- BILL HAYLEY AND THE COMETS ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK MOVIE
- BILL HAYLEY AND THE COMETS ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK FULL
There were rumors that he'd made his first recordings with the Downhomers in 1945, but that seems unlikely. In fact, he told Canadian dee-jay Red Robinson that he was an Indiana state yodeling champion, although no one has ever been able to confirm (or deny) that claim. He wore the hat, sang the songs of an idealized west, and yodeled. He was very much in the thrall of pre-War faux cowboy music. Bill Jr.'s desire to play music was inhibited only by the shyness that probably stemmed from self consciousness over his one blind eye.īefore the end of the Second World War, though, Bill Haley was trying to carve out a career in music. He played the banjo and Maude played light classics on the piano. moved the family to Boothwyn, Pennsylvania during the Depression and kept his head above water by working in the shipyards. His father, Bill Sr., was a transplanted Kentuckian and his mother, Maude, was British. Briefly, William John Clifton Haley was born on Jin the Detroit suburb of Highland Park. Included with our definitive collection of early Bill Haley, 'The Real Birth Of Rock 'n' Roll' (BCD 16509).
BILL HAYLEY AND THE COMETS ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK FULL
The full story of Bill Haley's early years is told in Chris Gardner's extended biography. When RCA Victor in New York signed Elvis away from Sun Records, they were hoping they'd signed someone who could reach the market that Haley had opened up: a market that no one knew existed before Haley. Make no mistake, though, Bill Haley paved the way for Elvis. It was a difference that resolved itself to age and geography.Įlvis was ten years younger than Bill Haley, and he came from the South, while Haley grew up on the east coast. While Elvis thought of Hank Williams and Bill Monroe as country, Bill Haley thought of the Sons of the Pioneers. It was the fusion of R&B, country, and pop, but while Elvis talked about seeing the very primitive Arthur Crudup, Bill Haley's idea of R&B was the tightly marshaled swing of Louis Jordan and the showmanship of the Treniers. The basic truth about rock 'n' roll has been reiterated in thousands of books, documentaries, and articles. You could buy a guitar and with a little aptitude and a few weeks' patient study you could pick out a Duane Eddy tune or an Elvis solo, but you would not be able to play much of the music on this collection. Perhaps the only ingredient of rock 'n' roll (as we would come know it) that's missing from these recordings is the music's democratic ideal. True, the Pennsylvania polka bars and union halls where Bill Haley stumbled upon his music didn't have the eye candy appeal of Memphis after dark, and true, kids didn't want to be Bill Haley as they wanted to be Elvis Presley, but he was absolutely, definitively first. But, of course, Bill Haley said not a word he had died neglected and alone on the Mexican border in 1981, and even at the time of his death he was wondering why he'd been written out of the story. Bill Haley might have lobbied for 2001.fifty years after he'd covered Rocket '88' or 2002…fifty years after he'd recorded Rock The Joint or 2003.fifty years after he broke into the pop charts with Crazy, Man, Crazy, a record that fit every criterion of rock 'n' roll. On January 28, 1956, the group entered the US album chart with an LP also entitled Rock Around The Clock, a Decca compilation featuring that and other Haley hits.īuy or stream “Rock Around The Clock” on Bill Haley and his Comets’ Universal Masters Collection.The hoopla surrounding the purported fiftieth anniversary of Rock 'n' Roll 2004 didn't quite ring true.
BILL HAYLEY AND THE COMETS ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK MOVIE
That last outing came after the song was prominent in the movie smash American Graffiti, which also took it back to No.39 in America. As subsequent generations learned of its importance, it went to No.20 in 1968 and No.12 in 1974. Then “Rock” showed its staying power, charting again in Britain in September 1956, when it hit No.5. That success, on Decca, prompted a re-release on Brunswick in the UK, and this time, the song really took off, spending three weeks at No.1 in November and December. Listen to the 50s playlist for more by Bill Haley and his Comets and other key acts of the decade. After being featured in the 1955 movie Blackboard Jungle, it then made the American survey in May, and went on to spend eight weeks at No.1, widely hailed as the first chart-topper of the rock’n’roll era. “Rock Around The Clock” was first recorded by Sonny Dae on the Arcade label in 1954, with Haley’s version (cut three weeks later) following that May, but only as the B-side of another track from the same session, “Thirteen Women (And Only One Man in Town.” In fact, “Rock” was a chart record in Britain before it was in the US, if only for those two weeks.
0 kommentar(er)
