Bill haley

William John Clifton "Bill" Haley (Highland Park, Detroit, Michigan, July 6, 1925-Harlingen, Texas, February 9, 1981) was an American musician, one of the promoters of rock and roll, who greatly popularized this type of music. in the early 1950s with his group Bill Haley & His Comets boasting million-selling hits like "Rock Around the Clock", "See You Later, Alligator", "Shake, Rattle and Roll", " Rocket 88", "Skinny Minnie" and "Razzle Dazzle". He sold more than 25 million records in the world. Haley is considered the father of Rock and Roll.

Biography

Beginnings and career

Bill Haley was born on July 6, 1925 in Highland Park, Michigan as William John Clifton Haley. In 1929 at age 4, he underwent mastoid surgery that accidentally severely injured the optic nerve, leaving blindness in his left eye for the rest of his life. As a result of the effects of the Great Depression in the Detroit area, his father moved the family to Bethel, Pennsylvania, when Bill was seven years old. Haley's father, William Albert Haley, originally from Kentucky, played the banjo and mandolin and his mother, Maude Green, originally from Ulverston in Lancashire, England, accompanied him on keyboards from classical training. Haley told this story when he had a guitar made out of cardboard and his parents told him that she was a real one.

One of his first performances was in 1938 at an entertainment event for Bethel Junior Baseball playing songs on the guitar when he was 13 years old.

The anonymous folder notes that accompanied the 1956 Decca Rock Around The Clock album describe his beginnings and career; & # 34; When Bill Haley was fifteen years old, he left home with his guitar and very little to be off the hard road of fame and fortune. Over the next few years, he would continue this story in storybook fashion, hard-hitting and poverty-stricken, but crammed with experience. Apart from learning how to exist on one meal a day and other artistic exercises, he worked in an outdoor show, singing and presenting with a band that wanted to be his, working with a travel medicine show. He eventually got a job with a very popular group known as the "Down Homers"; while they were in Hartford, Connecticut. He would later decide by the success he had at the time, to be his own boss ever since. These notes were accumulating in the beginning of his band, known as The Four Aces of Western Swing. During the 1940s Haley was considered one of the leading cowboy vocalists in America as "Silver Yodeling Bill Haley".

These isolated notes conclude: "For six years Bill Haley was music director of Radio Station WPWA in Chester, Pennsylvania, leading his band through that period. He became known as Bill Haley's Saddlemen, becoming the style of him being identified in the Western. He continued to play clubs and on the radio around Philadelphia and in 1951 he made the first recording of himself for Ed Wilson's Keystone label in Philadelphia. On June 14, 1951 the Saddlemen recorded a cover of "Rocket 88", considered one of the first Rock and Roll recordings in history. It was originally recorded between March 3 and 5, 1951 by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats.

Bill Haley & His Comets

During Labor Day weekend in 1952, the Saddlemen were renamed Bill Haley & His Comets (supposedly inspired by the official pronunciation of Halley's Comet as suggested by WPWA radio show director Bob Johnston, where Haley had a live show on the radio station at 1pm) and in 1953 Haley recorded "Crazy Man, Crazy" (written by himself and bassist Marshall Lytle, though Lytle would receive credit until 2001), being the first rock and roll song to be a US chart hit, peaking at number 15 on Billboard and number 11 on Cashbox. Later the band would be registered as Bill Haley & His Comets.

In 1953, Rock Around the Clock was recorded by Haley. Initially it was relatively successful, reaching number 13 on the Billboard pop charts and staying on the charts for a few weeks. A month later he would re-enter as a number one.

Haley would soon have another global hit, with "Shake, Rattle and Roll," which sold a million copies and was the first rock and roll song to enter the UK charts in December of 1954, being a gold record. It retained elements of the original (while being slow blues), but its quickening of some country-like musical aspects within the song (specifically western swing) and with changes in the choruses, Haley and his band were important to awareness of this music. called "Rock and Roll" to a wide audience after a period of being considered an underground genre and exclusively African-American.

When "Rock Around the Clock" appears as a theme song in the film Blackboard Jungle (Seed of Evil), starring Canadian actor Glenn Ford, this propelled it to reach the top of the US Billboard charts for eight weeks. The single was used as a watershed between the "rock era" and the music industry that preceded it. Billboard makes the separation according to statistical tabulations from 1890-1954 and from 1958 to the present time. After the recording stayed at number one, Haley was given the title of "Father of Rock and Roll" by the media and by white teenagers who had come along and embraced the supposed new style of music. The truth is that Rock and Roll was born several years ago with African-American singers who eventually found themselves displaced by the Anglo-Saxon music industry, its racism and its economic power. Even so, with the commercial success of these songs, the age of rock and roll music began the night and ended the dominance of jazz and pop music represented by Frank Sinatra, Jo Stafford, Perry Como, Bing Crosby, Al Martino. and others. However, in the UK, Haley supported the Dankword Seven whose vocalist was Frank Holder among others.

