• First band leader to form a Rock 'n' Roll group. (the Comets-1952).
• First Rock 'n' Roll star to write his own songs (e.g., Rock a Beatin’ Boogie, Crazy Man Crazy).
• First Rock 'n' Roll star to reach the national charts with music he wrote and recorded (Crazy Man Crazy),
• First Rock 'n' Roll star to sell a million records. (Shake Rattle and Roll - 1954)
• First Rock 'n' Roll star to chart No. 1. ((We’re Gonna) Rock Around the Clock)
• First Rock 'n' Roll star to go on a world tour. (1957–England and Germany)
• First Rock 'n' Roll star to sell a million records in England. (Rock Around the Clock)
• First Rock 'n' Roll star to star in a full-length motion picture. (Rock Around the Clock – 1956)
• First Rock 'n' Roll star to appear on a network television show. (May 31, 1955, Milton Berle Show)
• First Rock ‘n’ Roll star to have a song appear on a national television show. (Omnibus Theater, October 4, 1953 – Flower in the Glory, Crazy Man Crazy)
Born on July 6, 1925 in Highland Park, Michigan, Haley was living in Pennsylvania by age 7. Bill after age 15 was a guitarist, singer and entertainer with several local semi-professional country and western bands, including the Range Drifters. He gained great useful experience, sang and yodeled with any band that would have him, and also worked with a traveling medicine show.
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| The Range Drifters L to R-Brother Wayne, Bill Haley, Bob Mason and Lloyd Cornell |
Beginnings
In 1945 he joined his first truly professional band, The Downhomers based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, already on tour in Hartford CT. This was not a successful venture for Bill. Haley returned to Pennsylvania in September of 1946. He was ill, disillusioned and broke.
Bill began to work with a new version of the Range Drifters, as another "drug store" cowboy band, such as the Downhoners. Again, this was another unsuccessful venture for him.
Bill then shifted his focus to radio. He spent the next few years as a disc jockey at WSNJ in Bridgeton, NJ and then as musical director for radio station WPWA in Chester, PA. He had not completely given up his musical dreams and still found time to play in and start local country and western bands, capitalizing on his new-found radio popularity in Pennsylvania and surrounding states by forming another band, the Four Aces of Western Swing.
The new band was regionally successful and even recorded a few singles in 1948 and 1949, on “Cowboy Records”. The first Bill Haley recordings were Too Many Parties and Too Many Pals/Four Leaf Clover Blues (Cowboy CR1201) August 1948 and Tennessee Border/Candy Kisses (Cowboy CR1202) March 1949. The band also performed under another name - Johnny Clifton and His String Band, which also released a record, Loveless Blues and Stand Up and Be Counted.
Moreover, at this time Bill had been a Yodeling Champion (State of Indiana) and also released singles highlighting this genre–Yodel Your Blues Away and A Yodeler’s Lullaby, while continuing to release other more traditional country swing and ballads. Many other songs were recorded but they all were the country and cowboy genre.
But by 1949, the “Four Aces” disbanded and Haley formed a new band, “The Saddlemen” which was still a country/cowboy band but in turn was ultimately to become the very first rock and roll band in history, evolving into the “Comets”.
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| The Four Aces of Western Swing, L to R Al Constantine, Tex King, Bill Haley, and Bashful Barney |
Transition
By the summer of 1950, Bill Haley and His Saddlemen cut their first records. They were on the Keystone label, a small Philadelphia independent publisher. The songs were still standard western swing tunes such a, "Deal Me A Hand", "Ten Gallon Stetson" and "I'm Not To Blame".
But Haley, still working on radio, was able to indulge his growing appreciation of "race music" or R&B, when the station owner began a daring policy of mixing genres—playing country, pop, and R&B during the course of any given day. Preceding Haley’s country and western DJ show on WPWA, was one of a handful of R&B shows in the east. “Judge Rhythm’s Court”, presented by a white man in his forties named Jim Reeves (not the singer of the same name) under the name of “Shorty the Bailiff”. Reeves’ theme was “Rock the Joint” by Philadelphia's Jimmy Preston and the Prestonians. Haley liked the music that Reeves was playing - in particular, he became a big fan of Big Joe Turner and Ruth Brown - and he started adding some of these R&B songs to the Saddlemen’s setlists. He noticed they went down especially well with the younger audiences.
