Record

CodeDS/UK/16233
NameTurner; Big Joe (1911-1985); American blues shouter
AliasBorn Joseph Vernon Turner Jr.
Dates1911-1985
GenderMale
BiographyBig Joe Turner (born Joseph Vernon Turner Jr., 18 May 1911 – 24 November 1985) was an American blues shouter from Kansas City, Missouri, United States. According to the songwriter Doc Pomus, "Rock and roll would have never happened without him." While he had his greatest fame during the 1950s with his rock and roll recordings, particularly "Shake, Rattle and Roll", Turner's career as a performer endured from the 1920s into the 1980s. Turner was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, with the Hall lauding him as "the brawny voiced 'Boss of the Blues'".

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