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A year later, the song became the first rock and roll number to top the charts.When the song was first released, it barely made the pop charts, spending only one week at No. 23. A year later, though, it became a hit after producer James Myers sent copies of the song to dozens of Hollywood producers and suggested they use it in a movie. The producers of Blackboard Jungle (1955), a controversial film about juvenile delinquency, selected the song as the movie's opening music. After the movie opened, sales of "Rock Around the Clock" skyrocketed, selling six million copies by the end of 1955. The song climbed to the top of the charts in July 1955, becoming the first rock and roll song to reach No. 1.
Although rock and roll had been around since the late 1940s, the sound didn't penetrate into the white American mainstream until Haley drew attention to the style, paving the way for future rock and roll artists of all races. He made his first record, Candy Kisses, when he was 18 and spent four years on the road with a series of country-western bands. He worked as a disc jockey under the name "The Ramblin' Yodeler" and performed regularly on the radio with his band the Four Aces of Western Swing, but the band's songs never hit it big.
In the early 1950s, Haley changed direction and began playing the new, upbeat style that came to be known as rock and roll. The group recorded a cover of Jimmy Preston's "Rock the Joint," which sold 75,000 copies. The following year, Haley's original "Crazy Man, Crazy" became the first rock and roll record to make the Billboard Top 10. In addition to being the theme song for The Blackboard Jungle, his song "Rock Around the Clock" was also featured on the television dance show American Bandstand.
By the mid-1950s, Haley was one of the world's most popular performers, and he racked up 12 Top 40 hits in 1955-56, including "See You Later, Alligator." His last Top 40 hit was "Skinny Minnie," recorded in 1958, but throughout the 1970s Haley and his band traveled with the "Rock 'n' Roll Revival" show, documented in the 1973 film Let the Good Times Roll. He had sold an estimated 60 million records by the time he died of a heart attack in 1981. Five years later, he became one of the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In my case I was still a twinkle in my mother’s eyes.
BTW, Bill Haley went solo afterwards and went on to become the greatest operetta singer of his own generation.
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Topic - Where were u this day in 1954 when "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and the Comets was released… - millen 07:53:47 05/10/06 (39)
- I wasn’t a sparkle in anyone’s eye……….. - three_sox 05:00:23 05/11/06 (0)
- Still in two separate parts nt - G Squared 04:58:52 05/11/06 (0)
- very probably playing in the yard, I was 3 and a half - Timbo in Oz 20:29:41 05/10/06 (0)
- In Miss Cooper's 3rd grade class at Eugene Field Elementary School, Elmhurst, Illinois - psgary 20:27:34 05/10/06 (4)
- Nature vs Nurture - subcoolman 05:02:41 05/11/06 (3)
- Funny how those things go - psgary 16:47:02 05/11/06 (0)
- Hog reports? What the hell are hog reports?... - Neil49 13:37:09 05/11/06 (1)
- Hog reports are . . . - psgary 16:42:24 05/11/06 (0)
- 11 months and counting... - driver 17:09:56 05/10/06 (0)
- Probably on a ship in the mid-Atlantic - Big Dave 15:32:20 05/10/06 (0)
- Re: Where were u this day in 1954 when "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and the Comets was released… - REL54 15:20:55 05/10/06 (0)
- Re: Where were u this day in 1954 when "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and the Comets was released… - neolith 14:49:43 05/10/06 (0)
- Negative-Eighteen Years Old - Luminator 13:55:40 05/10/06 (2)
- Yup. Minus eleven here... - subcoolman 18:57:48 05/10/06 (1)
- Xanga - Luminator 23:05:30 05/10/06 (0)
- A mere sparkle in my father's eye... ;-) nt - bboroski 12:41:59 05/10/06 (0)
- I was five and had a broken leg from being run over by a pick-em-up - Muzikmike 12:35:59 05/10/06 (0)
- In a few months.... - grantv 12:08:01 05/10/06 (4)
- Yer bang on my generation there! - ElbowGeek 14:42:43 05/10/06 (3)
- Me too old man. :) - grantv 18:54:51 05/10/06 (2)
- 41 this past January. - subcoolman 05:03:32 05/11/06 (0)
- I'm in. nt - G Squared 04:59:59 05/11/06 (0)
- Learning to stand up - axolotl 11:11:19 05/10/06 (2)
- Re: Learning to stand up (and still battling occasionally)... - DevillEars 11:15:21 05/10/06 (1)
- I'm not much of a drinker. - axolotl 11:23:05 05/10/06 (0)
- I was 6 months old and probably enjoying my lunch. nt - www.records 11:06:10 05/10/06 (0)
- Sixty days in the womb. -t - Bruce Kendall 10:27:59 05/10/06 (5)
- Re: Sixty days in the womb (and 52 years trying... - DevillEars 11:16:32 05/10/06 (4)
- Although I said,... - millen 12:08:28 05/10/06 (3)
- That must've been quite a fortnight of marathon dancing to "Rock Around the Clock" - axolotl 12:20:47 05/10/06 (2)
- Nada, zilch, o, none, memory of it at all... - millen 12:31:20 05/10/06 (1)
- (chuckle!) - subcoolman 19:59:39 05/10/06 (0)
- Listening to Glenn Miller and Von Monroe - Mike B. 10:01:20 05/10/06 (2)
- Von Monroe? What! Your parents allowed you to listen to blue grass music.... - millen 12:41:07 05/10/06 (1)
- Wrong Monroe - Mike B. 12:49:46 05/10/06 (0)
- In 1954, I was 8 years old and in Grade 1 at a school in Cape Town... - DevillEars 09:29:56 05/10/06 (0)
- For a synoptic view with added verisimilitude... - clarkjohnsen 08:14:29 05/10/06 (2)
- Re: $3 Dewies.... - PeterS 08:59:53 05/10/06 (1)
- Very good to know... and, Thank You! nt - clarkjohnsen 09:09:46 05/10/06 (0)