[fidelis]

I think what people mean when they say he was ‘the last’ of the great rockers...’ is the early pioneers, like Little Richard, Chuck Berry level... so someone who became known around 1956 or earlier (Chuck Berry’s first recording of Johnny B. Goode was 1949) and was a seminal influence.

I realize that's what some people might have in mind. The string of posts I was responding to didn't make this distinction.

[shadowlands1960]

Understood. There is also room to argue whether ballad singers and do-wop should be in the mix. Many of the forms that became popular in the 50s were seen at the time as efforts by the music industry to tame ‘rock ‘n roll.’ I know ‘skiffle’ in the UK was seen that way.