- For the movie named after the song, see Rock Around the Clock .
For the 1955 record album by Haley, see Rock Around the Clock
.
"
Rock Around the Clock" is a
12-bar-blues-based song written by Max C.
Freedman and
James E. Myers (the latter under the pseudonym "Jimmy
De Knight") in
1952. The best-known
and most successful rendition was recorded by
Bill Haley and His Comets in
1954.
Although
it was not the first rock and
roll record, nor was it the first successful record of the
genre (Bill Haley had American chart success with "Crazy Man, Crazy" in 1955, and in 1954,
"Shake, Rattle and Roll"
reached #1 on the Billboard
R&B chart), Haley's recording became an anthem for rebellious
Fifties youth and is widely considered to be the song that, more
than any other, brought rock and roll
into mainstream culture in the United States
and around the world. The song is ranked
#158 on the
Rolling Stone
magazine's list of
The 500 Greatest
Songs of All Time.
Although first recorded by Italian-American band
Sonny Dae and His Knights,
[8279] the more famous version by
Bill Haley & His Comets is
not, strictly speaking, a cover version. Myers claimed the song had
been written specifically for Haley but, for various reasons, Haley
was unable to record it himself until
April 1955.
The original full title of the song was
"We're Gonna Rock
Around the Clock Tonight!". This was later shortened to
"(We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock", though this
form is generally only used on releases of the 1954 Bill Haley
Decca Records recording ; most other recordings of this song by
Haley and others (including Sonny Dae) shorten this title further
to
"Rock Around the Clock".
False starts
There are sources that indicate that "Rock Around the Clock" was
written in 1953, but documents uncovered by historian
Jim Dawson indicate it was in fact written in
late 1952. The original arrangement of the song bore little
resemblance to the version recorded by Haley and was in fact closer
to a popular instrumental of the day called "
The Syncopated Clock" (written by
Leroy Anderson).
The song was credited to Myers (as "Jimmy DeKnight") and
Max C. Freedman although its exact authorship is
disputed, with many feeling that Freedman wrote the song on his
own. There were several earlier songs of the title "Rock Around the
Clock" (by
Hal Singer and
Wally Mercer) but they are unrelated to the
Freedman/Myers song. In addition, it is sometimes erroneously
stated that "Rock Around the Clock" is copied from a late-1940s
Big Joe Turner recording, "Around the
Clock Blues". Aside from title similarity, however, the two songs
bear little resemblance. There are many
blues
songs with the theme of partying or making love "round the clock"
with various actions specified at various hours.
However, the verse melody of "Rock Around The Clock" does bear a
very close similarity to that of
Hank
Williams' first hit, "
Move It On
Over", from 1947. Williams' song was very similar to
Charley Patton's "Going To Move To Alabama",
recorded in 1930 - which itself was at least partly derived from
Jim Jackson's "Kansas City
Blues" from 1927. The song also uses
phrases from
Count
Basie's "Red Wagon", first recorded in 1939.
According to the Haley biographies
Bill Haley by
John Swenson and
Rock Around the Clock
by Dawson, the song was offered to Haley in the wake of his first
national success "
Crazy Man, Crazy"
in 1953, after being copyrighted with the U.S. Library of Congress
on March 31.
Haley and his Comets began performing the
song on stage (Comets bass player Marshall Lytle and drummer Dick Richards say the first performances were
in Wildwood, New
Jersey
), but Dave
Miller, his producer, refused to allow Haley to record it for
his Essex Records label (Swenson
suggests a feud existed between Myers and Miller).
Haley himself claimed to have taken the sheet music into the
recording studio at least twice, with Miller ripping up the music
each time. Nonetheless, rumors of a 1953 demo recording by Haley
persist to this day, although surviving members of the Comets deny
this, as did Haley himself (quoted in the Swenson biography) ; a
late-1960s
bootleg single of the
Decca Records version of "Rock Around the Clock", with "Crazy Man,
Crazy" on the B-side and carrying the Essex label, occasionally
turns up for sale with the claim that it is the demo version.
Myers next offered the song to Sonny Dae & His Knights, a
novelty all-white musical group led by
Italian-American Paschal Vennitti. The group's subsequent
recording, on the
Arcade Records
label (owned by Haley's manager,
Jack Howard), was a regional success,
although it once again sounded very different from what Haley would
later record.
