![]() ![]() This film should be required viewing for anyone following the history of post-World War II popular music and the end of the big bands. And the dancing was a joy to watch! Influences from the Big Band era were still strong as couples did variations of swing and jitterbug with the brand new additions of non-touch formula steps that later led to the Twist, the Mashed Potato and all the rest, right up to the present time when almost no one knows how to dance together as a couple. Bill Haley & His Comets Rock Around The Clock: One, two, tree oclock, four oclock rock Five, six, seven oclock, eight oclock rock Nine, ten, el. In the film, these small rock & roll bands are referred to as "combinations" of musicians. ![]() In fact, the term "combo" was apparently not in popular use yet. This movie is so special, not only because it showcases rock & roll's important early performers, but also its place in musical time - right at the pop music transition from the big bands to the much smaller combos. 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.What fun to come upon this 1950s gem on cable TV today! At first I thought I was seeing Debra Paget, but it turned out to be her sister, Lisa Gaye, who played a prominent role in this film and demonstrated real dancing skill. ![]() He carried on storming the charts with tracks. Read more about the life of Bill Haley in our interview with his son, Bill Haley Jr. The million-selling Rock Around The Clock single won the man from Michigan the first ever British gold disc. 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. In fact, “Rock” was a chart record in Britain before it was in the US, if only for those two weeks. The best-known and most successful rendition was recorded by Bill Haley & His Comets in 1954 for American Decca. Myers (the latter being under the pseudonym 'Jimmy De Knight') in 1952. “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.” ' Rock Around the Clock ' is a rock and roll song in the 12-bar blues format written by Max C. He used the pen name Jimmy DeKnight for the collaboration. Myers, whose career also went back to the 1940s. Freedman, who’d had several successes dating back to the end of World War II, with publisher and promoter James C. It was written by Philadelphia composer Max C. You’d also have to be something of a trivia expert to know the names of the writers of the song that came to represent the commercial explosion of rock’n’roll. The new hit went on to peak at No.17 and was on the bestsellers for precisely two weeks. It wasn’t even the first UK chart entry for Bill and his group the Comets, who were simultaneously enjoying a much bigger hit with “Shake Rattle and Roll,” which climbed to No.4 and had 14 weeks on the chart. The recording in question was made at Pythian Temple Studio, at 135 West 70th Street, New York, on April 12 the year before. Conversely, he was only 55 when he passed away on February 9, 1981.īut the arrival of “Rock Around The Clock” in the UK chart, on January 7, 1955, was a major landmark. Moreover, the man delivering this vital message of teenage rebellion, Bill Haley, was already nearly 30 years old at the time. “(We’re Gonna) Rock Around The Clock,” the record widely held to have brought rock’n’roll to Britain, didn’t even get near the UK Top 10 first time around. Bill Haley & His Comets - Rock Around The Clock (1955) HD - YouTube. ![]()
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