True, many music writers and musicologists credit the outfit with the recording of the very first rock record, “Rocket 88”.
In the ensuing success of Ike and Tina Turner as well as the notoriety accorded Ike by Tina’s subsequent account of their marriage and career, drug problems, and appearance on People’s Court, the innovations wrought by Ike’s Kings of Rhythm band have all but been forgotten by the general public. By the time that Ike Turner met and transformed young Anna Mae Bullock into Tina Turner, he had already had a lengthy career on the southern blues and R&B circuit.
