Introduction
A much-debated topic in popular music is the origin of rock and roll music. Some people credit its beginnings to Bill Haley and the Comets for “Rock Around the Clock.” This is incorrect. “Rock Around the Clock” was the first song described as rock and roll to top the popular music charts. It is by no means the genesis of the genre.
An early instance of “rock” and “roll” used together was a 1922 song by singer/actress Trixie Smith, “My Baby Rocks Me With One Steady Roll.” At the time, “rock” and “roll” were slang for sexual intercourse. Later, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and other 1940s rhythm and blues (R&B) artists are viewed to be key contributors to the rock and roll genre. Some of Tharpe’s peers during that decade were Big Joe Turner, Wynonie Harris, and Louis Jordan. Many people consider “Rocket 88,” recorded in 1951 by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats, to be the first true rock and roll song. (In actuality, the Delta Cats were Ike Turner and his band, with Brenston singing lead vocals.) Rocket 88 reached Number 1 on the Billboard R&B charts. Also in 1951, legendary disc jockey Alan Freed began regularly using the term “rock and roll” for music on his mainstream radio program. This was arguably the beginning of the institutionalization of the genre.
With that history in mind, I began to conceptualize an article about 1940s R&B as the roots of rock and roll. In my capacity as a docent at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, I give tours to a wide variety of people. On one occasion, I spent two hours giving a tour to a well-known recording industry engineer. When I mentioned my idea for this article, she commented that in her view it’s impossible to identify the true roots of any musical genre because whatever you identify surely has roots of its own. With that in mind, I added “sort of” to the title of these articles.
Disc jockey Alan Freed said, “Rock and roll is really swing with a modern name. It began on the levees and plantations, took in folk songs, and features blues and rhythm.” Swing with a modern name! Of course, swing was the dominant theme of big band music. It is noteworthy that the recording industry engineer mentioned above credited Benny Goodman, the King of Swing, as being a major contributor to the development of rock and roll music.
This is the second of two articles discussing some of the 1940s and early 1950s R&B artists who impacted the development of rock and roll. Artists discussed in the first article were:
❖ Big Joe Turner
❖ The Mills Brothers
❖ Ruth Brown
❖ Sonny Til and the Orioles
❖ Joe Liggins and the Honeydrippers
❖ Sister Rosetta Tharpe
(It should be noted that Billboard magazine did not adopt the term “R&B” for their charts featuring African-American artists until 1949. Prior to that, “Harlem Hit Parade” and “race music” were the terms that were employed. For simplicity's sake, “R&B” was utilized in all instances in these articles.)
T-Bone Walker
Aaron Thibaux “T-Bone” Walker was born in Linden, Texas in 1910. Both his parents were musicians. His stepfather, also a musician, was a member of the Dallas String Band and taught him to play guitar, mandolin, ukulele, banjo, violin, and piano. Blues guitarist Blind Lemon Jefferson was a family friend. Walker left school at the age of 10 and assumed the role of the blind man’s protege, guiding him around the Dallas entertainment district. By age 15, Walker was a professional musician touring with a medicine show. In 1929, he made his first recording.
Walker moved to Los Angeles in 1934 and initially earned his keep as a dancer with a band. Shortly thereafter he began playing electric guitar, becoming one of the first major guitar players to go electric. In 1939, he joined Les Hite’s Orchestra where he was both vocalist and guitarist. Alumni of that orchestra included Lionel Hampton and Dizzy Gillespie. Walker left Hite to form his own band and began to build his legend as an electric guitarist. This included performing acrobatic maneuvers such as doing splits and playing the guitar behind his back.
Walker moved to Chicago and had an extended engagement at the Rhumboogie Cafe, a club co-owned by boxer Joe Louis. In addition to his blues guitar and vocal expertise, he began to develop a reputation as a creative songwriter. Walker returned to Los Angeles, where he was featured in 1946 and 1947 at the Cavalcade of Jazz Festival. Here he shared the bill with Louis Armstrong, Sarah Vaughan, and Lionel Hampton, among others. In 1947 he wrote and recorded his signature song, “Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday's Just as Bad).” As an indicator of Walker’s influence on the development of rock and roll music, this song was covered by the Allman Brothers, Eric Clapton, Jethro Tull, John Mayall, James Brown, Lou Rawls, Van Morrison, and others.