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| The Saddlemen, Back row, Billy Williamson and Johnny Grande, front row, Al Rex and Bill Haley |
The Saddlemen were also able to promote their act while Bill was working at WPWA. Like many acts in those days, it was the work on the station that enabled them to reach the listening audiences to help augment their salaries with personal appearances in the listening area.
One of their frequent venues for performances was a place called the Twin Bar in Gloucester, NJ. The Twin Bar became an important venue of Haley’s career. “Bill called the Twin Bar the birthplace of rock ’n’ roll,” said John von Hoelle, co-author of Sound and Glory, a 1990 biography of Haley.
During an 18-month engagement at the Twin Bars in the early 1950s, Haley used the bar as a musical laboratory, a place to experiment with his sound. He introduced a loud, amplified beat that he called “cowboy jive” on the rhythm and blues tune “Rock The Joint” that was enthusiastically received by the Twin Bar patrons.
But Haley and the Saddlemen were not recording this new sound yet.
That changed in 1951 when Haley was signed to Philadelphia-based Holiday Records and began to move toward “rock", recording a cover of the Delta Cats R&B “Rocket 88." Holiday and its sister label Essex, which also released Saddlemen records, were owned by Dave Miller, who owned the pressing plant that had made Haley’s earlier records for the Cowboy label. Miller wanted to have hits, and in particular he wanted to find ways to get both the white and black markets with the same records, and here he had an ally in Haley with whom he devised a formula which would be independently re-invented a couple of years later by Sam Phillips for Elvis Presley–putting out singles with a country song on one side and an R&B song on the other, to try to appeal to both white and black markets.
To that end, Dave Miller heard and thought that it might suit Haley’s band to cover “Rocket 88”. This seemingly was an odd decision–“Rocket 88” was a horn-driven R&B song, while the Saddlemen at this point consisted of Haley on acoustic guitar, a double-bass player, a steel guitar, and an accordion/piano. This doesn’t sound like a propitious lineup for an R&B song, but along with ace session guitarist Danny Cedrone they actually managed to come up with something rather impressive, translating R&B into western swing had ended up with something a little different to a hillbilly boogie one might expect. This recording sold in the 75,000-100,000 range in the Pennsylvania-New England region and Miller and Haley figured they were on to something. They kept trying to come up with something that would work in that style. They put out a few singles that were almost, but not quite, what they were after-"Greentree Boogie", "Rockin’ Chair on the Moon", and "Sundown Boogie", as well as Ruth Brown's "Teardrops From My Eyes."
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| 1952 ad for the "Rock the Joint" Saddlemen performing at the Twin Bar in Gloucester, NJ |
Also in 1951, Haley crossed paths with R&B's The Treniers while playing in Wildwood, NJ. Late in 1952, inspired by his now adopted theme song Rock The Joint, Haley would write a quintessential rock song, "Rock A Beating' Boogie" which would be recorded by Danny Cedrone and his group the Esquire Boys.
"Rock a Beatin' Boogie," (Haley was latching on to the slang language the Treniers were using on the Jersey shore) to also be recorded by The Treniers themselves in 1953. The fact that a white (mostly country) artist was inspiring an African-American band with an R&B song to record was highly unusual, if not completely unique situation anywhere in the US at that time. The Treniers version of “Rock-A-Beatin’ Boogie” did not sell well, but it did find its way into the hands of Alan Freed. Freed used the Treniers “Rock-A-Beatin’ Boogie” as theme music for a period in 1953.
Also in 1952 “Rock The Joint,” was released, becoming another one of those records that came incredibly close to R&R. Haleys “Rock The Joint” cover was a remarkable record. As Haley’s version had a drive and a throbbing rhythm that was totally unique for a white act at the time and rock’s first true electric guitar solo by Danny Cedrone (copied from the Esquire Boys' "Rock a Bea=tin' Boogie"). It was a hyper-fast solo that succeeded in the difficult task of replicating the excitement of the original sax solo and was the template for generations of white kids playing rock guitar. Moreover, this 12-bar solo, was featured almost note for note, two years later in “Rock Around The Clock.” “Rock the Joint” also sold in the 75,000-100,000 range as had “Rocket 88’.”
With their new, exciting sound and adoption of “hep” sharp-looking outfits the name "Saddlemen" no longer seemed appropriate. Bob Johnson, Program Director at WPWA suggested the name "Haley's Comets" for a new handle. "Ya 'know, with a name like Haley, you guys should call your group the Comets!" Bill had been told many times his music was "far out" and the idea of a blazing comet searing across the skies appealed to him. So just before the Thanksgiving holidays in 1952, the world's first true Rock'n'Roll band changed their name and their image. Off came the cowboy boots and the Stetsons. With some regret and more than a little apprehension, four veteran musicians, turned away from country/western music and faced an unknown future as "Bill Haley and his Comets".
