'50s Country

In a shift that parallels the move from big bands to sparser lineups, country music in the 1950s moved from the predominance of Western swing to a more honky-tonk-friendly concentration on bare-bones combos. Meanwhile, post-World War II freedoms and anxieties put the focus on the once-taboo subjects — lovin', cheatin', drinkin' — that country would come to be known for. Witness the gritty lament of Hank Williams' all-time standard "Your Cheatin' Heart;" George Jones' rockabilly ode to moonshine, "White Lightning;" and Kitty Wells' sensational answer song, "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels," a breakout hit considered so suggestive, NBC banned it from its radio airwaves.

In the '50s, country music began in earnest to wend its way to the mainstream success of the polished "Nashville Sound" — rough-edged hits like "Kaw-Liga," Hank Williams' #1 1953 A-side to "Your Cheatin' Heart" (see Basics), gave way three years later to the smoother sounds of country chameleon Marty Robbins' hit "Singing the Blues." In other developments, Johnny Cash walked the line between country and rock with the crossover hit "Ballad of a Teenage Queen," produced by Sun Records' Sam Phillips.

Compare the deep-country twang of Lefty Frizzell's honky-tonk beauty "I Love You a Thousand Ways" to the crossover gloss of country crooner Eddy Arnold's take on the early-jazz standard "Trouble in Mind," and it's easy to see that the 1950s was a hotbed of country innovation and evolution. So, while Johnny Cash was exhorting the masses to "Get Rhythm," Little Jimmy Dickens had "Hillbilly Fever," and country giant Ray Price was issuing an influential "Invitation to the Blues."

It was a decade of monumental change and growth in country music. Supernova Hank Williams made it only three years into the '50s before his fateful ride to immortality in the backseat of a Cadillac limo, but not before establishing himself as the all-time king of country and laying down the split-personality ground rules for the genre with his songs of heartache, infidelity, and alcoholism set side by side with inspirational tunes of faith and salvation. As rock 'n' roll began to seep in around country's edges, country began to seep in around popular music's edges, and the dominance of country stars such as Johnny Cash, Eddy Arnold, and Webb Pierce — not to mention Kitty Wells, Skeeter Davis, and the great Pasty Cline — was affirmed.