View source for Rocket 88

{{Short description|Song first recorded by Jackie Brenston with Ike Turner in 1951}}
{{about|the 1951 song}}
{{Infobox song
| name          = Rocket "88"
| cover         = Rocket "88" single cover.jpg
| type          = single
| artist        = [[Jackie Brenston]] and his [[Kings of Rhythm|Delta Cats]]
| B-side        = Come Back Where You Belong
| released      = {{Start date|1951|03}}<ref>{{Cite news |last=Sims |first=Lydel |date=March 28, 1951 |title=Rocket Becomes Flying Disc, Spins Toward Record Glory |pages=1 |work=The Commercial Appeal |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-commercial-appeal-rocket-becomes-fly/133218311/}}</ref>
| recorded      = March 3 or 5, 1951
| studio        = [[Memphis Recording Service]] (Memphis)
| genre         = {{hlist|[[Rock and roll]]{{sfn|Petersen|2011|p=156}}|[[Rhythm and blues|R&B]]<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5yCV5zda1w8C&dq=Rocket+88+rhythm+and+blues+song&pg=PA30 | title=Crossroads: American Popular Culture and the Vietnam Generation | isbn=9780742544444 | last1=Hall | first1=Mitchell K. | year=2005 | publisher=Rowman & Littlefield }}</ref>|[[jump blues]]<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PX6aDwAAQBAJ&dq=rocket+88+jump+blues+song&pg=PT35 | title=I Put a Spell on You: The Bizarre Life of Screamin' Jay Hawkins | isbn=9781627310918 | last1=Bergsman | first1=Steve | date=2 July 2019 | publisher=Feral House }}</ref>}}
| length        = 2:48
| label         = [[Chess Records|Chess]]
| writer        = *Jackie Brenston (credited)
*[[Ike Turner]] (uncredited)
| producer      = [[Sam Phillips]]
| next_title    = My Real Gone Rocket
| next_year     = 1951
| misc          = {{Audio sample
 | type = single
 | file = Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats - Rocket 88.ogg
}}
}}
"'''Rocket 88'''" (originally stylized as '''Rocket "88"''') is a song that was first recorded in [[Memphis, Tennessee]], in March 1951. The recording was credited to "[[Jackie Brenston]] and his Delta Cats"; while Brenston did provide the vocals, the band was actually [[Ike Turner]] and his [[Kings of Rhythm]]. The single reached [[List of Billboard number-one rhythm and blues hits#1951|number one]] on the [[R&B chart|''Billboard'' R&B chart]].

Many music writers acknowledge its importance in the development of [[rock and roll]] music, with several considering it to be the [[first rock and roll record]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.theguardian.com/music/2004/apr/16/popandrock|title=When was rock'n'roll really born?|date=April 16, 2004|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref> In 2017, the [[Mississippi Blues Trail]] dedicated its 200th marker to "Rocket 88" as an influential record.<ref name="Trail">{{cite web|url=https://mississippi.org/news-room/mississippi-blues-trail-reaches-200th-marker-with-rocket-88/|title=Mississippi Blues Trail Reaches 200th Marker with 'Rocket 88'|date=November 9, 2017|website=Mississippi Development Authority|access-date=June 21, 2020}}</ref> The song was inducted into the [[Blues Hall of Fame]] in 1991,<ref name="HOF">{{cite web| url = https://blues.org/blues_hof_inductee/rocket-88-jackie-brenston-and-his-delta-cats-chess-1951/| last = O'Neal | first = Jim |author-link = Jim O'Neal | date = November 10, 2016 | title =  Hall of Fame Inductees: Rocket '88'{{snd}}Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats (Chess, 1951) |website= The [[Blues Foundation]] | access-date = June 21, 2020}}</ref> the [[Grammy Hall of Fame]] in 1998,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.grammy.com/grammys/awards/hall-of-fame#r|title=Grammy Hall of Fame|website=[[The Recording Academy]] Grammy Awards|access-date=June 21, 2020}}</ref> the [[List of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees|Rock and Roll Hall of Fame]] in 2018,<ref name="Graff">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.billboard.com/music/rock/rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame-inducts-songs-born-to-be-wild-louie-louie-8333912/|title=Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inducts Songs for the First Time, Including 'Born to Be Wild' & 'Louie Louie'|last=Graff|first=Gary|date=April 18, 2018|magazine=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]|access-date=June 21, 2020}}</ref> and the [[National Recording Registry]] in 2024.<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=2024-04-16 |title=The Notorious B.I.G., The Chicks, Green Day & More Selected for National Recording Registry (Full List) |url=https://www.billboard.com/music/awards/2024-national-recording-registry-full-list-1235655213/ |access-date=2024-04-16 |magazine=Billboard}}</ref>

