From: Radio Enthusiasts of Puget Sound (REPS).
APRIL 2021 – PRESENTATION: “THE HISTORY OF ROCK N’ ROLL – THE FIRST RECORD”
REPS Presents – John Jensen with “The History of Rock n’ Roll – The First Record”
COMING UP!! Join us on April 14th, 7:00 PST for this John Jensen Presentation:
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When: Apr 14, 2021 07:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Topic: REPS Presents: “The History of Rock and Roll – The First Record” with John Jensen!
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REPS Board of Directors
www.repsonline.org
Jeff Hoerth
Roll ’em Pete could have been slipped into the Top 40 at most major rock’nroll stations of the 1950s, and few of the kids would have guessed the song wasn’t a current release.
The problem in attempting to designate a 1st Rock ‘n Roll record is simply defining “Rock ‘n Roll Record”. “The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll” includes everyone from ABBA to ZZ Top … with everybody from The Cadillacs to Steppenwolf in between. Rock has tons of sub-genres … from Doo-Wop to Heavy Metal to Soft Rock and beyond. In the “Sock Hop” days of my youth when radio 1st designated a particular style of music as Rock ‘n Roll, it was definitely Bill Haley’s Comets with “Shake Rattle & Roll” & “Rock Around The Clock” as the R’nR dance records in the ol’ High School gym. ~ Considering, the 1st recording of “Shake Rattle & Roll” (1965) was by Big Joe Turner, I feel his December 1938 recording of “Roll ’em Pete” deserves some solid consideration as a possible 1st Rock ‘n Roll record. I’ll let you be the judge of that.
First, here’s Turner’s 1938 recording … then a 1965 TV performance … followed by Big Joe doing “Shake Rattle & Roll”:
https://youtu.be/-cNW2dZMyWE
https://youtu.be/Cj8h_WXz7cg
https://youtu.be/YhELpSeeipg
I’ve enter this debate before, with different possibilities, but I do like Big Joe!
Start Me Up – Rolling Stones. That was that the last rock n roll record. Everything after that was crap.
Jason, I’ve never heard that record, which means nothing of course. According to the internets (born of the illicit tryst of Bob Dole and Al Gore), it came out in 1981, about ten or fifteen years after rock and roll was murdered. I’ve said for as long as I can remember, which varies by the day, that “Satisfaction” (1965) is THE rock and roll record of all time.
But if you want a great performance by The Rolling Stones of a country classic, check the country steel on this video of “Bob Wills is Still the King”. also from ’81: https://youtu.be/9De3mMarwHA
That’s a nice tip of the ten gallon hat to Texas and Bob Wills from the Stones.
What was the last Rock and Roll record?
George Burns? He’s more of a rapper than a rocker
Trixie Smith first recorded “My Man Rocks Me with One Steady Roll” in 1922 for Black Swan. This cut, from 1938 or 1939, is with Charlie Shavers and The Blues Singers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FINpD3JHuY
I lean toward Good Rockin’ Tonight. Wynonie Harris jump blues version.
Boswell Sisters
Rock And Roll – 1934
https://youtu.be/dprmd2dOPN8
I’m sorry, but as I’ve expressed before, a song about a rowboat undulating in high and heavy seas and that just happens to use the words rock and roll has absolutely nothing to do with Rock ‘n Roll Music. In the same manner that a possible song about a “boulder” and a “Kaiser roll” has nothing to do with rock and roll music!!
“I’m throwing rocks at the girl that I love
‘Cause she told me to go roll myself.”
Jay,
A “Kaiser roll” was easier in a Nash.
Dick: I think you’re right. In the Fraser, but not in the Rambler. The Kaiser-Fraser had those fold down seats … So, as Shirley and Lee said, “Let The Good Times Roll”.
Jay,
I wasn’t aware of the Fraser having fold-downs. The full-sized Nash, the inverted bathtub, now that was the one. Recently, I had a lady friend who turned eighteen in the mid-sixties. Her parents’ birthday-graduation gift to her was a 50’s-era big Nash Statesman or Ambassador sedan which she and her boy friend called their ****mobile, as in, “I’ll pick you up in the ****mobile, Honey”. I don’t know if she was showing when she picked up her diploma, but their first baby had presents under the tree that Christmas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGopLn5Apf8
Dick ~ When I was a boy our neighbor had a Kaiser-Frazer. They had relatives in the Midwest and used the fold-down seats for sleeping on the long trip East. Something you could not do in the little Nash Rambler “beep beep”:
https://youtu.be/enqNl7tdLR4
Jay….if that was when you were a kid was that make of car horse or burro drawn? I might as well get a history lesson here.
Steve~If it’s auto history you crave. It’s auto history you get. Here goes:
https://youtu.be/9uDCGg1JfuA
The lyrics “rock and roll” must have a dance or sexual connotation or both to be a rock song.
Absolutely, as in this example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7kdK_L_Yts
“Rocket 88” by Ike Turner is usually consided the first rock n roll record. Which record was the first to use the words “rock” or “rock and roll”? “Rock of Ages” doesn’t count!
Not so sure. Maybe 60 minute man? If your into that kind of music, tune into Bill Clarks Musical Heaven on WATD radio Sunday nights at 8.p.m.
The debate goes on . . .