Contenders for the title of " first rock and roll record " include Goree Carter's " Rock Awhile " ( 1949 ); Jimmy Preston's " Rock the Joint " ( 1949 ), which was later covered by Bill Haley & His Comets in 1952 ; and " Rocket 88 " by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats ( actually an alias for Ike Turner and his band The Kings of Rhythm ), recorded by Sam Phillips for Sun Records in March 1951.

When Haley arrived in Africa to do research for his book, he believed he had actually found griots telling his history.

The Haley recording is played over the opening credits, but in the film it is Alan Dale who actually performs the number.

Haley goes to a school for advanced youths and actually tries hard to succeed.

During research for an article on the 30th anniversary of Pompilli's death, researcher Chris Gardner uncovered documents that showed Pompilli was actually born in 1924, not 1926 as had commonly been believed ( like Haley, Pompilli also shaved two years off his age ).

Bill Haley recorded prolifically during the 1940s, often at the radio stations where he worked, or in formal studio settings.

Three months earlier, on April 12, 1954, Bill Haley & His Comets recorded " Rock Around the Clock ".

Defensive end Pierce Holt recorded 10. 5 sacks, as did linebacker Charles Haley.

The best-known and most successful rendition was recorded by Bill Haley and His Comets in 1954.

Although first recorded by Italian-American band Sonny Dae and His Knights on March 20, 1954, the more famous version by Bill Haley & His Comets is not, strictly speaking, a cover version.

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 " The Syncopated Clock " ( written by Leroy Anderson ).

In 1964, Bill Haley and His Comets recorded a sequel song entitled " Dance Around the Clock ".

Haley would re-record " Rock Around the Clock " many times over the years ( even scoring a substantial hit with a version recorded for Sonet Records in 1968 ), but never recaptured the magic.

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.

The album consisted of newly recorded renderings of Haley classics from the 1950s, along with some previously unrecorded songs.

Haley began his rock and roll career with what is now recognized as a rockabilly style in a cover of " Rocket 88 " recorded for the Philadelphia-based Holiday Records label in 1951.

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.

Late in 1954, Haley also recorded another hit, " Dim, Dim The Lights ", which was one of the first R & B songs recorded by a white group to cross over to the R & B charts.

Haley, who was fluent in Spanish, recorded a number of songs in the language, but the vast majority of the band's output during these years were instrumental recordings, many utilizing local session musicians playing trumpet.

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 1966, the Comets ( without Bill Haley ) cut an album for Orfeon as session musicians for Big Joe Turner, who had always been an idol to Haley ; no joint performance of " Shake, Rattle and Roll " was recorded, however.

During this year, Haley — without the Comets — recorded a pair of demos in Phoenix, Arizona: a country-western song called " Jealous Heart " for which he was backed by a local mariachi band ( and similar in style to the earlier " Jimmy Martinez ", and late-60s-style rocker called " Rock on Baby " backed by a group called Superfine Dandelion.

In 1968, Haley and the Comets recorded a single for the United Artists label, a version of Tom T. Hall's " That's How I Got to Memphis " but no long-term association with the label resulted.

One of the first of these shows, held at the Felt Forum at Madison Square Garden in New York City, resulted in Haley receiving an eight-and-a-half minute standing ovation following his performance, as Nader related in his recorded introduction to Haley's live album Bill Haley's Scrapbook, which was recorded a few weeks later at New York's Bitter End club.

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.

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

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.

* " Free " ( Haley Rinehart song )

The song became one of the biggest hits in history, and frenzied teens flocked to see Haley and the Comets perform it, causing riots in some cities.

Myers claimed the song had been written specifically for Haley but, for various reasons, Haley was unable to record it himself until April 12, 1954.

This was later shortened to "( We're Gonna ) Rock Around the Clock ", though this form is generally only used on releases of the 1954 Bill Haley Decca Records recording ; most other recordings of this song by Haley and others ( including Sonny Dae ) shorten this title further to " Rock Around the Clock ".

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, after being copyrighted with the U. S. Library of Congress on March 31.

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 at Phil and Eddie's Surf Club ), but Dave Miller, his producer, refused to allow Haley to record it for his Essex Records label ( Swenson suggests a feud existed between Myers and Miller ).

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 a re-recorded version by Haley was used as the opening theme for the TV series Happy Days during its first two seasons.

That fall, a TV special marking the 30th anniversary of American Bandstand saw an all-star " supergroup " perform the song ( accompanied by 1950s-era footage of Haley and the Comets ).

3 which contains 60 versions of the song — 30 by Haley ( mostly live performances ), and 30 more by a variety of artists including Pat Boone, Chubby Checker, Eddie Cochran, John Lennon, Buddy Knox, Isley Brothers, The Platters, Carl Perkins, and Mae West.

Bandleader Bill Haley had previously been a country music performer ; after recording a country and western-styled version of " Rocket 88 ", a rhythm and blues song, he changed musical direction to a new sound which came to be called rock and roll.

In 1953 Haley scored his first national success with an original song called " Crazy Man, Crazy ", a phrase Haley said he heard from his teenage audience.

The sleeve notes continue: " When Bill Haley was fifteen he left home with his guitar and very little else and set out on the hard road to fame and fortune.

It also reported that a doctor at the clinic where Haley had been taken said, " The tumor can't be operated on anymore.

Despite his ill health, Haley began compiling notes for possible use as a basis for either a biographical film based on his life, or a published autobiography ( accounts differ ), and there were plans for him to record an album in Memphis, Tennessee, when the brain tumor began affecting his behavior and he went back to his home in Harlingen, Texas, where he died early in the morning of February 9, 1981.

Haley made a succession of bizarre, mostly monologue late-night phone calls to friends and relatives in which he seemed incoherently drunk or ill. Haley's first wife has been quoted as saying, " He would call and ramble and dwell on the past, his mind was really warped.

* In 1980, Haley began working on an autobiography entitled The Life and Times of Bill Haley but died after completing only 100 pages.

* 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.

Unlike his contemporaries, Bill Haley has rarely been portrayed on screen.

In March 2005, the British network Sky TV reported that Tom Hanks was planning to produce a biopic on the life of Bill Haley, with production tentatively scheduled to begin in 2006.

Many Haley discographies list two 1946 recordings by the Down Homers released on the Vogue Records label as featuring Haley.

The Newest Inductees are Defensive end Charles Haley, Offensive Lineman Larry Allen, and Wide Receiver Drew Pearson on 6 November 2011 against the Seattle Seahawks during Halftime.

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.

* 1954 – Bill Haley & His Comets release " Rock Around the Clock ", the first rock and roll record to reach number one on the Billboard charts.

Authors such as Studs Terkel, Alex Haley, and Oscar Lewis have employed oral history in their books, many of which are largely based on interviews.

* Queen: The Story of an American Family, a book by Alex Haley and a 1993 TV mini-series based on that book

Bill Haley and his Comets performing " Rock Around the Clock " on TV in 1955