==Composition and recording==
The original version of the [[twelve-bar blues]] song was credited to [[Jackie Brenston]] and his Delta Cats, which reached number one on the [[R&B chart]]s.{{sfn|Whitburn|1988|p=54}} Brenston was [[Ike Turner]]'s saxophonist and the Delta Cats were actually Turner's [[Kings of Rhythm]] back-up band, who rehearsed at the Riverside Hotel in [[Clarksdale, Mississippi]]. Brenston sang the lead vocal and is officially listed as the songwriter. Turner led the band and is credited in some sources as the composer.<ref name="Hamilton">{{cite web |url=https://www.allmusic.com/song/rocket-88-mt0012682769 |last=Hamilton |first=Andrew |title=Jackie Brenston: 'Rocket 88'{{snd}}Review |publisher=[[AllMusic]] |access-date=June 21, 2020}}</ref> {{sfn|Weinstein|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=-8WnBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA34 34]}} 

Brenston later said that the song was not particularly original; "they had simply borrowed from another jump blues about an automobile, Jimmy Liggins’ 'Cadillac Boogie{{'"}}.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://blues.org/blues_hof_inductee/rocket-88-jackie-brenston-and-his-delta-cats-chess-1951/|title=Rocket '88' - Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats (Chess, 1951)|access-date=June 9, 2021}}</ref> The song was a hymn of praise to the joys of the [[Oldsmobile]] [[Oldsmobile 88|Rocket 88]] automobile which had recently been introduced,<ref name="Hamilton" /> and was based on the 1947 song "Cadillac Boogie" by [[Jimmy Liggins]].{{sfn|Collis|2003|pp=70–76}}

Drawing on the template of [[jump blues]] and [[Swing (genre)|swing combo]] music, Turner made the style even rawer, superimposing Brenston's enthusiastic vocals, his own piano, [[Distortion (music)|distorted]] guitar played by [[Willie Kizart]] (the first use of such a sound on record), and tenor saxophone solos by 17-year-old [[Raymond Hill (musician)|Raymond Hill]]. Willie Sims played drums for the recording.

A review of the record in [[Time (magazine)|''Time'']] magazine included:<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Farley|first=Christopher John|date=July 6, 2004|title=Elvis Rocks. But He's Not the First |url=http://content.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,661084,00.html |access-date=August 8, 2020|magazine=Time}}</ref>{{blockquote|Rocket 88 was brash and it was sexy; it took elements of the blues, hammered them with rhythm and attitude and electric guitar, and reimagined black music into something new. If the blues seemed to give voice to old wisdom, this new music seemed full of youthful notions. If the blues was about squeezing cathartic joy out of the bad times, this new music was about letting the good times roll. If the blues was about earthly troubles, the rock that Turner's crew created seemed to shout that the sky was now the limit.}}

