For a young black singer and guitarist from Chicago with only a minor hit, getting booked on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1955 was a career-making opportunity. Sullivan asked him to sing Tennessee Ernie ...

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Ellas McDaniel became Bo Diddley when he was a teenager. He had been raised in Mississippi by his aunt, Gussie ...

Bo Diddley, a rhythm-and-blues pioneer who was one of the major architects of rock 'n' roll, died Monday from heart failure at his home in Archer, Fla., where he had lived for the past 20 years. He ...

Until he died today in outside of Gainesville, I couldn’t tell you who Ellas Otha Bates was. I am willing to bet not many Americans recognized the name either. But Bo Diddley was an influential rock ...

A pair of Bo Diddley retrospectives offers an especially revealing look at the late Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member’s studio experimentation. In “I’m a Man: The Chess Masters, 1955-1958,” we hear ...