Whether or not Link Wray heard the 1950’s blues records with the earliest power chords and got the idea has not been established as far as I know.  He refined his technique over a period of time during gigs.  While working up an instrumental backing for their version of a really fine early rock and roll song “The Stroll” (originally by the Diamonds), Link Wray and His Ray Men hit upon a slow-paced but incredibly powerful instrumental that they first called “Oddball”.  The first time they played it, it was a huge hit with the audience, who demanded four encores of the performance. 

Phil Everly of the Everly Brothers reportedly heard the song and suggested the name “Rumble” since it sounded like a street fight to him.  Archie Bleyer, a record producer for Cadence Records also heard about it but hated the song.  However, Bleyer’s step-daughter Jackie Ertel and some of her friends loved the song.  Some sources even say that Jackie Ertel, not Phil Everly came up with the name – the two later married.

(February 2013)

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Not everyone feels that way though.  Doc Dosco, a jazz guitarist who played on Black Russian wrote of his early session work on his website www.docdosco.com:  “‘I did tons of “guitar for hire” studio dates back then’, says Doc, ‘and I gigged a lot during the late seventies and eighties.  I was a funky fusion style player, and there was lots of funk style work.  I also did pick-up work, casuals, society gigs and played numerous concerts with old timers such as Little Anthony, the Drifters, the Diamonds, the Platters, Freddy Cannon, Connie Stevens.  I worked for composer Dennis McCarthy on the Barbara Mandrell [and the Mandrell Sisters] TV show.  I also wrote songs for Jerry Lee Lewis and German pop sensation Nina Hagen, produced “Billboard Queen” Angelyne, and recorded an album with the revolutionary Motown recording artists Black Russian.’”

(April 2015/1)