| Author |
Topic: Rocket 88 |
Mike Winter
From:
Portland, OR
|
Posted 15 Dec 2007 7:11 pm |
|
Which version of this song do you think rocked better, Ike Turner's (uncredited) or Bill Haley's? They bother were recorded in 1951, April and June respectively. I think Ike's version gets the edge because of the guitar work. Thoughts?
Here's what Wikipedia has to say about the song: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_88 |
|
|
|
Mike Winter
From:
Portland, OR
|
Posted 16 Dec 2007 11:31 am
|
|
| Anyone? It's widely considered to be the first recorded Rock and Roll song, years before "Rock Around the Clock." |
|
|
|
David Doggett
From:
Bawl'mer, MD (formerly of MS, Nawluns, Gnashville, Knocksville, Lost Angeles, Bahsten. and Philly)
|
Posted 16 Dec 2007 8:17 pm
|
|
| Copies of either of these versions are so rare, I think you are going to have to put up some links for downloads before you will get many opinions on this. I've heard them somewhere, but it's been a long time. |
|
|
|
Mike Winter
From:
Portland, OR
|
|
|
|
Alvin Blaine
From:
Picture Rocks, Arizona, USA
|
Posted 16 Dec 2007 10:55 pm
|
|
They are both available on iTunes for 99 cents.
I kind of like the Saddlemen version. It has the predominate slap bass, great guitar solos, and a steel solo.
The Jackie Brenston version has the drums more up front with sax and piano solos. The guitar just more or less follows/doubles the bass line, like most boogie or jump blues stuff of the time.
I have a CD I made up with about 15 version of the song including the 1949 Instrumental "Rocket 88 Boogie". |
|
|
|
Mitch Drumm
From:
Frostbite Falls, hard by Veronica Lake
|
Posted 17 Dec 2007 4:49 am
|
|
| The Haley recording was done under much more primitive conditions. The production values are very low. It's a good record in its style--country boogie/western swing, taken at a lope rather than at a gallop like the Brenston recording. The Brenston record was a hit and I think was done for Sam Phillips in Memphis. Well-produced and done in a completely different style, so it's an apples/oranges thing, like comparing the Hank Penny and Wynonie Harris versions of "Bloodshot Eyes"--both great recordings, but with distinct approaches. |
|
|
|
David Doggett
From:
Bawl'mer, MD (formerly of MS, Nawluns, Gnashville, Knocksville, Lost Angeles, Bahsten. and Philly)
|
Posted 17 Dec 2007 9:28 am
|
|
Oh, yeah! That red 88 around 0:58 is just like my grandad's except for the two-tone black roof. And, wow, that Betty Page!
But hearing it again, I have the same feeling I have always had. You can't really pick the "first" R&R song. Whatever some historian declares is "it" sounds to me like a lot of other boogie-woogie R&B around the same time and earlier. They are all good examples of the earlier sounds R&R came from. But picking the one definitive "first" one is a purely academic exercise. There was tons of this stuff around for years. But because of the racial divide in the '40s and '50s, it didn't crossover to the vast white audience until a white boy, Elvis, hit with Hound Dog, and the white radio stations and the national TV networks picked it up. |
|
|
|
Glenn Suchan
From:
Austin, Texas
|
Posted 17 Dec 2007 12:29 pm
|
|
My first exposure to this song was James Cotton's version on the old Vangard record label, and it kicked some serious butt. So, to me this song will always be a blues tune.
Keep on pickin'!
Glenn |
|
|
|
Alvin Blaine
From:
Picture Rocks, Arizona, USA
|
Posted 17 Dec 2007 1:53 pm
|
|
| David Doggett wrote: |
| There was tons of this stuff around for years. But because of the racial divide in the '40s and '50s, it didn't crossover to the vast white audience until a white boy, Elvis, hit with Hound Dog, and the white radio stations and the national TV networks picked it up. |
and Tommy Duncan, of Texas Playboys fame, recorded Hound Dog about 5 years before Elvis.
These Western Swing guys were rockin' years before they called it rock n roll. |
|
|
|
David Doggett
From:
Bawl'mer, MD (formerly of MS, Nawluns, Gnashville, Knocksville, Lost Angeles, Bahsten. and Philly)
|
Posted 17 Dec 2007 2:37 pm
|
|
Right you are, Alvin. Elvis wasn't even the first white guy to do that stuff. But he gave it something special, and was The King, and we all love him for it.  |
|
|
|
Glenn Suchan
From:
Austin, Texas
|
Posted 18 Dec 2007 6:04 am
|
|
Alvin said:
| Quote: |
and Tommy Duncan, of Texas Playboys fame, recorded Hound Dog about 5 years before Elvis.
These Western Swing guys were rockin' years before they called it rock n roll. |
The song "Hound Dog" was written by Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller in the late 40's or very early 50's. It was first recorded by Willie Mae Thornton, nick-named "Big Mama" from fans in the audience, at her first headlining appearance at Harlem's famed Apollo Theater.
In 1951, Don Robey signed Big Mama to his Peacock Records label, and on August 13, 1952 she recorded (You ain't nothin' but a) Hound Dog, as a single with "They Call Me Big Mama" as the B-side. The 10", 78 RPM record wasn't released until March 1953. It went on to sell 2 million copies. Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton received only one royalty check for the record. The amount: $500. Big Mama Thornton also recorded a follow-up song called "You Ain't Nothin' But A Tom Cat" which was nearly identical to "Hound Dog".
In April 1953, a total of FIVE country versions of "Hound Dog" were recorded. They were versions by Billy Starr, Eddie Hazelwood, Jack Turner, Cleve Jackson and Tommy Duncan. Elvis Presley asked a singer by the name of Freddie Bell for permission to record the song after seeing Freddie Bell and the Bellboys perform their version in Las Vegas. It wasn't until July 13, 1956 that the famed Elvis version saw the light of day.
As Paul Harvey would say: "And now you know the rest of the story".
Keep on pickin'!
Glenn |
|
|
|
Mike Winter
From:
Portland, OR
|
Posted 18 Dec 2007 9:27 am
|
|
Here's some more light:
http://people.howstuffworks.com/elvis-presley-songs5.htm and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hound_Dog_(song) and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freddie_Bell_and_the_Bellboys
I've read elsewhere that Leiber and Stoller wrote the song in 1952 FOR Big Mama Thornton, and she recorded it that same year....with the original Leiber and Stoller lyrics. All the other Pre-Presley versions...including Tommy Duncan's... used the same lyrics. It was only after Elvis saw Freddie Bell and the Bellboys in Las Vegas do their hopped up version that he recorded it with their changed lyrics. ("Snoopin' round my door" was replaced with "cryin' all the time", and "You can wag your tail, but I ain't gonna feed you no more" was replaced by "You ain't never caught a rabbit, and you ain't no friend of mine.")
More evidence that Elvis was in the right place at the right time...and of course there have been other threads about that. |
|
|
|
Glenn Suchan
From:
Austin, Texas
|
|
|
|