Subsequently, Walker had success through the 1950s with songs such as “T-Bone Shuffle,” “Bobby Sox Blues,” “Cold, Cold Feeling,” and “Party Girl.” By the 1960s, his career had slowed down. He passed away in 1975 at the age of 64.
T-Bone Walker transformed early blues guitar into electric music. BB King said, “T-Bone Walker really started me to want to play the blues. I can still hear T-Bone in my mind today from that first record I heard.” Jimi Hendrix was a huge fan and emulated Walker’s stunt of playing guitar with his teeth. In addition to Hendrix, he had a profound influence on Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Duane Allman, Albert Collins, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and many others. Walker was posthumously inducted into the Blues and Rock and Roll Halls of Fame. His Rock and Roll Hall of Fame bio describes him as “the godfather of the modern electric blues guitar.”
(That's Chuck Berry dancing around the stage and showing clear admiration for Walker in this video.)
The Ravens
The Ravens were formed in 1946 by Jimmy Ricks and Warren Suttles, who were employed as waiters at a bar in New York’s Harlem neighborhood. When business was a little slow, the duo would entertain bar patrons by singing along with songs playing on the jukebox. They decided to form a group and enlisted two more vocalists and a pianist. Their sound was unusual because many songs featured Ricks’ deep bass vocals. This became their trademark of sorts and was emulated by many groups over the next decade.
Shortly thereafter, Maithe Marshall replaced one of the other members of the Ravens. His falsetto tenor voice provided a perfect counterpoint to Ricks’ deep bass. Ricks typically sang lead on the A-sides of their records while Marshall handled the B-sides. The Ravens were also the first R&B group to integrate coordinated dance steps into their act, something that became commonplace with the doo wop and soul groups that followed.
After changing record labels in 1947, the Ravens recorded “Ol’ Man River” from the musical Show Boat. This was a perfect showcase for Ricks’ cavernous voice and established the Ravens nationally. “Ol’ Man River” was the first of their eight top 10 R&B hits over the next several years. “Write Me a Letter” and “Send for Me if You Need Me” were other hits. Their renditions of standards such as “Summertime” and “September Song” were also making the charts. By 1948, they were already a major influence on many groups. Hits that were later recorded by doo wop and other artists included “Once in a While” and “Deep Purple.” By 1950, they were earning $2,000 for a performance, big money at that time.
While Ricks was the mainstay of the group, there were numerous personnel changes that began in 1951. “Rock Me All Night Long” was their final hit in 1952. The next few years found limited success as the Ravens had difficulty adapting to a wider, younger audience. In 1956, Ricks left the Ravens to pursue a solo career. The group officially disbanded in 1958, and all the members went on to perform with other groups. The Ravens were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1998.
Ricks continued to perform until his death in 1974 at the age of 49. At the time, he was the vocalist for the Count Basie Orchestra.
Wynonie Harris. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/public domain.
Wynonie Harris
Wynonie Harris was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1915. His mother was 15 years old when he was born. He dropped out of school at age 16. By the time he was 21 he had fathered three children with three different women, the third of whom he married. At that point, he had achieved some celebrity in Omaha from a dance act he had formed with a female friend. Harris’s act found regular work at a club in Omaha, where he began to also sing the blues. Kansas City was a mecca for music at that time and he began traveling there to hone his skills. Big Joe Turner and Jimmy Rushing were two of his favorite artists.
Harris and his wife left Omaha for Los Angeles in 1940, leaving their daughter behind. While performing at a Los Angeles club, he developed the nickname “Mr. Blues.” His reputation was growing, and while later performing at a Chicago club, he met Lucky Millinder, who hired him to be the singer in his orchestra. (Note that Sister Rosetta Tharpe, discussed in Part One of this series, had previously been Millinder’s vocalist.) In 1945 with Harris as vocalist, “Who Threw the Whiskey in the Well” reached Number 1 on the R&B chart. It was the most successful song of Millinder’s career.
By the time that song was released, Harris had left Millinder and was back in Los Angeles. From 1945 to 1952 he had 16 Top 10 R&B hits. His songs were often rowdy and humorous, celebrating loose women, booze, and endless parties. In response to a question about the appeal of his music, Harris has been quoted as saying, “I deal in sex!” Here are some examples.
