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[email protected] In its initial days of operation, Warner Bros. Records had no handle on rock and roll at all. Founded in March of 1958, the major label, a division of the celebrated Warner Bros. film studio, had an inner circle of old- timers at the helm that were primarily interested in the film soundtrack end of the business and clearly unfamiliar with music for teenagers. Lounge acts, instrumentals, and TV and movie music comprised a good portion of Warner’s release slate, and what little tangible success they did achieve with the youth market during that era derived from spinoff singles by the photogenic stars of Warner Bros.-produced television programs. Perky Connie Stevens from ‘Hawaiian Eye’ and Edd ‘Kookie’ Byrnes, the heartthrob of ’77 Sunset Strip,’ teamed for the novelty duet Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb), which cracked the pop Top Five in the spring of 1959. Connie did even better the next year with her sugary Sixteen Reasons, But those were rare PREVIEWoccurrences. Their handsome co-stars, Roger Smith, Robert Conrad, and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., had WB singles that went 3 nowhere. Ditto rugged Western star Clint Walker. Movie luminary Tab Hunter struck gold in ‘57 on Dot with his cover of Sonny James’ smash Young Love but only managed three minor chart entries for WB despite high hopes harbored by the label’s braintrust. The label’s other intermittent attempts to court the teenage demographic usually slipped through the commercial cracks until The Everly Brothers came over from Cadence Records in late 1959 to provide salvation.