Drake & Chenault 52 LP History of Rock & Roll, the 1978 ULTIMATE Version, RARE

$

3,250

Drake & Chenault 52 LP Radio Show "History of Rock & Roll," the 1978 ULTIMATE Version!  RARE!
For the most part, these record sets were used at radio stations, but it appears that THIS collection was sent to a non-radio individual, directly from Drake & Chenault.  These records were not sold to the public, thus making them extremely rare.

The 3 versions of History of Rock & Roll:
1) The 1969 version of History of Rock and Roll contained inaccuracies and omissions. 2) For this item we have for sale, the 1978 version, music historian, Gary Theroux was hired to rewrite the program and he ended up rebuilding the entire program! 3) The 1981, Silver Anniversary edition, contains severe, controversial cuts to the pre-Beatles sections - the 1950s to early 1960s.
Thus, this 1978 version of History of Rock & Roll is the Ultimate version.

Included:

• 52 Vinyl Records containing the 1978 version of "History of Rock & Roll"
• History of Rock & Roll magazine
• Embossed Letter from Drake-Chenault VP, Denny Adkins, who later became the President of Drake-Chenault

• Wood Box

1978

In 1975, Drake-Chenault began the process of updating the documentary. Finding that the 1969 script contained inaccuracies and omissions, programmer/DJ/music historian Gary Theroux researched, rewrote, and rebuilt the program entirely from scratch. The new version expanded the story with fresh interviews, insightful narration, more music, and a host of innovations—all in a modular format which allowed stations more programming flexibility. Drake knew that the rising popularity of stereo FM rock stations made it necessary to redo the show in stereo. The revised show was also completely remixed and re-edited from scratch, using a homebuilt control room assembled together by engineer Mark Ford at the company headquarters in Canoga Park, California, and a library of thousands of LPs and 45 singles. The program employed a systematic approach covering each year with a focused half-hour as well as separate segments devoted to key artists or trends. The result, hosted by Bill Drake, was an enormously successful ratings hit. Drake replaced previous host Humble Harve Miller.

Since the documentary was in development at the time Elvis Presley died in August 1977, Drake-Chenault was able to quickly produce and distribute material from the documentary as "Elvis: A Three Hour Special".

Among other things, Theroux had Drake-Chenault chief engineer Mark Ford assemble two kinds of annual montages: one of each chart-topping hit of a given year (in sequence) and the other of other key songs there was no time to play in full. Those #1 hit montages were reprised for the climactic final hour of the show—edited together back to back to create a fast-moving 45-minute medley of every chart-topping hit from 1955 to the fall of 1977. The riveting nature of Theroux's much-bootlegged ending later inspired a series of hits medleys by many artists including Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Stars on 45, and Jive Bunny & the Mixmasters. The 1978 edition of "The History of Rock & Roll" debuted as a marathon broadcast over more than 400 domestic stations and another 400 overseas, and won Billboard magazine's "Top Special Program of the Year" award. That led Theroux to host his own version of "The History of Rock 'n' Roll" as a syndicated daily 21⁄2-minute feature.