Alan Freed
The King Before There Was the King?

I created the phrase "rock and roll" in 1951 and was the first disc jockey to exploit the music under that name.

I swear that the above statement is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

- [Signed] Alan Freed, March 5, 1957

Despite the affidavit and Alan's solemn swearing, most people say Alan didn't really invent the term "rock and roll". It is, folk scholars maintain, a term used decades earlier for - well, let's just say for something else. Certainly, we are assured, the phrase was used well before Alan described the popular music that was emerging in the late 1940's and early 1950's.

There are, of course, a number of resources on the Fount of All Knowledge that you can use to try to check Alan's claim. And there are some indications that as long as he was referring to the musical phenomenon of the 1950's, then Alan's claim - to paraphrase John Steinbeck - if not true, then is at least credible.

Today we have searching capabilities not available to earlier scholars. And it's pretty easy to show that the appearance in print and when describing a musical genre, "rock and roll" - or it's abbreviated equivalent, "rock 'n' roll" - seems to have been pretty much nil until 1955 - after the date Alan claimed to be the first use. Then the occurrences explode.

True, you will see tiny little bumps of "rock and roll" used in earlier years. But unless you can dig out the exact reference - sometimes in rare or inaccessible publications - you don't know if you're talking about music or about a ship that would "rock and roll" as it travels along the ocean. So we may - yes, just may - have to go somewhere else than the Fount of All Knowledge to find when "rock and roll" was first used for rock and roll.

But first a bit about Alan.

Alan Freed was born either Albert James Freed or Aldon James Freed (the name varies with source) on December 15, 1921 in Windber, Pennsylvania. You'll sometimes see Alan's birthplace listed as Johnstown, which is only about 7 miles from Windber. As a teenager Alan loved music and even organized a dance band (he played trombone). But rather than pursue a musical career, he decided to go into broadcasting and was hired as a disc jockey at Pennsylvania's WKST in New Castle (a station still going strong).

Western Pennsylvania even today is, well, certainly a nice place to visit, but it can be a bit rustic. And as aspiring DJ's tend to gravitate toward urban areas, Alan moved (slightly) west to Ohio. There he took jobs at small stations before landing at Cleveland's WJW radio (now ESPN WKNR). Alan came to prominence when he began hosting Record Rendezvous which played the type of music then dubbed - and still is today - rhythm and blues.

Oddly enough, given that "rock and roll" has such elusive origins, there's not much debate where "rhythm and blues" came from. It showed up in Billboard on June 25, 1949. Before then rhythm and blues recordings had simply been lumped together with other music from the African American community as "race records", a term that was not only useless to describe a musical genre, but was increasingly offensive.

Let's be honest. If you go back to the 1960's and listen to the popular music after the kids got a social conscience and started singing about how we have to love one another and fight for what you believe in and that we're on the eave of destruction, it sounds incredibly dated. And dare we say it, even a bit corny? And when you hear the syrupy, treacly teen-love songs like J. Frank Wilson's "Last Kiss" you don't know whether to laugh or barf.

But the music that holds up best is without doubt rhythm and blues. Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, and yes, Ray Charles, you can still listen to and say, "Hey, that actually sounds good!

And there was one important earth shattering event that emerged after World War II that had an unforeseen development on the world in general and popular music in particular. That was the emergence of the teenager.

Before World War II, you were a kid up until age 14 or so. Then you were an adult. High school was a luxury for the rich and pampered. Other kids went to work.

But that changed after the war. With the expectation that all kids would finish high school we now had millions of no-longer-kids but not-quite-adults who had to shed all their excess energy after sitting all day in a classroom.

One effective avenue for expending energy was the sock hop. The kids would meet at a building of sufficient size to hold them - a school gym, a VFW hall, places like that - and have a dance. To avoid scuffing up the polished floors and to give them the slide they needed, the kids would remove their shoes and dance in their socks.

But dance to what? Following the war, the big bands were disappearing - they were just too expensive - and were being replaced by smaller combos. Some of the musicians stuck with jazz - including it's new and often controversial version called bebop. Bebop, though, was for listening, not dancing. And what were serving as dance bands were now stripped down to a singer, a guitar, drums, a bass, and often a single saxophone.