Despite strong criticism for appropriating the black-invented genre, "Rock Around the Clock" it was the first recording to sell more than a million copies in Great Britain and Germany. Later in 1957, Haley was one of the first American rock singers to travel to Europe. Haley went on to have other hits throughout the 1950s such as "See You Later Alligator" and was in the first Rock and Roll musical film, with Around the Clock and Don't Knock the Rock, both in 1956. At 30 years of age, he was quickly beginning to be outshone by younger singers in the United States, like Elvis Presley's sexy, but continued to be very popular in Latin America, Europe and Australia during the 1960s. Bill Halley & His Comets presented "Rock Around the Clock" at the Texaco Star Theater presented by Milton Berle on Tuesday, May 31, 1955, on NBC in an a cappella version. Berle predicted the song would be number one: "An entertainment group who are going straight to the top." Berle also sang and danced to the song as he got ready for the show. It was one of the first nationwide television shows to feature a rock and roll band providing a new beat and genre of music to a wide audience.

Bill Haley & His Comets were one of the first rock and roll bands to appear on Ed Sullivan's iconic American music variety show, Sunday, November 27, 1957, broadcast on CBS from the Shakespeare Festival Theater in Hartford, Connecticut. They presented a live version of "Rock Around the Clock" with Fanny Beecher on lead guitar and Dick Richards on drums. The band made their second appearance on the show on Sunday, April 28, 1957, performing the songs "Rudy's Rock" and "Forty Cups of Coffee".

Bill Haley & His Comets appeared as guests on Dick Clark's American Bandstand twice in 1957 and broadcast on ABC, with the first show on October 28, 1957 and the second show on November 27, 1957. The band also appeared on The Dick Clark's Saturday Night Beechnut Show, also known as The Dick Clark Show, a New York television series, from March 22, 1958, during the first session and February 20, 1960, presenting " Rock Around The Clock", "Shake, Rattle and Roll" and "Tamiami".

Personal life

Marriages

Bill Haley was married three times:

• Dorothy Crowe (December 11, 1946 - November 14, 1952) (divorced) (two children)
• Barbara Joan Cupchak (18 November 1952 - 1960) (divorced) (five children)
• Martha Velasco (1963 - 9 February 1981 in her death) (three children)

Children

Bill Haley had ten children. John W. Haley, his eldest child, wrote Sound and Glory, a biography of Haley, and another child, Sharyn, with his first wife Dorothy Crowe. His youngest daughter, Gina Haley, is a professional musician based in Texas. Scott Haley is an athlete. His youngest son, Pedro, is also a musician.

Bill Haley, Jr., (Haley's second son and first with Joan Barbara "Cuppy" Haley-Hahn) publicist at a regional business magazine in Southeastern Pennsylvania (Route 422 as business advisor). He sang and played guitar with a band called "Bill Haley and the Satellites." and released a CD in 2011. He also appeared occasionally with the & # 34;Original Comets & # 34; at the Bubba Mac Shack in Somers Point, New Jersey from 2004 to 2011, and at The Twin Bar in a rededicated ceremony in Gloucester City, New Jersey in 2007. In February 2011, he formed a tribute band & #34;Bill Haley and the Comets,' featuring his father's music and telling the stories behind the songs. Bill Haley, Jr. and the Comets frequently perform at festivals throughout the United States, car shows, casinos, exclusive retirement communities. In March 2014 the band had complete success in the three week tour in New Zealand. Bill Jr. performed in the UK at Remsby Rock 'n' Roll during the spring of 2015, and returned in October 2016.

Death and legacy

Bill Haley admitted to being an alcoholic in a 1974 radio interview for the BBC. He fought a battle with alcohol in the 1970s. Nevertheless, he continued with his band, taking hugely popular 1950s benefit and nostalgia tours, a movement started in the late 1960s, and signing highly lucrative recordings with the European stamp Sonet. After performing for Queen Elizabeth II at the Royal Performance on 10 November 1979, Haley had her final performance in South Africa in May and June 1980. Prior to the South African tour she was diagnosed with a brain tumor and the tour planned for Germany in the fall of 1980 was cancelled.

On October 25, 1980, the German newspaper Bild reported that Haley had a brain tumor. Her British manager Patrick Malynn responded that Haley had made an adjustment. She did not know other information & # 34; and that she was at her home in Beverly Hills. He also reported that a doctor at a clinic that had evaluated Haley told him that the tumor could not be operated on.

The German newspaper Berliner Zeitung reported a few days later that Haley had collapsed at a performance in Texas and had been admitted to a hospital in Harlingen, Texas. Therefore this was questionable, because Bill Haley had not appeared in the United States since 1980.

