Artist	Song
Johnny Cash	I Walk The Line (Released 8/56, Top Chart Position #17, Rolling Stone Song #30)
Elvis Presley	Don't Be Cruel (Released 7/56, Top Chart Position #1, Rolling Stone Song #197)
The Del-Vikings	Come Go With Me (Released 2/57, Top Chart Position #5, Rolling Stone Song #441)
Elvis Presley	All Shook Up (Released 3/57, Top Chart Position #1, Rolling Stone Song #352)
Buddy Holly	Peggy Sue (Released 9/57, Top Chart Position #3, Rolling Stone Song #194)
Little Richard	Good Golly, Miss Molly (Released 2/58, Top Chart Position #10, Rolling Stone Song #94)
Ritchie Valens	La Bamba (Released 10/58, Top Chart Position #22, Rolling Stone Song #345)
Chubby Checker	The Twist (Released 8/60, Top Chart Position #1, Rolling Stone Song #451)
Chuck Berry	Rock & Roll Music (Released 9/57, Top Chart Position #8, Rolling Stone Song #128)
Buddy Holly	Everyday (Released 9/57, Did Not Chart, Rolling Stone Song #236)
The Chantels	Maybe (Released 12/57, Top Chart Position #15, Rolling Stone Song #195)
Sam Cooke	Wonderful World (Released 5/60, Top Chart Position #12, Rolling Stone Song #373)
Roy Orbison	Only The Lonely (Released 5/60, Top Chart Position #2, Rolling Stone Song #232)
Del Shannon	Runaway (Released 3/61, Top Chart Position #1, Rolling Stone Song #466)
Sam Cooke	Cupid (Released 7/61, Top Chart Position #12, Rolling Stone Song #452)
Roy Orbison	Crying (Released 8/61, Top Chart Position #2, Rolling Stone Song #69)
Jerry Butler And The Impressions	For Your Precious Love (Released 6/58, Top Chart Position #11, Rolling Stone Song #327)
Ben E. King	Stand By Me (Released 4/61, Top Chart Position #4, Rolling Stone Song #121)

Comment:

When Rolling Stone released its list of the "Greatest 500 Songs" of all-time, I took the list with a grain of salt, but still, since I was born after a lot of these songs were released, it was an interesting history lesson to download all the songs. I put all the songs I liked in my MP3 player, but the playlist was pretty extensive. I decided instead to divide the songs in order by date of release for more manageable playlists, and this was what I ended up with for the 50s -- my favorites of the "rock and roll" classics. I tried not to duplicate artists too much (or there would be way too much Sam Cooke, Johnny Cash, and Elvis Presley), and I extended the 50s playlist out to 1961, since I don't think the 60s really started until Bob Dylan and the Beatles. The song Rolling Stone rated as the top song for the 1950s (which I did not include in my mix) was Chuck Berry's Johnny B. Goode, which Rolling Stone classified as the #7 song of all-time. My personal favorite from the 50s is the Jerry Butler song, For Your Precious Love.

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