Searching For The First Rock And Roll Song

Series produced by Jamie Dell'Apa

Series image
Image by: Regular Listener, J.T. Lindross, From Finland 

We, the rock and roll generation, have never found our self-defining first rock and roll song. Host Jamie Dell'Apa presents music and musicians you've never heard from the small regional record companies who pioneered rock and roll. Songs that could have been the first rock and roll song. Songs that fill the gap in understanding where we came from and who we are.

Searching For The First Rock and Roll Song features records coveted by collectors from the era when rock and roll was emerging but hadn't yet settled on a definition of itself. Music from before rock and roll was domesticated into a commercial music industry. When country and western sounded like swing, pop music sounded like rockabilly, rockabilly sounded like rhythm and blues, and doo wop sounded like girl groups and all those musics sounded an awful lot like what we now call, “rock and roll”.

Not a hits, oldies, or “history of” radio show. it's all the songs that influenced our now-legendary musicians who are regularly featured in all those hits, oldies, and “history of” radio shows.

Hosted by WWOZ in New Orleans for the last 18 years, the show is carried by a dozen stations.

P.S. We never find the first rock and roll song. Just like our journey through life, the search is the joy. Finding the final destination in life or music is something to continually delay until after next week's episode.
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Searching For The First Rock and Roll Song features records coveted by collectors from the era when rock and roll was emerging but hadn't yet settled on a definition of itself. Music from before rock and roll was domesticated into a commercial music industry. When country and western sounded like swing, pop music sounded like rockabilly, rockabilly sounded like rhythm and blues, and doo wop sounded like girl groups and all those musics sounded an awful lot like what we now call, “rock and roll”.Not a hits, oldies, or “history of” radio show. it's all the songs that influenced our now-legendary musicians who are regularly featured in all those hits, oldies, and “history of” radio shows. Hosted by WWOZ in New Orleans for the last 18 years, the show is carried by a dozen stations. ... Show full description


654 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Caption: Los Indonesios aka Black Dynamites
Rock and roll guitar instrumentals have always been a mainstay. Paraphrasing Dan Hicks, "All our songs are instrumentals but here's one we added l...

Bought by WYAP, KFCF FM, KPRG, Prairie Public, KTAL-LP [Las Cruces Community Radio] and more


  • Added: Jul 24, 2023
  • Length: 02:56:56
  • Purchases: 7
Caption: Sam Mateparae and the Rockin Rockers (New Zealand)
A variety of theme including lyrics about Alaska, Pig Latin, schoolyard chants, and twists on "Smoke, Smoke, Smoke that Cigarette" as we search for...

Bought by KFCF FM, KTAL-LP [Las Cruces Community Radio], Prairie Public, KPRG, Delmarva Public Media and more


  • Added: Jul 18, 2023
  • Length: 02:57:00
  • Purchases: 7
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Louisiana music, girl groups, and a cluster of musicians who played cowboys but would have musically fit better on Sugar Hill than the Black Hills....

Bought by KFCF FM, Prairie Public, KTAL-LP [Las Cruces Community Radio], KPRG, Delmarva Public Media and more


  • Added: Jul 12, 2023
  • Length: 02:56:59
  • Purchases: 6

  • Added: Jul 04, 2023
  • Length: 02:57:00
  • Purchases: 7
Caption: Bobby Lee Trammell
An hour of songs who's lyrics that take us from the gleeful invitations to the tearful breakup of every 1961-era teenage sock hop and party. Also...

Bought by Prairie Public and KFCF FM


  • Added: Jun 19, 2023
  • Length: 02:57:00
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: Tameers
Walking With Frankie is an hard blues with a beautiful pop hook making its riffs one of the most common and copied riffs in blues and rock music. ...

