Rock Awhile
1949 single by Goree Carter
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"Rock Awhile" is a song by American singer-songwriter Goree Carter, recorded in April 1949 for the Freedom Recording Company in Houston, Texas.
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| "Rock Awhile" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
A-side | ||||
| Single by Goree Carter & His Hepcats | ||||
| B-side | "Back Home Blues" | |||
| Released | 1949 | |||
| Recorded | April 1949 | |||
| Studio | ACA Studios | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 2:38 | |||
| Label | Freedom Recording Company | |||
| Songwriter | Goree Carter | |||
| Goree Carter & His Hepcats singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
The song was released as the 18-year-old Carter's debut single (with "Back Home Blues" as the B-side) shortly after recording. The track is considered by many sources to be the first rock and roll song,[1][2][3][4] and has been called a better candidate than the more commonly cited "Rocket 88", which was released two years later.[1][2][5] The song features an over-driven electric guitar style similar to that of Chuck Berry years later.[1][2][3]
The former New York Times pop critic, Robert Palmer,[6] made this comment about the recording in 1995:
"The clarion guitar intro differs hardly at all from some of the intros Chuck Berry would unleash on his own records after 1955; the guitar solo crackles through an overdriven amplifier; and the boogie-based rhythm charges right along. The subject matter, too, is appropriate -- the record announces that it's time to 'rock awhile,' and then proceeds to show how it's done."[7]
Personnel
- Goree Carter – vocals, electric guitar
- Lonnie Lyons – piano
- Louis "Nunu" Pitts – bass
- Allison Tucker – drums
- Conrad O. Johnson – alto saxophone
- Sam Williams – tenor saxophone (rhythm)
- Nelson Mills – trumpet (rhythm)