From “All She Wants to Do is Rock” (that’s not music he’s singing about!):
All she wants to do is rock
Rock ‘n roll all night long
From “I Like My Baby’s Pudding” (that’s not food he’s singing about!):
But Fannie Brown's learned something, you don't learn in books
I like my baby's pudding, I like it best of all
From “Quiet Whiskey”:
Frank's so drunk he can hardly see
Trying to make love to Penelope
She took a bottle and hit him in the jaw
That's when the neighbors called the law
From “Bloodshot Eyes”:
When I saw you last week
Your eyes were turning black
Go find the guy that beats you up
Ask him to take you back
Harris’s biggest hit, which reached Number 1 on the R&B charts in 1948, was “Good Rockin’ Tonight.” Here he was covering a song that had been recorded by another artist the previous year. Some people argue that this was the first true rock and roll song. It is probably the first successful song that used the word “rock” musically rather than as a euphemism for sex. This is ironic, given Harris’ usual repertoire. “Good Rockin’ Tonight” was one of the early songs recorded by Elvis.
As with many of the R&B pioneers of the 1940s, Harris was unable to adapt to the changing music scene. By the mid 1950s, his career was in decline. His last major performance was in 1967. Harris’ chauffeur-driven Cadillac and expensive house were long gone. Mr. Blues passed away almost anonymously in 1969 at age 53.
Wynonie Harris was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, where his bio states that he “was most acknowledged for laying the groundwork for rock ‘n’ roll.” Sadly, there do not appear to be any existing videos of his performances.
The Ink Spots. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/public domain.
The Ink Spots
The Ink Spots began as a vocal, instrumental, and comedy trio called King, Jack and Jester in 1933. After some success on radio in Indiana and Ohio, bass vocalist Orville “Hoppy” Jones joined the group. They moved to New York City, where they continued to have success on radio and also as performers at venues such as the Apollo Theater and Savoy Ballroom. After a legal problem arose about the group’s name, Moe Gale, who was the owner of the Savoy Ballroom and had become their manager, changed the group's name to the Ink Spots.
In 1936, one of the group’s founders was replaced by high tenor vocalist Bill Kenny, who would become the most acknowledged Ink Spots member. Kenny had won an amateur contest at Gale’s Savoy Ballroom. Shortly thereafter, the Ink Spots signed with Decca Records and began doing package shows with other Gale-managed artists such as Ella Fitzgerald.
Kenny introduced the group to a new ballad format that he called “top and bottom,” featuring alternating choruses of tenor (usually Kenny) and Jones on bass. This was derived from the classic African call and response tradition. A revolutionary element in this music format was the bass part often being spoken rather than sung. This quavering vocal/spoken bass model was often repeated by doo wop, soul, and later vocal groups. (One of the original Ink Spots was Charlie Fuqua, uncle of Harvey Fuqua, the leader of the Moonglows doo wop group. You can hear “top and bottom” on Moonglows hits such as “The Ten Commandments of Love.”)
Over the next few years, record sales were not very good and the Ink Spots were on the verge of calling it quits. However, they struck gold in 1939 with their recording of “If I Didn’t Care.” This sold over 19 million records and became the 10th best-selling single of all time. Now they were in high gear and a succession of other hits followed: “Address Unknown,” “My Prayer,” “We Three,” “Whispering Grass," “I Don't Want to Set the World On Fire,” and many others. The Ink Spots were embraced by white audiences and broke attendance records wherever they performed. In the 1940s, the Ink Spots had 18 top 10 hits on the pop charts. They performed with acts such as the Glenn Miller Orchestra and also appeared in movies.
Bass vocalist Jones passed away in 1944 and this began a slow decline for the group. By the late 1940s, their style was viewed by many as stale, with newer vocal groups such as the Ravens and Orioles moving into the spotlight. There were many lineup changes due to illness and internal quarrels. Kenny was the one constant. In 1953, the original group disbanded. However, dozens of groups calling themselves the Ink Spots spawned after that.
