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142.56.5.23
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.
Follow Ups:
......My parents had been married for 14 months and my eldest sister was born the following year. “I” was far from even thought of…….I can’t say I was ever a big fan of Bill Haley
Elvis or The Beatles is more my speed.
Smile
nt
I do remember my mother and father not approving of R&R.
WarmestTimbo in Oz
The Skyptical Mensurer and Audio Scrounger'Still not saluting.'
Read about and view system at:
Miss Cooper might have been my favorite elementary school teacher. I never liked another teacher more. We liked her because she was nice and behaved well to keep her that way, unlike kids these days.I was unaware of Mr. Haley or rock 'n roll. But it didn't take me long to catch up. By 1957 I was listening to the music of my peers, much to the chagrin of my classical-loving father. He was a brilliant opera singer and, fortunately, exposed me to classical music from the time I could hear. Rock I could get from the world around me. Classical was rarer and I owe my father a great debt for it.
On the other hand, my folks never listened to music, and every time the radio was on, whether it was in the house or in the car, it was talk radio- weather, hog reports, cooking and recipes, yadda, yadda, yadda. If I say "WCCO", those near the Twin Cities will know exactly what I am speaking of.Perhaps this explains my on-going struggle to "get" Classical....
Jim
As a little lad I used to sit for what seemed like hours listening to my father's clear red, classical RCA 45s, the ones with the big hole in the center. (Yes, my son, I come from the age of vinyl but have seen the future and it is CD.) I probably scratched the hell out of them but my dad never complained.My two siblings, one male and one female (Wouldn't "one male" really give all needed information?), were raised in the same house, with the same records, yet never showed the same passion I have for classical music. They like it, but don't have anywhere near the knowledge or interest I do. Go figure.
Is that when people call into the radio station to report seeing one of those beasts?Or is it when the hogs broadcast more of those boring "What a great weekend I had" reports, when every weekend is great if they've avoided the slaughterhouse.
Please don't tell us that it's some MN farmer telling us about his most recent sexual encounter with his favorite female porker.
detailing the noon menus at the teachers' lunch room.
till my release.
About that time my family was returning home to the USA after spending two years in and near London, England. I can't actually remember the dates of our trans-Atlantic crossing, so I might have already arrived back in America. In any case, I don't recall hearing "Rock around the Clock" until the following year, sometime in the Summer of 1955. I was eleven years old, and that Summer I was between elementary school and junior high.
"Music is the medicine of a troubled mind." -- Walter Haddon, 1567
I was born Feb 4th, 1954 so I was about 13 weeks old. I distinctly don't remember anything on May 10th, '54. I was still in WV.
Well I remember listening to popular music on Martin Block's "Make Believe Ballroom" on WNEW. He went to WABC with the "Martin Block Show" and shortly thereafter "Rock Around the Clock" was #1 on the charts (I was 9 or 10). WABC became the station to listen to with the newly available transistor radios. We could also pick up a very weak signal from a black station in Newark that played blues, and doo-wop. (This was pretty radical in the suburbs 5 miles from Newark). About two years later "Little Darlin'" was playing on the big stations - a classic doo-wop.
I may be an egoist but at least I don't talk about other people.
I wasn't even a dirty thought on my parents' mind. Heck my parents were still in high school, and they wouldn't meet for another 14 or so years.
Q: What's a "xanga"?(Yes, I'm serious)
Jim
Xanga is a community of online diaries and journals. You can easily start your own free journal, share thoughts with your friends and meet new friends, too. The basic subscription, which is all I really need, is free. If you pay for the premium account, you get more privileges and graphics capability.AFAIK, audiophiles typically aren't on xanga. Which, I guess, can be construed as a good thing, IF said audiophiles are instead listening to (and enjoying) music.
-Lummy The Seahorse (rpghero27 on xanga)
nt
truck in front of the house we lived in. The reason why I occassionally say worter instead of water...I was born on Longisland.The only music in our house at that time was big-band!
