Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube
    Nostalgia Central
    • Home
    • Blog
      • Lists
    • Television
      • TV by Decade
        • TV – 1950s
        • TV – 1960s
        • TV – 1970s
        • TV – 1980s
        • TV – 1990s
      • Comedy
      • Drama
      • Kids TV
      • Variety
      • News & Sport
      • Advertisements
    • Music
      • Music by Decade
        • Music – 1950s
        • Music – 1960s
        • Music – 1970s
        • Music – 1980s
        • Music – 1990s
      • Artists – A to K
        • Artists – A
        • Artists – B
        • Artists – C
        • Artists – D
        • Artists – E
        • Artists – F
        • Artists – G
        • Artists – H
        • Artists – I
        • Artists – J
        • Artists – K
      • Artists – L to Z
        • Artists – L
        • Artists – M
        • Artists – N
        • Artists – O
        • Artists – P
        • Artists – Q
        • Artists – R
        • Artists – S
        • Artists – T
        • Artists – U
        • Artists – V
        • Artists – W
        • Artists – X
        • Artists – Y
        • Artists – Z
      • Artists – 0 to 9
      • Genres
      • Music on Film & TV
      • One-Hit Wonders
      • Playlists
      • Online Radio
    • Movies
      • Movies by Decade
        • Movies – 1950s
        • Movies – 1960s
        • Movies – 1970s
        • Movies – 1980s
        • Movies – 1990s
      • Movies – 0 to 9
      • Movies – A to K
        • Movies – A
        • Movies – B
        • Movies – C
        • Movies – D
        • Movies – E
        • Movies – F
        • Movies – G
        • Movies – H
        • Movies – I
        • Movies – J
        • Movies – K
      • Movies – L to Z
        • Movies – L
        • Movies – M
        • Movies – N
        • Movies – O
        • Movies – P
        • Movies – Q
        • Movies – R
        • Movies – S
        • Movies – T
        • Movies – U
        • Movies – V
        • Movies – W
        • Movies – X
        • Movies – Y
        • Movies – Z
    • Pop Culture
      • Fads
      • Toys & Games
      • Fashion
      • Decor
      • Food & Drink
      • People
      • Technology
      • Transport
    • Social History
      • 1950s Year by Year
      • 1960s Year by Year
      • 1970s Year by Year
      • 1980s Year by Year
      • 1990s Year by Year
      • Events
    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Music»Artists - A to K»Artists - B
    Artists - B Music - 1950s 5 Mins Read

    Bill Haley & His Comets

    Share
    Facebook Twitter Pinterest WhatsApp Reddit Email

    Bill Haley, who had been singing and playing guitar with a country & western combo since 1940 – when he was 15 years old – was one of the first white singers to realise that blues and country music could be rocked up to great effect.

    His first big record, made in 1951, was called Rock The Joint – a fairly prophetic title, it might be said.

    billhaley

    On 12 April 1954 Haley and The Comets recorded a pair of songs at Pythian Temple, New York, which would become generally accepted as the first rock & roll records, or at least the first rock & roll records to gain mass popularity with the more affluent white audience.

    One of the songs had just been an R&B hit for Joe Turner, but the Haley version of Shake, Rattle and Roll was far more raucous and exciting to a public who didn’t appreciate the subtleties of the blues and provided Haley with his first international Top 20 hit.

    It was the other track, however, a novelty dance song called Rock Around The Clock, which really clinched it for rock & roll.

    The song had actually been recorded and released to little response by Sonny Dae a couple of years earlier. The story goes that one of the song’s co-writers was Haley’s manager, who had just negotiated an advantageous record contract for him. To express his thanks, Haley recorded the song.

    It was actually released before Shake, Rattle and Roll but only sold moderately. A little later though, Haley’s manager was roped in as technical adviser on Blackboard Jungle (1955), one of the earliest films focussing on teenage rebellion, and Rock Around The Clock was used over the opening credits.

    The movie caused riots, chaos and devastation, and in Britain, Teddy Boys jived and bopped in the aisles and wrecked numerous cinemas in their exuberance. Bill Haley had arrived at last, and Rock Around The Clock became the great anti-establishment song and teenage anthem and made Haley the world’s first rock & roll star.

    By the end of 1955, it was the best-selling single in both America and Britain. Tragically, guitarist Danny Cedrone would die after a fall down some steps just three weeks after the recording session.

    Bill Haley was born William John Clifton Haley on 6 July 1925, and raised in a farming family in Chester, near Philadelphia. He started his musical career playing guitar in various local Country & Western groups, though without much success.

    Haley eventually settled down to a six-year spell working at a radio station in Pennsylvania (WPWA), and it was here that he became aware of the influence Black music had on listeners. He soon realised its great potential.

    During his spare time, Bill continued to play C&W though occasionally he introduced elements of the Black music that fascinated him so much.

    He experimented with the music as often as he could, working new treatments into his stage act with his group The Saddlemen.

    Haley had released several singles but had yet to find a winning formula for recording success. So he decided to take his musical experiments a stage further, combining the best of the black R&B with the best of Country. It became the forerunner of Rock & Roll.

