Sister Rosetta Tharpe recorded “Up Above My Head” with Marie Knight in 1947 for Decca Records. The traditional gospel song was first recorded by the Gospel Sons in 1941 but Tharpe and Knight’s version is the most known. Their rendition reached number 6 on the Billboard Race Records chart in 1948. Tharpe had already asserted herself as a pioneer of gospel turned into rock and rhythm and blues since her 1938 recording of “Rock Me.” Her unique style included being one of the first to play the guitar using distortion with a technique that would lead the way for future rock icons like Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Eric Clapton, and many others. “Up Above My Head” became one of her signature songs and she gave a solo performance of the song sometimes in the ’60s on the show TV Gospel Time. Tharpe’s early contributions in the ’30s and ’40s as a gospel artist who was accepted by secular audiences had the music press calling her the Original Soul Sister and the Godmother of Rock and Roll. Conservative gospel organizations were critical of her, but she was invaluable to the development of American pop, rock, and  English blues. Her 1945 single, “Strange Things Happening Every Day,” was the first gospel record to cross over, with a number two position on the race records chart.

Okeh Records came up with the name race records in 1922 to describe music that was marketed to Black people. By 1942, Billboard created the Harlem Hit Parade to list songs popular with Black audiences. In June of 1949, the term race records was replaced with R&B. Tharpe’s music survived all of the music industry politics and her music is still recognized in 2025. Tharpe passed away in 1973 and received several posthumous honors. The United States Postal Service issued a stamp in her honor in 1998. In 2007, she was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. The BBC aired the documentary Sister Rosetta Tharpe: The Godmother of Rock & Roll in 2011. The play Marie & Rosetta, based on Tharpe’s relationship with Knight, was staged at New York’s  Atlantic Theater Company in 2016. Tharpe was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017.

Fats Domino covered “Blueberry Hill” in 1956 after hearing Louis Armstrong’s version. Sammy Kaye and The Glenn Miller Orchestra also had recordings of “Blueberry Hill,” but it was hearing his fellow New Orleans’ native that convinced Domino to give the song his treatment. He had already asserted himself as one of the earliest stars of rock and roll with 16 hit singles, including “The Fat Man,” “Ain’t That A Shame,” and “I’m Walkin’.” His version of “Blueberry Hill” became his most successful hit, sitting at number one on the R&B chart for 11 weeks, number two on the Billboard Juke Box chart and selling five million copies within two years of its release. The song was included on his third album, This Is Fats Domino!, released in 1956. The popularity of his music made his record sales only second to Elvis. 

Elvis Presley told Jet Magazine in 1957 that Domino was the true king of rock and roll but Domino told the Hearst organization that same year that the music being called rock and roll was actually R&B and he had been playing it in New Orleans for 15 years. Domino was one of the Black artists that integrated audiences and he survived four riots at his shows, even jumping out of the window to escape cops spraying tear gas. His fame grew with movie appearances in Shake, Rattle & Rock, The Girl Can’t Help It, The Big Beat, and a television performance on the Ed Sullivan Show. He also had an appearance in the TV special 33 1/3 Revolutions per Monkee in 1968. Domino continued to record after the early successful days of his career and he always managed to remind the public of his presence in every decade after his initial rise. In 1980, he had a cameo in Clint Eastwood’s Any Which Way You Can. Domino was in the first class of artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. His rescue during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was televised and he was seen again in the third season of the New Orleans-based show Treme in 2012.

Domino passed away in 2017 at the age of 89 of natural causes. Led Zeppelin, Elvis, and Little Richard released versions of “Blueberry Hill” after him, but of all the recordings of the song, Domino’s version is the one credited with making it a rock and roll standard. 

Brooklyn rock star Fusilier announces his new album, Ambush, with the video for “Nightmare Muscle.” Fusilier’s latest single is an autobiographical piece about ambition, and the video of him running in a game of cat and mouse was filmed in New York City. He describes Ambush as an attempt to rearrange the globe. He says, “When I started Ambush, I thought it was something I was doing—bombarding the world with a bunch of world-changing songs. The more I thought about it and fleshed it out, the more I realized that it was something being done to me every day, from seemingly innocent advertisements to full-on macro aggressions. ” 

Fusilier’s “Nightmare Muscle” is the second single to emerge from Ambush. Last month he released “Birds,” which was his first release since releasing the Treason EP in 2022. Ambush comes out on March 28th. 

The Beatles and Capitol Records are celebrating their 60-year partnership and Beatlemania with an exclusive capsule collection from Online Ceramics. The collection comes alongside The Beatles: 1964 U.S. Albums in Mono vinyl box set  and the Beatles ’64 documentary produced by Martin Scorsese and directed by David Tedeschi, which is streaming now exclusively on Disney+. On February 7, 1964, The Beatles arrived in the United States at John F. Kennedy International Airport to scores of screaming fans. Two nights later, they made their official American debut with a performance on the Ed Sullian Show, which was seen by 73 million viewers and millions more in Canada. They returned later that year for a month-long tour of North America comprising 32 shows. Beatlemania had taken over their native U.K. and was spreading to the United States. Capitol Records released their debut album, Meet The Beatles! on January 20th in a deal with EMI. Serious fans know that the first Beatles album was the 1963 release Please Please Me released in the UK, but Meet The Beatles! was their first release via Capitol Records in America. 

By the end of 1964, The Beatles had sold 15 million records in the United States, seven Top 40 singles, six number ones, six Top 10 albums, and had the blockbuster film Hard Day’s Night. The capsule collection has incorporated original handwritten notes and tracklists from the original production master of A Hard Day’s Night and promotional photos from their first North American Tour and Ed Sullivan Show appearance. Hoodies, T-shirts, the vinyl box set, and more are available from The Beatles’ official store. Their US debut is not the only thing celebrated, as the band has two Grammy nominations for Now and Then.