Decca recording session
After
leaving Essex Records in the spring of 1954, Bill Haley signed with
the then-important Decca Records
label, and the band's first recording session was set for 12 April
12, 1954 at the Pythian
Temple studios in New York City
. The recording session almost failed to take
place because the band were traveling on a ferry that got stuck on
a sandbar en route to New York from Philadelphia
. Once at the studio, producer
Milt Gabler (Uncle of actor
Billy Crystal, who had produced
Louis Jordan as well as
Billie Holiday), insisted the band work on a
song entitled "Thirteen Women (and Only One Man in Town)"
(previously written and recorded by
Dickie Thompson), which Gabler wanted to
promote as the
A-side of the group's first
single for Decca.
Near the end of the session, the band finally recorded a take of
"Rock Around the Clock," but Haley's vocals were drowned out by the
band. A second take was quickly made with minimal accompaniment
while
Sammy Davis, Jr. waited
outside the studio for his turn behind the
microphone. Decca engineers later combined the
two versions together into one version. (Comets piano player
Johnny Grande tells a slightly
different version, claiming that the only reason a second take was
recorded was that the drummer made an error.)
Many musicians have claimed that they performed on the recording
session for "Rock Around the Clock." The song's co-writer, James E.
Myers, once claimed he had played drums on the piece, although he
also claimed to have been advising the sound mixer in the recording
booth. According to the official record sheet from the session,
however, the musicians on the famous recording are :
Despite not being members of Bill Haley and His Comets, Gussak and
Cedrone were trusted session players that Haley had used before.
Cedrone's guitar solo was one that he used before on Bill Haley And
The Saddlemen's version of "
Rock the
Joint" in 1952, is considered one of the classic rock and roll
guitar solos of all time. (Cedrone died in a fall down a stairway
on June 17, 1954 and never lived to see his contribution become
famous and legendary.) The second instrumental break recreates a
popular
rhythm and blues "out
chorus" with tenor sax and guitar emulating the rhythm
section.
In a 2005 retrospective on his uncle Milt Gabler's work (
The
Milt Gabler Story),
Billy Crystal
identifies Haley's 1954 recording of "Rock Around the Clock" as the
single most important song Gabler ever produced. Gabler had
previously been responsible for the highly successful string of
R&B and
jump
blues recordings by Louis Jordan in the late 1940s, which were
characterised by their strong beat, clearly enunciated lyrics and
high production values, all features which Gabler sought to repeat
in Haley's recordings. Also significantly, "Rock Around The Clock"
was recorded in the very same month that
Atlantic Records issued
Big Joe Turner's "
Shake, Rattle and Roll". In relation
to "Rock Around The Clock", Gabler said: "I was aware that rock was
starting. I knew what was happening in the Philadelphia area, and
"Crazy Man, Crazy" had been a hit about a year before that. It
already was starting and I wanted to take it from there."
Slow road to classic hit status
As Gabler intended, "Rock Around the Clock" was first issued in the
spring of 1954 as a
B-side to "Thirteen Women
(and Only One Man in Town)." While the song did make the American
Billboard music charts
(contrary to popular opinion that it was a flop), it was considered
a commercial disappointment. It was not until 1955, when "Rock
Around the Clock" was used under the opening credits of the film
Blackboard Jungle, that
the song truly took off.
Many versions of the story behind how "Rock Around the Clock" was
chosen for
Blackboard Jungle circulated over the years.
Recent research, however, reveals that the song was chosen from the
collection of young
Peter Ford,
the son of
Blackboard Jungle star
Glenn Ford and dancer
Eleanor Powell. The producers were looking
for a song to represent the type of music the youth of 1955 was
listening to, and the elder Ford borrowed several records from his
son's collection, one of which was Haley's "Rock Around the Clock"
and this was the song chosen.
On 9 July 1955, "Rock Around the Clock" became the first rock and
roll recording to hit the top of Billboard's Pop charts, a feat it
repeated on charts around the world. The song stayed at this place
for eight weeks. The record was also no.1 for seven weeks on the
Cashbox pop singles chart in 1955. The Bill Haley version also hit
number three on the R&B charts .
In the UK, Haley's "Rock Around the Clock" reached number 17 on the
pop charts in January 1955, four months before it first entered the
US pop charts. (Coincidentally, it reached the same position as was
reached by the Beatles' first single, "Love Me Do", in 1962). The
song re-entered the UK charts to reach number one in November 1955,
and after a three-week break returned there for a further three
weeks in January 1956. It re-entered the charts again in September
1956, reaching number 5. The song was re-issued in 1968, when it
made number 20, and again in 1974, when it reached number 12.
