What's your favorite EARLY rock and roll songs (anything before 1955)

Hi Dewdrop! Yeah, may be a couple of years later than I was talking about ...

But ...

It's WANDA JACKSON!

I needed some Wanda Jackson just now! 

My wife is the computer gamer, not me. But when she was playing Fallout, my head picked right up at the familiar old songs!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE that the game is bringing great old music to the folks that play it!

Not sure if this qualifies as rock and roll but it's pretty close. From 1952.

I'd say no, it's more about the feeling 'blues' (and saying goodbye to it)

But Les Paul is a MONSTER! How he never ranks higher when they do those lists of 'best guitarists' is a complete vexing mystery to me!

Saw him at Fat Tuesday's in NYC back in the day. Not just a monster of a musician, nut a SWEETHEART of a guy too!

Here's another favorite. It's from 1955, but it has Buddy Holly and it's about as hard rocking as you could get then. 

Oh crap! I thought we were on the blues forum! Lol

Buddy Holly is a legend!

Here, check out this rocker from 1949  

Cool!

Big Joe Turner BIG qualified with that tune! And there is no world where I don't love Ray Charles developing Rock and Soul simultaneously! 

Here's Jimmy Preston 

I have a few in mind but here's one of them.">

Here's another one.">

Those are the leading edge of rock's big break through! Two of my favs! 

Her, check out this number! 

Some folks call this the first rock and roll song. Ike Turner demurred on it, said it wasn't rock amd roll, but made rock and roll possible.

I say it's rock and roll, but by 1951, not the first! 

What say you? 

My face still melts when Llyod's vocals kick in!

And that's Fats Domino on the keys  

Albinia Jones! 

This is close. It's not QUITE there, but this is so close. This is a boogie-woogie but with such a straight and driving rhythm, I'd call this rock and roll if they had only included drums playing a back beat.

This is Dec. 1938. Considering what soke folks were writing at the time, rock and roll already exists, but not yet recorded. This one is so close!

No matter, Big Joe Turner would go on to record "Shale, Rattle, and Roll" nearly fifteen years later in what? 1953 was it? 

Erline Harris! Jump and Shout. This is 1949? 1950? 

What do YOU think were the big influences, developments, events surrounding the development of rock and roll? 

Although I consider Arthur Crudup's "That's All Right, Mama" from 1946 to be the first rock and roll recording (and I believe Rock and Roll as a genre existed much earlier), THIS song, Wynonie Harris' 1948 cover of Roy Brown's "Good Rockin' Tonight" to be the first to really go popular on the R&B charts.

This is the first song where the back beat really drives the tune outside of a gospel context. 

Just an aside:

The various incarnations of the video game "Fallout" have the most wonderful soundtracks!

I normally don't pay attention to the sounds of the video games my wife and my son play, as it's often just repetitive.

But when those songs started pop out of my wife's computer in the background, my ears perk up.

"Oh, I know this song!" Or "Hey, I know that singer!"

What a cool mix of torch singers, western swing, big band, early rock era. 

So great to have these old gems revived.

Solid early rock tune! The Treniers 

Dig this backbeat from 1949! 

Ooo, a STRONG rock tune from 1948! 

Can't believe this was hiding on an uncharting B-side! 

1951. Is it quite close enough for rockabilly?