Was Ike's Turner's "Rocket 88", the first Rock & Roll song?

Was Ike's Rocket 88, the first rock song?

Written by Ike Turner and recorded by his band, the Kings of Rhythm, at Sun Studio in 1951, "Rocket 88" was perhaps the first rock and roll song.

Ike worked from familiar material (R & B) and emphasized the back beat. The sound had a raw quality to it, aided by an early example of distorted guitar. The guitar sound was accidental, caused (so legend has it) by a damaged speaker. Sam Phillips liked the sound and used it.

Ike Turner didn't set out for a new sound. Perhaps the strongest claim this song has for being the first is that "Rocket 88" was one of the first R & B records to cross over and get noticed by whites. It was also one of the first genuine rockers to be re-recorded by a white imitator with Bill Haley. It formed a prototype for hundreds of other rock and roll records in musical style and lineup, and even had a car theme. Several years later, Ike's piano introduction was copied note for note by Little Richard on "Lucille".

Do we have to pick one song? No, but it will be fun to talk about it.........

 

For me, Rocket 88 is the "first" rock record. However, strong arguements can be made for earlier Louis Jordan, Fats Domino and Wynonie Harris sides .

 

Steve,

Although not as popular, "Crazy Man Crazy" by Bill Haley on Essex was a moderate hit in 1953. Certainly, it has that signature Haley sound.

Rock n' Roll - so, you are saying that before "(We're Gonna) Rock Around The Clock" there was just R & B, Pop and Country, if I am understanding your point correctly?

Mainstream radio airplay did diversify audiences!

Bob

 

Poor Bill Haley ain't gonna get no respect - a 40 year old, kinda chubby dude with a spitcurl on his noggin wasn't the stuff of marketing dreams, even back then... Poor Ike Turner - too soon with the goods (and they probably stuck with that split speaker on Rocket 88 cause everybody involved was too cheap to get it fixed)....

 

Steve,

I agree!

The subject of the first Rock n' Roll record is probably one of the more controversial discussions in Pop music history but, I agree with your thinking. When a track was blaring out of every car window and living room - then that music had real social impact.

Bob

 

I second.
I've been arguing this very same point for years.
For me the birth of Rock and Roll was May 1955.
Not when was Rock Around the Clock was recorded (1954), but when it reached number 1 (Rock and Roll had arrived).
BC

 

From a cultural standpoint, I agree with Steve: "Rock Around The Clock" it is.

Actual first hit R&R record? Well, call it what you want, but Bill Moore's "We're Gonna Rock, We're Gonna Roll"[Savoy 666--fitting number ]gets the nod for really being first, even if the R&R phrase predates the record itself. It was certainly the record Alan Freed referenced, and his good sense and taste in music was beyond question.

Where that leaves Elvis' "That's All Right"/"Blue Moon Of Kentucky" I'm not sure, but it factors in there somewhere....

ED

 

Ed,

I have never heard this record! Do you know the year?

Bob

 

1948. Same year as the Orioles' seminal "It's Too Soon To Know."

ED

 

Ed,

Many thanks!

Bob

 

I agree with Steve on this. Songs like "Rocket 88" and "We're Gonna Rock, We're Gonna Roll" are best understood as extending or exploiting musical and lyrical ideas that were part and parcel of the traditions of R&B. That these ideas were, in particular, the ones that were a little later picked up by early Rock and Roll performers and songwriters to make something somewhat different (and, crucially, for a different audience, a different market, a different set of purposes) doesn't make those earlier songs themselves distinct from R&B itself.

Louis

 

Steve,

That's it in a nutshell isn't it? Rock and Roll had to become more mainstream before it could break through.

Rock Around the Clock went on to influence British soon-to-be-rockers like John Lennon when it arrived in English cinemas in Blackboard Jungle.

Sounds like the right choice.

 

Here's a website:
http://www.hoyhoy.com/

Alan

 

Thanks for that link Alan, essential reading for anyone who wants to explore the issue.

This comes from an Ike Turner site (connected to via Alan's link):

"......when people started asking the question, "What was the first rock 'n' roll record?," Phillips claimed this track was the first, and since Phillips had become famous by then for being the man who discovered Elvis Presley, his vote was given credibility among people who were unfamiliar with early R&B, and to this day, the tradition has stuck. Although it may have been the first record from Phillips' studio that he considered to be "rock 'n roll," there were many rock and roll records before this one. There is nothing unique or different about this record, and the idea that this was the first rock and roll record is just one of the pieces of misinformation that has been repeated so often for so many years that it has entered the realm of mythology. It just ain't true, folks. Rocket 88 was a typical rock and roll / R&B number for its day. The actual "first rock and roll record" was probably cut in 1949, and was one of the many hard-rocking R&B numbers cut that year. Perhaps it was "The Fat Man" by Fats Domino, or "Rock The Joint" by Jimmy Preston, or "Rockin' At Midnight" by Roy Brown. There were several records cut in 1949 which have the rock and roll beat and qualify as rock and roll. There were dozens more in 1950 and hundreds in 1951, so anybody who says Rocket 88 was the first just hasn't seen this web site! (And hasn't bought the Hoy Hoy CD's!). The defining characteristic in rock and roll is the rhythm. It's simply an 8-to-the-bar boogie woogie rhythm, but with a heavy "back beat," which means an accent, usually by a snare drum, on the 4th and 8th beats. It first became popular in R&B around 1949.

ga CH ga CHOO ga CH ga CHOO ga CH ga CHOO ga CH ga CHOO
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

 

With all due respect to our leader ... I believe the question was ... "Was Ike Turner's "Rocket 88" the first Rock & Roll song?" ... not the first Rock 'N' Roll song of major significance.

