Is Texas the Birthplace of Rock ’n’ Roll?

Where was rock ’n’ roll born? There are plenty of places around the country that claim the title.

Memphis, Tennessee, home of Sun Records, is where Jackie Brenston & His Delta Cats recorded what is considered by many to be the very first rock ’n’ roll single, “Rocket 88.” Cleveland calls itself “the rock ’n’ roll capital of the world” and hosts the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, claiming a local DJ was the first person to coin the phrase rock ’n’ roll.

Even little Hattiesburg, Mississippi, has laid its claim to the title of “birthplace of rock ’n’ roll” thanks to the Graves brothers, two gospel singers who laid down a couple of tracks in 1936 that marked a seminal breach of gospel music into the unhallowed, secular realms of romping and boogying.

But there is no doubt that wherever rock ’n’ roll was born, the music we know and love today was shaped, crafted, modeled, and nurtured by Texas. Texas musicians loom large in the history of the genre. From early blues and gospel pioneers to legends like Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison, the soup of rhythm and blues that became rock ’n’ roll fermented and came of age in the Lone Star State. Here we celebrate some of the pioneering Texans who helped give the United States its own original musical art form.

The First Rock ’n’ Roll Records

Texas has its own claim on recording the first rock ’n’ roll record. In 1949, 18-year-old Goree Carter recorded “Rock Awhile,” his first single, for Freedom Recording Company in Houston. The record featured many of the stylistic elements that would become synonymous with rock ’n’ roll: an over-driven guitar, jumping beat, and driving piano accompaniment. The song pre-dated “Rocket 88” by two years.

Houston was a hotbed of the earliest rock ’n’ roll recordings. Peacock Records, also founded in 1949, recorded Big Mama Thornton’s “Hound Dog,” which would eventually rocket a Memphis singer named Elvis Presley to fame, as well as cuts by James Booker, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Little Richard, and Memphis Slim.

Proto-Rock ’n’ Rollers

It wasn’t surprising that the clubs around Houston and throughout Texas were starting to jump with a new style of music that would take the country by storm. Texas blues and jazz musicians had been pushing traditional forms of African American music in new directions since the beginning of the 20th century.

Influential blues artists like Blind Lemon Jefferson and his protégée T-Bone Walker popularized the Deep Ellum blues sound. Texas transplants like Lead Belly and Robert Johnson would record some of the most important early American music cuts in Texas. Beginning in the 1940s, Lightnin’ Hopkins’ unique style of blues guitar would greatly influence many of the British guitarists who would reinvade America with their borrowed Texas licks. And Texas jazz guitarists Charlie Christian and Eddie Durham were among the first pros to plug in electric guitars.

All Rock Roads Lead to West Texas

It’s ironic that a musical genre that owes much of its sound to the chaotic intermingling of rural and urban musical influences came of age in the sparsely populated, wide-open plains of West Texas. At a tiny music studio just over the border in Clovis, New Mexico, Norman Petty would record some of the artists from nearby Lubbock who would stamp an indelible mark on the future of rock ’n’ roll.

It is difficult to overplay the influence Buddy Holly and the Crickets had on musical history. In the four short years Holly was active, recording with the Crickets and then touring on his own, playing alongside Elvis, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper, and others, he invented the sound and model that would influence countless rock ’n’ roll bands. Holly songs like “Peggy Sue,” “Not Fade Away,” and “Everyday” would inspire young kids around the world to pick up instruments and form bands like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.

Sadly, Holly died in a tragic plane crash in 1959. He was only 22 years old. In the plane with him were Valens and The Big Bopper, another pioneering Texas rock and roller. Born J.P. Richardson Jr. in Sabine Pass, the Bopper wrote hits like “Chantilly Lace,” as well as the song “White Lightning,” which would become George Jones’ first hit.

Other early rock ’n’ roll artists to emerge out of West Texas included Roy Orbison, who also cut some early tracks at the studio in Clovis before going on to solidify his reputation as one of the great crooners in rock ’n’ roll history. Before he became a bad boy of country alongside Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings was making a name playing at talent shows and radio appearances in Lubbock before Buddy Holly took notice and helped set him up with a recording session. It’s also said that another Lubbock boy, Delbert McClinton, influenced John Lennon’s harmonica styling on The Beatles’ breakout hit “Love Me Do,” before becoming one of the state’s most beloved songwriters.

Rockabilly and the Big D Jamboree

Texas had its own larger-than-life, hard-rolling and swinging form of rock ’n’ roll called rockabilly. Born out of a collision between rhythm and blues, Western Swing, Texas blues, and big band influences, it was pioneered by Texas rockabilly artists like Charlie Arthur, Dean Beard and the Crew Cats, and Johnny Carroll. They often appeared on the influential Big D Jamboree broadcast in the 1950s and ’60s. Those statewide broadcasts also featured performances by a who’s who of rock ’n’ roll stars — from Elvis Presley and Wanda Jackson to Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins — helping to cross-pollinate influences and spread the gospel of rock across Texas.

Tex-Mex Rock ’n’ Roll

The influence of Tejano, conjunto, and other Mexican and Mexican American musical styles shaped the sound of a few pioneering rock ’n’ roll artists. Freddy Fender was born in the valley town of San Benito and became known for performing Spanish versions of rock ’n’ roll hits, like Elvis’ “Love Me Tender,” before resurfacing in the 1970s as a chart-topper in his own right. Trini Lopez was born in Dallas’ Little Mexico neighborhood, and he had hits with covers of “If I Had a Hammer” and “La Bamba.” Mexican and Latino musical influences can also be heard in the San Antonio band the Sir Douglas Quintet and Sam the Sham & the Pharaoh’s “Wooly Bully.”

For more on Texas music, check out these up-and-coming country artists, build a road trip playlist, and follow the East Texas music highway.

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