eric ...you little googler --that was like 1957 or so:cool: wrong!!! it was "Rocket 88" 1951 by Jackie Brenston...amp fell out on highway 61, shook a tube loose, they liked the way it sounded...the rest is history...

from wikpedia and what i learned in my rock class---

Working from the raw material of jump blues and swing combo music, Turner made it even rawer, starting with a strongly stated back beat by drummer Willie Sims, and superimposing Brenston's enthusiastic vocals, his own piano, and tenor saxophone solos by Raymond Hill. The song also features one of the first examples of distortion, or fuzz guitar ever recorded, played by the band's guitarist Willie Kizart. The legend of how the sound came about says that a tube amplifier was damaged on Highway 61 when the band was driving from Mississippi to Memphis, Tennessee but Phillips liked the sound and used it.