Rocket 88 (2:49)

“Rocket 88” is a rhythm and blues song that was first recorded at Sam Phillips’ recording studio in Memphis, Tennessee, on 3 March or 5 March 1951 (accounts differ). It is claimed by some, including Phillips — later to become owner of Sun Records, and pioneer rock and roll record producer — to be the “first rock and roll song”.

The original version of the 12-bar blues song was credited to “Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats”, but that band did not actually exist. The song was put together by Ike Turner and his band in rehearsals at the Riverside Hotel in Clarksdale, Mississippi, and recorded by Ike Turner & The Kings Of Rhythm. Jackie Brenston (1930-1979), who was a saxophonist with Turner, also sang the vocal on “Rocket 88”, a hymn of praise to the joys of the Oldsmobile “Rocket 88”, which had recently been introduced. Although Brenston was given writing credit rather than Turner, it is now agreed Brenston’s contribution was overstated for financial reasons.

The song was based on the 1947 song “Cadillac Boogie” by Jimmy Liggins. It was also preceded and influenced by Pete Johnson’s “Rocket Boogie “88””, an instrumental, originally recorded for the Los Angeles-based Swing Time Records label in 1949.

Working from the raw material of jump blues and swing combo music, Turner made it even rawer, starting with a strongly stated back beat by drummer Willie Sims, and superimposing Brenston’s enthusiastic vocals, his own piano, and tenor saxophone solos by 17 year old Raymond Hill (later to be the father of Tina Turner’s first child, before she married Ike). The song also features one of the first examples of distortion, or fuzz guitar, ever recorded, played by the band’s guitarist Willie Kizart.