How blacks invented rock and roll: R&B stars created foundations of multibillion-dollar music industry

Ebony, Jan, 1997 by Kevin Chappell

Before Elvis Presley sang "Hound Dog," Big Mama Thornton had house-trained that canine. Before Bill Haley & the Comets popularized "Shake, Rattle & Roll," Big Joe Turner had done all three. The Crewcut's "Sh-Boom" was originally sung by The Chords, and The Beatles' "Roll Over Beethoven" was rocked by Chuck Berry well before the boys from Liverpool "invaded" America.

It continues to be the biggest lie in the music industry - that Whites created rock `n' roll. From history books to rock-oriented cafes, from the pretentious Graceland mansion to the corner record store, White rock `n' roll artists have been immortalized and credited with creating the multibillion-dollar rock music industry.

Lost is the reality that rock `n' roll was actually born out of the belly of Black blues music and raised by Black artists in the 1950s in smoke-filled clubs along Beale Street in Memphis, 47th Street in Chicago and 125th Street in Harlem. Only years later, when White teenagers began openly digging the electric guitars and the pounding drum beats that Black artists were playing - a sound their parents had disparagingly labeled "race" and "rhythm and blues" music - did White disc jockey Alan Freed re-name it "rock `n' roll," and White artists entered the lucrative field without stigma.

And when they did, they didn't revolutionize the music. Lacking creativity, many White artists "covered" songs Blacks had written years earlier and made it big by copying the performing styles, dances and dress of Black artists like Little Richard, who even today can't believe how he and other Black artists were ripped off.

"They want to call me the `Black Liberace'," he says. "I was doing this before Liberace knew what was going on. I am the originator, the creator, the architect. The blues had a baby and they named it rock `n' roll. There was no rock `n' roll until I came along. Liberace copied me, and he made the millions of dollars. The system wasn't fair then and it's not fair now."

Look no farther than Presley's "Hound Dog" to see how White artists exploited the creations of Black musicians. Disc jockeys at White radio stations played the songs of Elvis, The Beatles and others as if they were originals. As a result, songs like Pat Boone's version of "Tutti-Frutti" became a hit, instead of Little Richard's original, and Bill Haley's cover of the first rock `n' roll song "Rocket 88" became just as popular as the original by Jackie Brenston and the Ike Turner band.

Thus is it safe to say that Graceland was built off the backs of Black artists and that the "British Invasion" only served to prove that White America would pay for music that had been taken from its backyard, shipped overseas, watered down, whitewashed and sent back to the States by messengers with funny accents? Tim Moore, communications director for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, says it's sad but true. "The contribution of Black artists to rock `n' roll can't be overstated," he says. "The music of the Black Church and the music of the blues are the bedrock of what became known as rock `n' roll in the early 1950s."

The rock `n' roll museum opened last year with the goal of telling the truth about the roots of the rock music industry. Moore says people "are surprised" to see Black displayed so prominently in the museum. Many visitors enter the museum, thinking rock `n' roll is solely White music, he says.

The museum tells the history of rock music, of the segregation that was riding high during its heyday and how putting a White face on the music opened up acceptance of the music. Once White companies and radio stations saw the success of such performers as Elvis, many got behind the music and began to push White artists to the forefront. "If there is any doubt that some of the early White artists, such as Elvis Presley, were influenced by Blacks, consider that Elvis used to go to all-night gospel sings in Memphis where they would have Black quartets and choirs," Moore says. "That's how he developed his singing, voice and style."

In the end, White artists made the money, and White America was finally able to openly embrace and dance to the music, which they had long listened to on Black-formatted radio stations in the privacy of their homes. There were only a handful of White radio disc jockeys - Freed on his late-night Moondog Show on WJW in Cleveland was one - who dared to play songs by Black artists. For giving the real credit to Black artists, Freed was ridiculed by Whites and subjected to threats and harassment by the government.

While White America defied the facts and claimed rock `n' roll music as their own, White artists generally have never denied their infatuation and emulation of Black rock musicians. Throughout history, many White artists credited with helping to create rock `n' roll, and many of today's biggest rock stars, actually give the credit to Black artists. The following are a few of the quotes collected by the Rock and Roll Museum for its exhibit on early influences: