Posted on 03/27/2011 5:41:19 AM PDT by PJ-Comix
Perhaps the official start of the Rock 'n' Roll era should be moved back from 1954's release of Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock" to 1946 to this Tex Beneke (formerly with the Glenn Miller Band) song, HEY-BA-BA-RE-BOP.
Call me crazy but this sure sounds like Rock 'n' Roll except it was a full 8 years before what is generally acknowledged as the beginning of the Rock era.
There are no orchestras in rock and roll.
Thanks for posting.
So what happened to Rock? Popular music pretty much took a nosedive in recent years.
“There are no orchestras in rock and roll.”
Really? What about ELO?:)
Seriously, I would call this more like swing.
Catchy tune and makes you want to dance, but it ain't rock in roll
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5fsqYctXgM (Bill Haley - Rock Around The Clock (1956) )
A little later, but closer to real rock’n’roll was Louis Jordan’s “Saturday Night Fish Fry”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1QfXQakX2w
Nope, that is whiteboy scat/swing
There is this album called “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”....
swing not R&R
Tex Beneke is Mr. Smooth Voice, from a time in the distant past when singers could actually carry a tune. My favorite Tex Beneke song. He comes in at about 2:10. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XQybKMXL-k
Classic boogie woogie, not R&R. Listen to the bass line.
I guess the timing of the beginning of R&R can be argued but we can see the exact moment when folk music thankfully DIED. It was when Bluto smashed that folk singer’s guitar in “Animal House.” After that few took folk songs very seriously.
I didn’t say it WAS R&R, only that it was much closer than the Beneke tune. Listen to the guitar.
What will the last rock and roll song be?
WOW. Great comments here.
There really was a fairly seamless style evolution from swing (for example, 1941 “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pfCFU3Mqww ) and modern rock.
What primarily characterized Rock-n-Roll was the transition from “big band” to electronically-amplified instruments like electric-guitar, but today we have singers who have full-size band accompaniment who we still characterize as rock.
If It wasn’t Rock Around the Clock then it had to be Sh-Boom which was also released in 1954. A huge hit. 1954 was the year Rock N Roll was launched.
The term “folk music” as it is normally used is meaningless. Every culture and era has it’s own folk music, or “music of the people”, and it was almost never the insipid crap that Bluto smashed.
Good stuff, thanks for posting. The page in the link also had Wynonie Harris tunes on it. I discovered him in the 80s and loved his stuff - pre Elvis rock and blues.
Long John Baldry~ Don't try to lay no boogie woogie on the King of Rock and Roll
Les Paul invented Rock and Roll
http://www.dipity.com/timetube/YouTube_Les_Paul_Guitar/
I’d call it “scat.”
I was taking piano lessons when I was 5 years old in 1947-
My piano teacher had some trouble with teaching me classical right off the bat, so the she taught me me boogie woogie first a` la the above.
Bill Haley and his Comets had several other rock songs hit the charts long before "Clock", such as "Rocket 88" (1951), "Rock the Joint" (1952), and "Crazy Man, Crazy" (1953).
There was rhythm back then.. not everything sounded like Spike Jones' popular "Never Hit Your Grandma With A Shovel." (It will leave a bad impression on her mind.. besides she might respond in kind.. use a rock.. a big rock. BTW, in those days everyone knew that it was just kidding.. well most everyone.)
Holy smoke!
When I joined the Army in 1970, one of our favorite Jody calls while marching to the field was,
“Hey, Ba-ba-ree-bop! Hey, Ba-ba-ree-bop!
“I wish all the ladies, were pies on the shelf!
(Family thread here)
Anyway, R&R didn’t start in 1946. Heck, the word “teenager” wasn’t even in usage yet. Teenaged girls were “bobby-soxers” or “viddle vops” (said mostly about Sinatra fans).
I thought “Rocket 88” was a song by “The Cadillacs.”
loved it!
Once again, classic boogie woogie. Rock is guitar. Real Rock is electric guitar and electric bass without the boogie woogie bass line.
For anyone who does not know this site is available here is a great free music link.
http://www.archive.org/details/opensource_audio
I am a big Jazz fan so here is one for you could be a little rockish!
http://www.archive.org/details/LuckyMillinder-Savoy1943
That is swing a fore runner to Rock.
This nonsense can get like talking about whether the Indians discovered America or the Siberians.
... besides, obviously “Rock around the Clock” refers to a pre-existing movement.
Never heard of them charting with a version of that song, but Bill Haley recorded with that song in the early 50's, one if the first to actually hit the Billboard top seller list. I was merely pointing out that the thought that "Rock Around the Clock" was the fist rock song is not correct, several others had charted with rock songs long before 1954 and the Comets were one of the most successful.
I am pretty sure Ike Turner also did "Rocket 88" back in 1951 and it too charted.
But Rock and Roll is a lot more fun!
Classy!
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