Jesse Albert Stone (November 16, 1901 – April 1, 1999) was an American rhythm and blues musician and songwriter whose influence spanned a wide range of genres. He also used the pseudonyms Charles Calhoun and Chuck Calhoun. His best-known composition as Calhoun was "Shake, Rattle and Roll". Ahmet Ertegun once stated that "Jesse Stone did more to develop the basic rock 'n' roll sound than anybody else."
Stone was born in Atchison, Kansas, United States.The grandson of Tennessee slaves, he enjoyed a long career in jazz and blues prior to the birth of rock n roll. His whole family was in show business, parents, grandparents, uncles, cousins. He started singing when he was four and at age five he performed with a trained dog act in his parents' minstrel shows. By 1926 he was an accomplished piano player and had formed a group, the Blue Serenaders, and cut his first record, "Starvation Blues", for OKeh Records in 1927. Coleman Hawkins got his professional start with Stone’s Blues Serenaders as a saxophonist when he was a teenager.
For the next few years he worked in Kansas City as an arranger and pianist, recording with Julia Lee among others and then in the 1930s organised a larger orchestra. Duke Ellington got Stone's orchestra booked at the Cotton Club in 1936, and Ellington put Stone up free of charge in his apartment for four months. Over the next few years Stone worked as a bandleader at the Apollo Theatre, and more widely in Harlem as a songwriter and arranger, with Chick Webb's band (which included Louis Jordan), Jimmie Lunceford, and many others. He made some recordings under his own name in the 1930s and 1940s.
In 1941, Stone became musical director for the all-female jazz band, the International Sweethearts of Rhythm. He left after two years. Stone's early writings show a deep blues influence. An early success was "Idaho", recorded by several artists, with the Benny Goodman version peaking at number 4 (pop) in 1942. The recording by Guy Lombardo sold three million copies. Jimmy Dorsey recorded his composition "Sorghum Switch", later retitled "Cole Slaw" by Louis Jordan. Stone also recorded novelty blues records for RCA Records, and wrote the standard "Smack Dab in the Middle".
In 1945, with his friend Herb Abramson, he went to work for Al Green at National Records, and two years later the pair joined the staff at Atlantic Records. At the time, Stone was the only black person on the Atlantic payroll. Stone worked for Atlantic as a producer, songwriter, and arranger. During a trip to the South in 1949 with Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson, Stone discovered that Atlantic's records were not selling in the southern states because they lacked a certain danceable quality. Stone later said: "I listened to the stuff that was being done by those thrown-together bands in the joints down there, and I concluded that the only thing that was missing from the stuff we were recording was the rhythm. All we needed was a bass line. So I designed a bass pattern, and it sort of became identified with rock'n'roll."
Though he was no great singer, Stone also made some records of his own, first for RCA Victor in 1947-49 (influenced by the novelty jump blues style of Louis Jordan), then for Atlantic/Atco in 1954-56 , also for MGM, Poplar and again RCA (1958, credited to The Stone Crushers). Some of these recordings came out under the name Charles (or Chuck) Calhoun and some were instrumentals.On Ertegun's advice, Stone used the pseudonym of Charles F. Calhoun, a name appropriated from an unknowing local builder, on his BMI tunes to avoid conflict with his membership in the other music licensing society, ASCAP. His best-known composition as Calhoun was "Shake, Rattle and Roll". The song was first recorded by Big Joe Turner in 1954 for Atlantic and was a major hit for the rhythm and blues artist, often cited as one of the first rock and roll records.
An even bigger success was a cover version of the song recorded later in 1954 for Decca Records by Bill Haley & His Comets. This version became one of the first rock and roll recordings to sell a million copies and be an international success. It predated Haley's better-known "Rock Around the Clock" by nearly a year. Stone also co-wrote "Flip, Flop and Fly" with Big Joe Turner, which was another hit. Haley was also fond of the song, and recorded it three times during his career. Stone also had additional Haley connections. Haley's hit, 1955's "Razzle-Dazzle", was another written by Stone under the Calhoun pseudonym. Stone was also credited as co-writer (along with James E. Myers aka Jimmy DeKnight, co-writer of "Rock Around the Clock") of "Rattle My Bones", a song recorded in 1956 by the Comets spin-off group, The Jodimars.
As a bandleader, Stone recorded several singles in the late 1940s and mid 1950s, on RCA Victor, Atlantic and other labels, either under his own name or as "Chuck", "Charles" or "Charlie" Calhoun.In 1960, he served as arranger and orchestra director for a session for LaVern Baker which produced four songs including the hit "Bumble Bee". In 1961, after a brief and temporary retirement, Stone was recruited to run Randy Records in Chicago. However, he left after a few years and relocated to New York and then Florida. In 1975, he married Evelyn McGee (1922–1996), formerly of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm.
Stone was honored by the Rhythm and Blues Foundation in 1992 with a Pioneer Award. He was inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame in 1992. Stone died on April 1, 1999at the age of 97 years old in Altamonte Springs, Florida after long-term kidney and heart problems. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010.
(Edited from Wikipedia & This Is My Story)