Rocket 88

Jackie Brenston & His Delta Cats (1951). Excerpt from "The 50 Songs that Gave Birth to Rock and Roll"

As should be quite obvious now that we are 40 songs deep into our discussion, it is dubious to claim that any one recording could qualify as “the first rock and roll song.” But history loves a tidy story. Thus, “Rocket 88” is the most popular candidate—a song ordained by its own producer as the moment when R&B transformed into rock and roll.

Don’t let the name of this band fool you. This was actually Ike Turner’s Kings of Rhythm. Before he was better known and widely reviled for first discovering then abusing Tina Turner, Ike was the founder and piano player for the Kings. Born in Clarksdale, Mississippi in 1931, Turner and his band got their start playing jump blues in local juke-joints.

Legend has it that the band’s guitar amp fell off the back of their pickup truck as they traveled to Memphis to cut this, their first record. The bass cone busted on the amp, so the guitarist stuffed a piece of crumpled-up paper into the gap. Sun producer Sam Phillips liked the resultant rattling, and this became the first instance of guitar distortion and, for many, represented a readily definable starting point for that which we call rock and roll. Turner has disputed this exact version of events, but does note that it was a broken amp that invented distortion.

Sam Phillips released it through Chess Records, who attributed the song to the man responsible for providing lead vocals. Thus, Jackie Brenston & His Delta Cats were credited with the #1 R&B hit.

Regardless of whose name was on the tune (which is derived in equal parts from Jimmy Liggins’s 1947 “Cadillac Boogie” and Pete Johnson’s 1949 “Rocket 88 Boogie”), its distorted guitar leads, honking saxophone, raucous delivery, and cars-and-girls content conveniently embody rock and roll to its amp-rattling core.

“Rocket 88” would go on to sell half a million copies and stack up as the second-biggest R&B record of 1951. Turner has said that he was paid $20 for his role in producing the song that Sam Phillips consequently dubbed the first rock and roll record. Turner would go on to have a defining role in the evolution of rock and roll, particularly through his partnership with future protégée and wife, Tina.

Brenston drank himself to death in 1979 at the age of 49, whereas Turner lived to 76 before dying of a cocaine overdose in 2007.

See the full list of 50 Songs that Gave Birth to Rock and Roll