BILL HALEY AND HIS COMETS
Bill Haley & His Comets was an American rock and roll band that was founded in 1952 and continued until Haley’s death in 1981. The band, also known by the names Bill Haley and the Comets and Bill Haley’s Comets (and variations thereof), was the earliest group of white musicians to bring rock and roll to the attention of white America and the rest of the world. From late 1954 to late 1956, the group placed nine singles in the Top 20, one of those a number one and three more in the Top Ten. Although several members of the Comets became famous, Bill Haley remained the star. With his spit curl and the band’s matching plaid dinner jackets and energetic stage behavior, many fans consider them to be as revolutionary in their time as the Beatles or the Rolling Stones were a decade later. (More from Wikipedia)
The term “rockabilly” – the word is an amalgamation of rock and hillbilly (an early term for country music) – was thrilling to me even before I actually knew what it meant. It was one of the earliest forms of rock and roll and the first to be played primarily by white musicians, going all the way back to “Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley and His Comets. The roster of rockabilly stars over the years starts of course with The King, Elvis Presley, along with Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and most of the other artists at Sun Records in the 1950’s, plus Wanda Jackson, Eddie Cochran and others. There was also a rockabilly revival in the early 1980’s led by the Blasters and the Stray Cats. To this day, when a band wants a rawer sound, they will incorporate rockabilly into their music.
(May 2011)
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Primarily, Link Wray performed under the name Link Wray and His Ray Men (originally Link Wray and His Wray Men); there were a few other rock bands with the possessive – notably the legendary rock and roll pioneer Bill Haley and His Comets – but most bandleaders in the rock and roll era were content to just use “the” to identify the band.
(February 2013)
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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)
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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)
