Rock Around the Clock

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This article is about the song. For the movie named after the song, see Rock Around the Clock (movie).

"Rock Around the Clock" is a rock n' roll song from 1952, written by Max C. Freedman and James E. Myers (the latter under the pseudonym "Jimmy De Knight"). Although first recorded by Sonny Dae & the Knights, the more famous version by Bill Haley and His Comets is not, strictly speaking, a cover version, as Myers claimed the song had been written specifically for Haley, but for various reasons Haley was unable to record it himself until 1954. Although not the first rock and roll record (according to many musical historians, that honor belongs to Haley's cover version of the 1951 rhythm and blues hit, "Rocket 88"), it is considered by many to be the song that put rock and roll on the map in America and around the world. The lyrics were based on numerous blues tunes boasting of 24-hour-long romantic prowess (the term rock initially having had a sexual meaning), but in Haley's hands they took on a more innocent teenage atmosphere of dancing all night long.

The original full title of the song was "We're Gonna Rock Around the Clock Tonight." This was later shortened to "(We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock," although other than the 1954 recording by Haley, most other recordings of this song shorten this title further to "Rock Around the Clock."

1 False starts
2 Legendary Recording Session
3 Slow road to classic hit status
4 Albums
5 Trivia
6 Quotation
7 References and sources
8 External links

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False starts

Many sources indicate that "Rock Around the Clock" was written in 1953, however documents uncovered by historian Jim Dawson indicate it was in fact written in late 1952. The original arrangement of the song bore little resemblance to the version recorded by Haley and was in fact closer to a popular instrumental of the day called "Syncopated Clock".

The song was credited to Myers (as "Jimmy DeKnight") and Max C. Freedman although its exact authorship is disputed, with many feeling that Freedman wrote the song on his own. There were several earlier songs of the title "Rock Around the Clock" (by Hal Singer and Wally Mercer) but they are unrelated to the Freedman/Myers song. In addition, it is sometimes erroneously stated that "Rock Around the Clock" is copied from a late-1940s Big Joe Turner recording, "Around the Clock Blues". Aside from title similarity, however, the two songs bear little if any resemblance.

According to the Haley biographies Bill Haley by John Swenson and Rock Around the Clock by Dawson, the song was offered to Haley in the wake of his first national success "Crazy Man, Crazy" in 1953. Haley and his Comets began performing the song on stage (Comets bass player Marshall Lytle and drummer Dick Richards say the first performances were in Wildwood, New Jersey), but Dave Miller, his producer, refused to allow Haley to record it for his Essex Records label (Swenson suggests a fued existed between Myers and Miller). Haley himself claimed to have taken the sheet music into the recording studio at least twice, with Miller ripping up the music each time. Nonetheless, rumors of a 1953 demo recording by Haley persist to this day, although surviving members of the Comets deny this, as did Haley himself (quoted in the Swenson biography); a late-1960s bootleg single of the Decca Records version of "Rock Around the Clock", with "Crazy Man, Crazy" on the B-side and carrying the Essex label, occasionally turns up for sale with the claim that it is the demo version.

Myers next offered the song to Sonny Dae & His Knights, a novelty all-white musical group led by Italian-American Paschal Vennitti. The group's subsequent recording, on the Arcade Records label (owned by Haley's manager, Jack Howard), was a regional success, although it once again sounded very different from what Haley would later record.

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Legendary Recording Session

After leaving Essex Records in the spring of 1954, Bill Haley signed with the then-important Decca Records label and the band's first recording session was set for 12 April 1954 at the Pythian Temple studios in New York City. The recording session almost didn't happen because the band was delayed when a ferry they were travelling on en route to New York from Philadelphia got stuck on a sandbar. Once at the studio, producer Milt Gabler insisted the band work on a new song (for them) entitled "Thirteen Women (and Only One Man in Town)" (previously written and recorded by Dickie Thompson) which Gabler wanted to promote as the A-side of the group's first single for Decca.

With only minutes left in the recording session, the band finally recorded a take of "Rock Around the Clock," however Haley's vocals were drowned out by the band. A second take was quickly made with minimal accompaniment and, with Sammy Davis Jr. waiting outside the studio for his turn behind the microphone, the session ended. Decca engineers later combined the two versions together into one version. (Comets piano player Johnny Grande tells a slightly different version, claiming that the only reason a second take was recorded was because the drummer made an error.)

