Rock and Roll before 1955
As 2015 comes to its end, we acknowledge that rock and roll officially turned 60 this past year. (You can make all the old-age jokes you will about it, as long as you don't say rock and roll is "dead". That's my pet peeve). 1955 is generally thought of as the year that rock and roll was born, because that was the year in which Bill Haley and the Comets topped the charts with the first number one rock hit "Rock Around The Clock". But 1955 was really not the year of the birth of rock and roll; it was merely the year in which rock and roll roared into the mainstream. It’s hard to say when rock and roll really began. Some people argue that the first rock and roll song was “Rocket 88” by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats (aka the Ike Turner Band), mainly due to its accidentally distorted electric guitar sound. That song was released in 1951 – but rock and roll certainly dates back farther than that. Some would say that its earliest seeds were planted way back ...
