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This article is about the song. For the band by this name, see Rocket 88 (band).
"
Rocket 88" is a rhythm and blues song that was first recorded at
Sam Phillips' recording studio in
Memphis, Tennessee, on 3 or 5 March (accounts differ) 1951. It is claimed by some, including Phillips — later to become owner of
Sun Records, and pioneer
rock and roll record producer — to be the "
First rock and roll record".
Original version by Jackie Brenston with Ike Turner
The original version of the 12-bar blues song was credited to "Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats," but that band did not actually exist. The song was written by Ike Turner at the Riverside Hotel in Clarksdale, Mississippi and recorded by Turner's
Kings of Rhythm. The song was based on the 1947 song "Cadillac Boogie" by Jimmy Ligginshttp://www.rockabilly.nl/artists/brenstonturner.htm. Jackie Brenston (1930-1979) was a saxophonist with Turner who also sang the vocal on "Rocket 88," a hymn of praise to the joys of the
Oldsmobile "Rocket 88" automobile (see: Oldsmobile 88), which had just been introduced in 1949. Although Brenston was given author credit rather than Turner, it is now agreed that Brenston's contribution was overstated for financial reasons.
The song was preceded and influenced by
Pete Johnson's "Rocket 88 Boogie" Parts 1 and 2, an instrumental, originally recorded for the Los Angeles-based Swing Time Records label in 1949. Working from the raw material of jump blues and Swing (genre) music, Turner made it even rawer, starting with a strongly stated back beat by drummer Willie Sims, and superimposing Brenston's enthusiastic vocals, his own piano, and tenor saxophone solos by 17 year old Raymond Hill (later to be the father of Tina Turner's first child, before she married Ike) http://www.rockabillyeurope.com/references/messages/raymond_hill.htm. The song also features one of the first examples of distortion, or fuzz (electric guitar), ever recorded, played by the band's guitarist Willie Kizart.
The legend of how the sound came about says that Kizart's
Guitar amplifier was damaged on Highway 61 when the band was driving from Mississippi to
Memphis, Tennessee, but Phillips liked the sound and used it. Robert Palmer (author/producer) has written that the amplifier "had fallen from the top of the car", and attributes this information to Sam Phillips. Deep Blues page 222 ISBN 0 14 00.6223 8 Rock & Roll: An Unruly History page 201 ISBN 0-517-70050-6 However, in a recorded interview at the Experience Music Project in Seattle, Washington, Ike Turner stated that the amplifier was in the trunk of the car and that rain may have caused the damage; he is certain that it did not fall from the roof of the car. Link Wray had a similar story.
It was the second-biggest
rhythm and blues single of 1951, reaching # 1 in June for five weeks and much more influential than some other "first" claimants. Ike Turner's piano intro to the song was later used note-for-note by
Little Richard in "Good Golly Miss Molly."
Cover version by Bill Haley
A second version of "Rocket 88" was recorded by the country music group
Bill Haley and his Comets at a recording session on June 14, 1951, a few months after Brenston recorded his version. Haley's recording was a regional hit in the northeast United States and started Haley along the musical road which led to his own impact on popular music with "
Rock Around the Clock" in 1954.
Those who subscribe to the definition of rock and roll as the melding of country music with rhythm and blues believe that it is Haley's version of the song, not the Turner/Brenston original, that is the first rock and roll record. No matter which version deserves the accolade, "Rocket 88" is seen as a prototype rock and roll song in musical style and lineup, not to mention its lyrical theme, in which an automobile serves as a metaphor for romantic prowess.
Later versions
The song was also featured in the 1984 film
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.
Buckaroo Banzai and his band, the Hong Kong Cavaliers, perform the song in a concert early in the movie although the track was actually recorded by Billy Vera and the Beaters.
References
External links
Additional sources
- Jim Dawson and Steve Propes, What Was the First Rock 'n' Roll Record?, Faber & Faber, 1992, ISBN 0-571-12939-0
- Nick Tosches, Unsung Heroes of Rock 'n' Roll, Secker & Warburg, 1984, ISBN 0-436-53203-4
This article is about the song. For the band by this name, see Rocket 88 (band).