The legend of how the sound came about says that Kizart's [[Guitar amplifier|amplifier]] was damaged on [[U.S. Route 61|Highway 61]] when the band was driving from Mississippi to Memphis, Tennessee.  An attempt was made to hold the cone in place by stuffing the amplifier with wadded newspapers, which unintentionally created a distorted sound; Phillips liked the sound and used it.{{sfn|Palmer|1981b|p=222}}{{sfn|Palmer|1995|p=201}} [[Peter Guralnick]], in his biography of Sam Phillips, has the amplifier being dropped from the car's trunk when the band got a flat tire and was digging out the spare.{{sfn|Guralnick|2015|p=}}

Phillips offered this reminiscence about the amp in an interview with [[Rolling Stone (magazine)|''Rolling Stone'']]: "The bass amplifier fell off the car. And when we got in the studio, the woofer had burst; the cone had burst. So I stuck the newspaper and some sack paper in it, and that's where we got that sound". Afterwards, Phillips had no complaints about the unusual effect the "fix" had created. "The more unconventional it sounded, the more interested I would become in it."<ref>{{Cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/sam-phillips-the-rolling-stone-interview-122988/ |title=Sam Phillips: The Rolling Stone Interview |first1=Elizabeth |last1=Kaye |date=February 13, 1986 |magazine=Rolling Stone}}</ref>

The song was recorded in the Memphis studio of producer [[Sam Phillips]] in March 1951, and licensed to [[Chess Records]] for release.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|p=38}} The record was supposed to be credited to Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm featuring Jackie Brenston, but Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats was printed instead.{{sfn|Turner|Cawthorne|1999|p=}} Turner blamed Phillips for this error since he was the one who licensed it to Chess.{{sfn|Turner|Cawthorne|1999|p=}} Turner and the band were only paid $20 each (US${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|20|1951}}}} in {{Inflation-year|US}} dollars{{inflation-fn|US}}) for the record,<ref>{{cite AV media |date=June 3, 2015 |title=[[Unsung (TV series)|Unsung]] |chapter=The Story of Ike Turner |medium=Television series |publisher=[[TV One (American TV channel)|TV One]] |id=Episode 83}}</ref> with the exception of Brenston who sold the rights to Phillips for $910.{{sfn|Turner|Loder|1986|p=}}

Whether this was the first record of the rock'n'roll genre is debated. A 2014 article in ''[[The Guardian]]'' stated that "Rocket 88's reputation may have more to do with Sam Phillips's vociferous later claims he had discovered rock'n'roll".<ref name=Petridis>{{cite news|title=When was rock'n'roll really born?|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2004/apr/16/popandrock|last=Petridis|first=Alexis|date=April 16, 2004|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Time quotes ''The New Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll'' and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as confirming that "Rocket 88 may well have been the first rock 'n' roll record".<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://content.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,661084,00.html |title=Elvis Rocks but He's Not the First |date=June 30, 2017 |magazine=Time |access-date=August 8, 2020}}</ref>

In a later interview, however, Ike Turner offered this comment: "I don't think that 'Rocket 88' is rock 'n' roll. I think that 'Rocket 88' is R&B, but I think 'Rocket 88' is the cause of rock and roll existing".<ref> {{Cite web|url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/the-first-ever-rock-and-roll-song/|title=Listen to the first rock and roll song ever recorded|website=Faroutmagazine.com|date=13 November 2021 |access-date=December 26, 2022}}</ref>

== Chart performance ==
"Rocket 88" was the third-biggest [[rhythm and blues]] single in [[jukebox]] plays of 1951, according to ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' magazine, and ninth in record sales.{{sfn|Whitburn|1988|p=597}} The single reached the top of the Best Selling R&B Records chart on June 9, 1951, and stayed there for three weeks.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last= |first= |date=June 23, 1951 |title=Best Selling R&B Records / Most Played Juke Box R&B Records |url=https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Billboard/50s/1951/Billboard%201951-06-23.pdf |magazine=Billboard |volume= |pages=33 |via=}}</ref> It also spent two weeks at the top of the Most Played Juke Box R&B Records chart; spending a total of five weeks at [[List of Billboard number-one rhythm and blues hits|number-one]] on the R&B charts.{{sfn|Whitburn|1988|p=54}}<ref>{{Cite magazine |last= |first= |date=July 7, 1951 |title=Most Played R&B Juke Box Records |url=https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Billboard/50s/1951/Billboard%201951-07-07.pdf |magazine=Billboard |volume= |pages=28 |via=}}</ref>