Bought by KPRG, WYAP, KFCF FM, Prairie Public, Delmarva Public Media and more


  • Added: Jun 12, 2023
  • Length: 03:56:00
  • Purchases: 7
Caption: The Cookies
Who could have meritoriously claimed, "The First Rock and Roll Song"

Bought by KPRG, KFCF FM, Prairie Public, Delmarva Public Media, WQCS and more


  • Added: Jun 05, 2023
  • Length: 02:56:59
  • Purchases: 6
Caption: Teddy "Mr. Bear" McRae
Bands and songs featuring the character of a "night owl." Usually a male who stays out all night every night. She's waiting on him at the front ...

Bought by Delmarva Public Media, KFCF FM, Prairie Public, and WQCS


  • Added: May 23, 2023
  • Length: 04:09:21
  • Purchases: 4
Caption: The Mysterious Montells
It was a music that was shared around the globe. It was based on a univeral feeling. What is the heart and soul of music? Of humanity?

Bought by KTAL-LP [Las Cruces Community Radio], Delmarva Public Media, KFCF FM, Prairie Public, KPRG and more


  • Added: May 16, 2023
  • Length: 02:57:00
  • Purchases: 7
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It's not a "hits" or an "oldies" show because was play collector's music - those songs that were meritorious artistic successes but not commercial ...

Bought by Delmarva Public Media, KTAL-LP [Las Cruces Community Radio], KFCF FM, KPRG, WQCS and more


  • Added: May 10, 2023
  • Length: 02:57:00
  • Purchases: 6
Caption: Ernie Vincent and the Top Notes (Dap Walk Guitar)
In theatrical musicals, music breaks out during a storyline. In a "radio musical," a story breaks out during a music show. What if the story is ...

Bought by KTAL-LP [Las Cruces Community Radio], KPRG, KFCF FM, Prairie Public, WQCS and more


  • Added: May 03, 2023
  • Length: 02:57:00
  • Purchases: 6
Caption: Floyd Dakil
Surely Little Richard was a rock and roll founder but who and what influenced him? We track the origin of Little Richard's song "Keep a Knockin" b...

Bought by WVTF, Delmarva Public Media, KTAL-LP [Las Cruces Community Radio], KFCF FM, KPRG and more


  • Added: Apr 26, 2023
  • Length: 02:57:00
  • Purchases: 7
Caption: The Turbans
The joy of music isn't finding the first, It's the search through all the "possibly the firsts." Who could have even imagined there are so many co...

Bought by KTAL-LP [Las Cruces Community Radio], WYAP, Delmarva Public Media, KFCF FM, KPRG and more


  • Added: Apr 18, 2023
  • Length: 02:57:00
  • Purchases: 8

  • Added: Apr 11, 2023
  • Length: 02:56:59
  • Purchases: 6
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It's a show unlike any other rock and roll history show because we capture the feel of the music instead of making it a museum piece. Rock and rol...

Bought by Delmarva Public Media, KTAL-LP [Las Cruces Community Radio], WYAP, KFCF FM, KPRG and more


  • Added: Apr 03, 2023
  • Length: 02:57:00
  • Purchases: 7
Caption: Larry Donn
A show for everyone who's ever said, "Why haven't I heard this musician before?" Music and musicians you've never heard of but who invented rock ...

Bought by Delmarva Public Media, KTAL-LP [Las Cruces Community Radio], KFCF FM, Prairie Public, and WQCS


  • Added: Mar 27, 2023
  • Length: 04:39:30
  • Purchases: 5
Caption: Teen Queens
We go to the unexplored in our search for the first rock and roll song. New Zealand had a rich flowering early rock and roll era and Kentucky isn'...

Bought by KTAL-LP [Las Cruces Community Radio], KPRG, Delmarva Public Media, Prairie Public, WQCS and more


  • Added: Mar 20, 2023
  • Length: 02:57:00
  • Purchases: 6
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The first rock and roll song pre-dated Elvis and everyone else credited by commercial interests as "discovering rock and roll." The first rock and...

Bought by KTAL-LP [Las Cruces Community Radio], Delmarva Public Media, KFCF FM, KPRG, Prairie Public and more


  • Added: Mar 15, 2023
  • Length: 02:57:00
  • Purchases: 6