Monumental musical anniversary: Rocket 88 was recorded exactly 75 years ago today

[Eric B]

https://youtu.be/buIcKKLeJgo?si=Xxupjrr2-fJdQZoM

 

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I guess I don’t know how to embed videos. Oh well. I know this is one of the few communities on the web that doesn’t need a YT video to know what Rocket 88 is. 

Edited yesterday at 02:18 PM by Eric B

[Dan Gould]

👍

 

[Rabshakeh]

I never quite understood why Rocket 88 is considered early rock and roll. To my ears it sounds fairly squarely R&B. I guess the lyrics are about driving around getting teenage kicks.

[Dan Gould]

On 3/3/2026 at 9:18 AM, Eric B said:

 

 

I guess I don’t know how to embed videos. Oh well. I know this is one of the few communities on the web that doesn’t need a YT video to know what Rocket 88 is. 

I've never had trouble just copying and pasting video URL into the body of the post.

As to the question of "early rock n roll" maybe Ike got it right (from Wiki):

In a later interview, however, Ike Turner offered this comment: "I don't think that 'Rocket 88' is rock 'n' roll. I think that 'Rocket 88' is R&B, but I think 'Rocket 88' is the cause of rock and roll existing"

[Rabshakeh]

Maybe. That is closer to what my ears say. Although there's some complex musical DNA back there.

[JSngry]

Jacob stole the blessing.

[Big Beat Steve]

1 hour ago, Rabshakeh said:

I never quite understood why Rocket 88 is considered early rock and roll. To my ears it sounds fairly squarely R&B. I guess the lyrics are about driving around getting teenage kicks.

"Rocket 88" may be considered the direct precursor of the more outgoing, rougher small-group (usually Black) R'n'R recordings with a driving, rocking, no-frills rhythm. 
Of course the stylistic boundaries did overlap, so "Rocket 88" is just as much straight-ahead R&B as it may be labeled very early (i.e. pre-)R'n'R.
But at any rate Rock'n'Roll is a many-faceted genre. (I.e. REAL R'n'R of the pre-Beatles and preferably pre-assembly line Teen Idol era à la Avalon, Vee, Rydell etc. - and specifically NOT the blurred U.S. "definition" of R'n'R that would even label almost anything among later Rock as "Rock'n'Roll", from Psychedelic via Hard Rock and Alice Cooper et al. to Heavy Metal)
So it depends on what elements you hear in what tune from the pre-R'n'R era that might inspire you to see it as the first blossoming of musica traits that were omnipresent in c.1954-63 R'n'R.
Perennial food for thought and discussions of this will be found in "What Was The First Rock'n'Roll Record?" by Jim Dawson and Steve Propes. This book discusses 50 recordings that might qualify (depending on what aspect of R'n'R it is all about) - ranging (chronologically speaking) from "Blues Pt. 2" by that JATP crew of 1944 (for Illinois Jacquet's tenor sax solo as the father of all rockin' saxes) to Elvis' "Heartbreak Hotel" of 1956 (which would conform to rather a narrow, mainstreamish definition of the genre), and lots of in-betweens that all deserve some reflection. 
One overriding criterion of what would qualify as the "first" R'n'R record certainly is if these early recordings would alienate the typical crowds of the 50s-style R'n'R subculture when they are worked into the flow of tunes at record hops of if they would fit seamlessly in. From my own observations at such events I can tell you they would NOT be out of place there. (O.K., maybe some narrow-minded purists might object to a number of them, but they would quibble about certain authentic R'n'R tracks too)

And then there are some that aren't even listed. E.g. "Diggin' My Potatoes" by Washboard Sam that for its rhythm alone may rightfully be considered the ancestor of most rockabilly tunes. 

 

Edited 8 hours ago by Big Beat Steve

[Rabshakeh]

I guess a lot does depend on what you mean by rock and roll. Maybe it if you don't mean Bill Haley or Jerry Lee Lewis or Chuck Berry but instead mean the Rolling Stones.

The Jim Dawson and Steve Propes book sounds really interesting. And a far more sensible approach to dealing with the question than any other that I could think of.

[Big Beat Steve]

See? The Stones as a whole are definitely OUT by the usual European definition within the R'n'R subculture (even if certain tracks - as with the Beatles' oeuvre - would fit into R'n'R, stylistically speaking). Haley, Lewis and Berry are IN. But they cover only SOME aspects of the ENTIRE spectrum of R'n'R. To varying degrees. 
And that "driving around getting teenage kicks" that you mentioned about the "Rocket 88" lyrics is ONE aspect that would rate this recording as "early" R'n'R. 
Whereas the recordings by Wynonie Harris (that often rock even harder) might not qualify that easily because THEIR lyrics - about boozing and the pimp making love to the preacher's wife in the kitchen - address a rather different audience. His "adult R'n'R" or "adult R&B" recordings therefore lack the "teenage/youth audience" angle that sets R'n'R apart as the first specific style of music geared specifically to the YOUNG'UNS. Not to what the elders would condescendingly allow their kids to listen to in the pre-1954 days.  (Not that WHITE parents in 50s US of A - or parents in the UK or Germany, for that matter  - would have been enthusiastic about their kids listening to Wynonie Harris, but I think you get what I mean. ) 
OTOH others (like me, incidentally ) may find the strictly adult lyrics no hindrance to R'n'R status if the music has the right vibe. So it all depends on what importance you place onto what aspect of the individual recordings. Not a question that can or will ever be settled. 

Edited 7 hours ago by Big Beat Steve

[Dan Gould]

The consideration of specific tracks is certainly a good place to start.

To me "Rock n Roll" signifies the time when a saxophone was the dominant solo instrument.  I don't mean that guitar wasn't equally at home but if you are talking early rock n roll tunes its got to be a tenor sax in there.

When guitar not only became predominant, but overbearing and frankly, sometimes musically masturbatory, that's when it became "rock".

[JSngry]

Chuck Berry and saxophone?

[Dan Gould]

Chuck Berry represents the start of the change ... the convo is early rock n roll and to me that is saxophone.

Pretty sure rock n roll started before 1955 and Maybellene.