Wynonie Harris – Good Rocking Tonight

26th November 2021 · 1940s, 1948, Music, Rock'n'Roll

Here’s a third nomination for First Rock’n’Roll song – it’s got a backbeat, you can’t lose it, as some other group would one day observe.

It comes from 1948 when Wynonie Harris covered a song he’d just turned down by a fellow called Roy Brown – only to change his mind when Brown’s own version began to take off.

Then it found new life – and a white audience – when made it his second single in 1954, just as he had done with an even earlier contender, That’s Alright (Mama).

He even modelled his suggestive stagecraft on the moves of Wynonie Harris, a blues shouter with a licentious lifestyle which he drew on for many of his lyrics – though this one is comparatively vanilla.

Harris’s stage moves included shaking his hips, curling his lip and waving his hands about, all of which will be familiar to even the most casual Elvis fan.

Those of a jazzier persuasion than I may identify Hal ‘Cornbread’ Singer on the wailing tenor sax, giving it the swing which would soon become an essential component of rock’n’roll.