Yonge Street: Toronto Rock & Roll Stories

1955-1960

0.046mMarch 21, 2011

Rumour has it that in sleepy 1950s Toronto they used to roll up the sidewalks when the sun went down. There was no rock 'n' roll or R&B music until the fateful day when Arkansas wildmen Ronnie Hawkins and Levon Helm pulled up in front of Le Coq d'Or Tavern and unleashed the "devil's music" on unsuspecting Toronto. Travelling back to those colourful days, Part 1 reveals the city's appetite for the popular and rebellious new sounds reaching up from the border. Between the exodus of African American performers like Curley Bridges and Mouse Johnson to Toronto, and Elvis performing at Maple Leaf Gardens, a whole generation of young local performers like Ronnie Robertson and Bobby Dean Blackburn were inspired to begin making their names on the flourishing Yonge Street strip.