A really spectacular Fantabulous Rock ’N Roll Blues Show of 1957 window card that’s a wonderful relic of a bygone era.

This beauty has 14 musicians crammed onto it, many of them household names and many of the songs long-time staples of oldies radio.

Check out the color scheme of this cardboard Fantabulous Rock ’N Roll Blues Show of 1957 poster board. In the main portion, it slides from blue at the top to green in the middle to yellow at the bottom, with a big splash of pink in the bottom center. Wow, did they have fun with this!

And then, of course, the top white portion was left blank on all initial printings, and then each tour stop’s information was filled in as the dates were scheduled. So this is known in the hobby as a ‘tour blank.’

Mickey & Sylvia and Larry Williams are the headliners of this Fantabulous Rock ’N Roll Blues Show of 1957 placard. Their names are huge and they get full-body pictures, from head to toe.

But they earned it: both were major stars. Who doesn’t know “Love Is Strange” to this day? And Williams, who the Beatles ‘covered’ three times on their official EMI records, was having a banner year in 1957, including the #1 R&B record “Short Fat Fannie.”

Then right below them, you have three more absolute killers gracing the Fantabulous Rock ’N Roll Blues Show of 1957 in-person poster – all three of them Rock ’N Roll Hall of Fame members.

Big Joe Turner, who gave the world “Shake, Rattle & Roll,” is shown with a big grinning face, the Atlantic Records name and his current single, “Love [Is A] Roller Coaster.

And then Bo Diddley and his Trio show up on this Fantabulous Rock ’N Roll Blues Show of 1957 billboard. The legendary Chess Records is plugged, as is one of his signature songs, “Hey, Bo Diddley.”

And Ray Charles rounds out this trio, the most legendary name found on the poster. What’s great is that Ray’s first-ever charting single on Billboard magazine’s pop charts was “Swanee River Rock” b/w “I Want a Little Girl,” and that’s the 45 plugged on here – both sides of it!

Then there’s the pink section of this Fantabulous Rock ’N Roll Blues Show of 1957 window poster. It’s occupied by a couple of legendary groups definitely worth mentioning.

The Dell-Vikings are shown here as “The Del Viking” for some reason, definitely a mistake as they always had an “s” on their name, even in different spellings. The name Kripp Johnson is given parenthetically below their name, to distinguish this version from a competing version of the vocal group.

And it’s wonderful that this Fantabulous Rock ’N Roll Blues Show of 1957 show placard has their hit song “Come Go With Me” on it. Not only was it a very important record for them, but it fits nicely into the history of… the Beatles.

Only four months prior to this show, Paul McCartney first encountered John Lennon, who was performing with his Quarry Men on a flatbed truck in Liverpool, Englad. When Paul first approached the group with his friend, the first song he heard John performing was “Come Go With Me.”  That was his very first impression of Mr. Lennon.

And then you’ve got the Moonglows at the very bottom center of this Fantabulous Rock ’N Roll Blues Show of 1957 event poster. Sadly and unfortunately, they’re the only act on the poster that didn’t get a photograph.

But they’ve sure got a key song title below their name… “Please Send Me Someone To Love” was a Top 5 R&B hit for them earlier that year.

Roy Brown is another important element of this Fantabulous Rock ’N Roll Blues Show of 1957 street poster. He was near the end of his 10-year career as a charting artist, but it wasn’t over yet.

The song given for him is “Let the Four Winds Blow,” and that was a Top 5 R&B hit for Roy earlier in the year, so he was still very timely and relevant.

Along the very bottom white margin of this Fantabulous Rock ’N Roll Blues Show of 1957 tour placard, the management and booking agency is credited in the same size print as the Moonglows song title.

It says, “Tour Direction: Shaw Artists Corp., 565 5^th Ave., N.Y.C. & 203 N. Wabash, Chicago.”

And then in much smaller print, way down in the very bottom right corner of the Fantabulous Rock ’N Roll Blues Show of 1957 boxing-style concert poster, it says “Globe Poster Corp. Baltimore.”

Globe not only printed these beautiful posters but also designed them. They’re probably the most enduring and popular of all concert-poster printers from the 1950s and ’60s, having produced many a gem like this.

Speaking of which, this Fantabulous Rock ’N Roll Blues Show of 1957 ticket poster is made of cardboard and measures the standard jumbo size of 22 inches wide by 28 inches tall.

It’s rather fragile but in excellent condition today considering its age. It was once owned by the late and legendary poster collector Hank Thompson, and Hank had it restored when he first acquired it in the early 1990s.

I forgot to mention that taken verbatim, the identifying line across the blue portion says exactly, “Danceland Attractions Presents – Fantabulous Rock ’N Roll Blues Show of 1957 – Fall Edition.”

I don’t know how many other editions of this tour were organized back then, but I’m certain this is the king of the posters representing them. It’s just the cat’s meow.

This Fantabulous Rock ’N Roll Blues Show of 1957 street sign has also been seen with the big white ovals appearing in Day-Glo red, not white. So that tells us at least two different versions of this tour blank were made.

But that’s not unusual… quite often the home office would slightly alter some information on a tour-blank poster like this, and then run off a few hundred more for use going forward. And while doing so, they’d sometimes change a color out, too.

This Fantabulous Rock ’N Roll Blues Show of 1957 concert advertisement is shown to you today with enormous pleasure by long-time poster collector Pete Howard. That’s me, and I can be reached by using either pete@postercentral.com, or the old-fashioned way thru (805) 540-0020. Please know that I pay the very best prices in the hobby for this or any other vintage rock & roll / rhythm & blues concert poster(s).

To see a few other rare & precious examples of 1950s traveling caravan R&B / rock ’n’ roll concert posters, just slip over one page to here: http://www.postercentral.com/multi-act_1950s.htm