"Rock & Roll Band" is a song written by Tom Scholz and first released by the rock band Boston on the band's eponymous debut album. It is one of six songs Scholz worked on in his basement in 1974 and 1975 before Boston got its record contract, five of which eventually appeared on the Boston album. The "Rock and Roll Band" demo was finished in 1974, along with three of the six. However, Scholz had begun writing the song years earlier, in the early 1970s. The drum parts of this and other early Boston songs were developed by Jim Masdea, but this is the only song on the Boston album on which Masdea plays drums. Scholz plays clavinet and all the guitar parts, including bass guitar, and Brad Delp sings the vocals. Boston would consistently open with "Rock and Roll Band" while playing at live concerts.

"Rock & Roll Band" is the song that Paul Ahern played for Charlie McKenzie to interest him in the yet unnamed band that was to become Boston. Shortly after, Ahern and McKenzie signed on as the band's managers.

""Rock and Roll Band" is one of several Boston songs with the theme of making music and how music makes them feel. According to Allmusic critic Vik Iyengar, it" is about the band's "rise from a bar band." In The Rough Guide to Rock, Charles Bottomley calls the song Boston's "self-description." Lyrics supporting this statement include:

However, the song's lyrics do exaggerate the band's story, as they spent years of work and rejection to get their recording contract, rather than being suddenly discovered by a record executive who happened to catch a show. Boston's official website acknowledges that the song is "a charming bit of group self-mythology." Scholz himself admits that the song is "pure fantasy" since the band never played live or toured at the time the song was written. According to Scholz, the song was inspired by Masdea telling him of playing in bands in Hyannis, Massachusetts and dreaming of being discovered. Scholz decided to write a song "about everybody who dreams about that," even though "that's not what happened with Boston." Todd Maternowski claims that the band "set a precedent when they wrote the song "Rock and Roll Band," about the gritty life of an up-and-coming musician, despite never actually having experienced anything of the sort and getting a major record contract before their first live gig."

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