Doles Dickens
Toronto Daily Star, 23 January 1951
Doles Dickens (1916-1972) was a jazz musician and bandleader based mostly in New York. When not touring, he was a session musician for many famous recording artists of the 1950s, including Bill Haley, Mahalia Jackson, and LaVern Baker.
YouTube includes a few songs of his, including Rock And Roll (1949), which is a cover of an earlier version by Wild Bill Moore. Some people consider this to be the first rock and roll song ever - I think that the evolution was too gradual to name one song as the first, but Moore's version reminds me a lot of early Bill Haley and the Comets.
Created April 14, 2025.