Wilson Pickett’s first hit on Atlantic Records, it reached #1 on the R&B
charts and peaked at #21 on the pop charts. The song has become a
1960s soul standard, and placed at #134 on Rolling Stone’s list of the
500 Greatest Songs of All-Time. It is also one of The Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll, Pickett’s only
such entry. The song is currently ranked as the 89th greatest song
of all-time, as well as the seventh best song of 1965, by Acclaimed
Music.

Charted at #14 on the Billboard chart in July 1956

In 1958 Johnny Cash felt constrained by his contract with Sun Records and left the
small label and took a lucrative offer with Columbia Records, where his single “Don’t
Take Your Guns to Town” became one of his biggest hits.

Ed Ames is a singer and actor who was part of the popular 1950s singing group
called The Ames Brothers. When the group disbanded in 1960, Ed pursued a
career in acting. His first starring role was in an off Broadway production of Arthur
Miller’s The Crucible. His greatest success on stage came with his portrayal of
Chief Bromden in the Broadway production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, opposite Kirk Douglas.Talent scouts saw Ed’s stage performance and invited him
to play the Native American Mingo on the NBC-TV series Daniel Boone starring
Fess Parker. The show aired from 1964 to 1970. 

While playing Mingo on television, Ames developed some skill in throwing
a tomahawk. This led to one of the most memorable moments of his career,
when he appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on April
29, 1965.

Fess Parker (left) and Ed Ames in the television series Daniel Boone.

In 1952 Dick  Clark moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he  took a job
as a disc jockey at radio station WFIL (below) which had a affiliated TV station
with the same call letters (now WPVI). WFIL-TV  began broadcasting a show
called Bob Horn’s Bandstand in 1952. Clark was a regular substitute host on
the show and when Horn left, Dick Clark became the full-time host on July 9,
1956. The show was picked up by the ABC television network and renamed
American Bandstand and was aired nationally on August 5, 1957. On that
day, Clark interviewed Elvis Presley.  

Dick Clark at WFIL radio

1957