Bo Diddley - Ed Sullivan Show 1955

Thank you, my friend SGT (Join to see) for honoring Bo Diddley on the anniversary of his birth by posting the music video of Bo Diddley performing on the Ed Sullivan Show. Ellas McDaniel [December 30, 1928 – June 2, 2008)], known as Bo Diddley

Speaking Freely: Bo Diddley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wqvx2evI0eE


Bo Diddley IMDB Biography

Overview (5)
Born December 30, 1928 in McComb, Mississippi, USA
Died June 2, 2008 in Archer, Florida, USA (heart failure)

Birth Name Ellas Bates
Nicknames The Black Gladiator
The Originator
Ellas B. McDaniel
Height 5' 7" (1.7 m)

Mini Bio (1)
Ever heard "I Want Candy" or "Not Fade Away" or "Willie & The Hand Jive", Shirley & Company's "Shame, Shame, Shame" or U2's "Desire" or George Michael's "Faith"? If you have, then you've heard the "Bo Diddley beat", the most famous beat in the world! One of the founding fathers of rock 'n' roll, Bo Diddley's innovative pounding and hypnotic, Latin-tinged beat, his vast array of electric custom-built guitars, his use of reverb, tremelo and distortion to make his guitars talk, mumble and roar, his use of female musicians, his wild stage shows, and his on-record and on-stage rapping, pre-date all others. Bo Diddley was born Ellas Bates on Sunday December 30, 1928, on a small farm near the town of McComb, Mississippi, in rural Pike County, close to the Louisiana border, the only child of Ethel Wilson and Eugene Bates, he had three half-brothers and a half-sister. He was adopted by his mother's cousin, Mrs. Gussie McDaniel, along with his cousins Willis, Lucille and Freddie, and adopted the name Ellas McDaniel. In the mid-1'30s the family moved to the south side of Chicago. Soon after, he began to take violin lessons from Professor O.W. Frederick at the Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church. He studied the violin for 12 years, composing two concertos for the instrument. For Christmas in 1940, his sister Lucille bought him his first guitar, a cheap Harmony acoustic. It was at this time that he acquired the nickname "Bo Diddley" (" . . . Bo Diddley is me; to tell ya the truth, I don't know what it [the name] really is . . . ") from his fellow pupils at the Foster Vocational High School in Chicago. The newly named Bo Diddley had long been fascinated by the rhythms that he heard coming from the sanctified churches. A frustrated drummer, he tried to translate the sounds that he heard into his own style. Gradually he began to duplicate what he did with his violin bow by rapidly flicking his pick across his guitar strings: "I play the guitar as if I'm playing the drums . . . I play drum licks on the guitar." He continued to practice the guitar through his early teens. Shortly before leaving school he formed his first group, a trio named The Hipsters, later known as The Langley Avenue Jive Cats, after the Chicago street where he lived. Upon graduation he pursued a variety of low-paid occupations including truck driving, building site work and boxing, playing locally with his group to supplement his income. Around this time he married his first wife, Louise Woolingham, but the marriage did not survive. A year later he married Ethel "Tootsie" Smith, a marriage that lasted just over a decade. In 1950 maracas player Jerome Green joined the group, followed a year later by harmonica player Billy Boy Arnold. After more than a decade of playing on street corners and in clubs around Chicago, Bo Diddley finally got the chance to cut a demo of 2 songs that he had written; "Uncle John" and "I'm A Man". After various rejections from local record labels (most notably VeeJay), in the spring of 1955 he took the recordings to brothers Leonard and Phil Chess, owners of Chess Records, with studios located at 4750-2 South Cottage Grove Ave. in Chicago. They suggested that he changed the title and the lyrics of "Uncle John" to more reflect his own unique personality. The twp songs were re-recorded at Bill Putnam's Universal Recording Studio at 111 E. Ontario in Chicago on Wednesday, March 2, 1955, and released as a double A-side disc "Bo Diddley"/"I'm A Man" on the Chess Records subsidiary label Checker Records. It went straight to the top of the R&B charts, establishing him as one of the most exciting and original new talents in American music. With musical influences of his own ranging from Louis Jordan to John Lee Hooker, and from 'Nat 'King' Cole' to Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley was now set to help shape and define the sound and presentation of rock music for all time. From Elvis Presley to George Thorogood, from The Rolling Stones to ZZ Top, from The Doors to The Clash, from Buddy Holly to Prince, and from The Everly Brothers to Run DMC, all acknowledged the unique influences of Bo Diddley upon their styles of music. Now in his early 70s, he is still very much active in the recording studio and in the clubs and the concert halls around the world. He performed a rousing version of his classic song "Who Do You Love" with George Thorogood & The Destroyers in front of a TV audience of millions at the Live Aid Concert in Philadelphia in 1985. A couple of years later he was deservedly an early inductee into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. In 1996 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm 'n' Blues Foundation and in 1998 received another Lifetime Achievement Award, this time from The Recording Academy at that year's annual Grammy Awards Ceremony. In 2000 yet another honor was justifiably awarded to him when he was inducted into The Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame. In the words of one of his many famous eponymous songs, "Bo Diddley Put The Rock in Rock 'n' Roll", and remember . . . Bo Knows!
- IMDb Mini Biography By: David Blakey < [login to see] >
Spouse (4)
Sylvia Paiz (26 September 1992 - 2005) ( divorced)

Kay Reynolds (1960 - 1980) ( divorced) ( 2 children)
Ethel Mae Smith (1949 - 1956) ( divorced) ( 2 children)
Louise Woolingham (1946 - 1947) ( divorced)

Trade Mark (2)
His stetson hat and custom-built electric guitars
Rectangular, hollow-bodied Gretsch electric guitar

Trivia (11)
1. As a child, he was taught to play the violin by the music director of his church. One of his fellow students grew up to become jazz violinist Leroy Jenkins.
2. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in 1987.
3. 1960: He moved from Chicago, Illinois, to Washington, DC.
4. 1971: He moved from Granada Hills, California, to Los Lunas, New Mexico.
5. 1978: He moved from Los Lunas, New Mexico, to Hawthorne, Florida.
6. 1934: He moved from McComb, Mississippi, to Chicago, Illinois.
7. 1968: He moved from Washington, DC, to Granada Hills, California.
8. Wrote the hit song "Love Is Strange", but published it under the name of his wife, Ethel Smith due to a dispute with Leonard Chess, owner of Chess-Checker-Argo Records. The song was a #5 R&B hit for Mickey & Sylvia in 1957.
9. He was voted the 20th Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Artist of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
10. Suffered a stroke and a heart attack in 2007.
11. Following his death, tributes were paid to his lasting impact by many performers of varying ages, including B.B. King, Peter Gabriel, Mick Jagger, Robert Plant, Alex Kapranos, Richard Hawley, Eric Burdon, Mickey Hart, Slash, Albert Hammond Jr., George Thorogood, Tom Petty and Jerry Lee Lewis.

Personal Quotes (5)
1. Bo Diddley put the rock in rock & roll", "Bo Knows
2. I always have been a pack rat. People throw out shit, and it might be something you can fix, just fool with it. I know people that are millionaires from hangin' with junk.
3. This group The Sex Pistols pukes onstage? I don't necessarily like that. That's not showmanship... They gotta get themselves an act.
4. I opened the door for a lot of people, who just ran through and left me holding the knob.
5. I'm 76 years old, feel good and I'm still doin' my thing. Now, I feel like I can give God some of that talent. Just do what I know how to do, and shock the world. [from Mojo magazine, August 2005]"


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I was only 9 but sure I saw that show, my parents never missed the Ed Sullivan show.

That is awesome my friend. Thank you.