Page "Bill Haley" Paragraph 7

In 1953, a song called " Rock Around the Clock " was written for Haley.

He was unable to record it until April 12, 1954.

Initially, it was relatively unsuccessful, staying at the charts for only one week, but Haley soon scored a major worldwide hit with a cover version of Big Joe Turner's " Shake, Rattle and Roll ", which went on to sell a million copies and became the first ever rock ' n ' roll song to enter British singles charts in December 1954 and became a Gold Record.

He retained elements of the original, but threw some country music aspects in to the song ( specifically, Western Swing ) and cleaned up the lyrics.

Haley and his band were important in launching the music known as " Rock and Roll " to a wider, mostly white audience after a period of it being considered an underground genre.

When " Rock Around the Clock " appeared behind the opening credits of the 1955 film Blackboard Jungle starring Glenn Ford, it soared to the top of the American Billboard chart for eight weeks.

The single is commonly used as a convenient line of demarcation between the " rock era " and the music industry that preceded it ; Billboard separated its statistical tabulations into 1890-1954 and 1955 – present.

After the record rose to number one, Haley was quickly given the title " Father of Rock and Roll ," by the media, and by teenagers that had come to embrace the new style of music.