Over the past forty-plus years British film director Tony Palmer has established himself as one of the country's foremost directors of documentary and factual films. One of Tony Palmer's first successes was the film All My Loving, which was released in 1968. Some seven years later Tony had the idea, encouraged by John Lennon, to document the history of popular music. The result was the groundbreaking and award-winning series of films made for television under the title All You Need Is Love.
The full series of films was released in 2008 to great critical and commercial acclaim.
In this episode we turn our attention to Rock 'N' Roll one of the staples of twentieth century music.
The story of rock 'n' roll begins and ends in Memphis, Tennessee, in the tiny studio of record producer Sam Phillips. He tells of how he discovered Elvis Presley and of the struggle he had to get Presley accepted. It was not the overnight success story that is popularly believed. Before long, however, Presley came to symbolize the spirit of an entire generation. How did this happen, and why? Was it the product of Sam Phillips's imagination or Presley's stage presence?
This volume of the highly regarded series of films contains interviews from Cliff Richard, Tommy Steele, Terry Dene and British televsion producer Jack Good. From America there are interviews and performances from Bill Haley, Chubby Checker, Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis.
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