Ah, the 1950s. The quiffed coolness of Jimmy Dean. The hot blast of subway air that lifted Marilyn Monroe's skirt. The gas-guzzling Buicks and Cadillacs and Chevrolets and Thunderbirds. The red-seated diners with your own little jukebox at the table.

And, of course, the music.

So what's your favourite Rock 'n' Roll song? For me, the question's a bit like 'what's your favourite movie?' So many, it's hard to say! The 1950s were such a vital, magical period for music. Three main strands of popular music emerged from this era: namely, Rockabilly, Doo-Wop and jived-up Rhythm and Blues. All three gathered under the musical marquee named Rock 'n' Roll. And it's from this overcrowded marquee that we can select our Top 10 Favourite Rock 'n' Roll artists and hits that defined an era.

What's yours? Is it Elvis' version of Big Mama Thornton's Hound Dog? The piano-pounding mania of Jerry Lee Lewis' Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On? The sparse rockabilly of Carl Perkins' Blue Suede Shoes? The jived-up sax of Billy Haley's Rock Around the Clock? The whooping, hollering ecstasy of Little Richard's Tutti Frutti? Or maybe it's the feel-good bomp-along doo-wop of Dion and the Belmonts' I Wonder Why or the hiccuping vocals and hypnotic percussion of Buddy Holly's Peggy Sue.

I don't know about you, but as I sit here, having typed the above titles, another half a dozen titles of fabulous 50s hits have just flown into my caboose (for the moment it's hip 50s jive-talk here, daddio!). But let us at least try to bottle down the best of the bunch. You dig? (lol)

We can't compile a compendium of Rock 'n' Roll hits, of course, without first taking a little look at where African-American rhythm and blues converged with southern country and western music and forged the new potent hybrid Rock 'n' Roll: Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee.

From here came one of my all-time favourites, recorded in July 1954 by a nineteen-year-old truck driver with the unlikely name of Elvis Presley.

That's All Right Mama was a mix of blues and C&W and was, some say, the first Rock 'n' Roll record that went mainstream (The very first, in my opinion, was Sun Records' release in 1951 of Rocket 88 by Ike Turner and His Kings of Rhythm, although it didn't make as big a splash as Elvis' debut). That's All Right Mama was so new, so fresh, that many Memphis teenagers assumed the singer was black. When you play the song now it just sounds like an early Elvis song but in 1954 That's All Right was considered new and exciting and more than a little subversive. So for me, it's up there in my Top 10 Favourite Rock 'n' Roll Hits of the 1950s. Yours too?

Next up we have a man who can't help a-whoopin' and a hollerin' as he fights his way to the top of the queue. Yes, who else but Little Richard, that shrieking, piano-pulverizing, pompadour-headed little man with the big voice, and his classic Lucille. I love nearly everything by Little Richard but this has got to be my favourite. Straight-up no-messing Rock 'n' Roll.

What's next? Ah, let's see. So many! Well, we can't take a single step forward without mentioning a blond, curly-haired wild man from Ferriday, Louisiana whose Great Balls of Fire rolled into the charts and set them alight in 1957. Another Sun Records release, Great Balls of Fire has all the elements of a great Rock 'n' Roll record: ferocity, sly humour, and rowdy energy, It still gives me goosebumps. Jerry Lee has got to be one of the all-time Rock 'n' Roll showmen.

And where would we be without Eddie Cochran's Summertime Blues? This little number is a cracker. A simple little tale of a 50s teenager frustrated by the desire to do the things a teenager likes to do but hampered by his juvenile status ('I'd like to help you son, but you're too young to vote') this number, for me, anyway, deserves a rank in our Top Ten. You agree?

If so, perhaps you'll also agree that some of the biggest names of the 1950s originated from the great vocal groups, and if we delve into the realm of Doo-Wop we'll find many who thrived during the mid-50s. A stand-out for me would have to The Cadillacs' Speedoo . A romp-along number with a great sax break and clever lyrics driven by terrific harmonies, this number, for me anyway, represents the essence of feel-good 50s doo-wop, and I never tire of playing it. (I'd highly recommend the double CD set of The Only Doo-Wop Collection You'll Ever Need, which I picked up at Tower Records during a trip to New York in 2005. Also available on Amazon, it contains many Doo-Wop tracks that crackled out of many a teenager's transistor radio during the 50s).

