This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1955.
Specific locations
1955 in British music
1955 in Norwegian music
Specific genres
1955 in country music
1955 in jazz
Events
January 1 – RCA Victor announces a marketing plan called "Operation TNT." The label drops the list price on LPs from $5.95 to $3.98, EPs from $4.95 to $2.98, 45 EPs from $1.58 to $1.49 and 45's from $1.16 to $.89. Other record labels follow RCA's lead and begin to drop prices as well. January 7 Marian Anderson is the first African American singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley & His Comets first appears on the British charts. January 14 – In New York City, Alan Freed produces the first rock and roll concert. January 27 – Michael Tippett's opera The Midsummer Marriage is premiered at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London, conducted by John Pritchard, with designs by Barbara Hepworth and choreography by John Cranko; it arouses controversy. February 19 – Dot Records introduces a new singer, Pat Boone, with an advertisement in Billboard magazine calling him "a great new voice". His first record for Dot Records is "Two Hearts, Two Kisses, One Love." February 24 – Carlisle Floyd's opera Susannah is premiered in the Ruby Diamond Auditorium of Florida State University, Tallahassee with Phyllis Curtin in the title role. February 26 – For the first time since their introduction in 1949, 45 rpm discs begin to outsell standard 78s. February – Kay Starr leaves Capitol to sign with RCA. March 3 – Italian soprano Mirella Freni makes her operatic debut as Micaëla in Carmen at the Teatro Municipale in her native Modena. March 7 – The Broadway production of Peter Pan, starring Mary Martin, is presented on American television for the first time by NBC-TV with its original cast, as an installment of Producers' Showcase. It is also the first time that a stage musical is presented in its entirety on TV almost exactly as it was performed on stage. This program gains the largest viewership of a TV special up to this time and becomes one of the first great TV family musical classics. March 15 – Colonel Tom Parker becomes Elvis Presley's de facto manager. March 19 – The film Blackboard Jungle is premièred in New York City, featuring Bill Haley & His Comets' "Rock Around the Clock" over the opening credits, the first use of a rock and roll song in a major film. March 22 – Decca Records signs DJ Alan Freed as an A&R man. March 26 – Bill Hayes tops the US charts for five weeks with "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" and starts a (fake) coonskin cap craze. April 14 – Imperial Records in the United States release "Ain't That a Shame" by Fats Domino (co-written with Dave Bartholomew). It reaches #1 in the R&B chart and becomes over time a million seller, bringing Domino to prominence and giving his work covers by white artists: Pat Boone makes this song a Billboard number-one single of 1955 for jukebox play. May 13 – First riot at an Elvis Presley concert takes place in Jacksonville, Florida. May 21 – Chuck Berry records his first single, "Maybellene", for Chess Records in Chicago. May 22 – Bridgeport, Connecticut, authorities cancel a rock concert to be headlined by Fats Domino for fear of a riot breaking out. June The 29th International Society for Contemporary Music Festival takes place in Baden-Baden. The newly formed Netherlands Chamber Orchestra gives its first performance at the Holland Festival. June 2 – Italian singers Natalino Otto and Flo Sandon's marry. June 16 – Glenn Gould completes his recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations. June 18 Pearl Carr & Teddy Johnson marry in the U.K. Pierre Boulez's influential composition Le marteau sans maître ("The hammer without a master"), for contralto and six instrumentalists, is premiered (in its first revised version) at the International Society for Contemporary Music Festival in Baden-Baden at the insistence of Heinrich Strobel. July 9 – "Rock Around the Clock" becomes the first Rock and roll single to reach Number One on the American charts. July 13 – The Beaux Arts Trio make their debut at the Berkshire Music Festival. August 8 – Luigi Nono marries Arnold Schoenberg's daughter Nuria in Venice. August 19 – WINS radio station in New York City adopts a policy of not playing white cover versions of black R&B songs. August 31 – A Londoner is fined for "creating an abominable noise" for playing "Shake, Rattle, and Roll" at top volume. September 3 – Little Richard records "Tutti Frutti" in New Orleans with significantly cleaned up lyrics (originally "Tutti Frutti, good booty" among other things); it is released in October.