After 1952, it was clear that Haley, Caucasian, was connected to white listeners who were already discovering and becoming interested in black R&B in the mid-1950’s and in appearing when he did, it gave that generation of white kids the belief that R&R was their music too.
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| Bob Willoughby's photo of R&B’s Big Jay McNeely lying on his back, honking his saxophone on the stage of Los Angeles’ Olympic Auditorium in 1951 - the front of the stage is lined with white kids, pounding their fists on the stage, expressions of frenzy on their faces. Bill Haley and the Saddlemen saw it coming and then made it happen. |
The Rock'n'Roll Comets
Early Success
The band signed with Essex Records, which released (in 1952) Real Rock Drive/Stop Beatin’ Around the Mulberry Bush in 1952. It was a nice sounding record but with weak song crafting. Haley copied a country record called “Tennessee Jive” and replaced “Real Rock Drive” for “Tennessee Jive” throughout the record. Haley had previously plagiarized using this technique, rewriting “Rockin’ Chair Boogie,” the flip of “Tennessee Jive,” as “Rockin’ Chair On The Moon.” Haley had a game-changing musical concept in mind, but was thin on original song ideas. However, Haley introduced an echo chamber vocal early on this record in the chorus and Danny Cedrone provided a real rock solo slightly subdued (to fit the slower tempo) from “Rock the Joint”.
In early 1953 Haley began further developing the formula for what was ultimately to become Rock 'n' Roll. He added drums to the line-up (never seen in a country band), and the transformation from Western Swing band was almost complete. Only one last ingredient remained to be added in the form of saxophones.
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| Saddlemen become the Comets. 1952, Clockwise from the bottom: Bill Haley, bassist Marshall Lytle, Steel guitarist Billy Williamson and accordionist Johnny Grande. |
The band also took a risky approach to reaching the youth market and played over 180 high school assemblies (mostly for free). When the kids shoulders started moving, their feet tapping and their hands clapping, they knew that particular tune or style was worth keeping.
In the spring of 1953, “Crazy, Man, Crazy” was released. In one of these school forays, Comets’ bass player Marshall Lytle recalled:
“We had just finished a gig at Eddystone High School and we were loading our instruments in the car. We asked the kids how they liked our music. One kid answered ‘like crazy, man, crazy!’ Bill quickly wrote down the teenage expression. We were always looking for catchy words or phrases to write songs with. We left and went directly to Bill’s … Bill started strumming his guitar with several tunes, playing around with the crazy, man, crazy idea. I joined in and we began throwing tunes and lyrics together. After several hours we worked out our first song to hit the national charts.”
“Crazy, Man, Crazy” was released in the spring of 1953 and charted at Number 12 in Billboard (and crossed over in the R&B charts at Number 66). It was also in retrospect, said to be the first R&R recording to be played on national television in the United States (in an episode of Omnibus (American TV program) in 1953).
This was the first rock ‘n’ roll song to chart nationally. The band was now pioneering a new genre of popular music that had finally been given a name…rock ‘n’ roll…by Alan Freed, a Cleveland DJ. Bill Haley and the Comets were now a real R&R band whatever that meant in 1953. “Crazy, Man, Crazy” was another great sounding record, and its appearance near the top of the national charts attracted the attention of Decca Records and producer Milt Gabler in New York City.
By 1954, Haley and his Comets were picked up by Decca Records–a major record label. At their first session for Decca in 1954, they cut “Rock Around the Clock” (which had originally been recorded in 1952 by Sunny Dae and His Knights – although it had been written originally for the Comets). The song was recorded at the end of a three-hour recording session for a completely different song. “Thirteen Women (And I’m the Only Man in Town),” which was chosen to be the A-side of their record by Decca. And so “Rock Around the Clock” (which was recorded hastily in only the last 40 minutes of the session) ended up on the B-side. Despite that Haley and his band had been playing it for months to enthusiastic crowds at their live shows, the label didn’t appear to feel it was strong enough to release as a single. Regardless, the band got the song down in two takes. All of the musicians were live on a single track. The A-side of the record didn’t exactly create a furor. Although the single did sell a modest 75,000 copies, it was on its way to being forgotten and sliding into obscurity, if not for a very fortunate occurrence to take place a year later in Hollywood.