"Rock Around the Clock" became wildly popular with teenagers around
the world. The single, released by independent label
Festival Records in Australia,
was the biggest-selling recording in the country at the time.
Columbia Pictures cashed in on the
new craze by hiring Haley and his band to star in two quickie
movies,
Rock Around the
Clock (1956) and
Don't
Knock the Rock (1957). In 1957, Haley toured Europe,
bringing rock 'n' roll to that continent for the first time.
In 1964, Bill Haley and His Comets recorded a sequel song entitled
"Dance Around the Clock".
Haley actually recorded this song on five
occasions (a Spanish language
version for Orfeon Records of
Mexico
City
and an English version for the US label Newtown Records (both in 1964), two live
versions for Buddah Records recorded
in New York in 1969 (neither of which were released for 25 years),
and once more in Nashville, Tennessee
for the Swedish
Sonet Records label in 1970). Despite
these efforts, the song was not a commercial success.
Haley would re-record "Rock Around the Clock" many times over the
years (even scoring a substantial hit with a version recorded for
Sonet Records in 1968), but never
recaptured the magic. In 1974, the original version of the song
returned to the American charts when it was used as the theme for
the movie
American
Graffiti and a re-recorded version by Haley was used as
the opening theme for the TV series
Happy
Days. The original version was also featured in the 1978
film
Superman ; it is heard
playing on a car radio just prior to
Glenn
Ford's final scene in the film ; Ford, as noted earlier, had
starred in
Blackboard Jungle. (However, when
ABC broadcast the film on TV
for the first time, they were unable to obtain the rights to "Rock
Around the Clock" and it was replaced by another piece of music;
the song remains in all subsequent VHS, DVD and television versions
of the film.)
During the 1970s Haley shortened his performances of "Rock Around
the Clock", dropping one verse and the second instrumental break
from most performances. However, his last known recorded
performance of the song, at a November 1979
command performance for
Queen Elizabeth II, was a complete
version.
Following Haley's death in February 1981, a number of major
tributes involving "Rock Around the Clock" occurred. That fall, a
TV special marking the 30th anniversary of
American Bandstand saw an all-star
"supergroup" perform the song (accompanied by 1950s-era footage of
Haley and the Comets). In 1982, Haley's original recording was
given the
Grammy Hall of Fame
Award. An excerpt from the recording was included in "Haley's
Golden Medley", a hastily-compiled single in the "
Stars on 45" mould which made the UK record
charts in 1982, reaching number 50. In 1989, Haley's original Decca
recording was incorporated into the "dance mix" single "
Swing The Mood", credited to
Jive Bunny and the
Mastermixers, but legal considerations forced the album version
to substitute a patchwork of re-recordings from the 1950s and 1960s
(in Haley's case, a 1968 version of "Rock Around the Clock"
recorded for Sonet Records). Since "Swing the Mood" was still on
the sales charts going into 1990, this means that Haley's "Rock
Around the Clock", in one way or another, appeared on UK or US
sales charts in five consecutive decades.
"Rock Around the Clock" is often cited as the biggest-selling vinyl
rock and roll single of all time. The exact number of copies sold
has never been audited; however, a figure of at least 25 million
was cited by the
Guinness
Book of World Records in its category "Phonograph records:
Biggest Sellers" from the early 1970s until the 1990s, when the
advent of
compact discs led to
Guinness discontinuing the category. Guinness consistently listed
"Rock Around the Clock" as having the highest claim of any
pop music recording, coming second in sales only
to
Bing Crosby's 1942 recording of
"
White Christmas", which was also
listed as having sold 25 million copies with a further estimated
100 million copies sold in other versions. Sales figures as high as
35 to 40 million have been cited in various reference books and by
media, as have lower numbers in the 15-22 million range, whilst a
"more than 30 million copies" figure was quoted by Star, as early
as 1983, on back cover page of Swenson's book. A frequently used
piece of promotion regarding the song is that it is said to be
playing somewhere in the world every minute of the day.
Length variation
Although originally released to vinyl at a running time of 2
minutes and 8 seconds, most digital/CD releases of the original
1954 recording, starting with the "From The Original Master Tapes"
compilation of Bill's work with Decca Records, mastered by
Steve Hoffman and released in 1985, clock in
at 2:10. This is due to the inclusion of a "count-in" by one of the
Comets (saying, "One...two") at the very start of the song. This
was never included in the original single or album releases of the
song. (All of Haley's subsequent studio rerecordings of the song
run longer than 2:10 with the exception of the abbreviated version
recorded for
Happy Days.)
