Question: Did Alan Freed invent the term "rock and roll"?
Answer: The term "rock and roll" was not invented by Alan Freed, but it can be argued that he was the first to use the term specifically to refer to the new forms of both rhythm & blues, pop vocal, and rockabilly that were popping up in the early-to-mid Fifties.
The term was originally nautical and referred to the motion of a ship; black gospel picked up on it in the 19th century as a way to describe the loving embrace of a Christian god. An anonymous 1916 recording of the spiritual "The Camp Meeting Jubilee" (on the Little Wonder label) is the first recorded instance of the phrase, which then naturally crossed over into other popular musics of the time like swing, jazz, and blues, made more secular as a description of either sex or dancing. Trixie Smith's "My Daddy Rocks Me (With One Steady Roll)" (Black Swan, 1932) is one example, as is country artist Buddy Jones' "Rockin', Rollin' Mama" (String, 1939).
Wynonie Harris' version of Roy Brown's "Good Rocking Tonight" is considered the first rock song by some historians, in part because its success popularized the verb more than any other record. It's the Trixie Smith release that most folks point to as the inspiration for Freed to give the entire genre the name "rock and roll," but there were so many "race" records (and even some "hillbilly" ones) using the term by the time Freed became a radio sensation in the early Fifties that he could have gotten it from anywhere, or more to the point, everywhere. Some have stated that he first used the term when introducing Bill Haley and the Comets' "Rock Around The Clock" on WINS in 1954. (The record would not become a national sensation until a year later, after its inclusion in the popular film The Blackboard Jungle. The record's belated success kicked off the rock era as we now know it.) The fact remains, however, that Freed's 1951 radio program was labeled the "Moondog Rock ‘n' Roll Party" from the very beginning.
Here are a list of frequently cited records that use either "rock" or "roll" in the way we've come to expect:
"My Daddy Rocks Me (With One Steady Roll)," Trixie Smith, 1922
"Rock, Aunt Dinah, Rock," Coot Grant, 1925
"Rock That Thing," Lil Johnson, 1929
"Detroit Rocks," Montana Taylor, 1929
"Rock Me Mama," Banjo Ikey Robinson, 1929
"Rocking and Rolling," Robinson's Knights Of Rest, 1930
"Rockin' In Rhythm," Duke Ellington, 1931
"Rock and Roll," Boswell Sisters, 1934
"Rockin' And Swingin'," Don Albert, 1936
"Rock Me Daddy," Georgia White, 1937
"Rock It For Me," Chick Webb with Ella Fitzgerald, 1938
"Rockin' Rollers' Jubilee," Erskine Hawkins, 1938
"Rock It In Rhythm," Tampa Red, 1938
"Rockin, Rollin Mama," Buddy Jones, 1939
"Rock Me Mama," Big Joe Turner, 1941
"Rock Me In The Groove," Sweet Georgia Brown, 1941
"I Want To Rock," Cab Calloway, 1942
"The Boogie Rocks," Albert Ammons, 1944
