Hardrock Gunter’s Bullet Points – interesting firsts…
Recorded the first rock and roll song
In their book, What Was the First Rock and Roll Record, authors Jim Dawson and Steven Propes list Birmingham Bounce as possibly the first rock and roll recording. Made in 1950, it predates the commonly cited Rocket88 by a year.
Named the music “Rock and Roll“
The same year that he recorded Birmingham Bounce, Hardrock also recorded Gonna Rock and Roll, Gonna Dance All Night. This is the first known recording where the use of the phrase “rock and roll” was used in a purely musical context. Previously it was a slang term for sex, primarily used in black communities. Alan Freed, the radio DJ who typically gets credit for coining the term rock and roll, never used it on his radio show until a year after Hardrock’s recording.
First man to crossover from country to R&B
With his version of Sixty Minute Man, a duet with Robert Lee in 1951, Hardrock has been cited as the first white recording artists to record a known rhythm and blues songs.
First to use echo and overdub in recordings
In songs like 1958’s Boppin’ To the Grandfather’s Clock, Hardrock experimented with the echo chamber and on the latter song, an overdubbing of parts. (Recorded under the pseudonym Sidny Jo Lewis.) His remake of his own Gonna Dance All Night for Sun Records starts with an electronic vibrato/echo opening chord that predates 60s rock recordings.