Bill Haley & The Comets

On April 12th, 1954, Bill Haley and his group The Comets recorded the song that was to become the anthem of Rock & Roll - Rock Around The Clock - at Pythian Temple, New York. The song had actually been released earlier by Sonny Dae and had failed to register. In reality, Haley's version didn't exactly set the world on fire either at the time . . . It was only a year or so later, when it was used as soundtrack music for the movie Blackboard Jungle that it became a smash hit and Haley suddenly found himself proclaimed the creator of Rock & Roll.

Bill Haley was born William John Clifton Haley on July 6, 1925, and raised in a farming family in Chester, near Philadelphia. He started his musical career playing guitar in various local Country & Western groups, though without much success.

Haley eventually settled down to a six year spell working at a radio station in Pennsylvania (WPWA), and it was here that he became aware of the influence Black music had on listeners. He soon realized its great potential. During his spare time, Bill continued to play C&W though occasionally he introduced elements of the Black music that fascinated him so much. He experimented with the music as often as he could, working new treatments into his stage act with his group The Saddlemen.

Haley had released several singles but had yet to find a winning formula for recording success. So he decided to take his musical experiments a stage further, combining the best of the black R&B with the best of Country. It became the forerunner of Rock & Roll. The Saddlemen changed their name to The Comets and in 1951 enjoyed moderate success with Rock The Joint, followed by Crazy Man Crazy in 1953 - a self-penned song inspired by the language Haley heard students using at the colleges he played. Two years later, Rock Around The Clock hailed the birth of a brand new age and a brand new music.

When the movie Blackboard Jungle, featuring Haley and The Comets, was released in cinemas all over the world, it caused riots, chaos and devastation. In Britain, Teddy Boys jived and bopped in the aisles and wrecked numerous cinemas in their exuberance. Bill Haley had arrived at last.

By the time he first appeared in Britain in February 1957 he was already an anachronism: affable and never less good in concert than on his records, but outdated by the younger guys who had appeared in his wake.

In his later years, Haley lived a life of quiet seclusion in his Rio Grande Valley home, emerging occasionally to tour with The Comets. In 1980, an extensive British and European tour was hurriedly cancelled when Bill was stricken with a mystery disease and confined to his home. In November he was admitted to a Los Angeles hospital with reports circulating of a suspected brain tumor, and on February 9, 1981, the reluctant hero of Rock & Roll passed away. The exact cause of his death is controversial. Haley's death certificate states he died of "natural causes, most likely heart attack" while members of his family contest that he died from the brain tumor.

More than 100 musicians performed with Bill Haley & His Comets between 1952 and Haley's death in 1981. The Comets, featuring musicians who performed with Haley in 1954-1955, reunited in 1987 and are still touring the world as of 2007, playing in the United States and Europe. They have also recorded a half-dozen albums for small labels in Europe and the United States. Bill Haley was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.