Of course, even small combos were too expensive for your everyday teenage dance. Oh, sure, the town fathers might put up some cash for a band and a dance, but this happened only on special occasions.

Fortunately - from the kids' standpoint - in the 1950's there emerged a new technology - or rather a new variant based on old technology. This was the emergence of the 45 recording. Unlike the older records - which tended to be larger, thicker, and spun at 78 revolutions per minute - the 45 was smaller - 7 inches in diameter - and spun at 45 rpm. The smaller size meant you could make them thinner and tote them around quite easily. The record players - which produced the sound from a needle moving along the grooves on the record - could accommodate a "stack of shellacs" to play automatically one after another. This system was perfect for the sock hops - cheap, plentiful, and available in even the smallest towns.

And Alan noted that the kids in Cleveland - regardless of race - were grabbing up the rhythm and blues records of the emerging black musicians as fast as they could be pressed. Well, if that's what the kids wanted, then that's what Alan would give them.

What marked Alan as unusual - unique we might say - is that he played the original R and B records by the African American artists - and not just sanitized goody-two-shoes versions of white singers (called "cover" recordings). Alan changed the name of Record Rendezvous to the Moondog House Party after his self-dubbed moniker.

The popularity of the music was shown unequivocally when Alan arranged the Moondog Coronation Ball at the humongous Cleveland Arena. Arguably the first modern rock concert, this was in March 21, 1952. The plan was for 10,000 attendees, but 21,000 showed up. Although the concert started out OK, after it was underway about 6,000 of those outside (and without tickets) broke the gates and stormed inside.

Naturally, the concert came to a halt and on Alan's next broadcast he explained what happened and said that he was as surprised as anyone at the size of the crowd. He asked viewers to call in and give him their support - but also to feel free to tell the station if they didn't support him. If he had lost the fans trust, he would step down. Of course the response was overwhelmingly pro-Alan

The preferred term for the music, though, remained rhythm and blues. Certainly you did not see "rock and roll" in print. As late as August 1954, Alan was the master of ceremonies for what was billed as:

THE BIGGEST
Rhythm and Blues
Show

And again in the poster there was nary a hint of "rock" or "roll".

On the other hand, the phrase "rock and roll" had gone into oral circulation. In a broadcast from Cleveland dated April 6, 1954, Alan announced the "Moondog Rock and Roll Party", adding that it was a "time again for another of your favorite rock and roll sessions/blues and rhythm [sic] records for all the gang in the Moondog Kingdom". But a careful listening of the use in its context seems to show that "rock and roll" was describing the overall experience rather than the music, which was still being called rhythm and blues.

Then in September Alan made a deal to go to Station WINS in New York. This was truly the big time and Alan started broadcasting from the Big Apple without skipping a beat. He quickly organized a Christmas show in Brooklyn which grossed $150,000 (a Labor Day show the following year did better by $100,000). Alan himself began pulling in $75,000 a year - a huge salary in the mid-1950's.

It was in New York City that we see Alan using "rock and roll" in print. In fact, we read he even tried to copyright the phrase, an effort which was not successful.

The problem is that copyright does not apply to names, slogans, titles, or short phrases. Clearly "rock and roll" falls under at least one of these classifications. So why did Alan even bother trying?

Possibly Alan - if he did try to copyright the phrase - was confusing a copyright with a trademark. Trademarks can indeed be short words or phrases. On the other hand they are intended to refer to commercial products. Moreover, trademarks are adjectives that modify a noun. And different products - even if produced by different companies - can use the same trademark name provided the products are sufficiently distinct that confusion is not likely.

So before anything else, Alan would have had to decide exactly what "rock and roll" referred to. Certainly since he didn't invent the music or the genre, it's unlikely he would have been able to trademark "rock and roll" music.

Now the definition of a product is pretty broad and the Patent and Trademark Office has even allowed certain presentations to be trademarked. So An Official CooperToons Albeit Layman's Opinion is that had Alan opted for a trademark for "Rock and Roll" for his concerts or radio programs, he might have pulled it off.