"
Rocket 88" is a
rhythm and blues song that was first recorded at Sam Phillips' recording studio in Memphis, Tennessee, on 3 or 5 March (accounts differ) 1951. It is claimed by some, including Phillips — later to become owner of Sun Records, and pioneer rock and roll
record producer — to be the "First rock and roll record".
Original version by Jackie Brenston with Ike Turner
The original version of the
12-bar blues song was credited to "Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats," but that band did not actually exist. The song was written by
Ike Turner at the Riverside Hotel in Clarksdale, Mississippi and recorded by Turner's
Kings of Rhythm. The song was based on the 1947 song "Cadillac Boogie" by Jimmy Ligginshttp://www.rockabilly.nl/artists/brenstonturner.htm. Jackie Brenston (1930-1979) was a saxophonist with Turner who also sang the vocal on "Rocket 88," a hymn of praise to the joys of the Oldsmobile "Rocket 88" automobile (see:
Oldsmobile 88), which had just been introduced in 1949. Although Brenston was given author credit rather than Turner, it is now agreed that Brenston's contribution was overstated for financial reasons.
The song was preceded and influenced by
Pete Johnson's "Rocket 88 Boogie" Parts 1 and 2, an instrumental, originally recorded for the Los Angeles-based Swing Time Records label in 1949. Working from the raw material of jump blues and
Swing (genre) music, Turner made it even rawer, starting with a strongly stated back beat by drummer Willie Sims, and superimposing Brenston's enthusiastic vocals, his own piano, and tenor saxophone solos by 17 year old Raymond Hill (later to be the father of Tina Turner's first child, before she married Ike) http://www.rockabillyeurope.com/references/messages/raymond_hill.htm. The song also features one of the first examples of distortion, or
fuzz (electric guitar), ever recorded, played by the band's guitarist Willie Kizart.
The legend of how the sound came about says that Kizart's
Guitar amplifier was damaged on Highway 61 when the band was driving from Mississippi to
Memphis, Tennessee, but Phillips liked the sound and used it. Robert Palmer (author/producer) has written that the amplifier "had fallen from the top of the car", and attributes this information to Sam Phillips. Deep Blues page 222 ISBN 0 14 00.6223 8 Rock & Roll: An Unruly History page 201 ISBN 0-517-70050-6 However, in a recorded interview at the Experience Music Project in Seattle, Washington, Ike Turner stated that the amplifier was in the trunk of the car and that rain may have caused the damage; he is certain that it did not fall from the roof of the car. Link Wray had a similar story.
It was the second-biggest rhythm and blues single of 1951, reaching # 1 in June for five weeks and much more influential than some other "first" claimants. Ike Turner's piano intro to the song was later used note-for-note by Little Richard in "Good Golly Miss Molly."
Cover version by Bill Haley
A second version of "Rocket 88" was recorded by the
country music group
Bill Haley and his Comets at a recording session on June 14, 1951, a few months after Brenston recorded his version. Haley's recording was a regional hit in the northeast United States and started Haley along the musical road which led to his own impact on popular music with "Rock Around the Clock" in 1954.
Those who subscribe to the definition of rock and roll as the melding of country music with rhythm and blues believe that it is Haley's version of the song, not the Turner/Brenston original, that is the first rock and roll record. No matter which version deserves the accolade, "Rocket 88" is seen as a prototype rock and roll song in musical style and lineup, not to mention its lyrical theme, in which an automobile serves as a metaphor for romantic prowess.
Later versions
The song was also featured in the 1984 film
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. Buckaroo Banzai and his band, the Hong Kong Cavaliers, perform the song in a concert early in the movie although the track was actually recorded by
Billy Vera and the Beaters.
References
External links
Additional sources
- Jim Dawson and Steve Propes, What Was the First Rock 'n' Roll Record?, Faber & Faber, 1992, ISBN 0-571-12939-0
- Nick Tosches, Unsung Heroes of Rock 'n' Roll, Secker & Warburg, 1984, ISBN 0-436-53203-4
