Rock & Roll Turns 65/Sister Rosetta Tharpe

There is endless debate over which recording should be considered the first rock & roll song. On the list of candidates. usually the earliest one is Sister Rosetta Tharpe's "Strange Thing Happening Everyday". That song was recorded in September 1944. So if you accept this as the first rock & roll song, rock & roll is now 65 years old.

There seems to be no video of Sister Rosetta performing this song, but here is the audio. I believe that this audio is from the 1944 recording, but I am not sure.




Considering what a dynamic performer Sister Rosetta was, I have to include some other videos of her performing. These videos would have been from the late 50's or early 60's, but she was still going strong. Here is "Up Above My Head". Let's do that again.



You can't get anymore rock & roll than this performance of "Down by the Riverside".






This performance of "Didn't It Rain" has my all time favorite entrance by any performer.