photo #1561486

WHAT IS ROCK & ROLL? On my previous page, I had posted a comment regarding inductees into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. I had received some interesting replies. There are many views out there of what Rock & Roll actually is.. so let's go back to what many consider to be the first Rock & Roll record.Rock & Roll as a whole seems to exist because of a variety of influences. Country, R&B, Gospel, Blues, etc. From Country came Rockabilly, from R&B came Soul. And then Disco.. I don't know *where* Disco came from lol.. but in March 1951, Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm had come to Sam Phillips' Memphis Recording Service to record. This was a session set up by B. B. King.One song, a tune written by Ike's saxophonist and lead vocalist, Jackie Brenston, was "Rocket 88". Although Jackie had written the song, he had said later that he had taken the idea from the Jimmy Liggins' 1947 song, "Cadillac Boogie". You could say "Cadillac Boogie" was a forerunner of "Rocket 88". Isn't it interesting, these were both car songs. Incidentally, Jimmy Liggins was the brother of the more widely known, Joe Liggins."Rocket 88" was produced by Sam Phillips, later, founder of Sun Records. And if memory serves, Sam was able to open Sun Records because of the profits he had made from "Rocket 88". Anyway, Phillips had credited the record to Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats, because he wanted to release a different record crediting it.. to Turner.Of course, there were no Rock & Roll charts at the time, but "Rocket 88" had reached the number one position on the Rhythm &Blues chart. Phillips, not yet having a label of his own, was leasing material to Chess Records in Chicago.As I understand it, much of "Rocket 88" had been written on the way to the session in Memphis. On the way there, according to Phillip Guralnick's biography, "Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock 'n' Roll", Willie Kizart's guitar amplifier was dropped from the trunk of the car when the band had gotten a flat tire and was digging out the spare.At the studio, Turner had shoved wadded newspaper into it as a temporary repair, but this had provided an even more distinct sound. A fuzzy effect. And this became known as one of the first songs to ever feature guitar distortion. On piano was Ike Turner. And Ike's playing was a huge influence on Little Richard.According to a Holger Petersen interview, Sam Phillips had gotten Dewey Phillips, a white, half-out-of-his-mind-on-painkillers and amphetamines deejay at WHBQ Radio, to play the record on his radio show, Red, Hot and Blue. According to Phillips, he would play both black and white music side by side, as if they were the same. This was at a time of segregation. And according to Turner, all the white kids had gone out to buy the record. And so that is how Sam Phillips had gotten the idea, "if I get me a white boy to sound like a black boy, then I got me a gold mine". He had then began that quest.. and he had found such a white boy.. in Elvis Presley.At a recording session June 14, 1951, a Country band, Bill Haley with The Saddlemen would record their own version of "Rocket 88" as Bill Haley with Haley's Comets. While this was only a regional hit in, I believe the Northeast, it would lead them to eventually, in 1954, record "Rock Around The Clock".I have several of the early Haley Essex records.. on both 78 and 45, including "Rock The Joint" (Bill Haley with The Saddlemen), which features the bridge later used in the Decca single, "Rock Around The Clock". After leaving Essex in the spring of 1954, Bill Haley had signed with signed with Decca Records. I'm speaking of the Essex version of "Rock The Joint", not the Decca re-recording."Rock Around the Clock" was originally issued in May 1954 as a B side to "Thirteen Women (and Only One Man In Town)". It was a commercial disappointment. And for the collectors out there, this was released with the large Decca logo. In 1955, it was used as the theme song for the teen rebel movie, "Blackboard Jungle".The record was re-released, this time with the smaller Decca logo. It became a huge hit. On July 9, 1955, "Rock Around the Clock" became the first Rock & Roll record to place # 1 on Billboard's Pop Chart, and had stayed there for eight weeks. It had also placed #1 on Cashbox for seven weeks, as well as placing # 3 on the R&B chart. Bill Haley and His Comets were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.Incidentally, Ike and the band were paid only $20 each for the record, that's $197 in 2020 dollars, with the exception of Brenston who had sold the rights to Sam Phillips for $910. For many years, many have considered "Rocket 88" to be the first Rock & Roll record, and now it's official, as it was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1991, The Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998, and finally.. the Rock and Roll Hall of fame in 2018.The term "Rock & Roll" was coined by deejay Alan Freed to describe this new style of music. It was a term used by Negros for sexual intercourse. It had originated in a 1920's song performed by Trixie Smith, "My Man Rocks Me With One Steady Roll".So, just what is.. Rock & Roll?Incidentally, the photos are Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats, "Rocket 88"; Bill Haley and Haley's Comets, "Rocket 88"; Bill Haley and his Comets, "Rock The Joint"; Jimmy Liggins and his Drops of Joy, "Cadillac Boogie".