Rocket 88
Encyclopedia
"Rocket 88" is a rhythm and blues
song that was first recorded at Sam Phillips
' recording studio in Memphis, Tennessee
, on 3 March or 5 March 1951 (accounts differ). It has been claimed by Phillips and some music critics to be the "first rock and roll song".
and his Delta Cats, who took the song to number one on the R&B charts. The band did not actually exist and the song was put together by Ike Turner
and his band in rehearsals at the Riverside Hotel in Clarksdale, Mississippi
, and recorded by Turner's Kings of Rhythm
. Brenston, who was a saxophonist with Turner, also sang the vocal on "Rocket 88", a hymn of praise to the joys of the Oldsmobile
"Rocket 88"
automobile, which had recently been introduced. The song was based on the 1947 song "Cadillac Boogie" by Jimmy Liggins
. It was also 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.
Drawing on the template of jump blues
and swing combo
music, Turner made the style even rawer, 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). The song also features one of the first examples of distortion
, or fuzz guitar, ever recorded, played by the band's guitarist Willie Kizart. The legend of how the sound came about says that Kizart's amplifier
was damaged on Highway 61
when the band was driving from Mississippi
to Memphis, Tennessee
. An attempt was made to hold the cone in place by stuffing the amplifier with wadded newspapers, which unintentionally created a distorted sound; Phillips liked the sound and used it. Robert Palmer
has written that the amplifier "had fallen from the top of the car", and attributes this information to Sam Phillips. 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 first place on 9 June 1951 and staying there for five weeks, and much more influential than some other "first" claimants. Ike Turner's piano intro to the song was later used nearly note-for-note by Little Richard
in "Good Golly Miss Molly".
Author Paul Grushkin writes:
According to Bill Dahl at Allmusic:
group Bill Haley and the Saddlemen at a recording session on June 14, 1951, a few months after Turner 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 1955.
Those who subscribe to the definition of rock and roll as the melding of country music with rhythm and blues believe that Haley's version of the song, not the Turner/Brenston original, 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.
. Buckaroo Banzai
and his band, the Hong Kong Cavaliers, perform the song at a bar early in the movie, but the song itself (which was a 3/4 time sped-up instrumental version) was actually recorded by Billy Vera
and the Beaters. Rokit 88 is on the license plate on the rocket truck that Buckaroo uses during the movie. The band The Atomic Planets recorded a ska song entitled "Rocket '08" for their debut album.
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
song that was first recorded at Sam Phillips
Sam Phillips
Samuel Cornelius Phillips , better known as Sam Phillips, was an American businessman, record executive, record producer and DJ who played an important role in the emergence of rock and roll as the major form of popular music in the 1950s...
' recording studio in Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
, on 3 March or 5 March 1951 (accounts differ). It has been claimed by Phillips and some music critics to be the "first rock and roll song".
Original version
The original version of the 12-bar blues song was credited to Jackie BrenstonJackie Brenston
Jackie Brenston was an African American R&B singer and saxophonist, who recorded, with Ike Turner's band, the first version of the proto-rock and roll song "Rocket 88".-Biography:...
and his Delta Cats, who took the song to number one on the R&B charts. The band did not actually exist and the song was put together by Ike Turner
Ike Turner
Isaac Wister Turner was an American musician, bandleader, songwriter, arranger, talent scout, and record producer. In a career that lasted more than half a century, his repertoire included blues, soul, rock, and funk...
and his band in rehearsals at the Riverside Hotel in Clarksdale, Mississippi
Clarksdale, Mississippi
Clarksdale is a city in Coahoma County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 20,645 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Coahoma County....
, and recorded by Turner's Kings of Rhythm
Kings of Rhythm
The Kings of Rhythm are a American rhythm & blues and soul group formed in the late 1940s in Clarksdale, Mississippi and led by Ike Turner through to his death in 2007. Turner would retain the name of the band throughout his career, although the group has undergone considerable lineup changes...
. Brenston, who was a saxophonist with Turner, also sang the vocal on "Rocket 88", a hymn of praise to the joys of the Oldsmobile
Oldsmobile
Oldsmobile was a brand of American automobile produced for most of its existence by General Motors. It was founded by Ransom E. Olds in 1897. In its 107-year history, it produced 35.2 million cars, including at least 14 million built at its Lansing, Michigan factory...
"Rocket 88"
Oldsmobile 88
The Oldsmobile 88 was a full-size car sold by the Oldsmobile division of General Motors and produced from 1949 until 1999. From 1950 to 1974 the 88 was the division's top-selling line, particularly the entry-level models such as the 88 and Dynamic 88...
automobile, which had recently been introduced. The song was based on the 1947 song "Cadillac Boogie" by Jimmy Liggins
Jimmy Liggins
Jimmy Liggins was an American R&B guitarist and bandleader.-Career:Liggins was born in Newby, Oklahoma, United States. He started out as a professional boxer at age 18 under the name of Kid Zulu, then he quit boxing and took up driving his brother Joe's outfit around on tour...
