Bill Haley

Highly Appreciated

BILL HALEY
 
 
Bill Haley  (July 6, 1925 – February 9, 1981) was an American rock and roll musician.  He is credited by many with first popularizing this form of music in the early 1950s with his group Bill Haley & His Comets (inspired by Halley’s Comet) and million selling hits such as “Rock Around the Clock”, “See You Later, Alligator”, “Shake, Rattle and Roll”, “Rocket 88”, “Skinny Minnie”, and “Razzle Dazzle”.  He has sold over 25 million records worldwide.  (More from Wikipedia)

  

 
Rock and roll pioneer Bill Haley was from Detroit; in 1955, Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley and His Comets was the first big rock and roll hit. Hank Ballard and the Midnighters had a crossover R&B hit in 1954 with “Work with Me, Annie”; this band also recorded the original version of “The Twist” in 1959 as a B-side that Chubby Checker catapulted to a nationwide craze the following year. More recently, the White Stripes is one of the primary bands that ignited the Garage Rock Revival of the early 2000’s, among a host of other like-minded Detroit groups. 
(March 2016)
* * *
In point of fact, ground-breaking music often doesn’t sell all that well.  For artists who catch the zeitgeist at just the right moment, like Elvis Presleythe Beatles and the Rolling Stones, the sky’s the limit.  Although they are household names now, however, none of the other rock and roll pioneers – Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Bo DiddleyBill Haley, etc. – made it nearly that big.  That will likely be the subject of a future UARB post. 
 
(December 2017)
 
* * *
I have previously posted the opening track on the Thomas Anderson album Blues for the Flying Dutchman, “Bill Haley in Mexico”, which I just have to hear again (sorry, Phil Gammage!). As almost everyone knows, Bill Haley and His Comets had the first big rock and roll hit with Rock Around the Clock (1954, though it did not become a hit until 1955). I am not sure what the chorus is talking about when it goes: “I wanted to know / I wanted to know / What happened to Bill Haley down in Mexico”. But I cannot recall a more insistent chorus with a better instrumental follow-up than this one. I am reminded of the first time that I played the American album by the Dutch band Shocking Blue, The Shocking Blue, which naturally includes their big hit Venus. I simply could not believe how good the opening song, Long and Lonesome Road” was, and I actually got up from my chair and restarted the album.
 
(Year 10 Review)
Last edited: March 22, 2021