Jackie Brenston August 15, 1930 - December 15, 1979 Birthplace: Clarksdale, Mississippi

Jackie Brenston may be best known for his song "Rocket 88," which Sam Phillips once called the first rock & roll record ever made. A saxophone player and singer from Clarksdale, Mississippi, Jackie wrote the song and recorded it with Ike Turner's band in early 1951 at the Sun Recording Studio in Memphis. Phillips sold the song to Chess Records. Similar to Jimmy Liggins' "Cadillac Boogie" (the Rocket 88 was an Oldsmobile), "Rocket 88" climbed to the top of the R&B charts and, overall, was the second most successful R&B record of 1951, yielding only to the Dominoes' "Sixty Minute Man."

Whether "Rocket 88" was indeed the first rock & roll record is subject to debate. But for many the song did sound and feel like a rock & roll record, and it may have provided an important link to the black R&B records that preceded it. The success of "Rocket 88" also helped lead Phillips start his own record company, Sun Records, in 1952 and to record a young Elvis Presley two years later.

Jackie released a few more singles between 1951 and 1953, but none of them came close to matching the success of "Rocket 88." Brenston wound up playing sax in Lowell Fulson's band until 1955 when he teamed up with Turner again. He remained a member of Turner's band until 1962. He died in Memphis in 1979.