[PJ-Comix]

What do you think? Should Tex Beneke be recognized as the first Rock 'n' Roll singer?

[libertybell]

There are no orchestras in rock and roll.

[Kartographer]

Rock ‘n Roll goes back even father than that:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uE-0E_Hwqo

[Popman]

Sorry, that's not rock n roll. That's big band.

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) )

[bcsco]

Nope. That was known as Bop or Bebop, a form of Jazz. Check it out here.

[Fresh Wind]

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

[mylife]

Nope, that is whiteboy scat/swing

[lowbridge]

Listen to the songs of Hudde Ledbetter. You'll hear the roots of rock n roll in his singing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs3mj1E8LSU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCiJ4QQG9WQ

[mylife]

Joe Jackson~We The Cats Shall Hep Ya(so reap this righteous riff)

[Tread EZ]

swing not R&R

[mylife]

While Eddie Cochran would not hit the scene for a few more years, I consider him one of true first rockers

Something Else

[La Lydia]

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

[InvisibleChurch]

What will the last rock and roll song be?

[steelyourfaith]

WOW. Great comments here.

[PapaBear3625]

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.

[InterceptPoint]

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.

[NEPA]

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.

[Jim Noble]

March, 1951: Rocket 88.

[Tread EZ]

Les Paul invented Rock and Roll
http://www.dipity.com/timetube/YouTube_Les_Paul_Guitar/

[bunkerhill7]

I concur with Tread EZ-

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.

[softwarecreator]

Actually "Rock Around the Clock" was not the first Rock-n-Roll record, it was the first rock song to go to #1 on the Billboard charts, thus ushering in the Rock and Roll era.

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).