Despite her failing health, Haley began putting together notes about its possible use as the basis for a biopic based on her life, or a publication of her autobiography (both differ), and plans to make the recording of an album in Memphis, Tennessee, when the tumor began to affect his behavior, and when he returned home to Harlingen, Texas, he died on the morning of February 9, 1981.

Haley was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. His son Pedro represented him at the ceremony. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 8, 1960, for his contributions to the music industry, at 6350 Hollywood Boulevard. The Comets were separately inducted into the Hall of Fame as a group in 2012, after several changes that followed the group's induction (The Comets were inducted en masse along with other groups such as Hank Ballard's Midnighters and Gene Vincent&# 39;t Blue Caps)

Songwriters Tom Russell and Dave Alvin after Haley's death led in musical terms with "Halley Comet" on the Alvin Blue Blvd album Dwight Yoakam sang backing vocals as a tribute.

Surviving members of the original 1954-1955 contingent of Haley's Comets reunited in the late 1980s and continue to perform for many years around the world. They released a concert DVD in 2004 for Hydra Records, playing the Viper Room in West Hollywood in 2005, and appearing at Dick Clark's American Bandstand Theater in Branson, Missouri in early 2006-2007. As of 2004, only two members of this particular contingent were alive (Joey Ambrose and Dick Richards), but they continue to perform in Branson and across Europe. Finally, there are two groups that also continue to perform in North America under the name The Comets, since 2014. In March 2007, the original Comets opened the Bill Haley Museum in Munich, Germany on October 27, 2007, where the former ex-Comet guitarist Bill Turnes opened the museum to the public.

Two of Haley's children, Bill Haley, Jr. and Gina Haley, with their musicians have recently recorded albums of their father's music and headlined tribute music shows.

Asteroid

In February 2006, the International Astronomical Union announced the naming of asteroid 79896 Billhaley to mark the 25th anniversary of Haley's death.

Style and Origin of Rock 'n' Roll

Some people date the origin of rock and roll to 1954, with the recording work of Bill Haley and his group "Bill Haley and his Comets", evolving from country and rockabilly, as well as from rhythm and blues, especially with Crazy Man Crazy (1954) and his great success Rock Around the Clock (1954), a reinterpretation of the classic by Jimmy Myers and Max Freedman, and which had already been recorded in 1952 by Sunny Dae & His Nights of him.

He recorded several albums in Spanish during his stay in Mexico, with which he began to promote a new rhythm that would eventually displace Rock & Roll, the Twist, music and dance invented by Chubby Checker, a musical style that made a name for itself in 1962. His Twist albums include La Paloma, Florida Twist and & #34;Tampico Twist". The Twist came to mark the end of the Rock & Original and unaltered Roll (1955 to 1961). In 1964 the British group the Beatles (plus the great English wave that followed them), came to displace the Twist, that is, the Twist only reigned for two years.

Bill Haley & His Comets is that they started playing rock music about three years before Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ritchie Valens, Fats Domino, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry or Bo Diddley. It is difficult to determine who was the "Father" or founder of Rock & Roll, what can be assured is that Bill Haley and his band were true pioneers of the genre. One of his best known songs (although not composed by them) is & # 34; Rock Around The Clock & # 34;.

Movies

"Rock Around the Clock (film)"