First of all, "(Were Gonna) Rock Around the Clock" is one of my favorites and is probably the song most people, who were listening to music in the mid 50's, would identify as the first Rock 'N' Roll song. While RATC was first released on 5/10/54, according to Joel Whitburn, it didn't chart until it was rereleased on 5/14/55 (reaching #1 on 7/9 where it stayed for 8 weeks) after being featured in the movie "Blackboard Jungle" which was released ?, but I am not sure how many people saw BJ during its original release.

By comparison, Bill Haley's "Shake, Rattle and Roll" (a cover of Joe Turner's version) ... which I would call a Rock 'N' Roll song ... debuted on 8/21/54, remained on the charts for 27 weeks (versus 24 for RATC) and peaked at #7 on 11/6/54. With a little more research, I could probably find another Rock 'N' Roll song, with wide exposure, that predates SR&R.

As far as, which song first used terms "rock" and "roll" ... I believe there are some blues songs from the 30's ... but I don't have the info handy.

 

"Rock It In Rhythm" Tampa Red 1938
"Rock Me Daddy" Georgia White 1937
"Rockin' In Rhythm" Duke Ellington 1928
"Rock Me In The Groove" Sweet Georgia Brown 1941
"Rock Me Mama" Banjo Ikey Robinson 1929
"Rock It For Me" Chick Webb w. Ella Fitzgerald 1938
"Rock That Thing" Lil Johnson 1929
"Rocking & Rolling" Robinson's Knights Of Rest 1930
"Rock Me Mama" Big Joe Turner 1941
"Rockin' And Swingin'" Don Albert 1936 (instrumental)
"I Want To Rock" Cab Calloway 1942

The term entered black spiritual music in the 1800's, but with a religious meaning, and was first used as such in a recording in 1912, in an early black gospel recording called "The Camp Meeting Jubilee" on the Little Wonder Record label. The artists were listed simply as "Male Quartette."

Keep on rockin' an' roll me in yo' arms,
Rock an' roll me in yo' arms,
Rock an' roll me in yo' arms,
In the arms of Moses,

 

I always go for Trixie Smith's "My Man Rocks Me (With One Steady Roll)" from 1922....

Probably not a viable candidate for first rock and roll song, but...

 

According to IMDb, "Blackboard Jungle" was released in 1955.

 

BIG questions, subject to much interpretation.

There's rock-and-roll as a specific subgenre of music, and there's rock-and-roll as a worldwide cultural, musical and social phenomenon. The idea that "rock-and-roll had to become more mainstream before it could break through" is wrought with its own questions (what is "mainstream" how to measure "break through" for a couple); and to my mind, it also contains a certain degree of cultural elitism. (Maybe it wasn't really ROCK AND ROLL till it was in a Levi's commercial?)

Many records R&B/rock-and-roll records sold in substantial numbers through the late 40s and into the early 50s--but were not selling in large numbers to young, white teens or to many white folks of any age, for that matter. So that means, by definition, these records could not have been "rock-and-roll"?

The black population in this country (if I'm not mistaken) stands at around 12%, and that's roughly where it's been for many decades. So, by definition, if a record doesn't cross over to the white market, sales in really big numbers are virtually unattainable. (That, and social/cultural taboos, where why major labels were so late to the game.) But popularity, as measured by a percentage of the black population, was--and is--attainable.

I don't buy that crossover is necessary for a record to be rock-and-roll. Without those great R&B/rock-and-roll records of the late 40s and early 50s, Bill Haley, Elvis, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and all the rest have no sound with which to "break through." This doesn't mean they were ripoffs with no original contribution; but it does mean their success, as far as we can observe from this perspective, relied on pioneers like Wynonnie Harris, Joe Turner, Ike Turner (Jackie Brenston), Cab Calloway, the gospel-phase Sam Cooke and so on.

As a term used to describe a type of music, I know first use has been cited to Freed during a 1948 broadcast (not '51 as the Hoy Hoy site mentions), and to a specific record read-back, though that reference is not handy this second.

Doug

 

Just like:
Who really discovered America?

BC

 

Friends,

Seems to me that we have a somewhat predictable quandry here. There is the evolution of the music as ever fluid over time and then there is the development of mainstream Top 40 radio in 1955 - 1956 when R & B, Rock-a-billy, Doo Wop and mainstream Pop records were all played in the same format on the same station. When this phenomonon ocurred, popular music took on a larger role in our world. Certainly, from the mid-50's on, the music being played on Top 40 radio influenced generations to come in ways that were impossible prior to 1955 because of format segmentation.

I believe that the omnipresent Top 40 format in the mid 1950's through the 1970's became the social trendsetter for the thinking of younger people world-wide.

Without the development of the Top 40 format that played a wide variety of music in one format, our social history may have been different.

Your thoughts?

Bob