Rock and Roll and Freed

Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
1

Cecil’s old column on the the naming of rock and roll is a classic of the old style. Lots of good and unfamiliar history and a nice chronology.

And then a bonus. A comment from a true pioneer of the field. Myers died in 2001, after making an estimated $10 million in royalties for having co-written “Rock Around the Clock.”

He got Cecil, too. My research tells me that Rock-a-Beating’-Boogie wasn’t recorded by Bill Haley until 1955. So it couldn’t have sparked Alan Freed to rename his show after that nasty term Rock and Roll.

And then, disappointment. Myers can’t possibly be right that Freed changed the name in 1954 in New York City after playing “Rock Around the Clock.” We know for sure that Moondog’s Rock and Roll Party started in Cleveland in 1952. And that Freed had to drop the Moondog in New York after the famous street performer protested.

So what and when? Well the History of Rock site has a pretty good answer.

“Sixty Minute Man” was released in May of 1951 and stayed at #1 on the R&B charts all summer, a total of 14 weeks. The chorus is to the point:

Sixty-minute man
They call me Lovin’ Dan
I rock 'em, roll 'em all night long
I’m a sixty-minute man

Which all sounds definitive, right?

Except that the front page of that very same History of Rock site has a different answer.

I can trace that song back to 1938 and Carroll Hubbard, though I don’t know whether it’s a variation of Trixie Smith’s “My Daddy Rocks Me (With One Steady Roll)” or something new. Apparently some versions of the earlier song do title it My Baby instead of My Daddy. But song titles (and lyrics) were, um, portable, in those days. There’s an embarrassingly similar “Rock Around the Clock” written in 1950, pre-Myers.

With so many songs using the terms rock and roll around by the early 50s, Freed could have picked it up almost anywhere. It makes a lot of sense to me that a DJ might take a term out of the most popular song in the country (for certain audiences) to stick in his show title, especially a guy with a late night show who would “rock 'em, roll 'em all night long.” But the year was 1951 and the place was Cleveland.

Sorry, Mr. Myers. I hope you took it with you.

2

Very informative Exapno! Thanks…
Jake

3

Okay, I’m reading this after a long day of work and my brain is fried, but what you mean, you hope that Myers took it with him?

4

That $10 million he made.

5

It really doesn’t matter who first used the term, Freed was the guy who popularized it as the name for a genre.

6

I was wondering about Myers’ comment;

“Total sales have passed the one hundred million mark, making it the best-selling song of all time.”

in reference to Rock Around the Clock… is that an accurate statement? or should I say is it still accurate?

not the number, but is it the best selling song of all time?

7

It’s possible that Freed may have confused Bill Haley and the Comets with The Esquires who featured BH&tC guitarist Danny Cedrone and also had his signature sound. The Esquires recorded two versions of Rock-a-Beating’-Boogie in 1952 and 1954 which led to the BH&tC 1955 version.
He may also have heard it performed before it was finally recorded.
Alan Freed may not have coined the term but he was the first to use it to describe a genre and he definitely popularized the term as it is used today.

8

Freed never said what made him choose the term, so we’re all speculating. There were dozens of songs with rock and rock in the title or lyrics by 1951, though. I don’t know why Cecil mentioned “Rock-a-Beatin’-Boogie.” He does read here and he should give us an answer.

Freed certainly gets the credit for popularizing the term. I don’t think anybody is questioning that.