BY RIK FLYNN
While a big wave of pop music-peddling teen idols definitively rose to prominence as rock’n’roll was waning in popularity, they existed in some form or other a fair bit before the symbolic moment when Elvis packed his bags and headed off to the army. When Presley returned to the charts, the pompadours were very much still on proud display, but the essence of rock’n’roll’s spirit was ultimately absent, watered-down to passing references and masquerading in a far more sanitised – society-friendly – version of the original maverick sound and attitude.
Elvis was, of course, the ultimate idol, loved by teens everywhere, but he doesn’t feature here. In fact, we’ve pretty much avoided any of those performers considered as real rock’n’rollers, bar Johnny Burnette’s career-boosting dalliance with the softer, string-drenched outpourings that arrived in the 60s when the Rock’n Roll Trio had packed up. Instead this rundown is dedicated to those stars that were, for the most part anyway, totally committed – or at least marketed to – the squeaky-clean teen pop market from the start of their careers.