger, one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, decided to testify against the group's leader.

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

Meet the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence—most of whom didn't put pen to paper until August 2, 1776—and see their original signatures.

The United States has had a tumultuous relationship with Cuba since its 1959 revolution, highlighted by a nuclear crisis and a decades-long trade embargo.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa, an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people, with evidence suggesting the bug may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s.

Elk Cloner, the first computer virus to spread in public, was written as a practical joke by Richard Skrenta, a Pittsburgh high school student.

Watch contemporary footage covering the US-backed Shah of Iran fleeing the country in the face of the 1979 Iranian Revolution

Before humans, the Soviet Union and the United States sent animals—including apes, dogs, and cats—to space during the Space Race.

Stars appear to twinkle because turbulence in the motion of molecules in Earth's atmosphere causes light to bend and wiggle rapidly on its way to the surface—a phenomenon called scintillation.

In 1984, Operation Smash Hit intentionally crashed a 239-ton train into a nuclear waste canister at 100 miles per hour to prove the canister's safety, which remained completely intact and lost just 0.29 of its 100 pounds of pressure.

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

An initial public offering or 'IPO' is the process of a private company becoming public by putting shares of the company on the stock market for purchase.