REMEMBER! June 3, 2006 is Ribfest! All who read this (and even if you don't) are invited! E-mail for details.
My parents will marry. Eight to eleven years later they'll have some kids; me included. :)
1964 for me. Good year for British music, that.
April 11, turned 42. Youch.
What a drag.
Jim
nt
holding onto the sofa (Mom called it the divan) or the coffee table, I'd wager.Doubt I heard Rock Around the Clock when it first came out. I was so un-hip, I was getting down-and-dirty with cloth diapers.
Very little changed for awhile. My world expanded with the advent of potty training.
...albeit for very different reasons?
Did you know it's been known to cause functional impairment?When I was much younger, my learning to stand up kinda resembled Tom Cruise dancing on BET.
I'm now less clumsy, hopefully.
.
...
... to get back in again?):-)
I was still in the twinkle of my mother’s eyes that was a sign of big relief in her part that she will finally get rid of me, as there were only 14 days left of her gestation period before I was born.
to ultimately relieve herself of you.Do you remember any of it?
although my mother said, “Oh! It’s you”…and slap me around a couple of times after I was born so I’ve heard.
Yup. Same with me, but it was the Doctor who did the slapping, and he was slapping my Father, saying, "Look what you've done..."
Jim
Yeah, my folks loved big band music and the crooners of the day. It was so nice to hear Rock around the Clock and later on, Love me Tender.
at that age eh? Heck I wouldn’t even allow my 14-year-old son to listens to rap music at that age. Man! What the world is beginning to.
How about Ghost riders in the Sky? I should have said Bing Crosby.
... and three years later (early 1957) we moved to what was then Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and lived in what was then Salisbury (now Harare).At that time, the arrival of Rock 'n Roll passed unnoticed and I only really became aware of it sometime around 1957 after arriving in Salisbury. My father had rather Catholic tastes in music and only WWII nostalgia songs and classical music was played in the house - something that contributed to my permanent departure from the parental umbrella as soon as I finished high school...
The Rhodesian music scene in 1957 onwards was largely controlled by three major influences:
1) The one and only local AM Medium Wave radio station (RBC = Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation)
2) The one commercial South African AM Short Wave station (Springbok Radio)
3) The independent music AM Medium Wave music station broadcast from Lourenzo Marques (now Maputo) in Mocambique (LM Radio)RBC only broadcast between 06h00 and 23h00 and had to satisfy the entire population, so weekday rock music was relegated to the hour between 22h00 and 23h00 - "Rock with Locke" compered by a DJ named Martin Locke who later became a sports commentator in S. Africa...
The "filtration" applied by each source varied according to the music companies' policies in each country, so we got more variety in Rhodesia than in any of the other two countries - although LM Radio did also have a Short Wave transmitter beamed at S. Africa.
On LM Radio, one of the main DJ's - David Davies - was always being shit-canned for crudity (via suspensions that usually lasted about a month at a time). By today's standards, his "crudity" would be laughed at...
I guess the first rock music that caught my attention was "Red River Rock" by Johnny & The Hurricanes - it opened a floodgate...
To this day, I still enjoy music from that era and have built up a collection on Vinyl, Cassette and CD (the latter mainly re-issues of compilations). Much of this has been transcribed onto the hard disk of a Yamaha CDR-HD1300 for ease of party playback.
In fact, on this past Saturday, with some 18 old fogies gathered for a braai (aka barbecue), the Yamaha did sterling service - keeping most feet tapping the whole day.
Bliss...
...here's something I wrote over a decade ago:"It was forty-five years ago today..."
is still alive and kickin'... plenty of good brews and chews. If you ever get a bit further north check out the "Liberal Cup" in Hallowell on the west bank of the Kennebec river. A nice Brit-style brew pub w/ some of the nicest beer in New England. My personal favs; Tarbox Cream Stout, Bug Larger and Ex-wife Extra Bitter....BTW, nicely written essay.
Pete [the lack of beer at work concerns me, crack a cold one NOW!]S.
Disturbed is a life style...deal with it.
z
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