Page "Rock Around the Clock" Paragraph 11

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 April 12, 1954 at the Pythian Temple studios in New York City.

The recording session almost failed to take place because the band was traveling on a ferry that got stuck on a sandbar en route to New York from Philadelphia.

Once at the studio, producer Milt Gabler ( Uncle of actor Billy Crystal, who had produced Louis Jordan as well as Billie Holiday ), insisted the band work on a song 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.