Before we can answer that question, we have to go back and figure out the ingredients of rock and roll. We can identify three most important ingredients: gospel, jump and blues.
Let’s start with the blues element, represented here by John Lee Hooker’s 1948 “Boogie Chillen":
Boogiechillen-mp3.mp3
John Lee Hooker’s “Boogie Chillen"
It’s the primal sound, the African sound, with guitar driving the rhythm.It’s the guitar riff that launched a million songs.Without Hooker, you don’t have ZZ Top.
2. Gospel For Uplift And Abandon
The next ingredient is gospel music, music from the black church. Listen to the Golden Gate Quartet from 1938:
Out of the types of music we’ve heard so far, this sound most like early rock and roll. In fact, some people say the first rock and roll song is Louis Jordan’s “Saturday Night Fish Fry” from 1949.
Satnightfishfry-mp3.mp3
Louis Jordan's "Saturday Night Fish Fry"
This music is also really danceable. It has a great sense of fun in it. And in these lyrics, we hear that spirit of debauchery that’s so essential to rock and roll.
And The First-Ever Rock And Roll Song Is (Drumroll, Please)
There’s still one very important ingredient in rock and roll: a distorted guitar. And that’s why we agree that Jackie Brenston’s “Rocket 88” from 1951 should be considered the first rock and roll song.
Rocket88-mp3.mp3
Jackie Brenston’s “Rocket 88”
It was one of the first songs to use a distorted guitar, and it happened by accident. The guitar amp was damaged on the way to the studio. And when they plugged it in, it made a sound that nobody had ever heard before —distortion. You might call it a buzzy, fuzzy sound.
Distortion is a sound, but it also implies a sense of being out of control. Rock and roll is not safe. And if it is safe, it’s not rock and roll.
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What do you consider to be the first recorded rock and roll song? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Jackie Brenston (August 24, 1928 or 1930 – December 15, 1979) was an American singer and saxophonist who, with Ike Turner's band, recorded the first version of "Rocket 88" in 1951. Clarksdale, Mississippi, U.S.
and his Delta Cats has often been cited as the first rock 'n' roll record. Waxed at Sam Phillips' Memphis Recording Service, it was also the first No. 1 rhythm & blues hit for Chicago-based Chess Records.
Ike Turner's piano intro on "Rocket 88" influenced Little Richard who later used it for his 1958 hit song "Good Golly, Miss Molly." Sam Philips, the founder of Sun Records and Sun Studio, and many writers have suggested that "Rocket 88" has strong claims to be called the first rock'n'roll record.
"Rock Awhile" by Goree Carter was recorded in April 1949. It has been cited as a contender for the "first rock and roll record" title and a "much more appropriate candidate" than the more frequently cited "Rocket 88" (1951) according to the New York Times.
The first major, nationwide rock and roll hit by Bill Haley and the Comets, featuring a group of seven players, released in 1955 was called "Rock Around the Clock." This iconic song played a significant role in popularizing rock and roll music and became a timeless classic in the history of music.
"Old Time Rock and Roll" is a song written by George Jackson and Thomas E. Jones III, with uncredited lyrics by Bob Seger. It was recorded by Seger for his tenth studio album Stranger in Town. It was also released as a single in 1979.
"Rock On" is a song written by English singer David Essex. Recorded in 1973 and released as a single by Essex, it became an international hit. In 1989, American actor and singer Michael Damian recorded a cover version that went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed, who coined the phrase 'rock 'n roll,' born in 1921. Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed, who introduced the phrase “rock 'n' roll” on mainstream radio in the early 1950s was born on Dec.
Chuck Berry is considered the father of Rock and Roll. He is considered by many historians to have been the first artist to put the Rock and Roll sound together.
The story: The term rock 'n' roll derives from the more literal "rocking and rolling", a phrase used by 17th-century sailors to describe the motion of a ship on the sea. Any phrase that is used to suggest rhythmic movement of this sort - particularly by lonely seamen - runs the risk of being purloined as an euphemism.
The first-ever piece of music to be recorded was the French folk song “Au clair de la lune”, sung by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville. He recorded it on April 9th, 1860, using his invention, the Phonautograph.
The “Hurrian Hymn” is the earliest known song to be recorded in writing, dating to around the 13th century BCE. The text of this hymn is concerned with the promotion of fertility. It refers to the making of offerings and libations to the moon goddess, Nikkal.
On April 9, 1860, Scott recorded a snippet of the French folk song “Au Clair de la Lune.” The specific “first recorded sound” would thus fall sometime between the early experiments and the recognizable “Au Clair de la Lune” record. (You can listen to 1857, 1859 and 1860 recordings on the First Sounds website.)
Heralding this new sound were disc jockeys such as Alan Freed of Cleveland, Ohio, Dewey Phillips of Memphis, Tennessee, and William (“Hoss”) Allen of WLAC in Nashville, Tennessee—who created rock-and-roll radio by playing hard-driving rhythm-and-blues and raunchy blues records that introduced white suburban teenagers ...
Alan Freed was a Cleveland DJ who heard the future—and knew he had to let it sing. He named the genre “Rock & Roll,” bringing music to the masses and integrating artists and audiences on the airwaves and in concerts for the first time in history.
It became the accepted label for this developing genre when in 1951, Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed began calling his rhythm and blues radio show “Moondog's Rock and Roll Party.” Little Richard, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, and several other African American singer/songwriter musicians were among the first ...
Their first international number 1 hit was "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", recorded in May 1965 during the band's third North American tour. Richards recorded the guitar riff that drives the song with a fuzzbox as a scratch track to guide a horn section.
They both became popular around the same time in 1955–56, but actually, Richard had been performing and recording since the very early '50s. Ironically, he was signed first to RCA Victor, the label that made Elvis a star, around 1952, but found little success there.
Introduction: My name is Clemencia Bogisich Ret, I am a super, outstanding, graceful, friendly, vast, comfortable, agreeable person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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