Introduction

Rocket 88 has been officially anointed the first rock and roll record ever made by generations of white male music journalists. Joe Liggins wrote a song called The Honeydriper, which the California Rhythm Rescals used to perform quite regularly. He said he thought it could be a big hit, and they should make a record of it. If Sami Franklin would pay $500 towards the cost of making the record, Liggins would give Franklin half the composer rights for the song. Aig Turner plays the opening piano part on Rocket 88. Here we see how impossible it is to untangle the work of people like him from this history.