Joe
Victim
I don't wanna work, I just wanna bang on the drum all day.
Posts: 540
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Post by Joe on Mar 4, 2011 20:36:48 GMT -5
No foolin', friends. It was on March 5, 1951 that "Rocket 88" was recorded by Jackie Brenston & His Delta Cats. It's believed to be the very first rock-n-roll record.
It was recorded for Chess Records at 706 Union Ave., Memphis, TN. Seems only right to give credit to everybody who played on it: Jackie Brenston - vocals, tenor sax Ike Turner - piano Willie Kizart - guitar Raymond Hill - tenor sax Willie Sims - drums
In fact, this band was known as Ike Turner & the Kings of Rhythm. They recorded 5 songs on that session, with Ike singing lead vocals on 2 of them. However, Chess liked the songs that Jackie sang better & decided to release 2 of those on a 45. Not only that, the folks at Chess decided to change the name of the band to Jackie Brenston & His Delta Cats, without telling anybody in the band. Those of you familiar with the egotist that was Ike Turner can probably guess that Ike was none too pleased. In fact, he was pissed about it for the rest of his life.
In later years, Ike did allow a down-on-his-luck Jackie to join his band as a sax player. But sadly he never once let him sing "Rocket 88."
Oh well....to keep telling the story from here would be to dwell on the bad stuff. I'm gonna go listen to my copy of "Rocket 88" now while I do some stuff around here.
Happy birthday, rock-n-roll! May you stay forever young.
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