The story behind puzzle No. 59
Big Joe Turner & Pete Johnson · Single · Vocalion · 1938
A Kansas City blues shouter and a boogie-woogie pianist made a record in 1938 that sounds like rock and roll showing up early.
Big Joe Turner and Pete Johnson recorded Roll 'Em Pete in New York on December 30, 1938, for Vocalion. They wrote it together.
It was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2018.
Johnson was a boogie-woogie pianist in Kansas City, and he and Turner had been working together since the early 1930s. Roll 'Em Pete was Johnson's signature tune in the Kansas City clubs.
Chuck Berry, Count Basie and Lionel Hampton all recorded it later.
The record is regarded as one of the most important forerunners of rock and roll. It has one of the earliest recorded examples of a back beat, and the rhythm runs straight rather than in a shuffle.
Listen to Johnson's left hand rolling out the bass pattern while his right hand hammers riffs, and Turner shouting over the top.
Who's on it
Keep listening
Stay in Kansas City with Moten Swing (puzzle No. 22) and Hootie Blues (puzzle No. 49).
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