Few arguments seem less solvable than the one about what the very first rockabilly song was.
Some say Elvis was the first when he recorded "That's All Right" in 1954.
But others point to various other artists--for example the Maddox Brothers and Rose--who were creating music that fits very comfortably into the rockabilly genre as far back as the late 1940s.
But one thing that there is no real argument about is that once Elvis really kicked it into gear, rockabilly raged strong for a few years.
Exactly what year rockabilly peaked, well, that gets us back onto a little less concrete ground.
Elvis didn't record for Sun Records (his original record label) for long.
His star shot up amazingly fast and he was as much an over-night sensation as there ever was.
When he became too much for the tiny Sun Records and its owner Sam Phillips to handle, Phillips sold his record contract to RCA Victor for a mere fraction of what Elvis would come to be worth.
This was in November of 1955, not even two years since he'd made his seminal rockabilly recordings for Sun.
Some say, that's the exact moment when rockabilly peaked.
Certainly Elvis made some rockabilly recordings for RCA Victor including his first smash hit for RCA "Heartbreak Hotel", but it wasn't long before Colonel Tom Parker (who was managing Elvis) began to take him in new directions.
He negotiated movie deals and as we all know, those movie soundtracks took Elvis farther and farther away from his rockabilly roots.
The King was still the King, but now he was no longer just reigning over rockabilly, he was the undisputed King of all of Rock and Roll.
But the story of the peak of rockabilly doesn't tie up quite that easily.
Of course, when Elvis started realizing crazy success with the genre, he inspired many others to play and record that type of music.
Some of the artists who began making rockabilly records were already established country stars who recognized a gravy train when they saw one.
Patsy Cline, Little Jimmy Dickens, Marty Robbins, Joe Maphis, and many other established stars jumped on the Rockabilly bandwagon and recorded some great tracks.
But more importantly, aspiring young musicians heard Elvis and were truly knocked out by his rockabilly style and they began to pursue their own rockabilly careers.
Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, Wanda Jackson, Janis Martin...
the list goes on.
It took time for all of these Elvis-inspired acts to get it together and for more rockabilly songs to be recorded and so one could make a very strong argument indeed that rockabilly didn't peak until 1957, 1958, or even as late as 1959.
Certainly you could study this scientifically and find out what year had the most charting singles that you could call rockabilly, or what year saw the greatest amount of record sales in dollars and units sold.
But in this case, the science would fail you, because there was so much great rockabilly being recorded in those days that never saw sales success.
Some of our most-beloved rockabilly tracks barely made a dime for anyone.
No, you have to measure the peak of rockabilly as that time when the most wonderful material was released.
What time had the sheer volume of great rockabilly recordings that would make it the peak time? That is a much, much more difficult question to answer because it relies on opinion.
And when it comes to rockabilly, everyone has a different one of those!
Some say Elvis was the first when he recorded "That's All Right" in 1954.
But others point to various other artists--for example the Maddox Brothers and Rose--who were creating music that fits very comfortably into the rockabilly genre as far back as the late 1940s.
But one thing that there is no real argument about is that once Elvis really kicked it into gear, rockabilly raged strong for a few years.
Exactly what year rockabilly peaked, well, that gets us back onto a little less concrete ground.
Elvis didn't record for Sun Records (his original record label) for long.
His star shot up amazingly fast and he was as much an over-night sensation as there ever was.
When he became too much for the tiny Sun Records and its owner Sam Phillips to handle, Phillips sold his record contract to RCA Victor for a mere fraction of what Elvis would come to be worth.
This was in November of 1955, not even two years since he'd made his seminal rockabilly recordings for Sun.
Some say, that's the exact moment when rockabilly peaked.
Certainly Elvis made some rockabilly recordings for RCA Victor including his first smash hit for RCA "Heartbreak Hotel", but it wasn't long before Colonel Tom Parker (who was managing Elvis) began to take him in new directions.
He negotiated movie deals and as we all know, those movie soundtracks took Elvis farther and farther away from his rockabilly roots.
The King was still the King, but now he was no longer just reigning over rockabilly, he was the undisputed King of all of Rock and Roll.
But the story of the peak of rockabilly doesn't tie up quite that easily.
Of course, when Elvis started realizing crazy success with the genre, he inspired many others to play and record that type of music.
Some of the artists who began making rockabilly records were already established country stars who recognized a gravy train when they saw one.
Patsy Cline, Little Jimmy Dickens, Marty Robbins, Joe Maphis, and many other established stars jumped on the Rockabilly bandwagon and recorded some great tracks.
But more importantly, aspiring young musicians heard Elvis and were truly knocked out by his rockabilly style and they began to pursue their own rockabilly careers.
Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, Wanda Jackson, Janis Martin...
the list goes on.
It took time for all of these Elvis-inspired acts to get it together and for more rockabilly songs to be recorded and so one could make a very strong argument indeed that rockabilly didn't peak until 1957, 1958, or even as late as 1959.
Certainly you could study this scientifically and find out what year had the most charting singles that you could call rockabilly, or what year saw the greatest amount of record sales in dollars and units sold.
But in this case, the science would fail you, because there was so much great rockabilly being recorded in those days that never saw sales success.
Some of our most-beloved rockabilly tracks barely made a dime for anyone.
No, you have to measure the peak of rockabilly as that time when the most wonderful material was released.
What time had the sheer volume of great rockabilly recordings that would make it the peak time? That is a much, much more difficult question to answer because it relies on opinion.
And when it comes to rockabilly, everyone has a different one of those!