And staying with Doo-Wop, we can hardly proceed without a nod of acknowledgment to Dion and the Belmonts' I Wonder Why. Released in 1958, I Wonder Why is a Doo-Wop staple of the period. Again, it's a feel-good number. I love it's wavering falsetto and deep bass counterpoint delivery. It's a cool cruising song for warm summer evenings (you can play it in the car and pretend you're driving a finned-up 50s Cadillac while checking out the babes on the pavement and forgetting, like me, you're in your 40s!).

How many do we have now? Excuse me a second while I count 'em. Only six? It's going to be a job and a half roping in the rest. But let's press on. Let's see. So many songs! I have a feeling I'll be writing more articles on this soon . . .

Ah! I just plucked one from the list above. No Top Ten would and could be complete without Bill Haley's Rock Around the Clock. Unlike some of the listed numbers above, everybody knows this! Rock Around the Clock is unquestionably Haley's best-known and biggest hit. First used as the soundtrack for the movie Blackboard Jungle starring Glenn Ford, Rock Around the Clock went on to become a massive hit and is forever linked with the sheer exuberance and energy of mid-fifties Rock 'n' Roll. Definitely one to tag onto our list, don't you think?

Now, let's see . . .

Ah yes. We shall not proceed another step without paying homage to the Missourian spirit and rockin' rhythm that emanated from the guitar of one Charles Edward Anderson Berry. Better known to me and you simply as Chuck Berry. Considered by many to be the true king of Rock 'n' Roll - and certainly its principle poet laureate - Chuck Berry was Rock 'n' Roll incarnate. He wrote his own songs and rung his own bell. His rockin' and reelin' guitar style is instantly recognisable. And he churned out hits that all hit the big time - Maybelline, Sweet Little Sixteen, Johnny B Goode, Reelin' and Rockin', Roll Over Beethoven, School Days . . .

For my money, all of the above are simply fabulous, but if you asked me to nail just one down it would have to be Maybelline. It was Chuck's first release (the original title was Ita Red, but Maybelline definitely has a better ring to it) and was an instant smash. In fact Chuck, in the opinion of many, is the real king of Rock 'n' Roll.

Okay, just two to go and what a wide choice we still have. The capricious nature of nailing down a favourite song or movie or poem is, of course, that our choice is open to constant change; my list is no exception. Even as I enter titles here, another half a dozen fizz and pop like fireworks in my mind, exploding into letters that read 'pick me! Pick me!'

Okay, we'll pick one that wears glasses. If Buddy Holly hadn't died in a plane crash in February of 1959 he would, in my opinion, have gone on to become a monolithic songwriter. His harmonic and pleasant song arrangements, expressing the pangs and passion of young love, revealed a sensitive songster. But Buddy, too, knew how to rock and roll with the best of them. And Peggy Sue is a Rock 'n' Roll evergreen. Who'd have thought just a single electric guitar and an African-style drum tattoo would produce such a great sound? Peggy Sue is so simply constructed yet stands out as one of the most iconic hits of the 1950s.

One of the top stand-out moments from the 1950s actually occurred on TV in 1956 when a hip-swivelling twenty-one-year-old Elvis Presley 'shocked' the nation on the Milton Berle Show with a boisterous rendition of Hound Dog. Looking at Elvis' performance now, it's pretty hard to believe there was such fuss about it, and that Elvis was actually considered 'dangerous' and a corrupter of youth. Compared to the risque pop videos of today, Elvis' 50s gyrating and hip swivelling seem positively tame.

But it's Hound Dog we want to conscript into our chart of 10 rockers. And what a rocker! Originally a regional hit for blues singer Big Mama Thornton, Elvis' version of Hound Dog seamlessly crossed the deep racial divide of 50s America and became a massive hit, a commercial example of black R&B 'goosed up' (in Elvis' words) for white audiences.

And now we've reached our ten! Such a pithy little amount. So sparse, so spare! There's so many more I'd love to include.

You may have noticed that while this Hub is titled 'Top 10 Hits of the 1950s' I haven't listed the above hits in a 'countdown' style. There's no 'Number One' as such; I've basically compiled a list of my personal Top Ten (your own may be totally different). Feel free to treat 'em like a pick 'n' mix. The truth is that I've found, while writing this Hub in response to a request, that nailing down my favourite Rock 'n' Roll songs in descending order has been a daunting and difficult endeavor. Perhaps our best solution is to just pull on our dancing shoes (blue suede, of course), set the stereo to 'random shuffle' and bop till we drop?!

See you later, alligator.