and Turner Blues." In 1949, he also wrote and recorded "Rocket 88 Boogie," a two-sided instrumental, which influenced the 1951 Ike Turner hit, "Rocket 88". On three dates in January 1946, Johnson recorded an early concept album, Pete Johnson's Housewarmin’, in which he starts out playing alone, supposedly in a new empty house, and is joined there by J. C. Higginbotham, J. C. Heard, and other Kansas City players. The recording also included parts played by Albert Nicholas, Hot Lips Page, Clyde Bernhardt. Budd Johnson, and a young singer, Etta Jones. Each has a solo cut backed by Johnson, and then the whole group plays a jam session together. On this album Johnson shows his considerable command of stride piano and his ability to work with a group. It was later re-released as Pete's Blues. At a nightclub in Niagara Falls, the piano was on a platform above the bar, and Johnson had to climb a ladder to get there. In 1950, he moved to Buffalo. He encountered some health and financial problems in this period, including losing part of a finger in an accident and being partially paralyzed by a stroke. Between January and October 1953, he was employed by an ice cream company washing trucks, but supplemented his income by performing in a trio which played at the Bamboo Room in Buffalo on weekends. Johnson experienced more of the same the following year. He washed cars at a mortuary for $25 a week. In July, however, an engagement came his way at the St. Louis Forest Park Hotel, a six-week residency as the pianist at the Circus Snack Bar. Some broadcasts were made on Saturday afternoons in a program called Saturday at the Chase. Johnson was also privately recorded on July 20 and August 1, 1954, at a pair of house parties arranged at the home of Bill Atkinson, a close friend. Things remained somewhat bleak for the next four years, except for three appearances in 1955 at the Berkshire Music Barn in Lenox, Massachusetts. But he continued to record, and toured Europe in 1958 with the Jazz at the Philharmonic ensemble, despite the fact that he was feeling unwell. While in Europe he received an invitation to appear at the Newport Jazz Festival, which he did upon his return to the States, accompanying Big Joe Turner, Chuck Berry and Big Maybelle. Johnson underwent a physical examination in