♫♪♫ RUMBLE....♫♪♫ A Song With An Interesting History....

 

I just heard this song, for the first time, earlier this week. 

He influenced a lot of other musicians down the road into the 60's and 70's.

1958 instrumental by Link Wray

 

"Rumble" is an instrumental by American group Link Wray & His Wray Men. Released in the United States on March 31, 1958, as a single (with "The Swag" as a B-side), "Rumble" utilized the techniques of distortion and tremolo, then largely unexplored in rock and roll. 

In 2018, the song was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in a new category for singles.

In 2008, it was inducted to National Recording Registry by Library of Congress. 

At a live gig in Fredericksburg, Virginia, in early 1958, while attempting to work up a backing for The Diamonds' "The Stroll", Link Wray & His Ray Men came up with the instrumental "Rumble", which they originally called "Oddball". It was an instant hit with the audience, which demanded four repeats that night. The host of the sock hop, disc jockey Milt Grant, paid for the song to be recorded and released as a single; in turn, Grant would receive songwriting credit.

 Eventually the instrumental came to the attention of record producer Archie Bleyer of Cadence Records, who hated it, particularly after Wray poked a pencil through the speaker cone of his amplifier to make the recording sound more like the live version. But Bleyer's stepdaughter loved it, so he released it despite his misgivings. Phil Everly heard it and suggested the title "Rumble", as it had a rough sound and said it sounded like a street fight.

It was banned in several US radio markets, because the term 'rumble' was a slang term for a gang fight, and it was feared that the piece's harsh sound glorified juvenile delinquency. The record is the only instrumental single ever banned from radio in the United States. 

"Rumble" was a hit in the United States, where it climbed to number 16 on the pop charts and number 11 on the R&B chart in the summer of 1958. In Canada the song also reached number 16.