{{Short description|1949 single by Goree Carter}} {{Infobox song | name = Rock Awhile | cover = Image:Rock Awhile (fixed).png | alt = | caption = A-side | type = single | artist = [[Goree Carter & His Hepcats]] | album = | B-side = Back Home Blues | released = 1949 | recorded = April 1949 | studio = [[Bill Holford#ACA Studios|ACA Studios]] | venue = | genre = {{hlist|[[Rock and roll]]|[[electric blues]]|[[Jump Blues]]}} | length = {{Duration|m=2|s=38}} | label = [[Freedom Records (Houston-based label)|Freedom Recording Company]] | writer = Goree Carter | producer = | prev_title = | prev_year = | next_title = [[Goree Carter#Discography|I'll Send You]] | next_year = 1949 | misc = }} "'''Rock Awhile'''" is a song by American singer-songwriter [[Goree Carter]], recorded in April 1949 for the [[Freedom Records (Houston-based label)|Freedom Recording Company]] in [[Houston, Texas]].
The song was released as the 18-year-old Carter's debut single (with "Back Home Blues" as the B-side) shortly after recording. The track is considered by many sources to be the first [[rock and roll]] song,<ref name="palmer19">[[Robert Palmer (American writer)|Robert Palmer]], "Church of the Sonic Guitar", pp. 13-38 in Anthony DeCurtis, ''Present Tense'', [[Duke University Press]], 1992, p. 19. {{ISBN|0-8223-1265-4}}.</ref><ref name=texasmonthly>[[John Lomax#Legacy|John Nova Lomax]] (December 2014), [http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/who-invented-rock-and-roll Roll Over, Ike Turner], ''[[Texas Monthly]]''</ref><ref name=wood>Roger Wood (2003), ''Down in Houston: Bayou City Blues'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=gdY5aJMVKkcC&pg=PA46 pages 46-47], [[University of Texas Press]]</ref><ref name="houston">{{cite web |url=https://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/gray-matters/article/Houston-s-music-history-needs-to-be-preserved-9450597.php |title=Uncovering Houston's lost music history |accessdate=May 22, 2018 |publisher=[[Houston Chronicle]] }}</ref> and has been called a better candidate than the more commonly cited "[[Rocket 88]]", which was released two years later.<ref name="palmer19"/><ref name=texasmonthly/><ref>{{cite book|author=Palmer, Robert|author-link=Robert Palmer (American writer)|page=12|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ubWAht7N7zsC&pg=PA12|title=The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll:The Definitive History of the Most Important Artists and Their Music|publisher=[[Random House]]|year=1992|accessdate=August 13, 2013|isbn=0-679-73728-6|display-authors=etal}}</ref> The song features an [[Distortion (music)|over-driven]] [[electric guitar]] style similar to that of [[Chuck Berry]] years later.<ref name="palmer19"/><ref name=texasmonthly/><ref name="wood"/>
The former ''[[The New York Times|New York Times]]'' pop critic, [[Robert Palmer (American writer)|Robert Palmer]],<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.texasmonthly.com/arts-entertainment/roll-over-ike-turner/ |title=Roll Over, Ike Turner |date=December 1, 2014 |work=Texas Monthly |access-date=19 December 2022 |quote=Citing its unmistakable resemblance to Chuck Berry’s later work, its lyrical instruction to “rock awhile,” and the way the guitar crackled through an overdriven amp}}</ref> made this comment about the recording in 1995:<blockquote>"The clarion guitar intro differs hardly at all from some of the intros Chuck Berry would unleash on his own records after 1955; the guitar solo crackles through an overdriven amplifier; and the boogie-based rhythm charges right along. The subject matter, too, is appropriate -- the record announces that it's time to 'rock awhile,' and then proceeds to show how it's done."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.houstonpress.com/music/racket-6561005|title=Racket|first=John Nova|last=Lomax|website=[[Houston Press]]}}</ref> </blockquote>
==Personnel== * [[Goree Carter]] – vocals, electric guitar * Lonnie Lyons – piano * Louis "Nunu" Pitts – bass * Allison Tucker – drums * [[Conrad O. Johnson]] – alto saxophone * Sam Williams – tenor saxophone ([[Rhythm section|rhythm]]) * Nelson Mills – trumpet (rhythm)
==See also== * [[Origins of rock and roll]]
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [https://www.spontaneouslunacy.net/goree-carter-rock-awhile-freedom-1506/ Commentary on the song], ''SpontaneousLunacy.com''
[[Category:1949 debut singles]] [[Category:1949 songs]] [[Category:Goree Carter songs]]
{{1940s-song-stub}}