Big Joe Turner

1
  • Year:
    1987
  • Inducted by:
    Doc Pomus
  • Category:
    Performers
big_joe_turner

Introduction

Inductee Doc Pomus said that rock and roll wouldn’t have happened without Big Joe Turner.

Indeed, Turner’s mastery of every genre including blues, jazz, R&B and swing gave way to his uptempo party hits. But make no mistake—the timeless Big Joe Turner is bigger than any one genre, era or song.

Hall of Fame Essay

1987

Michael Hill

“Rock and roll would have never happened without him,” songwriter Doc Pomus remarked in Rolling Stone magazine on the occasion of Big Joe Turner’s death in 1985 at the age of seventy-four. 

Turner, a Kansas City born-and-bred blues shouter, had already more than earned the appellation the Boss of the Blues when he found himself the harbinger of a new sound and style.

The  version  of “Shake, Rattle and Roll” he recorded for Atlantic in 1954 was the sort of forthright rhythm and blues side that generally never made it to the pop charts—as he sang it, the tune wasn’t exactly about dancing. But  later that year, when Bill Haley and His Comets sanitized the lyrics and simplified the beat, they really started  something.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Program 1987
1 of 2
if you weren’t in a world of trouble what would you have to sing about?
Doc Pomus