The Blue Caps
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Year:
2012
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Inducted by:
Smokey Robinson
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Category:
Performers
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Tommy Facenda -
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Paul Peek Jr. -
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Johnny Meeks -
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Jack Neal -
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Dickie Harrell -
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Cliff Gallup -
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Bobby Jones -
Willie Williams
Introduction
These are your heroes’ heroes.
The Blue Caps and their revolving door of great guitarists were revered by the likes of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and more.
Smokey Robinson Inducts The Blue Caps
Smokey Robinson Inducts The Blue Caps at the 2012 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony-
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Smokey Robinson Inducts The Blue Caps00:02:11 -
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The Blue Caps Acceptance Speech00:02:39
Hall of Fame Essay
2012
In the mid-1950s, everyone in the music business was looking for the next Elvis. Enter Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps and their massive hit, the insinuating, catchy “Be-Bop-A-Lula.” One of the first self-contained rock & roll bands, Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps would relentlessly tour America, Europe, Australia, and Japan, introducing countless audiences to the untamed exuberance of rockabilly.
Fresh out of the navy in the spring of 1956, Vincent was spending time at the Norfolk, Virginia, radio station WCMS, singing a ditty he had written—or bought, depending on which story you believe—called “Be-Bop-A-Lula.
it’s mighty impossible to stand still when hearing "Be-Bop-A-Lula."
