[weegee]

I doubt they invented the term.

The earliest I’ve found so far is “Rockin’ Rollin’ Mama” by Buddy Jones (Western swing) which is 1939.

So 1938 is earlier.

It seems to me that there were earlier blues songs with the phrase or references to rocking followed by references to rolling.

I can’t locate a song title to put those words together before 1938 right now (but rock roll song titled and blues are bad search terms right now seeing that Bo Diddley played blues and rock and roll and had a song titled after himself).

Later (1940s) the term was in common use. Even Tony Bennett was “sold” as rock and roll early on. The majors just didn’t “get it”.

Later the majors marketed Tom Petty as “new wave”.

Same as it ever was.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

The earliest I’ve found so far is “Rockin’ Rollin’ Mama” by Buddy Jones (Western swing) which is 1939.

Thank you for this important historical research.

From the article:

Nobody shrieks “Give it, cats!” from sheer abandon.

I guess in stateside clubs you heard shrieked it all the time.