Swanee River performed by Johnny O’Keefe/Delltones from the lost film ’Rock’n’Roll’ (1959)

The complete soundtrack is out now Taken from the lost (now found!) 1959 documentary feature film entitled ’Rock’n’Roll’, this is Johnny O’Keefe performing ’Swanee River’. It features The Delltones doing back up vocals and his band the DJ’S. The quality of the sound and vision on the film far surpasses any pre-existing footage of live Rock’n’Roll performances from the 1950s. Rock’n’Roll, directed by the pioneering Australian director Lee Robinson, and commissioned by the legendary promoter Lee Gordon, was the only 35mm feature-length film of a live Rock’n’Roll concert ever made in the 1950s. Moreover, it is arguably the only piece of 35mm Rock’n’Roll live footage from the 1950s in existence, since The Pied Piper of Cleveland (the only other 35mm live film shot in this decade) is considered to be lost by many researchers. I discovered the sole surviving copy of the film in Marc
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