Bill Haley (1925-1981)

By Rivka Willick

Some folks call Bill Haley the father of Rock and Roll because his hit “Rock Around the Clock” changed it from an underground movement to a popular past time.

Bill Haley was born July 6, 1925 in Highland Park, Michigan.  He began his journey into music at 23 when he cut his first country swing record. A year later he landed a job in Chester, Pennsylvania as a disc jockey where he’d spend his days spinning the top hits.  

In 1951 he recorded Jackie Brenston’s “Rocket 88”, a rhythm and blues favorite.  The record didn’t sell but Haley loved the sound and he thought teenagers would love it too if he could find the right song.  He decided to change his band’s image.  They got rid of all the cowboy trimmings and changed the name to Bill Haley and the Comets. Since he was looking for a modern sound, a space age name seemed to fit. The Comets also had a different sound with John Grande playing boogie piano, Rudy Pompilli on saxophone, Danny Cedrone and Bill Williamson on guitar, and Al Rex’s on bass violin.

In 1953 Haley wrote “Crazy Man Crazy”, a jump blues single, which became the first rock and roll record to become a hit. This helped him to sign with Decca Records and he recorded “Rock Around The Clock” in 1954 as the B side to “Thirteen Women.” Sales were slow at first, but in 1955 the song was featured in the Blackboard Jungle.  The movie hit a nerve among teenagers and gave Haley’s sound the platform it needed to be heard.  

Over the next two years Haley and the Comets would score eight more Top 40 hits including “See You Later, Alligator”, “Skinny Minnie”. and “R.O.C.K.” He might have given a name to this new style of music when he wrote “Rock-A-Beatin-Boogie,” recorded by the Treniers.  Two lines read “Rock, rock, rock everybody/Roll, roll, roll everybody”.

Haley’s success waned in 1958.  In the late sixties he toured his band, albeit with many new members, playing old favorites.  The 1970’s TV show Happy Days used “Rock Around the Clock” as their theme and brought the song to a new audience.  

Haley died of a heart attack in 1981.