In any case, we do know that finally, on January 29, 1955, Alan - or rather WINS - ran an advertisement in Billboard Magazine. The ad proclaimed that Alan's show, The Rock and Roll Party, would be available to radio stations nationwide. Use of the phrase took off.

Only three months later, on April 18, Life Magazine ran a story about what they called "ROCK N ROLL". But not just about rock and roll, the music. The story also talked about the angst that the music was causing throughout the country. Prefaced by a picture of the rather dour-faced police chief of New Haven Connecticut (the town had just banned rock and roll concerts), the article gives credit to Alan as the "originator of [the] craze". And standing in front of Alan were the kids who were all proudly wearing their "ROCK N ROLL" jackets.

Alan also promoted the rock and roll tour. These would be whirlwind series of one night performances routed through a list of cities - often small towns - where the kids could see their idols for as little as a dollar. It wasn't unusual to have four groups performing in one night.

We don't know how much Alan paid the performers on his tours, but there were certainly some impresarios who paid their artists very little. The backers of the tours, after all, were businessmen who expected to recoup expenses and then make a profit. And like businessmen everywhere they knew better than to put up their own money for the venture.

So even a hit group might find that their backers - usually the record companies - put up nothing. Instead ticket sales excepted, the expenses came out of the groups' record royalties. It's no surprise, then, that some musicians even with big hits eventually abandoned performing for the security of a 9 to 5 job. One of the Orlons - a group of young African American women who had three gold records - ended her career as a secretary working for a pharmaceutical company. And one singer found himself shoveling coal even while one of his group's songs was currently #1 on the charts.

But what distinguished Alan's concerts was how they were patronized by both white and black kids - at times in roughly equal proportions. In the 1950's such racial mixing horrified many adults. Alan, though, didn't care and continued his shows and concerts. Nor did the broadcast executives complain - as long as Alan made them money.

OK. We've strayed from the question whether Alan really invented the phrase rock and roll. But before we continue, we'll ask who actually invented rock and roll music?

Well, nobody did. It should be pretty clear that it was a musical development. With a continuum of the evolution of styles and instrumentation, a number of songs have been advanced as - quote - "the first rock and roll song ever written" - unquote.

The first connection of the words "rock" and "roll" in a popular song (other than sea shanties) has been pretty much traced down to the 1923 with Trixie Smith record "My Daddy Rocks Me (With a Steady Roll)".

My man rocks me, with one steady roll.
There's no slippin' when he wants to take hold.
I looked at the clock, and the clock struck one.
I said now, Daddy, ain't we got fun.
Oh, he was rockin' me, with one steady roll

This song, though, clearly does not use "rock and roll" as a description of a type of song. It clearly refers to - ah - "something else".

One popular choice for the first rock and roll tune is "Rocket 88" by Jackie Brenston. This was released in 1951 although the song was written in 1949. On the other hand, Jackie's version is not really distinct in style from earlier rhythm and blues.

Then there's "Okie Boogie", a song famously performed by Jack Guthrie (Jack was Woody's cousin by the way). That was 1947. But anyone will recognize "Okie Boogie" as Texas swing. A good song, yes, and Jack was a great musician, but it isn't really rock and roll.

But we're not done yet. You'll also find "Going to Move to Alabama" by Charlie Patton given the honor of the first rock and roll song. That was in 1929, for crying out loud! And it's really hard to call this rock and roll. Blues, yes. But not rock and roll.

And then there's Rock Around the Clock.

Die-hard Bill Haley fans know that when Bill lived in Philadelphia he led a group of country musicians called "The Saddlemen". He also cut a number of sides for "cowboy" records and appeared on stage in western garb.

But then Bill gave the band suits and ties, and hey, presto!, they were "Bill Haley and His Comets".

We must emphasize, though, that the change from the Saddlemen to the Comets was mostly in name and costume. Much of the music of the Saddlemen and the Comets was interchangeable. Some of the Comets' recordings - like "Rocking Chair On the Moon" - has a definite country tang. And "Rock This Joint" (released in 1952 by the Saddlemen) has the music, phrasings, chord progressions, and yes, sound very much like "Rock Around the Clock".

