Editing Rocket 88 (section)

==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>