Hardrock Gunter

Sidney Louie Gunter Jr. (February 27, 1925 – March 15, 2013), known as Hardrock Gunter, was a singer, songwriter and guitarist whose music at the turn of the 1950s prefigured rock and roll and rockabilly music.

Biography He was born in Birmingham, Alabama. He formed his first group, the Hoot Owl Ramblers, in his teens, and also performed a solo novelty act in talent shows. In 1939, he joined Happy Wilson's Golden River Boys, a country swing group, and acquired his nickname when a van trunk lid fell on him before a show and he never flinched. After wartime service he returned to work with the group, before leaving to become their agent and starting to appear on local TV.

As a popular local personality, he was approached to record by Birmingham's Bama label. He recorded his own song "Birmingham Bounce" in early 1950, the Golden River Boys being renamed the Pebbles on the record. It became a regional hit, and led to over 20 cover versions, the most successful being by Red Foley, whose version reached no.1 on the Billboard country chart and no.14 on the pop chart. Gunter's original version has become regarded as a contender for the first rock and roll record, predating "Rocket 88" by a year.

He continued to record with limited success, and in the 1960s left the music business to develop a career in insurance, based in Colorado. He retired to Rio Rancho, New Mexico. In 1995 he began to perform again at festivals in England, Germany and the United States. He died in 2013, from complications of pneumonia, at the age of 88.