doles dickens & his quintet - rock and roll - YouTube
“Rock and Roll” by Doles Dickens and His Quintet, 1949.
Written by Wild Bill Moore.
Erline ''Rock & Roll'' Harris - Rock And Roll Blues - YouTube
“Rock and Roll Blues” by Erline “Rock and Roll” Harris, 1949.
In 1952, Freed hosted
The Moondog Coronation Ball on March 21st at the Cleveland Arena. This is often held to be the original rock 'n' roll concert. Five acts were booked and drew far more people than the stadium could hold. In frustration, many fans attempted to crash their way in which resulted in a riot which forced the show to close early. The notoriety rocketed Freed and rocknroll music into huge popularity and the country’s youth—black and white—was suddenly hooked on rock 'n' roll. This is the reason the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is located in Cleveland even though New York, Detroit, Chicago, Memphis and LA each alone produced far more rock 'n ' roll talent than Cleveland.
Anita O'Day - Rock'n'Roll Blues - YouTube
“Rock ‘N’ Roll Blues” by Anita O’Day, 1952. O'Day was known as "the First Lady of Swing" but here she cashes in on the new craze which was rooted in no small wise to swing music. The label lists the personnel and I am surprised to see the bassist is Al McKibbon, a great jazz bassist out of Detroit whom I greatly look up to even though he's not easy to find.
Rocket 88 (Original Version) - Ike Turner/Jackie Brenston - YouTube
"Rocket 88" by Ike Turner & His Kings of Rhythm from 1951. This was recorded at Sun in Memphis. Sam Phillips renamed the band Jackie Brenston & His Delta Cats which apparently didn't go down too well with Ike. Phillips also touted the song as the first rock 'n' roll record which Turner regarded as ridiculous and never accepted the accolade saying blacks had been playing that stuff for a couple of decades. However, the recording does feature a distorted guitar played by Willie Kizart. This was an accident though as Turner explained the amp was in a trunk the night before and it had rained and some water got into the amp. When they plugged it in later, it was fuzzy-sounding but they decided to go with it. Turner's piano intro would be later lifted note-for-note by Little Richard as his intro to "Good Golly Miss Molly."
From these early recordings we can see that "rock and roll" as originally meant by Freed did not include hillbilly styles or doo-wop. It was strictly jump blues, R&B and boogie-woogie. Based on this, we are hard pressed to state with any authority whether the term “rock and roll” or any variations of the term originated among whites or blacks. The only assumption we can safely make is that the term is American and by that we mean specifically the U.S.A.