THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

201-Rambler Trio featuring Arthur Smith-Guitar Boogie.

1945-Has never charted. There was no UK chart until 1952.
Best Bit-At 1.22. ‘I guess you guys aren’t ready for that, but you kids are gonna love it.’

There are many songs (and some feature in this countdown) that hold claims to being the very first ever ‘Rock N’ Roll’ song, and this one has very strong claims.

Arthur Smith was born on April 1st, 1921, in Clinton, South Carolina, United States, he died on April 3rd, 2014, at the age of 93. Prior to serving in the U.S. Navy in World War 2, Smith along with his brothers Ralph and Sonny were becoming a popular Country Music group making regular live appearances on ‘WBT,’ a commercial radio station serving parts of North and South Carolina. Arthur Smith would go on to host his own Country Music syndicated television show, ‘The Arthur Miller Show,’which ran for 32 years from it’s inception in 1951.In 1957 Smith opened his own recording studio, which was used by many top artists including Pat Boone and Earl Scruggs. The most famous song recorded at his studio was ‘Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag’in 1965, by James Brown, which went on to reach Number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100. As a composer Smith wrote around 500 songs, with ‘Feudin’ Banjos’ being the best known, after being used in the 1972 film ‘Deliverance,’ and re-titled ‘Dueling Banjos.’ Smith was not credited in the film for his composition so he filed a lawsuit against Warner Brothers, winning a substantial settlement, it included him being awarded songwriting credit, and back royalties. This was considered a landmark copyright infringement suit.

In 1945 Arthur Smith created a ‘new sound’ by playing ‘boogie-woogie’ on a guitar instead of a piano, alternating between boogie rhythmic patterns and soloing. ‘Boogie Woogie’ is a style of music that developed in African-American communities in the 1870’s, but became very popular in the 1920’s. Boogie Woogie was always played on the piano but Smith’s use of a guitar as lead instrument led to a new genre of music that would become known as ‘Hillbilly Boogie.’

‘Guitar Boogie’ was credited by the record company to the ‘Rambler Trio featuring Arthur Smith. The Rambler trio also consisted of Don Reno, (1926-1984) on rhythm guitar, and Roy Lear who played bass.’Guitar Boogie’ was the first guitar instrumental to climb the Country Music chart, and then cross over on to the popular music chart, where it reached Number 8. In the 1950’s as ‘Rock N’ Roll’ was taking a tighter grip many versions by other artists were recorded. The most successful cover in America was by ‘Frank Virtue and the Virtues,’ who recorded the song with the title of ‘Guitar Boogie Shuffle,’ taking the song to Number 5 on Billboard in 1959. Also in 1959 in the UK the song had it’s greatest success when covered by Bert Weedon, (1920-2012) who took his version, also titled ‘Guitar Boogie Shuffle’ to Number 10, and becoming the first British guitarist to have a top 10 single.