Fifty eight years ago this May, Bill Hayley’s 12-bar blues, ‘Rock Around The Clock’, turned the world onto rock & roll. While many people claim Ike Turner’s ‘Rocket 88’ was the first rock & roll record in 1951, I’d like to put forward an innovative black pianist from Chicago called Albert Ammons who first got America rocking in 1936.
Albert Ammons' Rhythm Kings had two seminal records that year. The 29-year old's version of ‘Swannee River Boogie’ sold a million records before his 1936 follow-up, ‘Boogie Woogie Stomp’
, one can argue, became the moment boogie woogie became rock & roll.
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| Albert Ammons |
Pre-dating Jerry Lee Lewis’ boogie piano by over twenty years, Albert Ammon's Boogie Woogie Stomp, was a seismic but unsung moment in musical history.
See if you agree by taking a listen on the link below:

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