John Lennon, working with Phil Spector, recorded the album at A&M Records Studios and Gold Star Recording Studios. Having serious issues with Spector, Lennon practically abandoned the project and Spector hung onto the tapes. Spector was later to return the tapes to Lennon.
Lennon wasn't satisfied with the quality of the original tapes and rectified various technical problems. Only four songs from the Phil Spector sessions finally got to be released on the album.
Spector told Rolling Stone (Nov 9, 2000), "As far as the album is concerned, we didn�t really like doing Chuck Berry and Larry Williams. I mean, there was no stamp of personality on it. We even did �Be My Baby�. It was ridiculous, because we didn�t believe it. The Rock �N� Roll album was really... it was good, but it was a mish-mash. It wasn�t the best of John Lennon."
May Pang contacted Jurgen Vollmer, an old friend of the Beatles who John had met at the first Beatlefest convention in Germany. Vollmer was selling his personal collection of Beatles photographs (taken from the Beatle's Hamburg days) at the first Mark Lapidos-produced Beatlefest in New York in 1974. Lennon chose one of Vollmer's photos for the album cover.
Tracklist
1. Be-Bop-A-Lula
2. Stand by Me
3. Rip It Up/Ready Teddy
4. You Can't Catch Me
5. Ain't That a Shame
6. Do You Wanna Dance?
7. Sweet Little Sixteen
8. Slippin' and Slidin'
9. Peggy Sue
10. Bring It On Home to Me
/Send Me Some Lovin'
11. Bony Moronie
12. Ya Ya
13. Just Because
14. Angel Baby (Rosie Hamlin)
15. To Know Her is to Love Her
16. Since My Baby Left Me
17. Just Because
May was credited as 'Production Coordinator and Mother Superior' in recognition to her dedication in spite of the numerous problems producing the album. 'Do You Wanna Dance?' and 'Since My Baby Left Me' feature May singing background vocals.
May still has in her possession the silver record awarded to 'Rock 'n' Roll' in the UK.
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Jinxed
Lennon discussed 'Rock 'n' Roll' with music journalist Peter Hamill
(Rolling Stone 6/5/75):
"It started in '73 with Phil and fell apart. I ended up as part of mad, drunk scenes in Los Angeles and I finally finished it off on me own. And there was still problems with it up to the minute it came out. I can't begin to say, it's just barmy, there's a jinx on that album."
Chuck Berry�s publisher sued Lennon for lifting the line, 'Here come old flat top, he come groovin' up slowly' (on 'Come Together') from the Chuck Berry song 'You Can�t Catch Me'... the original line read: 'Here come a flat top, he was movin' up with me'.
Lennon agreed to settle out of court by releasing three of the publisher's songs on 'Rock 'n' Roll', 'Sweet Little Sixteen', 'You Can�t Catch Me' and 'Ya Ya' to compensate with royalties.
May later said in an interview with Lady Jean of (AbsoluteElsewhere),
"If it had happened today, the usage of 'Here comes old flat top' would have never gone to the courts. Even back then, we thought we would win, but John didn�t want to go back to New York for a court case because we had gotten Phil back into the studio (in L.A.), and that was the reason for the settlement."
Perhaps the album was jinxed...
A few months before its release, a bootleg of 'Rock n Roll' (titled 'Roots') was released by Morris Levy, who Lennon later successfully sued.
Lennon told reporter Chet Flippo (Rolling Stone), "The reason I fought this was to discourage ridiculous suits like this. They didn't think I'd show or that I'd fight. They thought I'd just settle, but I won't."
'Rock 'N' Roll' ranks as the worst selling album by John Lennon. 'Sometime In New York City' had sold less, but that was a highly political collaboration with Yoko Ono.
However, that's not to suggest 'Rock 'n' Roll' was a failure... but merely a relative comparison. 'Rock 'n' Roll' reached #6 in both the US and the UK, and achieved gold status in the US and silver status in the UK.
Newsweek reported that 'Rock �N� Roll', remastered and reissued at the end of 2004, only managed to sell another 32,000 copies.
Perhaps May subscibes to the 'Jinxed' theory too... because 'Rock 'n' Roll' was released during the time Lennon went back to Yoko Ono.