Frankie Laine deserves to be inducted as an early influence. Music critics/historians (including Will Friedwald, Jonny Whiteside, Ian Whitcomb, Larry Birnbaum) have all acknowledged that Laine's 1946 recording, "That's My Desire":

"...established Frankie as 'the first of the white soul singers', and that he 'effectively set the pattern which was to lead from Johnnie Ray to Elvis Presley'."

And that he was the first of a new breed of singers to break from the old crooning style of the swing era:

"The vanguard was led by evangelical belters Frankie Laine and Johnny Ray, shadowed by the cold water country stylings of Hank Williams and "Tennessee" Ernie Ford. And then suddenly, in the middle 1950’s, the floodgates opened and rock & roll crashed in, ..."

Popular Song Org even goes so far as to call Mr. Laine's singing: "...probably the most significant single style change in the history of pop male vocals."

And goes on to consider Laine as a prime candidate for having recorded the *first* rock 'n' roll song:

"Laine, Haley, or Presley?

"The other significant impact made by 'Mule Train' is harder to quantify. The question that gives music historians fits is, who made black music styles acceptable to the masses? The answer to that question is the person responsible for creating 'rock and roll.' The answers range from Bill Haley to Elvis to Pat Boone, yet more and more historians are pointing back to the late 1940s and early 1950s, and artists like Laine and Ray. While black artists like Louis Jordan had crossed over to the popular charts prior to 1949, many believe that 'Mule Train' was the first black-sounding song, recorded in an R & B style, by a mainstream, white pop artist."

Posted by Michael on Friday, 08/16/2013 @ 10:22am