"The King of Rock 'n' Roll" is a single by English pop band Prefab Sprout, released by Kitchenware Records in March 1988.

[4][5] In a 2019 interview with BBC Newsnight, McAloon described the words as "haiku without the syllabic law" and said the line "hasn’t got any sense other than this vaguely American feeling to it".

[8] That year, he joked in an interview while promoting the album Steve McQueen, "you won’t catch Prefab Sprout with titles like 'Rebel Land' or 'King of Rock ‘n’ Roll'!

Paddy McAloon made an appearance on Channel 4's Wired on 13 May 1988, performing a solo acoustic version of the song in front of Grey's Monument in the centre of Newcastle.

"[18] Reflecting on the song in 2000, Prefab Sprout drummer Neil Conti declared "The King of Rock 'n' Roll" "the f***ing kiss of death for this band because it pushed everything in a poppy direction and the record company just wanted more of that.

[19] McAloon has similarly acknowledged an irony in the single's success and related how Paul McCartney told him at one of his Buddy Holly-themed parties that the song was "your "My Ding-a-Ling"".

"[3] The song features in "Gatherings", a 1999 episode of Edgar Wright's sitcom Spaced, with Daisy (Jessica Stevenson) singing the chorus as "Hot dog, jumping frog, almond cookies."