Over the years, many musicians have made the claim that they performed on the recording session for "Rock Around the Clock." This includes the song's co-writer, James E. Myers, who said he had played drums on the piece. According to the official record sheet from the session, the musicians on the famous recording are:

Gussak and Cedrone were not members of the Comets, but were session musicians Haley often used on his recording sessions. Cedrone's guitar solo, an adaptation of a "gimmick" solo he used on a number of previous recordings, including the Bill Haley version of "Rock the Joint" in 1952, is considered one of the classic rock and roll guitar solos of all time. In a 2005 retrospective on his uncle Milt Gabler's work (The Milt Gabler Story) Billy Crystal identifies Haley's 1954 recording of "Rock Around the Clock" as the single most important song Gabler ever produced.

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Slow road to classic hit status

As Gabler intended, "Rock Around the Clock" was first issued in the spring of 1954 as a B-side to "Thirteen Women (and Only One Man in Town)." While the song did make the American Billboard music charts (contrary to popular opinion that it was a flop), it was considered a commercial disappointment. It was not until 1955, when "Rock Around the Clock" was used under the opening credits of the film Blackboard Jungle, that the song truly took off. It was strong, simple, and loud, and you could dance to it.

Many versions of the story behind how "Rock Around the Clock" was chosen for Blackboard Jungle circulated over the years. Recent research, however, reveals that the song was chosen from the collection of young Peter Ford, the son of Blackboard Jungle star Glenn Ford and dancer Eleanor Powell. The producers were looking for a song to represent the type of music the youth of 1955 was listening to, and the elder Ford borrowed several records from his son's collection, one of which was Haley's "Rock Around the Clock" and this was the song chosen.

"Rock Around the Clock" became the first rock and roll recording to hit the top of the American record charts, a feat it repeated on charts around the world. The song stayed at the top of the American charts for eight weeks. Haley would re-record the song many times over the years, even scoring a substantial hit with a version recorded for Sonet Records in 1968), but never recaptured the magic. In 1974, the original version of the song returned to the American charts when it was used as the theme for the movie American Graffiti and the TV series Happy Days. Haley's version is believed to have sold more than 25 million copies over the last 50 years (some estimates run as high as 35 million), and is said to be playing somewhere in the world every minute of the day. In tribute to the influence of the song and the movie that launched its popularity, the March 29, 2005 50^th anniversary of the opening of Blackboard Jungle was celebrated by several large celebrations in the United States under the blanket title "Rock Is Fifty".Template:Ref Rock Is Fifty also hosted additional celebrations in Los Angeles in July, 2005 as part of a "Rock Around the Clock-a-Thon" to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the song reaching the No. 1 spot on the American charts, as well as to observe what would have been Haley's 80 birthday. These events included numerous appearances and performances by surviving members of the original Comets, including the band's induction into the Rock Walk hall of fame, a performance at the Viper Room club on the Sunset Strip, and a special performance for employees of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena to celebrate the success of the Deep Impact space probe; a special video of "Rock Around the Clock" was created to mark the occasion and was featured on NASA's website during July and August of 2005.

A book on the history of the song, Rock Around the Clock: The Record That Started the Rock Revolution by Jim Dawson was released in July 2005 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the song reaching the No. 1 spot on the American charts. [1]

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Albums

As Bill Haley's best-known recording, there have of course been dozens of compilation album releases over the years entitled Rock Around the Clock. The most notable of these compilations was the 1955 Decca Records album Rock Around the Clock (Decca DL 8225) which contained most of the tracks Haley recorded as singles for the label in 1954 and 1955.

Another notable album release entitled Rock Around the Clock was the 1970 Hallmark Records UK release Rock Around the Clock (SHM 668) which was the first British release of a 1968 album entitled Bill Haley's Biggest Hits which had been released in Sweden by Sonet Records. The album consisted of newly recorded renderings of Haley classics from the 1950s, along with some previously unrecorded songs.

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Trivia

In 1964, Bill Haley and His Comets recorded a sequel song entitled "Dance Around the Clock". Haley actually recorded this song on four occasions (a Spanish language version for Orfeon Records of Mexico City and an English version for the US label Newtown Records (both in 1964), a live version for Buddah Records recorded in New York in 1969 that was not released for 25 years, and once more in Nashville, Tennessee for the Swedish Sonet Records label in 1970). Despite these efforts, the song was not a commercial success.

"Rock Around the Clock" was featured in scene in the 1978 film Superman: The Movie. It can be heard just before the scene in which Blackboard Jungle star Glenn Ford (as Jonathan Kent) gives instruction to teenaged Clark Kent (Jeff East) on the correct application of his powers. (However, when ABC broadcast the film on TV for the first time, they were unable to obtain the rights to "Rock Around the Clock" and it was replaced by another piece of music; the song remains in all subsequent VHS, DVD and television versions of the film.)

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