Simple discography

• Haley, Bill & 4 Aces Western Swing Ago-48 Too Many Parties, Too Many Pals
• Haley, Bill & 4 Aces Western Swing Mar-49 Candy Kisses (v1)
• Haley, Bill & 4 Aces Western Swing Sep-49 The Covered Wagon Rolled Right Along
• Haley, Bill & 4 Aces Western Swing Sep-49 Yodel Your Blues Away
• Haley, Bill & 4 Aces Western Swing Feb-50 Behind the Eight Ball
• Haley, Bill Mar-50 Stand Up And Be Counted
• Haley, Bill & The Saddle Men Abr-50 Deal Me A Hand (I Play The Game Anyway)
• Haley, Bill " The Saddle Men Abr-50 Susan Van Dusan
• Haley, Bill " The Saddle Men Oct-50 Why Do I Cry Over You?
• Haley, Bill Nov-50 My Sweet Little Girl From Nevada
• Haley, Bill & The Saddle Men Jul-51 Rocket "88"
• Haley, Bill " The Saddle Men Sep-51 Green Tree Boogie
• Haley, Bill " The Saddle Men Dic-51 I'm Crying
• Haley, Bill " The Saddle Men Dic-51 A Year Ago This Christmas
• Haley, Bill & The Saddle Men Feb-52 Juke Box Cannon Ball
• Haley, Bill " The Saddle Men Abr-52 Icy Heart
• Haley, Bill " The Saddle Men Abr-52 Rock The Joint (v1)
• Haley, Bill " The Saddle Men Jun-52 Dance With The Dolly
• Haley, Bill & Haley's Comets Sep-52 Stop Beatin' Round The Mulberry Bush
• Haley, Bill & Haley's Comets Sep-52 Real Rock Drive
• Haley, Bill & Haley's Comets Abr-53 Crazy Man Crazy
• Haley, Bill & Haley's Comets Jun-53 Pat-A-Cake
• Haley, Bill & Haley's Comets Ago-53 Live It Up
• Haley, Bill & Haley's Comets Ago-53 Farewell, So Long, Goodbye [UK single]
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Dic-53 I'll Be True
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Dic-53 Ten Little Indians [UK single]
• Haley, Bill & Haley's Comets Mar-54 Chattanooga Choo-Choo
• Haley, Bill & His Comets May-54 Thirteen Women (And Only One Man in Town)
• Haley, Bill & His Comets May-54 (We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Jul-54 Shake Rattle And Roll
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Nov-54 Dim, Dim The Lights (I Want Some Atmosphere)
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Nov-54 Happy Baby [UK single]
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Feb-55 Mambo Rock
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Feb-55 Birth of the Boogie
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Jul-55 Razzle Dazzle
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Oct-55 Rock-A-Beatin' Boogie
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Oct-55 Burn That Candle
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Ene-56 See You Later, Alligator
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Mar-56 The Saints Rock 'N' Roll
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Mar-56 R-O-C-K
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Jun-56 Hot Dog Buddy Buddy
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Jun-56 Rockin' Through The Rye
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Ago-56 Rip It Up
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Oct-56 Rudy's Rock
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Dic-56 Don't Knock The Rock
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Mar-57 Forty Cups Of Coffee
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Mar-57 Hook, Line And Sinker [UK single]
• Haley, Bill & His Comets May-57 (You Hit The Wrong Note) Billy Goat
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Ago-57 The Dipsey Doodle
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Ago-57 Miss You [UK single]
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Oct-57 Rock The Joint
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Dic-57 Mary, Mary Lou
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Mar-58 Skinny Minnie
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Jul-58 Lean Jean
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Sep-58 Chiquita Linda (A Poquito De Tu Amor?)
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Sep-58 Whoa Mabel! [UK single]
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Nov-58 Corrine, Corrina
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Feb-59 Charmaine
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Feb-59 I Got A Woman [UK single]
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Mar-59 (Now And Then There's) A Fool Such As I
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Jun-59 Caldonia
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Jun-59 Shaky (inst.) [UK single]
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Ago-59 Ooh! Look-A-There, Ain't She Pretty
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Ago-59 Joey's Song [UK single]
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Dic-59 Skokiaan (South African Song) (instr.)
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Dic-59 Puerto Rican Peddlar (instr.) [UK single]
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Ene-60 Candy Kisses
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Abr-60 (Put Another Nickel In) Music! Music! (instr.)
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Abr-60 Chick Safari
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Abr-60 (We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock v2
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Jul-60 Let The Good Times Roll, Creole
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Jun-61 Flip, Flop And Fly
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Ago-61 Spanish Twist
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Oct-61 Riviera (instr.)
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Mar-63 White Parrakeet
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Abr-63 Tenor Man
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Ago-63 Dance Around The Clock
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Oct-63 Tandy
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Mar-64 Yakety Sax
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Abr-64 ABC Boogie (v2)
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Jul-64 The Green Door
• Haley, Bill & His Comets May-65 Burn That Candle (v2)
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Sep-65 Tongue-Tied Tony
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Ene-69 That's How I Got To Memphis
• Haley, Bill & His Comets May-70 Rock Around The Clock [live]
• Haley, Bill & His Comets May-70 Shake, Rattle And Roll [live]
• Haley, Bill & His Comets May-70 See You Later, Alligator [live]
• Haley, Bill & His Comets May-70 The Saints Rock 'n' Roll [live]
• Haley, Bill & His Comets May-70 Razzle Dazzle [live]
• Haley, Bill & His Comets May-70 Crazy Man Crazy [live]
• Haley, Bill & His Comets May-71 Travelling Band
• Haley, Bill & His Comets May-71 Me and Bobby McGee
• Haley, Bill & His Comets May-79 Hail, Hail Rock 'n' Roll (v1)
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Nov-79 Everyone Can Rock and Roll
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Feb-81 Haley's Golden Medley
• Haley, Bill & His Comets Feb-81 God Bless Rock 'n' Roll
• Haley, Bill & His Comets 1988 Shake, Rattle and Roll (overdubbed)
• Haley, Bill & Joey Welz Studio Band Abr-90 Football Rock 'n' Roll (overdubbed)

Hit List: