Jackie Brenston

Did You Know?

• Brenston sold the rights to "Rocket 88" to Sam Phillips for $910, while Turner and the band were paid $20 each.
• Brenston said the song "Rocket 88" was not original, borrowing from Jimmy Liggins' "Cadillac Boogie."
• Brenston died of a heart attack at V.A. Hospital in Memphis on December 15, 1979.

Biography

Jackie Brenston came into the world in Clarksdale, Mississippi, though exactly when is a matter of debate. His headstone and army enlistment papers both list August 24, 1928, but Brenston himself claimed in 1974 that he was born on August 24, 1927. His obituary in the Clarksdale Press Register gave a different date, August 15, 1930, which researchers Bob Eagle and Eric S. LeBlanc have backed. Growing up, Brenston had a rough time and frequently ran away from home. Some believe his mother, Ethel Brenston, lied about his age to get him into the military. Brenston said he served more than three years with the 82nd Airborne, but official records show he enlisted on January 19, 1946, and was discharged on December 18, 1946.

After his army stint, Brenston returned to Clarksdale and picked up the tenor saxophone. In 1950, he joined Ike Turner’s band, the Kings of Rhythm, playing sax and occasionally singing. The band’s local popularity led B. B. King to recommend them to Sam Phillips, who owned a studio in Memphis, Tennessee. In early March 1951, the group recorded several songs there, including “Rocket 88,” with Brenston on lead vocals and credited as the writer. Turner led the band but didn’t sing on that track. Brenston later admitted the song wasn’t all that original, saying they borrowed heavily from Jimmy Liggins’ “Cadillac Boogie,” a jump blues about a car. Turner, however, always insisted he wrote the music and that he and the band came up with the lyrics together.

Phillips sent the recordings to Chess Records in Chicago, which put out “Rocket 88” under the name Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats, not Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm featuring Jackie Brenston. Turner blamed Phillips for the mix-up. The record shot to number one on the U.S. Billboard R&B chart and sold around half a million copies. Turner and the other band members each got $20 for their work. Brenston, though, sold his rights to Phillips for $910.

Phillips later called “Rocket 88” the first rock and roll record. While plenty of other songs also claim that title, many agree it stands among the earliest examples of the genre. Phillips used the money from the record’s success to launch Sun Records the following year.