Meanwhile, later in 1954, Haley did enjoy two million-sellers with "Shake, Rattle & Roll" and then "Dim Dim The Lights". Haley was a now bona fide rock star. In the summer of 1954, the battle of two bands between competing versions of the seminal rocker - Shake Rattle and Roll - showed Rock and Roll had indeed arrived. Haley’s cover reached number 7 on the Billboard chart and stayed for 27 weeks. It was the first rock & roll record to sell a million copies. Big Joe Turner’s original crossed over and reached number 22.
Comparing the two versions illustrates the differences between R&B and rock 'n' roll. A simple, stark instrumental backing is heard on the Turner version. Whereas Turner's version uses a walking bass line, the Comets' version features a slap bass. A subdued horn arrangement in the Turner recording can be contrasted with a honking sax riff that answers each line of verse in Haley's version, and the entire band shouts "Go!" as part of the vocal backing.
Although musical revisionists and American media tried to paint Turner as a victim of the music industry racism due to Haley's covering of the song, in fact Haley's success helped Turner immensely although Turner was a well-established performer long before "Shake Rattle and Roll". Listeners who heard Haley's version sought out Turner's and thus the crossover success.
Rock Around the Clock
Despite a lack of commercial success upon its initial release, “(We’re Gonna) Rock Around the Clock” would go on to reach critical mass a year later after being featured in the 1955 film Blackboard Jungle, a movie about unruly students and teenage rebellion. Peter Ford (then the teenaged son of the star of the film – Glenn Ford) is credited with getting the song into the movie. His father and director Richard Brooks wanted a modern, up-tempo tune to open the film and raided young Peter’s record collection for ideas.
“I was listening to blues music at the time,” Ford recalls. “You had (pop records like) Eddie Fisher singing O Mein Papa, but I was listening to Work with Me, Annie!” Ford says they borrowed three discs: Rock Around the Clock, Big Joe Turner’s original version of Shake, Rattle and Roll, and Joe Houston’s All Night Long. He didn’t know which one was used till he saw the movie.
The single is commonly used as a convenient line of demarcation between the "rock era" and the music industry that preceded it. Billboard later separated its statistical tabulations into 1890–1954 and 1955–present. After the record rose to number one, Haley was quickly given the title "Father of Rock and Roll" by the media, and by teenagers who had come to embrace the new style of music. With the song's success, the age of rock music began “overnight” (although it had truly started after the War, ten years earlier) and ended the dominance of the jazz and pop standards performed by Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Bing Crosby, and others.
On July 9, 1955 "Rock Around the Clock" became the first rock and roll recording to hit number 1 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 remained number 1 for seven weeks on the Cashbox pop singles chart. The record also hit number three on the R&B charts. Billboard ranked it as the No. 2 song for 1955, behind Perez Prado's "Cherry Pink (and Apple Blossom White)".
With sales of more than 25 million copies worldwide, “(We’re Gonna) Rock Around The Clock” is one of the best-selling records in history and Rolling Stone has named it #159 on their first list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
The success of "Rock Around the Clock" took place while Elvis Presley had yet to chart a record nationally; at a point when Chuck Berry's very first single for Chess had barely been recorded; and when Roy Orbison and Buddy Holly weren't even close to auditioning for recording contracts. The reality was Bill Haley & His Comets were the only established white rock & roll band, and the only white rock & roll stars in the world. The Comets were one of the best rock & roll bands of their era, with a mostly sax-driven sound ornamented lead guitar solos (courtesy of Danny Cedrone’s work) with heavy rhythm guitar from Haley, a slap-bass, and drumming with lots of rim-shots; they had the "blackest" sound of any white band working in 1952-1955.
Denouement
Haley and the Comets continued to chart for several years. The next big Haley hit came with "See You Later Alligator". "Alligator" shot to the #6 spot on the Billboard chart in early 1956, selling a million copies within a month after its release. A song called "R-O-C-K" followed and rose to #16. During 1955 and 1956, Haley and his band had at least 12 US Top 40 records.
The next big project on the horizon was the band's feature film, Don't Knock The Rock. As well as performing the title track, Bill and the band performed an excellent version of "Rip It Up" (a number 25), a song that they would feature in their live shows for the next twenty years. The hits continued with "Rudy's Rock" which climbed to #34 in late 1956.
