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"Rumble." one of the most primitive and exciting guitar instrumentals ever laid to tape, didn't even have a name when it was recorded, and it almost wasn't released at all. The classic track was rescued from obscurity when the 17-yearold daughter of Cadence Records owner Archie Bleyer grabbed the acetate while looking for music to play at a birthday party. The kids flipped, Bleyer smelled a hit (the song reached #16 on the national charts in 1958), and his daughter ended up naming the song because it reminded her of the fight scene in West Side Story.
The late Link Wray made up "Rumble" on the spot at one of deejay Milt Grant's record hops after the dancers asked for a stroll.
"I didn't know a stroll, so I just started playing," said Wray, who launched into perhaps the nastiest two-chord intro in rock. "My brother took the vocal mic and put it in front of my amp, and it just distorted the heck out of the small PA. speakers."
Impressed by the authence hysteria, Grant brought Wray and his band into U.S. Recorders in Washington, D.C.
"That place wasn't...