The first two songs ever recorded by Elvis were “My Happiness” and “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin,” both previously popularized by the Ink Spots. Clyde McPhatter, leader of the Drifters said, “We patterned ourselves after the Ink Spots.” In 1989, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame where their bio states, “The Ink Spots’ patterns of vocal harmony established if not introduced what was to become a standard pattern for the majority of Black vocal quartets.” In 1999, they were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. That bio states, “The Ink Spots introduced a number of firsts that had a direct impact on the development of rhythm and blues in the '40s and rock and roll in the '50s.”
Louis Jordan. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/William P. Gottlieb/Library of Congress/public domain.
Louis Jordan
Louis Jordan was born in Brinkley, Arkansas in 1908. His father, a music teacher and leader of a brass band and a minstrel troupe, taught him to play saxophone and clarinet. As a teenager, he joined his father’s minstrel troupe. By the late 1920s, Jordan was working professionally as a freelance musician. From 1936 to 1938 he was a member of the Chick Webb Orchestra, the house band at the Savoy Ballroom. Ella Fitzgerald was Webb’s vocalist at that time and there was little opportunity for Jordan to solo as a vocalist or on his sax
After leaving Webb’s orchestra, Jordan formed and led the Tympany Five and began recording for Decca Records. While initially a quintet, his band often consisted of more than five musicians. Energy and humor permeated their performances. The band had regular work the next few years and gradually built up an audience. In 1942, Jordan and the band moved to Los Angeles where they began producing “soundies.” These were three-minute musical films, early versions of music videos. They also appeared on a series of programs for Armed Forces Radio.
1942 was their breakthrough year with some of their songs finding their way onto the Billboard R&B charts. From 1942 to 1951 they charted 59 songs, with 18 reaching Number 1. All told, Jordan’s songs spent an unprecedented 113 weeks at the top of the R&B charts. To this day, that’s nearly twice as long as any other artist. Jordan’s “Cho Choo Ch’Boogie” is tied with Joe Liggins’ “The Honeydripper” for the longest stint in history at Number 1. During this period, Jordan was performing duets with the likes of Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, and Ella Fitzgerald.
“Choo Choo Ch’Boogie” is often cited as Jordan’s signature song. His other top hits are too numerous to list. Among them are “Caledonia,” “GI Jive,” “Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens,” “Mop! Mop!,” “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t Ma Baby,” “Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Cryin’,”and “Let the Good Times Roll.”
In 1951, Jordan decided that a change was needed and formed his own big band. This was a failure and they broke up in less than a year. He reconstructed the Tympany Five but as with many of the pioneering R&B artists discussed in these two articles, adaptation to the changing music scene was difficult. Jordan’s Decca contract ended in 1954. He continued to perform well into the 1970s, with lounge gigs providing steady income. He died in 1975 at the age of 66.
Louis Jordan has an awesome legacy. He was a major influence on many artists, including BB King, James Brown, Chuck Berry, and Ray Charles. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, where he is described as “the father of R&B” and “the grandfather of rock and roll.” He is also a member of the Blues Hall of Fame, which credits him with being “a forefather of rap for the rapid-fire rhyming patterns he executed.” His 1950 hit song “Saturday Night Fish Fry” is a good pre-rap example. Jordan had added the electric guitar to the Tympany Five in 1945. “Saturday Night Fish Fry” was one of the first songs to feature electric guitar distortion. The grandfather of rock and roll indeed!
Pulling It All Together (Sort of)
In an historic 1896 decision, the US Supreme Court determined that ”separate but equal” facilities for Black and white people did not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the US Constitution. This near unanimous decision legitimized segregation. It took more than half a century before it was reversed by another US Supreme Court decision in 1954. In some regions of our country, the impact of this ruling was far-reaching: separate schools, separate hotels, separate seating areas on buses, et al. In many instances, touring black musicians were forced to sleep on their group’s bus for lack of hotels that would rent them a room.
The mindset that legitimized segregation had some more subtle effects. Billboard magazine started publishing music charts in 1913. While Black artists could find their way onto popular music charts (the Mills Brothers are a good example), they were at a definite disadvantage. In many instances, white performers covered songs produced by Black artists and rose higher on the pop charts than did the originals. Billboard recognized this imbalance and in 1942 established a chart called “Harlem Hit Parade,” which featured black artists. This evolved to become the R&B Chart in 1949.