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| Comets in 1955, L to R counter-clockwise from top, Bill Haley guitar, saxophonist Rudy Pompilli, Bill Williamson, bassist Al Rex, accordianist Johnny Grande, drummer Ralph Jones and guitarist Fran Beecher |
By 1957, Haley decided to tour Britain as his popularity began fading at home. When the first American Rock 'n' Roll star came to Britain, he was met with large and enthusiastic crowds, but the British soon found out what American teenagers already knew. The 30-year-old Haley was old in their eyes, overweight, and rather mechanical when compared to the new rock royalty-Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Gene Vincent, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Buddy Holly, who were younger and whose music was more exciting. Bill Haley And His Comets were the first, but now they were now rapidly becoming part of yesterday.
However, 1958 saw the band reach #22 in the U.S. with "Skinny Minnie" and #35 with "Week End". After that, they recorded a few minor hits and many more that didn't make the charts. The stay at the top was relatively short for Haley and the Comets.
Haley found steady work again when Sixties rock fans began discovering the music’s roots at events such as the highly successful “Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival” concerts, first staged by promoter Richard Nader in 1969. Haley’s career got more big lifts in the early Seventies. He re-recorded “Rock Around the Clock” in 1973, and it was this version that played over the opening credits for the popular TV show Happy Days. The original recording also appeared on the 1974 soundtrack for American Graffiti and became a hit in the U.S. for the second time that year.
Haley died on February 9, 1981 at the age of 55 at his home in Harlingen, TX. The “Father of Rock’n’Roll” had passed on.
Epilogue - Danny Cedrone
Bill Haley and the Saddlemen (later the Comets) did not initially have a lead guitarist. That role was fulfilled by Danny Cedrone (June 20, 1920 - June 17, 1954). He made a name for himself and supplemented his income by doing (recording) session work. Bill Haley used him initially on Rocket 88’ in 1951. Due to a lack of documentation, Cedrone's involvement in recordings from 1951–52 is not confirmed but is supported by anecdotal evidence from surviving musicians, as well as by books such as the Haley biographies Sound and Glory by John Haley and John von Hoelle and Bill Haley by John Swenson. (Additional source: Chris Gardner's Bill Haley Database at Bill Haley Central.com).
In addition to The Saddlemens’ country swing, he played on the aforementioned “Rock the Joint” and followed up with performing on the later R&R styled "Rockin' Chair On the Moon", "Stop Beatin' Around the Mulberry Bush" (another early rock guitar solo) and "Real Rock Drive". In 1953, during Haley’s sessions the lead guitar player was Art Ryerson. Meantime Cedrone organized his own new group “The Esquire Boys”. The Esquire Boys and this is believed to be one of the reasons he never joined Haley's group as a full-time member.
Cedrone's involvement with the Esquire Boys kept him off of Haley's recording schedule for most of 1952 and 1953. During this time, Cedrone made a number of recordings with the Esquires, most notably the Bill Haley composition, "Rock-A-Beatin' Boogie" (reached #27 on the charts in a second version, 1954), several years before Haley would record it himself. Cedrone works more lead guitar solo magic into this song reprising a modified version of solo in “Rock the Joint”. They also recorded versions of “Guitar Boogie Shuffle” (losing the boogie-woogie and making it rock, even to the extent of a chorus, “we’re gonna rock this joint tonight”) and “Caravan” (which reached #27 on the US charts).
Cedrone returned to work with Haley's group in 1954. He played a key role in the band's first recording session for Decca Records on April 12, 1954 when they recorded "Rock Around the Clock" in New York City. According to the book Rock Around the Clock by Jim Dawson, Cedrone had been unable to attend the session rehearsal and was uncertain what to play for the first instrumental break in the song. One of the Comets suggested Cedrone repeat the solo he'd played on "Rock the Joint". Although Danny's wife daughter recall an informal rehearsal at their home in South Philadelphia after dinner where the two men ran through a few solos, and the Rock The Joint break was one of them.
Cedrone was paid only $21 ($239 today) for his work on the session, as at that time Haley still chose not to hire a full-time guitarist for his group. Cedrone would also play on the June 7, 1954 recording session for Haley's version of "Shake, Rattle and Roll" although he was not presented the opportunity for another notable guitar solo.
On June 17, ten days after this session, Cedrone died of a broken neck after falling down a staircase at The 819 Bar in South Philly. His place as session musician in the Comets was then taken by Franny Beecher, who would later graduate to a full-time Comets’ member.
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| Danny Cedrone |
Danny Cedrone was the likely the very first lead guitarist of rock. He was the first to bring a structured solo into the recording studio and basically take over a song with a fiery guitar lead. But he died well before he knew it!
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