==Influence==
{{quote box
| quote = "When I was a little boy, that song fascinated me in a big way. I never heard a piano sound like that. I never played the piano then. Soon, I was trying. if you listen to 'Good Golly, Miss Molly,' you hear the same introduction as the one to 'Rocket 88,' the exact same, ain't nothing been changed."
| source = — ''[[Little Richard]]'' (1999){{sfn|Turner|Cawthorne|1999|p=xi}}
| width = 21%
| align = right
| style = padding:8px;
}}
Ike Turner's piano intro on "Rocket 88" influenced [[Little Richard]] who later used it for his 1958 hit song "[[Good Golly, Miss Molly]]."{{sfn|Turner|Cawthorne|1999|p=xi}}

[[Sam Philips]], the founder of [[Sun Records]] and [[Sun Studio]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.motortrend.com/news/oldsmobile-rocket-88-first-rock-n-roll-song-history/|title=Did Rock 'n' Roll Really Begin With a Song About a Car?|date=25 March 2020|website=MotorTrend.com|access-date=June 9, 2021}}</ref> and many writers have suggested that "Rocket 88" has strong claims to be called the first rock'n'roll record.<ref name=Petridis/> Others take a more nuanced view. [[Charlie Gillett]], writing in 1970 in ''The Sound of the City'', said that it was "one of several records that people in the music business cite as 'the first rock'n'roll record.{{'"}}{{sfn|Gillett|1970|p=156}} It has been suggested by Larry Birnbaum that the idea that "Rocket 88" could be called "the first rock'n'roll record" first arose in the late 1960s; he argued that: "One of the reasons is surely that Kizart's broken amp anticipated the sound of the fuzzbox, which was in its heyday when 'Rocket 88' was rediscovered."{{sfn|Birnbaum|2012|p=17}}

Music historian [[Robert Palmer (American writer)|Robert Palmer]], writing in ''The Rolling Stone History of Rock & Roll'' in 1980, described it as an important and influential record.  He noted that Hill's saxophone playing was "wilder and rougher" than on many [[jump blues]] records, and also emphasized the record's "fuzzed-out, overamplified electric guitar".{{sfn|Palmer|1981a|p=11}}  Writing in his 1984 book ''Unsung Heroes of Rock ‘n’ Roll'', [[Nick Tosches]], though rejecting the idea that it could be described as the first rock'n'roll record "any more than there is any first modern novel{{snd}}the fact remains that the record in question was possessed of a sound and a fury the sheer, utter newness of which set it apart from what had come before."{{sfn|Tosches|1984|p=139}}  Echoing this view, Bill Dahl at [[AllMusic]] wrote:<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.allmusic.com/artist/jackie-brenston-mn0000782307/biography | first = Bill | last = Dahl | title = Jackie Brenston: Biography | work = [[AllMusic]] | access-date = June 21, 2020}}</ref>{{blockquote|Determining the first actual rock & roll record is a truly impossible task. But you can't go too far wrong citing Jackie Brenston's 1951 Chess waxing of "Rocket 88", is a seminal piece of rock's fascinating history with all the prerequisite elements firmly in place: practically indecipherable lyrics about cars, booze, and women; Raymond Hill's booting tenor sax, and a churning, beat-heavy rhythmic bottom.}}

