JACKIE BRENSTON AND HIS DELTA CATS: Rocket "88" 78 RPM, HEAR CLIP, CHESS 1458 V+

$

173

JACKIE BRENSTON

ROCKET "88" / COME BACK WHERE YOU BELONG

CHESS RECORD CORP.

1458

VINYL IS VG, PLAYS MUCH BETTER THAN IT LOOKS

NO SKIPS, HAS SOME ROUGH SPOTS BUT IS STILL A NICE LISTEN

(SEE PHOTOS)

HEAR THE ACTUAL LISTED DISC BELOW

THIS SOUNDCLIP HAS NOT BEEN EDITED

There is quite a history to this record and in particular the song, Rocket "88". This record really got the ball rolling and as you can see, had a major influence on many people and rock and roll.

In 1991, after a great deal of debate, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame recognized this as the first Rock and Roll song ever recorded. Turner was in jail at the time for cocaine possession, so his daughter accepted the award. The song is about a car. The Oldsmobile "Rocket 88" just came out and was the fastest car on the road at the time. It was advertised as having a V-8 "Rocket" engine.

This was produced by Sam Phillips, who formed Sun Records in 1954. Phillips discovered Elvis in 1955.

Jackie Brenston, who was a member of Ike Turner's Rhythm Kings, sang lead. The single was credited to "Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats" because Phillips wanted to release a different record credited to Turner. This was a #1 R&B hit. There were no rock charts at the time. Turner and his band were playing black clubs in the American South when B.B. King set up a recording session for them in Memphis with Phillips. They wrote most of this on the way to the session. On the drive to the session, the band's amplifier fell out of the car and broke the woofer. Turner shoved paper in it at the studio to cover the problem, which ended up providing a more distinct sound. The sounds that came from the damaged amp resulted in this being cited as one of the first songs to feature guitar distortion.

Brenston was credited with writing this, although he admitted he stole the idea from a 1947 song called "Cadillac Boogie." General Motors gave Brenston a Rocket 88 to thank him for the publicity this generated for the car. Brenston did not handle success well. He quickly spent the money he made from this, became an alcoholic, went broke, and died in 1979.  Turner played piano on this. It was a huge influence on Little Richard, who used the piano intro on his 1958 hit, "Good Golly Miss Molly." There were other songs recorded before this that could be considered Rock and Roll, but this was unique in that it appealed to a white audience.

"Rocket '88" entered the R&B charts at the end of April. It rose to Number 1, and in the end emerged as one of the bestselling R&B records of 1951. The success of "Rocket '88" had farreaching effects. It heralded a new and wilder wave of rock 'n' roll. It stirred Sam Phillips's determination to found Sun, as he realized that the large profits from the recording he had produced could have been his rather than the Chess brothers'. And it caused Ike Turner and Jackie Brenston to part company after one more session (at which only one recording was made, "My Real Gone Rocket," the follow-up to "Rocket '88"), in the summer of 1951. As time went on, Turner stepped forward from piano to guitar, allowing there to be no mistaking who the leader of his band was.