Most influential on what?
a) The music as a whole, or
b) Me.
I'll do b) first, it's easier. That would be Long Tall Sally by Little Richard.
However, I suspect that a) is what is being sought. In my view there probably isn't a single recording that fits the bill. Thia question isn't the perennial first rnr record that we all argue around. It's more subtle than that.
I think it's a sequence of records by Louis Jordan, from "Just Like A Woman" through to "Fish Fry" that influenced both the rnb community (witness the Little Richard band and his noticable change of style in the early 50's) and the CnW people like Bill Haley et al. who electrified and took on a more bassy and percussive style. Haley clearly "Jordaned" up his previously Hank Williams influenced sound.
