Who was the first Rock 'n Roll star?

In the 1920s the words "rock" and "roll," used separately or together, were employed by blacks to mean partying, carrying on, and/or having sex. According to rock historian Nick Tosches, blues singer Trixie Smith recorded a tune in 1922 called "My Daddy Rocks Me (With One Steady Roll)" for Black Swan Records. "Daddy," suffice it to say, was not trying to rock little Trixie to sleep. This song inspired such variations as "Rock That Thing" by Lil Johnson and "Rock Me Mama" by Ikey Robinson.

By the 1930s the term had begun to be associated with the idea of music with a good beat to it. In 1931 Duke Ellington did "Rockin' in Rhythm" for Victor. The Boswell Sisters did a song called "Rock and Roll" in the 1934 United Artists flick Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round. In 1939 Buddy Jones recorded "Rockin' Rollin' Mama" (String), in which he soulfully shouted, "I love the way you rock and roll!" But rockin' and rollin' did not really catch on until 1948, when Wynonie Harris released "Good Rockin' Tonight" (King). An earlier version by Roy Brown (Deluxe, 1947) had bombed, but Wynonie's cover became a number one hit. That was the beginning of a flood of tunes that worked "rock" into the title, such as Bill Haley's "Rock-a-Beatin' Boogie" (1952), which contained the deathless words "Rock, rock, rock, everybody/Roll, roll, roll, everybody."

In 1952 Alan Freed visited a Cleveland record store and learned that R&B records were being snapped up by white teenagers. Immediately sensing the makings of Something Big, he changed the name of his popular music show on radio station WJW from the lame "Record Rendezvous" to "Moon Dog's Rock 'n' Roll House Party" and began playing R&B tunes. Freed apparently used the term "rock 'n' roll" to describe the music because he thought the racial connotation of "rhythm and blues" might turn off the white audience. In any case, the term stuck.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/382/who-invented-the-term-rock-n-roll

Muddy Waters was a rock star from the minute he stepped onto a stage until the minute he went to that big roadhouse in the sky. Howlin' Wolf and John Lee Hooker, too...rock stars.

Chuck Berry's first single, Maybelline, was released in 1955, the same year that gave us Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti" and Johnny Cash's "Cry, Cry, Cry," "So Doggone Lonesomem" and "Folsom Prison Blues."

In 1956, Jerry Lee Lewis released his first two singles, "Crazy Arms" and "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On."

Elvis, however, was the first "rock star" to set the world on fire. Yes, a lot of it had to do with the fact that he fulfilled Sun Records owner Sam Phillips' vision of a "white man who could sing like a black man." But he had the voice and star power that transcended any marketing gimmick. So I don't know...I've posted the chronology, you decide.

In 1954, Elvis released:



That's All Right (Mama)
Blue Moon Of Kentucky
(US) SUN 209 (78/45)
Released: July 19, 1954
Recorded: Sun Studios, Memphis, July 5, 1954



Good Rockin' Tonight
I Don't Care If The Sun Don't Shine *
(US) SUN 210 (78/45)
Released: September 1954
Recorded: Sun Studios, Memphis, September 9, 1954