There's Good Rockin' Tonight Trivia Quiz

Answer: Bill Haley & His Comets

Starting off in 1949 as Bill Haley and the Saddlemen, a country and western group, Haley eventually changed the band's name to the Comets as they progressed toward rock and roll. "Rock Around the Clock" sold the most records of any of the early rock songs. As rock and roll faded in America in the late 1950s, he found success in Great Britain.

Answer: Chuck Berry

A major influence on rock and roll, Berry played Gibson electric guitars like many others of the time but found a way to make them sound different. But like most other artists, the lyrics to many of his songs dealt with popular subjects: dating, cars and music.

Answer: Bo Diddley

Diddley (born Ellas Bates) was from the American South, as were most of the early rock and roll stars. His use of African rhythms and his signature "Bo Diddley beat", a syncopated five- to eight-beat pattern set his musical style apart, as did his homemade guitars, which resembled cigar boxes.

Answer: Jerry Lee Lewis

Sometimes known as "The Killer" Lewis acquired some of his style by going to roadhouses (juke joints) favored by black people and standing by a window to hear the music within. His 1957 hit record "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" made him a major star - until it was later discovered that in that year he had married his 13-year old cousin. It took about a decade for his career to recover.

Answer: Elvis Presley

In 1954, a 19-year old kid walked into the offices of Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee and said he wanted to record some songs. Asked by the receptionist who he sounded like he replied "I don't sound like nobody". How right he was; his name was Elvis Presley.

He was the answer to Sun's owner Sam Phillips's dream: a white singer who could sing black rhythm and blues. There is little new that can be said about Elvis at this point, except maybe that more than 40 years after his death he is still the best selling solo recording artist of all time.

Answer: Big Joe Turner

Turner began his musical career in the 1920s. Called a blues shouter, he was influential in jump blues, rhythm and blues and rock and roll. Although Bill Haley and His Comets has the best-known version of "Shake, Rattle and Roll", Turner had the original version. On "Roll 'em Pete", a 1939 rhythm and blues song, Turner partnered with piano player Pete Johnson, whose style sounded like a precursor to Jerry Lee Lewis.

Answer: Carl Perkins

Elvis is known for singing "Blue Suede Shoes" but Carl Perkins wrote and first recorded it. Though mostly a rockabilly artist, Perkins' songs have been covered by many country and rock musicians; George Harrison of the Beatles was a big fan and learned Perkins' guitar style note for note.

Answer: Fats Domino

The first million-selling rock and roll record was "The Fat Man" by Antoine "Fats" Domino in 1949. A New Orleans piano player, Domino was one of the musicians who combined rhythm and blues and boogie-woogie and helped turn them into rock and roll. Like many of the musicians in this quiz, his best years were in the mid-1950s, his biggest hit being "Blueberry Hill".

Answer: Johnny Cash

Cash may seem to be an odd candidate for a founder of rock and roll but he has always appealed to fans of many musical genres. "I Walk the Line" was the first of his songs to cross over from country to pop music charts. He was equally at home singing country, rock and gospel music, being one of a few to be inducted into halls of fame for all three.

Answer: Little Richard

Richard Penniman was one of the first wild men of rock and roll. Several of his early recordings like "Tutti Frutti" and "Good Golly, Miss Molly" caused a lot of consternation among parents. Among his influences was apparently a man who went by the name Esquerita, who had an even more frenetic stage presence than Richard, if that can be imagined.

As rock and roll cooled off in the late 1950s, Little Richard saw the handwriting on the wall and went into another line of work; he went into the ministry (although that didn't last).