. It was also preceded and influenced by Pete Johnson
Pete Johnson
Pete Johnson was an American boogie-woogie and jazz pianist.Journalist Tony Russell stated in his book The Blues - From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray, that "Johnson shared with the other members of the 'Boogie Woogie Trio' the technical virtuosity and melodic fertility that can make this the most...
's "Rocket 88 Boogie" Parts 1 and 2, an instrumental, originally recorded for the Los Angeles-based Swing Time Records
Swing Time Records
Swing Time Records was a United States based record label, active in the 1940s. The label was founded by Jack Lauderdale in 1947 and was headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Swing Time went bankrupt in 1953....
label in 1949.
Drawing on the template of jump blues
Jump blues
Jump blues is an up-tempo blues usually played by small groups and featuring horns. It was very popular in the 1940s, and the movement was a precursor to the arrival of rhythm and blues and rock and roll...
and swing combo
Swing (genre)
Swing music, also known as swing jazz or simply swing, is a form of jazz music that developed in the early 1930s and became a distinctive style by 1935 in the United States...
music, Turner made the style even rawer, 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
Tina Turner
Tina Turner is an American singer and actress whose career has spanned more than 50 years. She has won numerous awards and her achievements in the rock music genre have led many to call her the "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll".Turner started out her music career with husband Ike Turner as a member of the...
's first child, before she married Ike). The song also features one of the first examples of distortion
Distortion
A distortion is the alteration of the original shape of an object, image, sound, waveform or other form of information or representation. Distortion is usually unwanted, and often many methods are employed to minimize it in practice...
, or fuzz guitar, ever recorded, played by the band's guitarist Willie Kizart. The legend of how the sound came about says that Kizart's amplifier
Guitar amplifier
A guitar amplifier is an electronic amplifier designed to make the signal of an electric or acoustic guitar louder so that it will produce sound through a loudspeaker...
was damaged on Highway 61
U.S. Route 61
U.S. Route 61 is the official designation for a United States highway that runs from New Orleans, Louisiana, to the city of Wyoming, Minnesota. The highway generally follows the course of the Mississippi River, and is designated the Great River Road for much of its route. As of 2004, the highway's...
when the band was driving from Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
to Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
. An attempt was made to hold the cone in place by stuffing the amplifier with wadded newspapers, which unintentionally created a distorted sound; Phillips liked the sound and used it. Robert Palmer
Robert Palmer (author/producer)
Robert Franklin Palmer Jr. was a 20th century American writer, musicologist, clarinetist, saxophonist, and blues producer...
has written that the amplifier "had fallen from the top of the car", and attributes this information to Sam Phillips. 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
Link Wray
Fred Lincoln "Link" Wray Jr was an American rock and roll guitarist, songwriter and occasional singer....
had a similar story.
It was the second-biggest rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
single of 1951, reaching first place on 9 June 1951 and staying there for five weeks, and much more influential than some other "first" claimants. Ike Turner's piano intro to the song was later used nearly note-for-note by Little Richard
Little Richard
Richard Wayne Penniman , known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist, and actor, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the 1950s. He was also the first artist to put the funk in the rock and roll beat and...
in "Good Golly Miss Molly".
Author Paul Grushkin writes:
According to Bill Dahl at Allmusic:
Cover version by Bill Haley
A second version of "Rocket 88" was recorded by the country musicCountry music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
group Bill Haley and the Saddlemen at a recording session on June 14, 1951, a few months after Turner 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
Rock Around the Clock
"Rock Around the Clock" is a 12-bar-blues-based song written by Max C. Freedman and James E. Myers in 1952. The best-known and most successful rendition was recorded by Bill Haley and His Comets in 1954...
" in 1955.
Those who subscribe to the definition of rock and roll as the melding of country music with rhythm and blues believe that Haley's version of the song, not the Turner/Brenston original, 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 DimensionThe Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension!, often shortened to Buckaroo Banzai, is an American spoof science fiction film that was released in 1984. It was directed and produced by W. D. Richter, and concerns the efforts of the multi-talented Dr...
. Buckaroo Banzai
Buckaroo Banzai
Buckaroo Banzai is the lead character, played by Peter Weller, of the eponymous 1984 cult film, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. A renaissance man, the character is a top neurosurgeon, particle physicist, race car driver, rock star and comic book hero, and probably the...
and his band, the Hong Kong Cavaliers, perform the song at a bar early in the movie, but the song itself (which was a 3/4 time sped-up instrumental version) was actually recorded by Billy Vera
Billy Vera
Billy Vera is an American singer, actor, writer and music historian.-Life and career:Vera was born in Riverside, California. He began his singing career in 1962 as a member of the Resolutions. He went on to write several songs throughout the early 1960s, writing for the likes of Barbara Lewis,...
and the Beaters. Rokit 88 is on the license plate on the rocket truck that Buckaroo uses during the movie. The band The Atomic Planets recorded a ska song entitled "Rocket '08" for their debut album.
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