British Rock

Rock & Roll faded as Cliff Richard, the Shadows and the others followed Elvis into lightweight pop and schmaltzy ballads, but rock groups were stirring at a basement club level. Surf music took the focus from traditional Rock and Roll in the U.S. and the teenage market was focused on the California Sound. With their 1960 hit "Shakin' All Over," Johnny Kidd and the Pirates introduced a harder beat for motorbike rockers and the song was soon being played by amateur groups at dances all round the UK along with R & B from the likes of Bo Diddley, Jimmy Reed, John Lee Hooker and invariably Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode". London's blues clubs featured Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated which attracted the young trad jazz clarinettist Brian Jones to sit in and decide he too wanted a blues band. Separately, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards joined in for sets along with Korner's drummer Charlie Watts, starting with Berry's "Around and Around". A group developed, taking their name from a Muddy Waters song, and the Rolling Stones formed on 12 July 1962.

In 1962 the growing "Beat group" boom surfaced with the signing of Liverpool groups including Brian Poole and the Tremeloes whose hit with their cover of "Do You Love Me" (now that I can dance?) caught the mood: "I can mashed potato, I can do the twist, tell me baby, do you