An excerpt from the recording was included in " Haley's Golden Medley ", a hastily-compiled single in the " Stars on 45 " mold which made the UK record charts in 1982, reaching number 50.

In April 1981, Bill Haley & His Comets returned to the British musical charts once again when MCA Records ( inheritors of the Decca catalog ) released " Haley's Golden Medley ", a hastily compiled edit of the band's best known hits in the style of the then-popular " Stars on 45 " format.

The anonymous sleeve notes accompanying the 1956 Decca album " Rock Around The Clock " describe Haley's early life and career thus: " Bill got his first professional job at the age of 13, playing and entertaining at an auction for the fee of $ 1 a night.

* A book on the history of Haley's most famous recording, Rock Around the Clock: The Record That Started the Rock Revolution by Jim Dawson was published in June 2005.

In 2006, Bear Family Records of Germany released what is considered to be the most comprehensive ( yet still incomplete ) collection of Haley's 1946-1950 recordings as part of its Haley box set Rock n ' Roll Arrives.

Bill Haley's compositions included " Four Leaf Clover Blues ", " Crazy Man, Crazy ", " What ' Cha Gonna Do ", " Fractured ", " Live It Up ", " Farewell, So Long, Goodbye ", " Real Rock Drive ", " Rocking Chair on the Moon ", " Sundown Boogie ", " Birth Of The Boogie ", " Two Hound Dogs ", " Rock-A-Beatin ' Boogie ", " Hot Dog Buddy Buddy ", " R-O-C-K ", " Rudy's Rock ", " Calling All Comets ", " Tonight's the Night ", " Hook, Line and Sinker ", " Sway with Me ", " Paper Boy ( On Main Street U. S. A .)", " Skinny Minnie ", " B. B.

In some groups, the slap bass was utilized as band percussion in lieu of a drummer ; such was the case with Bill Haley & His Saddlemen ( the forerunner group to the Comets ), which did not use drummers on recordings and live performances until late 1952 ; prior to this the slap bass was relied on for percussion, including on recordings such as Haley's versions of Rock the Joint and Rocket 88.

In terms of its wide cultural impact across society in the US and elsewhere, Bill Haley's " Rock Around the Clock ", recorded in April 1954 but not a commercial success until the following year, is generally recognized as an important milestone, but it was preceded by many recordings from earlier decades in which elements of rock and roll can be clearly discerned.

Near the end of the session, the band finally recorded a take of " Rock Around the Clock ," but Haley's vocals were drowned out by the band.

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.

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.

In the UK, Haley's " Rock Around the Clock " reached number 17 on the pop charts in January 1955, four months before it first entered the US pop charts.

Following Haley's death in February 1981, a number of major tributes involving " Rock Around the Clock " occurred.

In 1989, Haley's original Decca recording was incorporated into the " dance mix " single " Swing The Mood ", credited to Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers, but legal considerations forced the album version to substitute a patchwork of re-recordings from the 1950s and 1960s ( in Haley's case, a 1968 version of " Rock Around the Clock " recorded for Sonet Records ).

Since " Swing the Mood " was still on the sales charts going into 1990, it meant that Haley's " Rock Around the Clock ", in one way or another, appeared on UK or US sales charts in five consecutive decades.

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 date the song reached the No. 1 spot on the American charts, as well as to observe what would have been Haley's 80th birthday.

As Bill Haley's best-known recording, there have been dozens of compilation album releases over the years entitled Rock Around the Clock.

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.

Haley and His Comets then recorded " Rock Around the Clock ", Haley's biggest hit, and one of the most important records in rock and roll history.

Although Haley's " Shake, Rattle and Roll " never achieved the same level of historical importance as " Rock Around the Clock ", it actually predated it as the first major international rock and roll hit, although it did not attain the Number 1 position in the American charts, but became his first gold record.

Other hits recorded by the band included " See You Later, Alligator " in which Haley's frantic delivery contrasted with the Louisiana languor of the original by Bobby Charles, " Don't Knock the Rock ", " Rock-a-Beatin ' Boogie ", " Rudy's Rock " ( the first instrumental hit of the rock and roll era ) and " Skinny Minnie ".

In 1974, Haley's original Decca recording of " Rock Around the Clock " hit the American sales charts once again thanks to its use in American Graffiti and Happy Days.

To date, however, no one has discovered any alternative takes of any of Haley's most famous recordings of the 1950s, in particular " Rock Around the Clock " and " Shake, Rattle and Roll ".

* Jackie " Jackson " Haney-Lead Vocal & Guitar, Bill Haley's Original Comets, " Rock Around The Clock "

This was Haley's final recorded performance of " Rock Around the Clock ".

July 1980 marks the 25th anniversary of Haley's " Rock Around the Clock " reaching No. 1 on the American singles charts.

Bill Haley's " Rock Around the Clock " ( 1955 ) became the first rock and roll song to top Billboard magazine's main sales and airplay charts, and opened the door worldwide for this new wave of popular culture.

In terms of its wide cultural impact across society in the US and elsewhere, Bill Haley's " Rock Around the Clock ", recorded in April 1954 but not a commercial success until the following year, is generally recognized as an important milestone, but it was preceded by many recordings from earlier decades in which elements of rock and roll can be clearly discerned.

Haley's version, which was substantially different in lyric and arrangement, predated his success with " Rock Around the Clock " by several months even though it was recorded later.