Rock art historian Paul Grushkin wrote:{{sfn|Grushkin|2006|pp=26–27}}{{blockquote|Working from the raw material of post-big band jump blues, Turner had cooked up a mellow, cruising boogie with a steady-as-she-goes back beat now married to Brenston's enthusiastic, sexually suggestive vocals that spoke of opportunity, discovery and conquest. This all combined to create (as one reviewer later put it) "THE mother of all R&B songs for an evolutionary white audience".}}  Michael Campbell wrote, in ''Popular Music in America: And the Beat Goes On'':{{sfn|Campbell|2011|p=164}}{{blockquote|Both the distortion and the relative prominence of the guitar were novel features of this recording{{snd}}these are the elements that have earned "Rocket 88" so many nominations as "the first" rock and roll record.  From our perspective, "Rocket 88" wasn't the first rock and roll record, because the beat is a shuffle rhythm, not the distinctive rock rhythm heard first in the songs of Chuck Berry and Little Richard.  Still, the distortion and the central place of the guitar in the overall sound certainly anticipate key features of rock style.}}
[[File:Essex 381 - Rocket"88".JPG|thumb|Bill Haley's version of Rocket 88]]
Ike Turner himself said, in an interview with [[Holger Petersen (Canadian businessman)|Holger Petersen]]:{{sfn|Petersen|2011|p=156}}
{{blockquote|I don't think that "Rocket 88" is rock'n'roll.  I think that "Rocket 88" is R&B, but I think "Rocket 88" is the ''cause'' of rock and roll existing&nbsp;... Sam Phillips got Dewey Phillips to play "Rocket 88" on his program{{snd}}and this is like the first black record to be played on a white radio station{{snd}}and, man, all the white kids broke out to the record shops to buy it.  So that's when Sam Phillips got the idea, "Well, man, if I get me a white boy to sound like a black boy, then I got me a gold mine", which is the truth. So, that's when he got [[Elvis]] and he got [[Jerry Lee Lewis]] and a bunch of other guys and so they named it rock and roll rather than R&B and so this is the reason I think rock and roll exists{{snd}}not that "Rocket 88" was the first one, but that was what caused the first one.{{sfn|Petersen|2011|p=156}}}}

The song was covered by several artists over the years, the first being [[Bill Haley & His Comets]] in July 1951.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.edsullivan.com/artists/bill-haley-his-comets/|title=Artists, Bill Haley & His Comets|date=June 14, 2015|work=Ed Sullivan|access-date=November 10, 2023|quote=}}</ref> No matter which version deserves the accolade, "Rocket 88" is seen as a prototype rock and roll song in musical style and lineup, as well as its lyrical theme, in which an automobile serves as a metaphor for sexual prowess.{{sfn|Dawson|Propes|1992|p=}}

==Album appearances==
The song appears on the 1959 compilation album ''Oldies in Hi Fi'' (Chess LP 1439), on the 1983 [[Charly Records]] compilation ''Red Hot and Blue'' (a tribute to 1950s Memphis DJ [[Dewey Phillips]]), and on the 1987 compilation ''The Best of Chess Rock 'N' Roll'' (Chess CH2-6024).

