Steppenwolf.
I don’t know what I’m doin’....
First one to make an international mark, maybe.
Link Wray had played up distortion (and Paul Burlison in the Johnny Burnette Trio before that; and noted by the Yardbirds in their cover of the JBT’s cover of Train Kept A Rollin’).
By the early 60s, the Sonics were howling up in Tacoma Washington.
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-sonics-mn0000428717/biography
In 1964, Buck Ormsby, who played bass with Northwest heroes the Wailers, was impressed with the Sonics’ new lineup and became their manager, as well as signing them to Etiquette Records, a local label he helped run. For their first single, the band took one of their few original tunes and changed it from a number about a proposed dance craze into a cautionary tale about a treacherous female; the results, “The Witch,” had a dark, sinister undercurrent and between Parypa’s guitar, Bennett’s drumming, and Roslie’s vocals, it was louder and crazier sounding than anything else a Northwest band had committed to tape. Backed with a manic cover of Little Richard’s “Keep A’Knockin’,” the single was too much for many local radio stations, but eventually it broke through in enough smaller markets that the record became a major hit in the Northwest; enough so that rather than continue to pay publishing royalties to Little Richard for the B-side, the band recorded another original, “Psycho,” that soon turned the 45 into a two-sided hit.
The Witch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVWAE6n_G4Q
I thought it was Bill Haley and the Comets with ‘Rock Around the Clock’?
That was a milestone, no doubt. However, I would say that Link Wray laid the groundwork for the Kinks, as he was playing with guitar distortion and “heavy” sounds on his instrumentals for a few years already before they scored their hit.
Good song but I go with Cream for first real hard rock group. Of course I grew up drinking beer to their stuff so I’m prejudiced.
50 years! Wow. I feel old. Then I remember that I still listen to music of J. S. Bach’s Brandenberg Concertos. Those six concertos were already written and publicly performed by 1721. Or “the Red Priest aka Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, who died in 1741, So when it comes to music, fifty years is not truly ancient. Disregard that descriptor of “Dinosaur Rock”.
Girl you’ve really got me going
you’ve got me so I cant sleep at night..
that’s all I can remember but I liked that song...
:)
“..Ray rejected several early takes, insisting on re-recording it to try and capture his band’s live energy. He was unhappy with the slow, bluesy tempo and kept urging the band to play faster.”
In the concert I went to several years ago Ray Davies credited his brother Dave with making the song an uptempo rocker. Ray said he wrote it more as an R&B song and Dave didn’t like it and wanted to play it faster as a rock song. He said Dave turned his back on the band, faced the studio wall, and in Ray’s words, played the chords that put the Kinks into rock and roll history.
Space Guitar--Johnny "Guitar" Watson (1954)
I don’t know enough to make an educated decision as to the first hard rock tune, but for me life changed when Jon Lord hooked up his Hammond organ to a Marshall amp and Deep Purple covered “Hush.”
The Kinks released “You Really Got Me” in August 1964
The Animals released “House of the Rising Son” in June 1964
I guess hard rock pre-dated heavy metal
Bein’ an American I’d say the first heavy rock recording is guitarist Pat Hare on James Cotton’s “Cotton Crop Blues” (1954)- a full 10 years before the Kinks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAqTrbuxCRI
Sorry guys. Heavy Metal began with Da Da Da-Da-Da Da Da Da Da. Who know what other noises were made before then, but Iron Butterfly invented Heavy Metal.
Howlin Wolf had some pretty awesome vocal distortion on Smokestack Lightning (1959)
And Pat Hare’s true precursor to heavy metal “I’m Gonna Murder My Baby” made without pedals and distortion effects units:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E26dBq-98Po
Del Shannon - Runaway - 1961
The best opening guitar riff EVER is from Sweet Child O’ Mine.
This is just my opinion and I mean no disrespect. I know we have serious music buffs here. Just thought I would chime in.