There's one thing to note about "Rock This Joint". In one of Bill's renditions the song starts out, "We're gonna rock! We're gonna roll!" Since the song was first written in 1949 or even earlier, this would indicate that the words "rock" and "roll" were linked before Alan's (alleged) coinage.

Those lines, though, appear to be from a later adaptation. The initial 1952 release by the Saddlemen does not have the rock/roll line, nor does the original 1949 release by Jimmy Preston and Prestonians.

In the end, then, we see that songs that were called rhythm and blues or country could simply become rock and roll by calling it rock and roll and changing their duds. There's no one song that was really the first rock and roll song.

As rock got more popular and the kids got more enthusiastic - and some of the early films show the kids really going nuts - local authorities began to resist Alan and his concerts. Scheduled to appear in the Boston Arena on March 20, 1958, Alan had been warned by the authorities (a vague term we admit) not to go on.

Alan ignored the request and as soon as he walked on stage, he announced to the kids they were going to rock and roll. The kids jumped out of their seats and cheered.

Immediately the lights came on and the cops came in. The concert proceeded but it was, well, a bit raucous and some of the kids crowded onto the stage and started dancing in the aisles. Alan asked the kids to get back to their seats and also asked the police to lower the lights (which might have calmed the kids down). The cops said no, and Alan famously announced, "Well, kids, it looks like the Boston police don't want you to have any fun."

Now it is true as Chuck Berry was winding up the concert, a fight broke out and there were some thrown chairs. But the fracas was quailed and after the concert, the kids filed out.

On the streets, there were reports of stabbings, robberies, other mayhem. Although the police may have simply reported what was on their blotter and blamed it on the concert, Alan was indicted for inciting a riot. The charges were dropped.

But so was his job at WINS. Of course, Alan was soon hired by another station, WABC, and he was also given a television show, The Big Beat Show.

The Big Beat, like Alan's concerts, featured rock groups before a live audience. It was quite popular with the kids. But on one of the episodes, the African American singer, Frankie Lyman, actually danced with a white girl. The broadcast executives and the sponsors went into apoplexy, and the show quickly ended.

We can't hide the fact that there had been a whiff of controversy around Alan suggesting that his modus rockerandi was not all about the music and promoting diversity. Some have suggested he took advantage of the singers, even going so far as to claim credit for writing some of their songs (which gave him royalties, of course). But selling and transferring copyright from the artists to other individuals and companies was (and still is) common (even today Sir Paul McCartney does not own the publication rights to many of his own songs). But what was really Alan's undoing was the famous payola scandal that hit the recording industry in the late 1950's.

Now it may be hard to believe but it seems some disc jockeys were actually taking money from record producers to play records. And Alan was one of the accused. Naturally the world was shocked! shocked! For his part, Alan said any money he received was just legitimate consulting fees.

The good news is that at the time the practice was not illegal - except in two states. The bad news is one of those states was Alan's home base, New York. Whether the practice was legal or not or if Alan was taking payola or just consulting, the Federal Communications Commission hinted they would cancel the stations licenses if they didn't clean up their act.

The scandal was big news and a Congressional investigation was set up in 1958. Naturally Alan was summoned to testify. He continued to deny any quid-pro-quo to play records. However, he would not sign a document that he had never received payola. Another famous rock promoter and host of a popular television show - named Richard Wagstaff Clark (his friends called him Dick) - did sign the document and also divested any business interests in the record companies. Dick kept his job. Alan didn't.

Well, even if payola wasn't illegal, commercial bribery was. Alan agreed to plead guilty to two counts in exchange for a suspended sentence and a fine.

Exactly how much payola Alan got isn't known. The government said it was over $30,000. However, one music executive who admitted he paid Alan said the money was minimal and wasn't even cash. When he offered to pay Alan to play a record, Alan said forget it, he didn't want his money. But the producer could, Alan said, come with him to the supermarket and pay for some food he was going to buy for his family. The cost was about $75.

Rock and roll went into a decline after the payola scandal. Some stations cut back the rock and roll programs, and some dropped them altogether. But more importantly the stations quit letting the DJ's select the music. Instead station executives - the "program directors" - told the DJ's what to play.

