Rock Awhile

"Rock Awhile" is a song by American singer-songwriter Goree Carter, recorded in April 1949 for the Freedom Recording Company in Houston, Texas.

"Rock Awhile"
A-side
Single by Goree Carter & His Hepcats
B-side	"Back Home Blues"
Released	1949
Recorded	April 1949
Studio	ACA Studios
Genre	Rock and roll electric blues Jump Blues
Length	2:38
Label	Freedom Recording Company
Songwriter(s)	Goree Carter
Goree Carter & His Hepcats singles chronology
"Rock Awhile" (1949) "I'll Send You" (1949)

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,^[1][2][3][4] and has been called a better candidate than the more commonly cited "Rocket 88", which was released two years later.^[1][2][5] The song features an over-driven electric guitar style similar to that of Chuck Berry years later.^[1][2][3]

The former New York Times pop critic, Robert Palmer,^[6] made this comment about the recording in 1995:

"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."^[7] 

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)
• Nelson Mills – trumpet (rhythm)