80 years until Spring 1951

Every day from now until Spring, I will play a song from each year from 1940-2020. I’ll also write a little bit about the song and why I chose it to represent that year.

The Oldsmobile 88 or as it was affectionately known “The Rocket 88” was a very popular vehicle in the late ’40s and early 50’s, So popular in fact they even made a song about it. Recorded on a hot summer night in 1951 at the Sun Studios in Memphis. “Rocket 88” is considered by music historians to be the very first “Rock n Roll” record, The guitar on the record has an oddly distorted sound. This was not intentional. On the way to the studio, they accidentally dropped one of the speakers and broke it. But it actually gave the record a unique edge.

Playing on the record was a then-unknown Ike Turner. It’s really a shame that Ike let his drug addiction get the best of him because he really was quite talented and instrumental in assisting in forging the new sound into the music we all know and love today.