What remained of rock and roll became an acceptable part of American business. The fame of Elvis was too big to stop and so the promoters began to hire goody-two-shoes squeaky-clean (and white) singers who could look a little like Elvis but without the gyrations. These sort-of-Elvises were singers like Frankie Avalon, Fabian, Ricky Nelson, and Neil Sedaka. Not that these gentlemen were bad musicians, mind you, but it took four mop-headed singers from Liverpool in 1964 to get rock back on track to where frenzied hordes of thousands of teenagers filling convention halls and sports stadiums became the norm.

In the meantime, the payola scandal dragged on, and by 1960, Alan was going from station to station to find work. His attempts to revive his concerts were met with resistance. As the mid-1960's rolled in, Alan was living in Palm Springs, California.

Alan had always been a heavy drinker, and with the pressures of the payola scandal mounting, his unhealthy lifestyle took its toll. He died on January 20, 1965 at age 43 in a hospital in Palm Springs.

OK. Did Alan actually first use the phrase "rock and roll" or "rock 'n' roll" to describe a musical genre? In particular, the genre?

Alas, no. There is a resource everyone should go to when looking up the first use of a word. That's the Oxford English Dictionary.

That is we should go to it, if we could. The OED ain't cheap and the on-line edition isn't free.

But there are these strange unusual buildings found in most towns. These are called libraries, and some libraries do have copies of the OED.

And in 1934 there was a song by the Boswell Sisters - a trio of closely harmonizing ladies who recorded a song "Rock and Roll". The chorus ran:

Rock and roll, roll and rock away,
Up and down, round and round we sway,
We're the swell
In the spell
Oh, the rollin' rockin' rhythm of the sea!

But hold on again, Pilgrim! Eins mehr this isn't referring to music - but wave motion at sea! So you can't cite this as predating Alan's (alleged) invention of the words.

Well, no, we can't, but yes, we can. The literal interpretation may be rocking and rolling on the sea. But the implied meaning is, well, ambiguous. It's so ambiguous that, although the song was originally written for Shirley Temple of "Good Ship Lollipop" fame, the producers of Shirley's films vetoed it as not suitable for America's sweetheart.

And there's more.

In 1938, the New York Times ran a story about clarinetist Benny Goodman and drummer Gene Krupa. A caption in a photograph accompanying the story was - and we quote - "'Rock-and-Roll' men. Band leaders Benny Goodman and Gene Krupa - Their likes are not to be heard abroad."

But, you say, Benny Goodman and Gene Krupa played big band or swing music. This, we emphasize, is not rock and roll as championed by Alan.

OK, then, let's move forward to 1947 where we have the following review in Billboard's "Records Reviews":

MARTHA TILTON (Capitol 395) I Wonder, I Wonder, I Wonder, FT; V. That's My Desire, FT; V.

With a male vocal group for the swingy blends and Dean Elliott's ork [orchestra] setting the catchy rock 'n' roll rhythmic pattern [emphasis added], Martha Tilton easily captures the novelty sparkle of I Wonder. Cleffed by Daryl Hutchins, Coast-born ditty holds hit promise. That's My Desire makes for pleasant listening as voiced by Miss Tilton and vocal corps, but holds little that's new tunewise.

With I Wonder growing in stature, this should pay off for the ops. The Tilton tag should pull more coins once she takes over vocal chores on the Hit Parade.

Again this is well before Alan's year of 1951. Surely you'll agree Alan didn't invent the term.

Certainly not! Martha was - and pardon us if we shout - A BIG BAND SINGER - as well. So we still have the phrase "rock and roll" being used to describe a musical genre but not Alan's rock and roll.

Well, unfortunately, big band or swing music does indeed fit what Alan called rock and roll. On one of Alan's live shows, he featured Tony Bennett - who was (and at the time of this writing still is) a big band singer. And on one of his broadcasts, Alan even featured Count Basie and his Orchestra!

So it seems Alan himself used "rock and roll" to cover a wide range of styles. Even as late as 1956, Alan appeared in the movie Rock Rock Rock leading a band playing "The Rock and Roll Boogie". But this was big band music, no if, ands, or buts about it - and the likes of which Tommy Dorsey or Glen Miller would be proud of.

