Editing Rock and roll (section)

=== Cover versions ===
{{Main|Cover version}}
[[File:Little Richard 1957 (cropped).JPG|thumb|upright|[[Little Richard]] in 1957]]
Many of the earliest white rock and roll hits were [[cover version|cover]]s or partial re-writes of earlier black rhythm and blues or blues songs.{{sfn |Gilliland|1969 |loc=show 4, track 5}} Through the late 1940s and early 1950s, [[Rhythm and blues|R&B]] music had been gaining a stronger beat and a wilder style, with artists such as Fats Domino and [[Johnny Otis]] speeding up the [[tempos]] and increasing the [[beat (music)|backbeat]] to great popularity on the [[juke joint]] circuit.<ref>Ennis, Philip H. (1992), ''The Seventh Stream – The Emergence of Rocknroll in American Popular Music'', Wesleyan University Press, p. 201, {{ISBN|978-0-8195-6257-9}}</ref> Before the efforts of Freed and others, black music was taboo on many white-owned radio outlets, but artists and producers quickly recognized the potential of rock and roll.<ref>R. Aquila, ''That old-time rock & roll: a chronicle of an era, 1954–1963'' (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2000), p. 6.</ref> Some of Presley's early recordings were covers of black rhythm and blues or blues songs, such as "[[That's All Right]]" (a countrified arrangement of a blues number), "[[Baby Let's Play House]]", "[[Lawdy Miss Clawdy]]", and "[[Hound Dog (song)|Hound Dog]]".<ref>C. Deffaa, ''Blue rhythms: six lives in rhythm and blues'' (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1996), pp. 183–84.</ref> The racial lines, however, are rather more clouded by the fact that some of these R&B songs originally recorded by black artists had been written by white songwriters, such as the team of [[Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller]]. Songwriting credits were often unreliable; many publishers, record executives, and even managers (both white and black) would insert their name as a composer in order to collect royalty checks.

[[File:Ritchie_Valens_1959_press_photo.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1|[[Ritchie Valens]] best known for his 1958 hit "La Bamba", which blended traditional Mexican music with rock and roll.]]

Covers were customary in the music industry at the time; it was made particularly easy by the [[compulsory license]] provision of [[United States copyright law]] (still in effect).<ref>J. V. Martin, ''Copyright: current issues and laws'' (Nova Publishers, 2002), pp. 86–88.</ref> One of the first relevant successful covers was [[Wynonie Harris]]'s transformation of [[Roy Brown (blues musician)|Roy Brown]]'s 1947 original jump blues hit "[[Good Rocking Tonight]]" into a more showy rocker<ref>G. Lichtenstein and L. Dankner. ''Musical gumbo: the music of New Orleans'' (W. W. Norton, 1993), p. 775.</ref> and the Louis Prima rocker "Oh Babe" in 1950, as well as [[Amos Milburn]]'s cover of what may have been the first white rock and roll record, [[Hardrock Gunter]]'s "Birmingham Bounce" in 1949.<ref>R. Carlin. ''Country music: a biographical dictionary'' (Taylor & Francis, 2003), p. 164.</ref> The most notable trend, however, was white pop covers of black R&B numbers. The more familiar sound of these covers may have been more palatable to white audiences, there may have been an element of prejudice, but labels aimed at the white market also had much better distribution networks and were generally much more profitable.<ref>R. Aquila, ''That old-time rock & roll: a chronicle of an era, 1954–1963'' (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2000), p. 201.</ref> Famously, [[Pat Boone]] recorded sanitized versions of songs recorded by the likes of Fats Domino, Little Richard, the Flamingos and Ivory Joe Hunter. Later, as those songs became popular, the original artists' recordings received radio play as well.<ref>G. C. Altschuler, ''All shook up: how rock 'n' roll changed America'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press US, 2003), pp. 51–52.</ref>

The cover versions were not necessarily straightforward imitations. For example, Bill Haley's incompletely [[Expurgation|bowdlerized]] cover of "[[Shake, Rattle and Roll]]" transformed Big Joe Turner's humorous and racy tale of adult love into an energetic teen dance number,{{sfn |Gilliland|1969 |loc=show 4, track 5}}<ref>R. Coleman, ''Blue Monday: Fats Domino and the Lost Dawn of Rock 'n' Roll'' (Da Capo Press, 2007), p. 95.</ref> while Georgia Gibbs replaced [[Etta James]]' tough, sarcastic vocal in "Roll With Me, Henry" (covered as "Dance With Me, Henry") with a perkier vocal more appropriate for an audience unfamiliar with the song to which James's song was an [[answer song|answer]], [[Hank Ballard]]'s "Work With Me, Annie".<ref>D. Tyler, ''Music of the postwar era'' (Greenwood, 2008), p. 79.</ref> Presley's rock and roll version of "Hound Dog", taken mainly from a version recorded by the pop band [[Freddie Bell and the Bellboys]], was very different from the blues shouter that [[Big Mama Thornton]] had recorded four years earlier.<ref>C. L. Harrington and D. D. Bielby., ''Popular culture: production and consumption'' (Wiley-Blackwell, 2001), p. 162.</ref>{{sfn |Gilliland|1969 |loc=show 7, track 4}} Other white artists who recorded cover versions of rhythm and blues songs included Gale Storm (Smiley Lewis' "I Hear You Knockin{{'"}}), the Diamonds (The Gladiolas' "Little Darlin{{'"}} and Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers' "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?"), the Crew Cuts (the Chords' "Sh-Boom" and Nappy Brown's "Don't Be Angry"), the Fountain Sisters (The Jewels' "Hearts of Stone") and the Maguire Sisters (The Moonglows' "Sincerely").