A good example of this inequality is Bill Haley and the Comets’ “Rock Around the Clock” vs Big Joe Turner’s “Shake, Rattle and Roll.” As previously noted, “Rock Around the Clock” was the first song labeled as rock and roll to reach Number 1 on the pop charts. Many people mistakenly believe that Haley invented rock and roll. In fact, Turner released his song several months before Haley’s and it is very much rock and roll music. “Shake, Rattle and Roll” topped the R&B charts but Turner only reached Number 22 on the pop charts.
So, which is the “better” song? The only notables I could find who covered “Rock Around the Clock” were Ringo Starr, Chubby Checker, and Pat Boone. The following artists all covered “Shake, Rattle and Roll”: Elvis, Sam Cooke, Dion, Fats Domino, Patsy Cline, Carl Perkins, the Beatles, Conway Twitty, Buddy Holly, Doc Watson, Chubby Checker, Chuck Berry, Canned Heat, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Bill Haley and the Comets. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, “Shake, Rattle and Roll” is the overwhelming winner.
As stated in the introduction, disc jockey Alan Freed described rock and roll as “swing with a modern name.” Many of the R&B artists portrayed in these articles were big band singers before setting out on their own. This includes Big Joe Turner, Ruth Brown, Joe Liggins, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, T-Bone Walker, Wynonie Harris, and Louis Jordan. “Jump blues” is often portrayed as a genre that was derived from big band and pre-dated R&B. It is loosely defined as uptempo dance music consisting of loud vocals, saxophones and other horns, and a driving rhythm section. In many ways, these were small big bands (I think that’s an oxymoron!). Jordan, Turner, Brown, Harris, and Liggins were jump blues singers. From my perspective, jump blues is a sub-genre of R&B.
The primary lead instruments in big bands were saxophones and other horns. For the most part, guitars, when they were present at all, were part of the rhythm section. There emerged a limited use of electric guitars as solo instruments in big bands. Most notable was Charlie Christian in the Benny Goodman Orchestra. But even here, the dominance of the horns prevailed. There were times when Christian was consciously trying to make his guitar sound like an alto sax.
Of course, in rock and roll the electric guitar is the primary lead instrument. While still dominated by horns, 1940s R&B music took giant steps in bringing the electric guitar to the forefront. T-Bone Walker began playing electric guitar in the mid 1930s and is known as “the godfather of the modern electric blues guitar.” He influenced Jimi Hendrix and many others. Sister Rosetta Tharpe was a child prodigy as both vocalist and guitarist. She started playing the electric guitar in the mid 1940s and was a major influence on Eric Clapton, Chuck Berry, et al. Louis Jordan made extensive use of the electric guitar in his group. His was one of the first acts to use distortion as a guitar special effect.
The other sub-genre of R&B portrayed in these articles is the vocal group. The Ink Spots and Mills Brothers are viewed to be a foundation for doo wop, soul, and rock and roll vocal groups. Their songs have been covered by other artists over many generations. Also important is that they were embraced by white audiences at a time when it was difficult for Black artists to do so. They were an inspiration to later groups, including the Ravens and Sonny Til and the Orioles. It should be again noted that the Ravens were the first major vocal group to introduce coordinated dance steps into their act.
Lastly, the church played a major role in R&B music and, subsequently, rock and roll. Big Joe Turner got his start singing in church at a very young age. Ruth Brown’s father was a church choir director. She began singing in church at age four. Sister Rosetta Tharpe was performing in an evangelical troupe at age six. She desperately hung onto her gospel roots as she became an R&B star. Members of the Ink Spots and other R&B vocal groups had their first singing experiences in church. Every definition of soul music has gospel as an integral element. An exclamation point here is Sonny Til and the Orioles’ classic hit “Crying in the Chapel”:
Yes we gather in the chapel
Just to sing and praise the Lord
Conclusion
The R&B Chart still exists and has been broadened to include hip-hop. While dominated by Black artists, it is now just one of several music genres covered by Billboard. In fact, some of the most successful artists in the music industry can be found on the R&B/Hip-Hop Chart. Black artists are also doing very well today on the pop charts.
Header image: Louis Jordan's Tympany Five. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/William P. Gottlieb/Library of Congress/public domain.
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