So in the end we have to agree with the mainstream opinion. That Alan popularized the phrase "rock and roll" can't be denied. More importantly, his move to New York - and especially the Life Magazine article in early 1955 - really did send the phrase into widespread use.

But "rock and roll" was being used well before 1951 - the date of Alan's solemn oath - to refer to popular music. And past the mid-1950's, even Alan would use the term to refer to almost any type of up-tempo American popular music, including what we call big band swing.

So Alan did not - that's not!, not!, not! - invent the phrase in any way shape or form.

Sorry, Alan. That's show biz.

 

References

Although there are a lot of books about Alan and his influence on popular music, they are not easy to find in libraries (one major metropolitan library system has no - that no, keins, nichts - books about Alan at all. Nevertheless, with some digging you can find a lot of good quality information about Alan.

To Tell the Truth, Bud Collyer (Host), Ralph Bellamy (Panelist), Polly Bergen (Panelist), Kitty Carlisle (Panelist), Hy Gardner (Panelist), Alan Freed (Guest), Air Date: March 5, 1957, Internet Movie Data Base. An interesting look on how rock and roll was regarded by the Hollywood crowd.

History of Rock and Roll, Thomas Larson, Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 2004.

The Rock History Reader, Theo Cateforis (Editor), Routledge, 2006

Moondog Alan Freed, Frank Allen, 2010.

"The Story of Rock 'n' Roll's First Concert", Ken Kelly, Ultimate Classic Rock, March 21, 2016.

"Who Really Invented Rock 'n' Roll", Jack Newfield, The New York Sun, September 21, 2004.

"Alan Freed: It Was Only Rock 'n' Roll to Him", Steve Hochman, The Los Angeles Times, October 15, 1999.

"WINS - America's #1 Music Station Presents America's #1 Rock 'n Roll" Disc Jockey, Alan Freed 'Rock 'n Roll Party'", The Billboard, p. 57, January 29, 1955.

"The Moondog Rock and Roll Party", WJW Radio, Cleveland, April 6, 1954.

"Record Reviews", The Billboard, May 3, 1947, p. 132. Mentions a "rock 'n' roll" slow ballad.

"The Billboard", America Radio History. Contains searchable issues

"Moondog Alan Freed: 1951 - 1965", Jack Doyle, The Pop History Dig.

"Legendary DJ Alan Freed Received a Strange Form of Payola", Ben Westhoff, LA Weekly, May 2, 2013.

"Rock N Roll: A frenzied teen-age music craze kicks up a big fuss", Life Magazine, pp. 166 - 168, April 8, 1955.

"Rock and Roll", Ngram Viewer, Google.

"Bill Haley and His Comets", Kitty Bennett, AARP Bulletin, July 9, 2010,

New York State Historical Newspapers Project, Northern New York Library Network

"The Big Bang! The Birth of Rock and Roll", The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

Rock 'N Roll Banned in Boston After Riot That Probably Never Happened, New England Historical Society.

"Moondog Alan Freed Dead at 43", The Cleveland Plain Dealer, January 21, 1965, (Reprinted on Cleveland.com).

"Let's Rock and Roll", Patricia O'Conner and Stewart Kellerman, Grammarphobia, November 8, 2013.

"Radio, TV Stations Push Disc Jockey Payola Quiz," Toledo Blade, November 23, 1959.

"The Man Who Knew It Wasn't Only Rock 'n' Roll", Bernard Weinraub, October 14, 1999.

Rock Around the Clock: The Record That Started the Rock Revolution!, Jim Dawson, Backbeat Books, 2005

"Detroiter Admits Getting $6000 to Plug Records," Toledo Blade, November 23, 1959.

The Oxford English Dictionary 20 Volumes, John Simpson (Editor), Edmund Weiner (Editor), Oxford University Press, 1989.

"rhythm", Volume XIII, Quemadero - Roaver.

"rock and roll", Volume XIL, Rob - Sequyle.

The Oxford Companion to Music, Alison Latham, Oxford University Press, 2002

"Chuck Berry", Internet Movie Data Base.

"Fats Domino", Internet Movie Data Base.

"Little Richard", Internet Movie Data Base.

"Alan Freed", Internet Movie Data Base.

 

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