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Ed Ward Ed Ward is the rock-and-roll historian on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross.
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Ed Ward
Barbara Mason had had one minor hit on Arctic by the time "Yes I'm Ready" came out in March 1965, and hit the Top 10 on both the R&B and pop charts. Courtesy of the artist hide caption
Jerry Lee Lewis shot to fame in the 1950s with hits such as "A Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" and "Great Balls of Fire." Courtesy of the artist hide caption
A new 63-disc box offers a complete retrospective of the Man in Black's storied career. Sony Music hide caption
Before ZZ Top, Billy Gibbons (second from right) was in the more psychedelic Moving Sidewalks. Rancho Deluxe Productions hide caption
Aretha Franklin became a star on the Atlantic record label after leaving Columbia. Express Newspapers/Getty Images hide caption
Joe Barry was a pioneer of "swamp-pop" in the early 1960s. Johnny Vallis hide caption
Joe Hill Louis, B.B. King and Rufus Thomas appear on a new multi-disc compilation of electric blues, Plug It In! Turn It Up! Bear Family Records hide caption
The Insect Trust. Courtesy of the artist hide caption
No figure in the history of rock 'n' roll is more incongruous than Big Joe Turner. Heinrich Klaffs/Wikimedia Commons hide caption
Roxy Music's eight studio albums are now collected in one box set, titled The Complete Studio Recordings 1972-1982. Keystone/Hulton Archive hide caption
The English Beat. Adrian Boot/Urbanimage.tv hide caption
"Son of a Preacher Man" was Dusty Springfield's debut on Atlantic. The entire album that spawned it, Dusty in Memphis, was recorded at American Studios. Stan Meagher/Getty Images hide caption
Vocal groups like The Ink Spots went on for decades, often without a single member of the original group appearing with them. Fred Ramage/Getty Images hide caption
Autosalvage, a New York quartet, made one album and then stopped playing. Courtesy of the artist hide caption