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There are many candidates for the title of the first rock and roll record. Numerous recordings mark the development of rock and roll as a separate musical form. more...

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Some songs are cited as having important lyrical content, others are seen as offering important melodic, harmonic or rhythmic influence. These songs include not only hits from the early 1950s when the music emerged on the national and international scene, but also earlier precursors.

Foreshadowing

Wild cards from the 1920s and 1930s that seemed then to have come from nowhere but now clearly foreshadow rock and roll:

"My Daddy Rocks Me (with One Good Steady Roll)" by Trixie Smith (1922). Although it was played with a backbeat and was one of the first "around the clock" lyrics, this slow minor-key blues was by no means rock and roll in the modern sense. On the other hand, the title certainly underscores the original meaning attached to those two words (both of four letters), rock and roll.; "Pine Top's Boogie Woogie" by Clarence "Pinetop" Smith (1928) was one of the first hit "boogie woogie" recordings, and the first to include classic rock and roll references to "the girl with the red dress on" being told to "not move a peg" until she could "shake that thing" and "mess around".; "Tiger Rag" by the Washboard Rhythm Kings (1931) was a virtually out of control performance with screeching vocals, a strange tiger roar, and rocking washboard. This recording is standing in for many performances by spasm bands, jug bands, and skiffle groups that have the same wild, informal feel that early rock and roll had.;

Hot swing

Tunes from the 1930s and 1940s that were early indicators of an important change in the music world:

"Sing, Sing, Sing" by Benny Goodman (1937) featured repeated drum breaks by Gene Krupa, whose musical nature and high showmanship presaged rock and roll drumming; "Roll 'Em Pete" by Pete Johnson and Joe Turner (1938) with a hand-clapping back beat boogie woogie and a masterful collation of blues verses; "Flying Home" by Lionel Hampton and his orchestra (1939), tenor sax solo by Illinois Jacquet, recreated and refined live by Arnett Cobb, the model for rock and roll solos ever since, emotional, honking, long, not just an instrumental break but the keystone of the song. (The Benny Goodman Sextet had a popular hit with a subdued "jazz chamber music" version of the same song featuring guitarist Charlie Christian.); "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" (1940) by The Andrews Sisters contains numerous proto-rock and roll elements. This is the group's best-known example; however, they also recorded other "pseudo-rock" recordings such as "Beat Me Daddy Eight to the Bar."; "Rock Me" by the Lucky Millinder Orchestra with Sister Rosetta Tharpe vocals and guitar, a gospel song done like a city blues; "The Joint is Really Jumpin' at Carnegie Hall" (1943) performed by Judy Garland and Jose Iturbi in the film Thousands Cheer is notable not only for its boogie-woogie arrangement (boogie-woogie being a recognized predecessor to rock and roll) but for the lyric "when they start to rock" which uses the word "rock" in a purely musical sense (as opposed to its more common use at this time as a double entendre for sex).; "I Wonder" by Cecil Gant (1944), an early black ballad performance that became widely popular, the first of the black tenors.; "The Honeydripper" by Joe Liggins (1945), which synthesized boogie-woogie piano, jazz, and even the riff from the folk chestnut "Shortnin' Bread" into an exciting dance performance that topped the R&B "race" charts for 18 weeks.; "Straighten Up and Fly Right" by Nat King Cole (1946), very light on the rocking, but a popular hit with lyrics from African American folk tale, like Bo Diddley, but without the beat;