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
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| last = Birnbaum 
| first = Larry
| title = Before Elvis: The Prehistory of Rock 'n' Roll
| year = 2012
| location = Lanham, Massachusetts
| publisher = Scarecrow Press
| isbn = 978-0810886384}}
*{{cite book
| last = Campbell
| first = Michael
| year = 2011
| title = Popular Music in America: And The Beat Goes On
| edition = 4th
| location = Boston, Massachusetts
| publisher = Cengage Learning
| isbn = 978-0810886384}}
*{{cite book
| last =  Collis
| first = John
| year = 2003
| title = Ike Turner: King of Rhythm
| location = London
| publisher = Do Not Press
| isbn = 978-1-904316-24-4}}
*{{cite book
| last1 = Dawson 
| first1 = Jim 
| author-link1 = Jim Dawson
| last2 = Propes
| first2 = Steve
| author-link2 = Steve Propes
| year = 1992
| title = What Was the First Rock 'n' Roll Record?
| location = London
| publisher = Faber & Faber
| isbn = 0-571-12939-0}}
*{{cite book
| last = Gillett
| first = Charlie
| author-link = Charlie Gillett
| year = 1970
| title = The Sound of the City 
| publisher = Sphere Books 
| isbn = 978-0722138601}}
*{{cite book
| last = Guralnick
| first = Peter
| author-link = Peter Guralnick
| year = 1994
| title = Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley
| location = New York City
| publisher = [[Little Brown]]
| isbn = 978-0316332200}}
*{{cite book
| last = Guralnick
| first = Peter
| author-link = Peter Guralnick
| year = 2015
| title = Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock 'N' Roll
| location = New York City
| publisher = [[Little Brown]]}}
*{{cite book
| last = Grushkin 
| first = Paul
| year = 2006
| title = Rockin' Down the Highway: The Cars and People That Made Rock Roll
| publisher = MBI Publishing
| isbn = 978-0760322925}}
*{{cite book
| last = Palmer
| first = Robert
| author-link = Robert Palmer (American writer)
| year = 1981a
| title = The Rolling Stone History of Rock & Roll
| publisher = Picador}}
*{{cite book
| last = Palmer
| first = Robert
| author-link = Robert Palmer (American writer)
| year = 1981b
| title = Deep Blues
| publisher = Penguin Books
| isbn = 978-0-14-006223-6}}
*{{cite book
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| first = Robert
| author-link = Robert Palmer (American writer)
| year = 1995
| title = Rock & Roll: An Unruly History
| publisher = Harmony Books
| isbn = 0-517-70050-6}}
*{{cite book
| last = Petersen
| first = Holger
| author-link = Holger Petersen (Canadian businessman)
| year = 2011
| title = Talking Music: Blues Radio and Roots Music
| publisher = Insomniac Press
| isbn =  978-1554830589}}
*{{cite book
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| first = John
| author-link = John Shepard
| year = 2003
| title = Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World: Performance and Production. Vol. II.
| publisher = Continuum International
| isbn = 978-0826463227}}
*{{cite book
| last = Tosches
| first = Nick
| author-link = Nick Tosches
| year = 1984
| title = Unsung Heroes of Rock'n'Roll
| publisher = Secker & Warburg}}
*{{cite book
| last1 = Turner
| first1 = Ike
| author-link1 = Ike Turner
| last2 = Cawthorne
| first2 = Nigel
| author-link2 = Nigel Cawthorne
| year = 1999
| title = Takin' Back My Name: The Confessions of Ike Turner
| location = London
| publisher = Virgin
| isbn =  185-2278501}}
*{{cite book
| last1 = Turner
| first1 = Tina
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| last2 = Loder
| first2 = Kurt
| author-link2 = Kurt Loder
| year = 1986
| title = I, Tina: My Life Story
| edition = 1st
| location = New York City
| publisher = Morrow
| isbn = 978-0688059491}}
*{{cite book |last=Weinstein |first=Deena |date=2015 |title=Rock'n America: A Social and Cultural History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-8WnBgAAQBAJ |location=Toronto |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=9781442600188}}
*{{cite book
| last = Whitburn
| first = Joel
| author-link = Joel Whitburn
| year = 1988
| title = Top R&B Singles 1942–1988
| location = Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin
| publisher = [[Record Research]]
| isbn = 0-89820-068-7}}

==External links==
* [http://msbluestrail.org/blues-trail-markers/rocket-88 Rocket "88" - Lyon] on [[Mississippi Blues Trail]]

{{Ike Turner}}
{{Bill Haley & His Comets}}
{{2018 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1951 singles]]
[[Category:1951 songs]]
[[Category:Songs written by Ike Turner]]
[[Category:Jackie Brenston songs]]
[[Category:Bill Haley songs]]
[[Category:Blues songs]]
[[Category:Chess Records singles]]
[[Category:Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients]]
[[Category:Song recordings produced by Sam Phillips]]
[[Category:Songs about cars]]
[[Category:Mississippi Blues Trail]]
[[Category:United States National Recording Registry recordings]]