The 1950s saw the birth of rock and roll, but these original songs might have been overshadowed by their covers.

But the band also devoted a lot of its energies to covering American R&B songs from the late ’50s and early ’60s, making those songs slightly stiffer and more mannered, putting that big beat ...

He was making novelty records in the late '50s when he bought a tape recorder that allowed him to vary tape speed and released the song "Witch Doctor" in 1958. It reached No. 1. That fall ...