Steve Harris

From orchestral symphonies to rock ’n’ roll, musicals to jazz, Ken Kessler, Steve Harris and Christopher Breunig bring you 20 landmark releases from the year HFN was born

If hi-fi began in the 1950s, what did it sound like? Judging from the popular albums and recordings of 1956, perhaps not much different to how it sounds now. Yes, the stereo LP was still one or two years away, CDs and streaming were decades off, and no one had heard of punk or electronica, but the staple genres of any audiophile’s collection – rock ’n’ roll, jazz and classical – were established. Billboard’s Top 100 had launched in 1955, albeit as an evolution of earlier forms of ‘best-seller’ lists. Many of the artists who scored high in the charts in 1956 remain major names in hi-fi and music today, finding new fans and listeners through vinyl reissues and streaming releases.