Versions of Haley's song that run longer than 2:10 will lack the
electric guitar sound of Danny Cedrone and the double bass lines of
Marshall Lytle. Any version recorded after the 1950s will also
feature an electric bass player. It is these versions that are most
commonly commercially available, especially on compilations.
Tributes
In tribute to the influence of the song and the movie that launched
its popularity, the March 29, 2005 50
th anniversary of
the opening of
Blackboard Jungle was marked by several
large celebrations in the United States organized by promoter
Martin Lewis under the blanket title
"Rock Is
Fifty".
Rock Is Fifty also hosted additional
celebrations in Los
Angeles
in July, 2005, as part of a "Rock Around the
Clock-a-Thon" to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the date the
song reached the No. 1 spot on the American charts, as well
as to observe what would have been Haley's 80th birthday.
These
events included numerous appearances and performances by surviving
members of the original Comets, including the band's induction into
the Rock Walk hall of fame, a performance
at the Viper
Room
club on the Sunset
Strip, and a special performance for employees of NASA
's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory
in Pasadena
to celebrate the success of the Deep Impact space probe.
A special video of "Rock Around the Clock" was created to mark the
occasion and was featured on NASA's website during July and August
2005. The anniversary was also marked by the publication of a book
on the history of the song,
Rock Around the Clock: The Record
That Started the Rock Revolution, by
Jim
Dawson.
[8280]
The
United States
House of Representatives also recognized the 40th anniversary
of the composing of "Rock Around the Clock" with a special
statement by Rep.
Robert A.
Borski of Pennsylvania, which was
read into the
Congressional
Record on March 31, 1993.
Albums
As Bill Haley's best-known recording, there have been dozens of
compilation album releases over the years entitled
Rock Around
the Clock. The most notable of these compilations was the 1955
Decca Records album
Rock Around the Clock
(Decca DL 8225) which contained most of the tracks Haley recorded
as singles for the label in 1954 and 1955.
Another
notable album release entitled Rock Around the Clock was
the 1970 Hallmark Records UK
release
Rock Around the Clock (SHM 668) which was the first
British release of a 1968 album entitled Bill Haley's Biggest
Hits which had been released in Sweden by Sonet Records. The album consisted of
newly recorded renderings of Haley classics from the 1950s, along
with some previously unrecorded songs.
Covers, adaptations, and re-recordings
Notable cover versions
In movies, television, advertising
- The song was used as the theme song to the 1970s sitcom
Happy Days, which was set in the
1950s.
- The original Haley recording is in the soundtrack for the film
American Graffiti
(1973).
- The song plays a notable role in the 1975 science fiction
trilogy The
Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. It is "performed"
in the book by a group called Clark Kent and His Supermen at key
points in the story. Another character in the book, George Dorn, is
said to have been inspired to become a counter-culture journalist after hearing the
song.
- One of the last commercials for the Zayre
chain used the song in a Christmas
ad.
Re-releases
See also
Notes
- Rock and Roll Hall of Fame citation
- Peter Gammond, The Oxford Companion to Popular Music, 1991,
p.495
- Dawson, Jim. Rock Around the Clock : The Record that
Started the Rock Revolution (Backbeat Books, 2005, p. 62),
ISBN 0-87930-829-X
- Swenson, John. Bill Haley. (Star Books, 1983).
- Dawson, Jim, and Steve Propes, What Was The First Rock 'n'
Roll Record ? (Faber and Faber, 1992), ISBN
0-571-12939-0.
- Dawson, Jim. Rock Around the Clock : The Record that
Started the Rock Revolution (Backbeat Books, 2005).
- Dawson (2005).
- Gundersen, Edna (March 18, 2005). " Rock 'Clock' strikes 50". USA Today,
p. E1.
- Congressional Record Vol. 139, No. 43,
March 31, 1993; E841.
References
- Ford, Peter. "Rock Around the Clock and Me" (Goldmine and Now Dig This
magazines, 2004; online version)
- Frazer-Harrison, Alex. "Rock Around the Clock: A Tribute"
(Rockabilly Hall of Fame website, 1999-2004).
- Haley, John W. and John von Hoelle. Sound and Glory
(Dyne-American, 1990).
- Pearl Jam - Ten Club News Ten Club
website
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