| Author |
Topic: The First "Rock N Roll" song |
Kenneth Kotsay
From:
Davie/Ft Lauderdale, Florida
|
Posted 10 Jul 2017 12:04 pm |
|
In 1934, the song "Rock and Roll" by the Boswell Sisters appeared in the film Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round. In 1942, Billboard magazine columnist Maurie Orodenker started to use the term "rock-and-roll" to describe upbeat recordings such as "Rock Me" by Sister Rosetta Tharpe. By 1943, the "Rock and Roll Inn" in South Merchantville, New Jersey, was established as a music venue. In 1951, Cleveland, Ohio disc jockey Alan Freed began playing this music style while popularizing the phrase to describe it.
Fats Domino's recording of 'MY Blue Heaven" dates back to the 1920's.
Could this be the oldest named Rock N Roll song?????
Ike Turner & Chris Brenston, are both credited with the first Rock N Roll song as per the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, ROCKET 88.
Your opinion & expertise's.
What about the first "Country" song any experts on this subject????
By the way, Elvis did not invent Rock n Roll, one thing for sure, he made millions off it.
Then there is Doo Wop, go to YouTube for this music and you'll be there for days listening to the various
groups, amazing harmonies.
Those where the days, gone but not forgotten. |
|
|
 |
Russ Wever
From:
Kansas City
|
Posted 10 Jul 2017 10:56 pm Re: The First
|
|
| Kenneth Kotsay wrote: |
. . . Fats Domino's recording of 'MY Blue Heaven" dates back to the 1920's. . . .
|
'Fats' must've recorded
it at a rather young age,
as he was born in 1928!
~Rw
_________________
www.russface
www.russguru |
|
|
|
Kenneth Kotsay
From:
Davie/Ft Lauderdale, Florida
|
Posted 11 Jul 2017 7:33 am
|
|
Russ, naturally Fats did not write or was the first to record this song. Gene Austin sang this song with the Ziegfeld Follies back in 1927.
Fats recorded it sometime in 1951-53.
It's actually not a Rock n Roll song but Fats made it into one.
One fact remains, with Rock N Roll music you can never pin point the exact artist, year, song, where it was recorded, and the label, at least I can't and I've been searching for the answer for a few years.
Seems the music industry has all kinds of theories concerning this matter. Good luck finding the answer.
Bottom line, just listen & enjoy, been doing that since 1956, I had a older brother & sister who just play rock all day long back then. |
|
|
|
Scott Thomas
|
Posted 11 Jul 2017 8:33 am
|
|
I was born too late to experience it first hand, but in reading it seems like the consensus is building toward "Rocket 88" being the first rock and roll song. That's the way historians do it sometimes, in retrospect, nice and tidy.
With music evolving, I don't know how you point to a "first" instance. Some of that Billy Jack Wills boogie Western Swing sounds like early rock and roll to me. Considering that Bill Haley came out of that style as well, (and his early "rock and roll" still retained steel guitar), this might be an aspect that some historians don't give enough credit to.
Chuck Berry credits Louis Jordan, and you can really hear it. Chuck just transposed a lot of that to guitar.
I actually would make a case for Elvis being the first real rock and roll. He may not have invented it, but he synthesized all of elements and added his own unique charisma and inimitable style. Also, I think being a poor white southerner added an important hillbilly element to the equation along with the black gospel and blues.
I'm amazed when I listen to those first Sun sessions how he nailed it. Everything that we think as "Elvis" was essentially there from the beginning. It needed very little refinement. Elvis never really needed to "develop".
For my money, the guy who brought the attitude was Jerry Lee Lewis. Those early filmed performances are insane even by today's standards, and I can only imagine he was told to tone it down. Where that came from, I don't know, but I can imagine how shocking he must have been to those teens in the audience at that time. |
|
|
|
Joachim Kettner
From:
Germany
|
|
|
|
Bill Sinclair
From:
Waynesboro, PA, USA
|
Posted 11 Jul 2017 10:17 am
|
|
Nice one, Joachim. The James Cotton version was the first I heard and it remains my favorite.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2qgTkeNPuw
Great song but I don't know why it would be considered the first rock and roll song. Other than that's what they tell you when you take the Sun Studio tour.  I hadn't heard that Chuck Berry credited Louis Jordan but yeah, Louis rocked! |
|
|
|
Mitch Drumm
From:
Frostbite Falls, hard by Veronica Lake
|
Posted 11 Jul 2017 10:34 am
|
|
| Bill Sinclair wrote: |
Great song but I don't know why it would be considered the first rock and roll song. Other than that's what they tell you when you take the Sun Studio tour. I hadn't heard that Chuck Berry credited Louis Jordan but yeah, Louis rocked! |
Re: Rocket 88. Exactly so. It's just become "common wisdom, everybody knows that" due to the blathering of "authorities", when in fact any of dozens of other songs are as well qualified. There have been CD compilations devoted to "what is the first rock and roll recording" and of course it's all inconclusive and opinion only.
Re: Jordan and Berry. Listen to the opening bars by Carl Hogan on Jordan's "Ain't That Just Like A Woman". |
|
|
|
Bryan Staddon
From:
Buffalo,New York,
|
Posted 12 Jul 2017 12:27 pm Good Rocking Tonight
|
|
Let's not forget Wynonie Harris, Good Rocking Tonight 47 or 48 I believe.
_________________
You are me as I am you |
|
|
|
Jack Hanson
From:
San Luis Valley, USA
|
Posted 17 Jul 2017 8:16 am
|
|
Even though the instrumentation is not traditional "rock and roll," for my money the first on record may be Benny Goodman's "Grand Slam" (a/k/a "Boy Meets Goy"):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVdjU91-4dk |
|
|
|
