•
January 1 –
RCA Victor announces a marketing plan called "Operation TNT." The label drops the list price on LPs from $5.95 to $3.98, EPs from $4.95 to $2.98, 45 EPs from $1.58 to $1.49 and 45's from $1.16 to $.89. Other record labels follow RCA's lead and begin to drop prices as well. •
January 7 •
Marian Anderson is the first
African American singer to perform at the
Metropolitan Opera in
New York City. • "
Rock Around the Clock" by
Bill Haley & His Comets first appears on the British charts. •
January 14 – In New York City,
Alan Freed produces the first
rock and roll concert. •
January 27 –
Michael Tippett's opera
The Midsummer Marriage is premiered at the
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London, conducted by
John Pritchard, with designs by
Barbara Hepworth and choreography by
John Cranko; it arouses controversy. •
February 19 – Dot Records introduces a new singer,
Pat Boone, with an advertisement in
Billboard magazine calling him "a great new voice". His first record for Dot Records is "Two Hearts, Two Kisses, One Love." •
February 24 –
Carlisle Floyd's opera
Susannah is premiered in the Ruby Diamond Auditorium of
Florida State University,
Tallahassee with
Phyllis Curtin in the title role. •
February 26 – For the first time since their introduction in 1949, 45 rpm discs begin to outsell standard 78s. • February –
Kay Starr leaves Capitol to sign with RCA. •
March 3 – Italian soprano
Mirella Freni makes her operatic debut as Micaëla in
Carmen at the
Teatro Municipale in her native
Modena. •
March 7 – The
Broadway production of
Peter Pan, starring
Mary Martin, is presented on American television for the first time by
NBC-TV with its original cast, as an installment of ''
Producers' Showcase''. It is also the first time that a stage musical is presented in its entirety on TV almost exactly as it was performed on stage. This program gains the largest viewership of a TV special up to this time and becomes one of the first great TV family musical classics. •
March 15 –
Colonel Tom Parker becomes
Elvis Presley's
de facto manager. •
March 19 – The film
Blackboard Jungle is premièred in
New York City, featuring
Bill Haley & His Comets' "
Rock Around the Clock" over the opening credits, the first use of a rock and roll song in a major film. •
March 22 – Decca Records signs DJ Alan Freed as an A&R man. •
March 26 –
Bill Hayes tops the US charts for five weeks with "
The Ballad of Davy Crockett" and starts a (fake)
coonskin cap craze. •
April 14 –
Imperial Records in the United States release "
Ain't That a Shame" by
Fats Domino (co-written with
Dave Bartholomew). It reaches #1 in the
R&B chart and becomes over time a million seller, bringing Domino to prominence and giving his work covers by white artists:
Pat Boone makes this song a
Billboard number-one single of 1955 for
jukebox play. •
May 13 – First riot at an
Elvis Presley concert takes place in Jacksonville, Florida. •
May 21 –
Chuck Berry records his first single, "
Maybellene", for
Chess Records in Chicago. •
May 22 –
Bridgeport, Connecticut, authorities cancel a rock concert to be headlined by
Fats Domino for fear of a riot breaking out. • June • The 29th
International Society for Contemporary Music Festival takes place in
Baden-Baden. • The newly formed
Netherlands Chamber Orchestra gives its first performance at the
Holland Festival. •
June 2 – Italian singers
Natalino Otto and
Flo Sandon's marry. •
June 16 –
Glenn Gould completes his recording of
Bach's Goldberg Variations. •
June 18 •
Pearl Carr & Teddy Johnson marry in the U.K. •
Pierre Boulez's influential composition
Le marteau sans maître ("The hammer without a master"), for
contralto and six instrumentalists, is premiered (in its first revised version) at the
International Society for Contemporary Music Festival in
Baden-Baden at the insistence of
Heinrich Strobel. •
July 9 – "Rock Around the Clock" becomes the first
Rock and roll single to reach Number One on the American charts. •
July 13 – The
Beaux Arts Trio make their debut at the Berkshire Music Festival. •
August 8 –
Luigi Nono marries
Arnold Schoenberg's daughter Nuria in
Venice. •
August 19 – WINS radio station in New York City adopts a policy of not playing white cover versions of black R&B songs. •
August 31 – A Londoner is fined for "creating an abominable noise" for playing "
Shake, Rattle, and Roll" at top volume. •
September 3 –
Little Richard records "
Tutti Frutti" in New Orleans with significantly cleaned up lyrics (originally "Tutti Frutti, good booty" among other things); it is released in October. •
September 26 – "America's Sweethearts", singers
Eddie Fisher and
Debbie Reynolds, marry. •
October 15 –
Elvis Presley plays a concert in
Lubbock, Texas. Opening act is local duo Buddy and Bob, Buddy being future rock star
Buddy Holly. •
October 20 –
Disc jockey Bill Randle of
WERE (
Cleveland) is the key presenter of a concert at
Brooklyn High School (Ohio), featuring
Pat Boone and
Bill Haley & His Comets and opening with
Elvis Presley, not only Elvis's first performance north of the
Mason–Dixon line, but also his first filmed performance, for a documentary on Randle titled
The Pied Piper of Cleveland. •
October 29 –
Dmitri Shostakovich's
Violin Concerto No. 1, originally completed in
1948, is premiered by the
Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra with its dedicatee,
David Oistrakh, as soloist. •
November 4 –
William Schuman's orchestral piece
Credendum: Article of Faith, commissioned by
UNESCO, is premiered in
Cincinnati. •
November 12 –
Billboard magazine DJ poll names
Elvis Presley as the most promising new country and western singer. •
November 20 –
Bo Diddley makes his debut TV appearance on
The Ed Sullivan Show on
CBS television. •
November 22 – Colonel Tom Parker signs
Elvis Presley to
RCA Records. •
November 29 –
Juan José Castro conducts the UK première of
Carlos Chávez's
Symphony No. 3 at the
Maida Vale Studios with the
London Symphony Orchestra. •
December 15 – Sun Records releases "
Folsom Prison Blues" recorded by
Johnny Cash on July 30. • Christmas –
The Temperance Seven is founded as a jazz band, initially comprising three members from the
Chelsea School of Art in London. •
Paul Simon and
Art Garfunkel write their first song, "The Girl For Me" (copyrighted with the
Library of Congress in 1956), and begin singing together as a duo while still in high school in
New York City. • Nine-year-old
Al Green forms a gospel quartet, the Green Brothers. •
Clyde McPhatter launches a solo career. •
Renato Carosone and
Nicola Salerno meet and start their
songwriting partnership. •
Astor Piazzolla, returning to
Argentina from his studies with
Nadia Boulanger, forms his string orchestra (
Orquesta de Cuerdas) and octet (
Octeto Buenos Aires) and introduces the
nuevo tango style. •
Indian
santoor player
Shivkumar Sharma gives his first public performance in
Bombay. •
Etta James makes her debut with "
The Wallflower (Dance with Me, Henry)" which tops the R&B Chart but is considered too risqué for pop radio. The song is subsequently covered by
Georgia Gibbs in a sanitized version where the line "Roll with me Henry" is changed to "Dance with me Henry" • Publication of
Neue Mozart-Ausgabe begins. ==Albums released==