Nonetheless the group was considered a strong influence on bands such as their contemporaries Bill Haley and His Comets, and they were one of the first to record Haley's " Rock-a-Beatin ' Boogie ".

For example, Bill Haley's incompletely bowdlerized cover of " Shake, Rattle and Roll " transformed Big Joe Turner's humorous and racy tale of adult love into an energetic teen dance number, while Georgia Gibbs replaced Etta James's tough, sarcastic vocal in " Roll With Me, Henry " ( covered as " Dance With Me, Henry ") with a perkier vocal more appropriate for an audience unfamiliar with the song to which James's song was an answer, Hank Ballard's " Work With Me, Annie ".

Although musical revisionists and American media tried to paint Turner as a victim of the music industry due to Haley's covering of the song, in fact Haley's success helped Turner immensely although Turner was a well-established performer long before " Shake Rattle and Roll ".

Other notable recordings of " Shake, Rattle and Roll " include a version by Arthur Conley which was a hit in 1968, as well as cover versions of Turner's and Haley's arrangements by The Beatles, Sam Cooke, Willy DeVille, Johnny Horton, The Swinging Blue Jeans, Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, NRBQ, Huey Lewis and the News, Doc Watson.

He was with the band when they recorded " Rock Around the Clock " in 1954, and Williamson had the distinction of being the only Comet allowed to record lead vocal tracks during Haley's tenure at Decca Records ( such as the song " Hide and Seek " on their 1956 album, Rock and Roll Stage Show.

During Haley's segment, Valente duets with Haley on a newly recorded version of his song " Vive la Rock and Roll ".

Numerous performances of the song have been released by artists ranging from Elvis Presley ( a 1955 live performance first released commercially in the 1980s ), Teresa Brewer also in 1955, Ike & Tina Turner, Alma Cogan and Little Jimmy Osmond to Bill Haley & His Comets ( recorded in 1979 for Haley's final album, Everyone Can Rock and Roll ).

Although Haley re-recorded most of Ebsen's vocals, Ebsen's Midwestern voice ( as opposed to Haley's Bostonian accent ), with the enunciated " r " in the word " wizard ", can still be heard on the soundtrack during several reprises of the song " We're Off to See the Wizard ".

* January 1 – In most of Europe, copyright expired on a number of classic pop and rock-and-roll songs recorded in 1954 and earlier, including Bill Haley's " Rock Around the Clock ", and " Only You " by The Platters.

Haley's father William Albert Haley was from Kentucky and played the banjo and mandolin, his mother Maude Green originally from Ulverston in England was a technically accomplished keyboardist with classical training.

During the Labor Day weekend in 1952, The Saddlemen were renamed Bill Haley with Haley's Comets ( inspired by a popular mispronunciation of Halley's Comet ), and in 1953, Haley's recording of " Crazy Man, Crazy " ( co-written by Haley and his bass player, Marshall Lytle although Lytle would not receive credit until 2001 ) became the first rock and roll song to hit the American charts, peaking at no. 15 on Billboard and no. 11 on Cash Box.

Songwriters Tom Russell and Dave Alvin addressed Haley's demise in musical terms with " Haley's Comet " on Alvin's 1991 album Blue Blvd.

Bill Haley Jr. ( Haley's second son and first with Joan Barbara " Cuppy " Haley-Hahn ) publishes a regional business magazine in Southeastern Pennsylvania ( Route 422 Business Advisor ).

* In 1990, Haley's eldest son, John W. Haley, along with John von Hoëlle wrote Sound and Glory, a biography focusing mostly on Haley's early life and peak career years.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, numerous media reports emerged that plans were underway to do a biopic based upon Haley's life, with Beau Bridges, Jeff Bridges and John Ritter all at one point being mentioned as actors in line to play Haley ( according to Goldmine Magazine, Ritter attempted to buy the film rights to Sound and Glory ).

A number of previously unreleased Haley country-western recordings from the 1946-1950 period began to emerge near the end of Haley's life, some of which were released by the Arzee label, with titles such as " Yodel Your Blues Away " and " Rose of My Heart.

Genealogy received a boost in the late 1970s with the television broadcast of Roots: The Saga of an American Family, Alex Haley's account of his family line.

( All of Haley's subsequent studio rerecordings of the song run longer than 2: 10 with the exception of the abbreviated version recorded for Happy Days.

Following Haley's death, no fewer than six different groups have existed under the Comets name, all claiming ( with varying degrees of authority ) to be the official continuation of Haley's group.

A friend of Haley's, making note of the common alternative pronunciation of the name Halley's Comet to rhyme with Bailey, suggested that Haley call his band The Comets.

When Elvis Presley recorded the song in 1956, he combined Haley's arrangement with Turner's original lyrics but failed to score a substantial hit.

In 1959, Haley's relationship with Decca collapsed and after a final set of instrumental-only recordings in the fall, Haley announced he was leaving Decca for the new Warner Bros. Records label.

There was also some experimentation with Haley's style during this time ; one single for Orfeon was a folk ballad, " Jimmy Martinez ", which Haley recorded without the Comets.

In February 1976, Haley's saxophone player and best friend, Rudy Pompilli, died of cancer after a nearly 20-year career with the Comets.

More than 100 musicians performed with Bill Haley & His Comets between 1952 and Haley's death in 1981, many becoming fan favorites along the way.