Big Joe Turner

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Big Joe Turner (Joseph Vernon Turner Jr., Kansas City, Missouri, May 18, 1911 – Inglewood, California, November 24, 1985) was an American blues shouter.

Although he came to his greatest fame in the 1950s with his pioneering rock and roll recordings, particularly “Shake, Rattle and Roll”, Turner’s career as a performer stretched from the 1920s into the 1980s.

Known variously as The Boss of the Blues, and Big Joe Turner (due to his 6’2”, 300+ lbs stature), Turner was born in Kansas City and first discovered his love of music through involvement in the church. Turner’s father was killed in a train accident when Joe was only four years old. He began singing on street corners for money, leaving school at age fourteen to begin working in Kansas City’s club scene, first as a cook, and later as a singing bartender. He eventually became known as The Singing Barman, and worked in such venues as The Kingfish Club and The Sunset, where he and his piano playing partner Pete Johnson became resident performers. The Sunset was managed by Piney Brown. It featured “separate but equal” facilities for white patrons. Turner wrote “Piney Brown Blues” in his honor and sang it throughout his entire career.

At that time Kansas City was a wide-open town run by “Boss” Tom Pendergast. Despite this, the clubs were subject to frequent raids by the police, but as Turner recounts, “The Boss man would have his bondsmen down at the police station before we got there.

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Popular tags: blues, rhythm and blues, jump blues, rock and roll, jazz  See more

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1		Shake, Rattle and Roll			673
2		Honey Hush			89
3		Flip Flop and Fly			78
4		Roll 'em Pete			77
5		That's The Groovy Thing			61
6		Chains of Love			45
7		Shake Rattle and Roll			44
8		Corrine Corrina			34
9		The Chill Is On			33
10		Cherry Red			30
11		Boogie Woogie Country Girl			28
12		Rebecca			26
13		Married Woman			22
13		TV Mama			22
15		Piney Brown Blues			21

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