The Rebels (rockabilly band)
American band
The Rebels was a rockabilly band from Dallas, Texas that recorded "School of Rock 'n Roll" and "Straight Skirt" with Gene Summers. The group consisted of James McClung (guitar), Gary Moon (drums) and Benny Williams (slap bass). They were soon joined by pianist Bill Brown who played on some of their early personal appearances. They were one of the first rock 'n roll bands to record using the name "Rebels" (February 1, 1958), preceding Duane Eddy's Rebels by at least six months and the "Wild Weekend" Rebels by more than two years.
History
The Rebels began their musical career in 1957 while in high school at Duncanville, Texas, joining forces with another classmate and singer Gene Summers. They appeared together on high school assembly programs and soon were playing gigs at the Carswell Air Force Base which at that time was located Northwest of Ft. Worth, Tx. At one of these shows they met a country music comedian nicknamed "Cornbread" who was appearing on a TV show hosted by Neal Jones on KRLD-TV in Dallas. Cornbread was impressed with Summers and The Rebels and invited them to appear on the TV program. This led them to a regular, weekly spot on another television program, also on KRLD, called "Joe Bill's Country Picnic" in the fall of 1957.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7759757. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1958 and 1957.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Rebels (rockabilly band)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.