    The Saddlemen changed their name to The Comets and in 1951 enjoyed moderate success with Rock The Joint, followed by Crazy Man Crazy in 1953 – a self-penned song inspired by the language Haley heard students using at the colleges he played. Two years later, Rock Around The Clock hailed the birth of a brand new age and a brand new music.

    By the time Haley first appeared in Britain in February 1957 he was already an anachronism: affable and never less good in concert than on his records, but outdated by the younger guys who had appeared in his wake.

    In his later years, Haley lived a life of quiet seclusion in his Rio Grande Valley home, emerging occasionally to tour with The Comets. In 1980, an extensive British and European tour was hurriedly cancelled when Bill was stricken with a mystery disease and confined to his home.

    In November he was admitted to a Los Angeles hospital with reports circulating of a suspected brain tumour, and on 9 February 1981, the reluctant hero of Rock & Roll was found dead in a room off his garage in Harlingen, a small town in Texas near the Mexican border.

    The exact cause of his death is controversial. Haley’s death certificate states he died of “natural causes, most likely heart attack” while members of his family contest that he died from the brain tumour. He was 55.

    More than 100 musicians performed with Bill Haley & His Comets between 1952 and Haley’s death in 1981.

    The Comets, featuring musicians who performed with Haley in 1954-1955, reunited in 1987 and are still touring the world, playing in the United States and Europe. They have also recorded a half-dozen albums for small labels in Europe and the United States.

    Bill Haley was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. The Comets were inducted in 2012.

    Comets’ bass player Marshall Lytle died on 25 May 2013.

    Bill Haley
    Vocals, guitar
    Johnny Grande
    Piano
    Billy Williamson
    Steel guitar
    Danny Cedrone
    Lead guitar
    Marshall Lytle
    Bass
    Dick Richards
    Drums
    Joey D’Ambrosia
    Tenor saxophone
    Franny Beecher
    Lead guitar
    Rudy Pompilli
    Saxophone
    Al Pompilli
    Bass
    Ralph Jones
    Drums
    Frankie Scott
    Saxophone

    Related Posts

    • Shirley Goodman
      Shirley Goodman
      Born in New Orleans on 19 June 1936, Shirley Goodman was 16 years old when she signed to Aladdin, the jazz…
    • Johnny Mathis
      Johnny Mathis
      Johnny Mathis was born in September 1935 in Gilmer, Texas, and grew up in San Francisco. The son of a…
    • Buffalo Springfield
      Buffalo Springfield
      A gypsy childhood took Stephen Stills from Dallas, Texas, through many southern cities and also Central America. At the University…
    • Ventures, The
      Ventures, The
      Original lead guitarist Bob Bogle, alongside fellow masonry worker Don Wilson, founded The Ventures in Washington State in 1958, performing…
    • Tommy Sands
      Tommy Sands
      Tommy Adrian Sands was born in Chicago in 1937. Growing up he enjoyed music, particularly country music. In 1944 his…
    • Guy Mitchell
      Guy Mitchell
      Guy Mitchell was born Albert Cernik in 1927 and recorded for King Records as Al Grant. When he signed with…
    • Crew Cuts, The
      Crew Cuts, The
      The song Sh-Boom was originally recorded early in 1954 by The Chords. But it was the version by Canadian group The Crew…
    • Buddy Holly (& The Crickets)
      Buddy Holly (& The Crickets)
      Born Charles Hardin Holley on 7 September 1936, Buddy (as he was nicknamed from an early age by his family)…

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest WhatsApp Reddit Email
    Previous ArticleBilbo Baggins
    Next Article Billie Davis

    Comments are closed.

    Follow us
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
    • Instagram
    You May Also Like
    • Light Of Day (1987)
      Joe Rasnick (Michael J Fox) scrapes together a living and plays […]
    • Wasp Woman, The (1959)
      Janice Starlin (Susan Cabot) is the founder and owner of a large […]
    • Pigbag
      This mainly instrumental soul/funk sextet formed in […]
    • Secret Beneath the Sea
      1 9 6 3 (UK) 6 x 30 minute episodes Gerald Flood returned as […]
    • Asteroids
      In the years after Star Wars (1977), anything involving outer […]
    • Face of Fu Manchu, The (1965)
      Fu Manchu (Christopher Lee) is sentenced to death by beheading […]
    Twitter Feed
    Please note


    Nostalgia Central covers the period 1950 to 1999 and contains some words and references which reflect the attitudes of those times and which may be considered culturally sensitive, offensive or inappropriate today.
    Popular Tags
    1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1975 1976 Action Figures Amicus Arcade games Australia Beach movies Beatles Blaxploitation Board games Britpop Canada Crime Disco Disney Doo-Wop Elvis Presley Girl groups Glam Goth Hammer Heavy Metal Irwin Allen Labels Merseybeat Mod revival Motown New Romantic New Wave NWOBHM Oi! One-hit wonders Power Pop Pub rock Punk Radio Scotland Ska Soul music Surf music
    Search Nostalgia Central
    Copyright © 1998, 2022 Nostalgia Central
    • About
    • Contact
    • FAQ

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.