What Was the First Rock and Roll Record?

[Wombat]

Silly topic. Obviously Beethoven invented this whole "rock and roll" shenanigan.

He didn't invent it. But he did roll over to tell Richard Nixon the news.

[amar]

I am too young to know the answer. i was born in 1956 and I bet it was before that.

you turned 50 this year. teehee.

[Congratulations]

Silly topic. Obviously Beethoven invented this whole "rock and roll" shenanigan.

He didn't invent it. But he did roll over to tell Richard Nixon the news.

Ah. And so it is.

[missy]

I am too young to know the answer. i was born in 1956 and I bet it was before that.

you turned 50 this year. teehee.

watch it, you young whipper-snapper..........
(I got a year and a couple of months to go before hitting 50).

[BigDavy]

I am too young to know the answer. i was born in 1956 and I bet it was before that.

you turned 50 this year. teehee.

This is a good year to turn 50

David

[Congratulations]

I am too young to know the answer. i was born in 1956 and I bet it was before that.

you turned 50 this year. teehee.

This is a good year to turn 50

I'll be turning 50 in 2037. You guys are old.

[Nanohedron]

you turned 50 this year. teehee.

This is a good year to turn 50

I'll be turning 50 in 2037. You guys are old.

May you have length of days yourself. My satisfaction will be delicious.

[BoneQuint]

Le Vertigo, by Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer, 1746.

[amar]

I am too young to know the answer. i was born in 1956 and I bet it was before that.

you turned 50 this year. teehee.

watch it, you young whipper-snapper..........
(I got a year and a couple of months to go before hitting 50).

I've got 10...sigh..

[amar]

you turned 50 this year. teehee.

This is a good year to turn 50

I'll be turning 50 in 2037. You guys are old.

that's what my girlfriend always tells me too. hahaha..

[amar]

Le Vertigo, by Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer, 1746.

[dwinterfield]

Alan Freed, a Cleveland DJ coined the term "rock and roll" in 1951. More complex than it might first appear.

http://www.answers.com/rock-and-roll&r=67

A great advance in American civil liberties, as well as a revolution in music, took place as a result of the introduction of rock and roll in 1951. The introducer was Alan Freed, a disc jockey in Cleveland, who used the term to undermine the segregation of popular music into black and white. African-American popular music of the day, known as rhythm and blues, was increasingly influential, but radio stations and the record industry insisted on having white performers for white audiences. The only way a song composed and performed by blacks could reach a wider audience was for it to be remade by a white group.

Freed was able to get around the prohibition against African-American music on his radio station by coining a catchy name that was new and therefore all-encompassing. He wouldn't fight to play the forbidden rhythm and blues; instead, he would treat his audiences to what he called rock and roll. And while that term did not end music segregation overnight, it eventually made segregation impossible, as both black and white performers took up the phrase and together developed the new rock and roll. From the beginning it was also known informally as rock 'n' roll. By the mid-1960s the triumph of rock and roll was so complete that the name of the genre, now performed by musicians of all races all over the world, shrank to rock. No longer needed for music, the full phrase rock and roll recently has been used to mean "get going, move along," as in "Let's rock and roll."

Freed, who went on to greater fame and misfortune, is appropriately memorialized in Cleveland's Rock 'n' Roll Museum. But he did not actually invent rock and roll; he just gave it a new definition. Freed probably picked up rock and roll from the lyrics of a 1948 rhythm-and-blues hit called "Good Rockin' Tonight." Before that, both rock and roll had sexual meanings in jazz and blues, as in "My Man Rocks Me with One Steady Roll," recorded by Trixie Smith in 1922, which inspired Bill Haley's famous "Rock Around the Clock" in 1954.

[dwinterfield]

Alan Freed, a Cleveland DJ coined the term "rock and roll" in 1951. More complex than it might first appear.

http://www.answers.com/rock-and-roll&r=67

A great advance in American civil liberties, as well as a revolution in music, took place as a result of the introduction of rock and roll in 1951. The introducer was Alan Freed, a disc jockey in Cleveland, who used the term to undermine the segregation of popular music into black and white. African-American popular music of the day, known as rhythm and blues, was increasingly influential, but radio stations and the record industry insisted on having white performers for white audiences. The only way a song composed and performed by blacks could reach a wider audience was for it to be remade by a white group.

Freed was able to get around the prohibition against African-American music on his radio station by coining a catchy name that was new and therefore all-encompassing. He wouldn't fight to play the forbidden rhythm and blues; instead, he would treat his audiences to what he called rock and roll. And while that term did not end music segregation overnight, it eventually made segregation impossible, as both black and white performers took up the phrase and together developed the new rock and roll. From the beginning it was also known informally as rock 'n' roll. By the mid-1960s the triumph of rock and roll was so complete that the name of the genre, now performed by musicians of all races all over the world, shrank to rock. No longer needed for music, the full phrase rock and roll recently has been used to mean "get going, move along," as in "Let's rock and roll."

Freed, who went on to greater fame and misfortune, is appropriately memorialized in Cleveland's Rock 'n' Roll Museum. But he did not actually invent rock and roll; he just gave it a new definition. Freed probably picked up rock and roll from the lyrics of a 1948 rhythm-and-blues hit called "Good Rockin' Tonight." Before that, both rock and roll had sexual meanings in jazz and blues, as in "My Man Rocks Me with One Steady Roll," recorded by Trixie Smith in 1922, which inspired Bill Haley's famous "Rock Around the Clock" in 1954.

[Walden]

I'm curious to know if any of you have definite opinions about this question.

As usual, I'm not going to say why I'm asking for fear of influencing the answer. All I'll say is this: if you think it's a misguided question, please tell me why.

I think Ike Turner is more important to the story than we usually hear.

[Rod Sprague]

Let’s just be glad we were not talking about Colin Powell (or anyone with the name Willy or Dick).