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

  • Added: Oct 19, 2022
  • Length: 02:58:59
  • Purchases: 6
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Exploring the beginnings of post WWII musical culture. When a new, "hot" music emerged from the orthodoxy of established musics. Later we would c...

Bought by KFCF FM, Prairie Public, WQCS, KPRG, and WYAP


  • Added: Oct 03, 2022
  • Length: 03:58:59
  • Purchases: 5
Caption: Kathy Lynn and the Playboys
Searching for the first rock and roll song in all the music you've never heard by musicians you've never heard of. This week, we'll start with son...

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


  • Added: Sep 21, 2022
  • Length: 02:59:00
  • Purchases: 6
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3am Sunday morning introspections on life in New Orleans from the only sober guy in the French Quarter - the all-night show guy at the community ra...

Bought by KPRG


  • Added: Sep 19, 2022
  • Length: 34:13
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Vaqueros from MN
Integrated into the expected sound of the show, a narrative on art versus commercialism. Culminates with a hard close for membership in last two m...

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


  • Added: Sep 19, 2022
  • Length: 02:59:00
  • Purchases: 5
Caption: Rickie Lee Jones
My friend Rickie Lee Jones pointed out to me the similarities between Mae West and all these contemporary singers. Hear it for yourself.

Bought by KFCF FM and KTAL-LP [Las Cruces Community Radio]


  • Added: Sep 14, 2022
  • Length: 21:56
  • Purchases: 2
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A focus on surf and vocal group harmony songs tonight. California can claim a regional, indigenous music; surf music. Ironically, the blonde Ca...

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


  • Added: Sep 14, 2022
  • Length: 03:58:00
  • Purchases: 5
Caption: Mae West Sings Roy Head's "Treat Her Right."
It's the music that defines "us," the post WWII generation so why do we hear the same couple hundred songs over and over and over again? Not here,...

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


  • Added: Sep 07, 2022
  • Length: 02:59:00
  • Purchases: 6
Caption: Rodney and the Blazers
In the early 1950s, before "Rock and Roll," before Elvis, there were "doo wop" bands. More broadly, there were vocal group harmony bands. Think o...

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


  • Added: Sep 01, 2022
  • Length: 03:58:00
  • Purchases: 6
Caption: Willie Dixon
It wasn't exclusively "the blues" that started rock and roll. In previous shows we heard how the cha cha, mambo, bolero, and even sea shanty were ...

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


  • Added: Aug 22, 2022
  • Length: 04:59:00
  • Purchases: 8
Caption: Les Rhythm Checkers
Tonight's search for the first rock and roll song focuses o girl groups, New Orleans music, and the aura of late night radio is the same aura of la...

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


  • Added: Aug 17, 2022
  • Length: 03:50:44
  • Purchases: 7
Caption: The Prophets
Starting with rock songs that were placed atop a mambo progression because rock has always been an undefined category of music.

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


  • Added: Aug 07, 2022
  • Length: 02:59:00
  • Purchases: 8
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The post-WWII musical culture was different. Something was happening. From the bottom up and all around the world, our ears opened up to an accep...

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


  • Added: Aug 02, 2022
  • Length: 03:00:00
  • Purchases: 6
Caption: Chuck Miller Posing as Bob Dobbs
Brazilian rockabilly, hula songs, and the many ska musicians who write songs about fictional spies characters are what makes "us" - the post WWII r...

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


  • Added: Jul 26, 2022
  • Length: 03:32:50
  • Purchases: 7
Caption: Johnny and the Jammers - Johnny Winter's Earliest Band
Back in the mechanical days, for a song to go "viral" required it to be associated with a dance that everyone wanted to learn. Up sprang the "Dan...

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


  • Added: Jul 19, 2022
  • Length: 03:59:00
  • Purchases: 7
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To convert the Rickie Lee Jones promo from my show to a general promo/station ID for your radio station, just edit out my show name and she'll say,...

Bought by KFCF FM and Prairie Public


  • Added: Jul 13, 2022
  • Length: 06:30
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: Frogmen
A piano uses 230 strings while a diddley bow uses one string and between there's all different string counts. Tonight, we start with musicians pl...

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


  • Added: Jul 13, 2022
  • Length: 02:59:00
  • Purchases: 6
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A twist on the "bird bands" names of the 1950s, the first two hours feature bands named after ... fabrics. Tweeds, wool, cotton, velvet, denim, s...

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


  • Added: Jul 05, 2022
  • Length: 03:00:00
  • Purchases: 8
Caption: Vilas Craig
Ritchie Valens made it as a big success without "passing." That is; without sacrificing his Chicano ethnicity but when he "passed away" the record...

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


  • Added: Jun 27, 2022
  • Length: 03:58:00
  • Purchases: 7