"No More Doggin'" is a

rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated within African American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predomina ...

song written and originally recorded by

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

musician

Rosco Gordon Rosco N. Gordon III (April 10, 1928 – July 11, 2002), sometimes billed as Roscoe Gordon, was an American blues singer, pianist, and songwriter. He is best known for his hit songs "Booted," (1952), " No More Doggin'" (1952), and " Just a Littl ...

in 1952. The song featured Gordon's signature "Rosco Rhythm" piano style which became a precursor to Jamaican

ska Ska (; , ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a w ...

music.

Recording and release

had originally been associated with the Beale Streeters, a loose coalition of

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...

musicians that also featured

Johnny Ace John Marshall Alexander Jr. (June 9, 1929 – December 25, 1954), known by the stage name Johnny Ace, was an American rhythm-and-blues singer. He had a string of hit singles in the mid-1950s. He emerged as a prominent figure in postwar R&B an ...

B.B. King Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.B. King, was an American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, sh ...

, and

Bobby "Blue" Bland Robert Calvin Bland (born Robert Calvin Brooks; January 27, 1930 – June 23, 2013), known professionally as Bobby "Blue" Bland, was an American blues singer. Bland developed a sound that mixed gospel with the blues and R&B. He was describ ...

, in the late 1940s. In 1951, Gordon was scouted by

Ike Turner Izear Luster "Ike" Turner Jr. (November 5, 1931 – December 12, 2007) was an American musician, bandleader, songwriter, record producer, and talent scout. An early pioneer of 1950s rock and roll, he is best known for his work in the 1960s and ...

to record for the

Bihari brothers The Bihari brothers, Lester, Jules, Saul and Joe, were American businessmen of Hungarian Jewish origin. They founded Modern Records in Los Angeles and its subsidiaries, such as Meteor Records, based in Memphis. They were significant figures in th ...

Modern Records Modern Records (Modern Music Records before 1947) was an American record company and label formed in 1945 in Los Angeles by the Bihari brothers. Modern's artists included Hadda Brooks, Etta James, Joe Houston, Little Richard, Ike & Tina Turn ...

. He reached the ''Billboard'' charts that fall with the single "Saddled The Cow (And Milked The Horse)," released on Modern's subsidiary, RPM Records, which peaked at No. 9 on the Most Played Juke Box R&B Records chart. In March 1952, "Booted," topped the Best Selling R&B Records chart. In early 1952, Gordon recorded "No More Doggin'" at musician Tuff Green's house in Memphis, backed by Ike Turner also on piano. "No More Doggin'" was released on RPM in March 1952. The record reached No. 3 on the ''Billboard'' Best Selling R&B Records chart on April 19, 1952. It peaked higher at No. 2 on the Most Played Juke Box R&B Records chart on May 10, 1952.

Influence

''No More Doggin became a popular song in Jamaica and laid down the foundation for the development of

music. "Towards the end of the 50s Jamaicans got keen on rhythm and blues, particularly a record called 'No More Dogin' sung by Rosco Gordon," said

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in Jamaica by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in 1959, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, another ...

founder,

Chris Blackwell Christopher Percy Gordon Blackwell OJ (born 22 June 1937) is a Jamaican-British former record producer and the founder of Island Records, which has been called "one of Britain's great independent labels". According to the Rock and Roll Hall ...

. "They got hold of this beat, cheered it up a bit, added some lyrics and called it ska....From 1959 onwards this was all the rage." Ska music evolved into

rocksteady Rocksteady is a music genre that originated in Jamaica around 1966. A successor of ska and a precursor to reggae, rocksteady was the dominant style of music in Jamaica for nearly two years, performed by many of the artists who helped establish ...

and then became

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica during the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its Jamaican diaspora, diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay", was the first ...

music. Jamaican singer Laurel Aitken, one of the pioneers of ska, was inspired to record "Boogie in My Bones" (1958) after hearing "No More Doggin'. Influenced by Gordon's "Roscoe Rhythm" piano style, Aitken and fellow Jamaican musicians Owen Gray and Theophilus Beckford emulated the rhythm, adding guitar and horns.

References

{{authority control 1952 songs 1952 singles RPM Records (United States) singles American rhythm and blues songs