| "Guitar Boogie" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith | ||||
| B-side | "Boomerang" | |||
| Released | October 23, 1948 | |||
| Format | 10" 78 rpm record | |||
| Recorded | 1948 | |||
| Genre | Country | |||
| Length | 3:22 | |||
| Label | MGM (Cat. no. 10293) | |||
| Writer(s) | Arthur Smith | |||
| Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith singles chronology | ||||
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"Guitar Boogie" is a guitar instrumental recorded by Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith. In 1948, the song became a hit, eventually selling nearly three million copies.[1] Since then, "Guitar Boogie" has been interpreted and recorded by a variety of musical performers and has been among the songs "often cited as the first rock & roll song".[1]
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"Guitar Boogie" is an uptempo twelve-bar boogie-style instrumental that features Arthur Smith on guitar backed by a small combo. The song is patterned after older boogie-woogie piano pieces[2] and, throughout the song, Smith alternates between boogie rhythmic patterns and soloing. He first recorded "Guitar Boogie" in 1945 with the Tennessee Ramblers and it was released in 1946 as "The Rambler Trio featuring Arthur Smith" (Super Disc 1004A).[3] In 1948, he re-recorded the song for MGM Records as "Arthur (Guitar Boogie) Smith and His Cracker-Jacks".
In 1949, "Guitar Boogie" reached #8 during a stay of seven weeks in the Country chart and #25 in the Pop chart.[4] "It became the first guitar instrumental to climb the Country charts [then] crossover, and climb the Pop Charts",[5] linking 1940s Western swing and 1950s rockabilly.
In 1958, a Philadelphia band, Frank Virtue and The Virtues, recorded a rock and roll version of "Guitar Boogie", naming it "Guitar Boogie Shuffle" (Hunt 324). Their version, "with new accents and a beat that took it out of country boogie and Western swing", "became one of the most popular and influential instrumentals of its era".[6] In 1959, "Guitar Boogie Shuffle" reached #5 in the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart and #27 in the Billboard R&B chart. In the UK Bert Weedon's version of "Guitar Boogie Shuffle", backed with "Bert's Boogie", was released on Top Rank JAR 117 the same year.[7]
Numerous performers have interpreted and recorded "Guitar Boogie". Early versions of the song include those by the Les Paul Trio (1947 Decca 29013) and Alvino Rey (1946 Capitol 318 & 1948 Capitol 15223). In 1958, a different "Guitar Boogie", with more chording, was included on Chuck Berry's second album One Dozen Berrys. Jeff Beck later based his "Jeff's Boogie" from The Yardbirds' 1966 album Yardbirds/Over Under Sideways Down aka Roger the Engineer on Berry's version. Freddie King's 1960 blues guitar instrumental "Hide Away" incorporates elements from various songs, including sections similar to those in "Guitar Boogie". Later renditions of "Guitar Boogie" include live versions by Tommy Emmanuel and Tom Petty.