July 9, 1955, 70 years ago: "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley & His Comets is ranked as the Number 1 song in America by Billboard magazine. It is the 1st rock and roll song to achieve this. What we now call "The Rock Era" has begun.
The song was written in 1953, by Max C. Freedman and James E. Myers, under the name Jimmy DeKnight. They were no kids: Freedman was 61, and had written the 1945 hit "Sioux City Sue" with Dick Thomas; while Myers was 33, and had already written Haley's 1st 2 hit songs, both of which reached the Country & Western chart: "Ten Gallon Stetson (With a Hole in the Crown)" and "Rocka-Beatin' Boogie."
It was recorded on April 12, 1954, for Decca Records, in their studio at the Pythian Temple, at 135 West 70th Street, between Columbus (9th) Avenue and Broadway, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The building is still there, but has been converted into condominiums, as "The Pythian."
William John Clifton Haley was born on July 6, 1925 in the Detroit suburb of Highland Park, Michigan, and spent his teenage years in the Philadelphia suburb of Bethel, Pennsylvania. His father was a banjo player, and gave him a love of country music. He formed a country band called The Saddlemen, which evolved into the Comets, a play on Halley's Comet.
The band members who appeared on the recording were Haley, Danny Cedrone on lead guitar, Francis "Franny" Beecher on rhythm guitar, Billy Williamson on steel guitar, Marshall Lytle on double bass, Joey Ambrose on tenor saxophone, the aptly-named Johnny Grande on piano, and Bill Gussak on drums. The producer was Milt Gabler, whose nephew was future comedy star Billy Crystal.
Danny Cedrone did not live to see the Comets become superstars. On June 17, 1954, just 66 days after the recording, he fell down the stairs at his apartment, and broke his neck, killing him at the age of 34. Beecher replaced Cedrone on lead guitar.
At first, the song didn't hit any charts, but it did sell 75,000 copies. One of those copies landed with Peter Ford, the 10-year-old son of actors Glenn Ford and Eleanor Powell. Glenn was about to star in perhaps the original "idealistic teacher tries to reform an urban school" film, Blackboard Jungle. Glenn gave the song to director Richard Brooks, who used the song over the opening credits. The film was a hit.
This, plus the success of Haley's cover of Big Joe Turner's "Shake, Rattle and Roll" -- the 1st rock and roll song to hit Billboard's Top 10 -- convinced Decca to re-release "Rock Around the Clock" in May 1955. Two months later, it was Number 1.
There were rock and roll songs before this, but they only knocked on the door. This is the one that ripped the door off its hinges. This was the R-Bomb. This is the song that changed the world. Everything in the history of American music is either in the Rock Era, or the Pre-Rock Era. July 9, 1955 is the hinge day in the history of American music.
Because this is the song that made rock and roll big business. It might have been "Maybellene" by Chuck Berry, or "Ain't That a Shame" by Fats Domino, or "Tutti Frutti" by Little Richard. But it was "Rock Around the Clock." Of course, Haley had the advantage of being white. The next year, Elvis Presley had the advantage of being not just white, but younger, thinner, and more handsome than Haley.
"Rock Around the Clock" changed the world in just 2 minutes and 8 seconds. The B-side was Haley's composition "Thirteen Women (And Only One Man In Town)." It was filler, a throwaway, and would not be remembered today if it were not the "flip side" of "Rock Around the Clock."
In September 1955, as "Rock Around the Clock" was replaced at Number 1 by The Four Aces' recording of the theme from the film Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing, Joey Ambrose quit the Comets. He was replaced on saxophone by Rudy Pompilli.
Haley and the Comets performed the song in 2 of the exploitation films used to boost the early popularity of rock and roll music: Rock Around the Clock in 1956 and Don't Knock the Rock in 1957. Don't bother looking them up. Just as "Rock Around the Clock" presaged the songs of Elvis Presley, these movies presaged his: The music, and the dancing that accompanied it, were what mattered, and the stories and the acting were considered incidental.
In 1957, Haley became the 1st American rock-and-roller to tour Europe, and became much more popular there than at home. But by 1958, the hits stopped coming. He continued to tour in Britain and Europe, where he was still popular.
He took advantage of the nostalgia wave for the 1950s that hit in the early 1970s, which included "Rock Around the Clock" being used in the film American Graffiti, and as the theme song for the 1st season of the sitcom Happy Days before a separate theme song was written. But his drinking problem caused the money to go away as fast as it arrived. He died of a brain tumor on February 9, 1981, in the border town of Harlingen, Texas. He was only 55 years old.
"Rock Around the Clock" has also been used in the 1978 film Superman, which included Glenn Ford; and the 1988 baseball film Bull Durham.
Max Freedman died in 1962, Rudy Pompilli in 1976, Billy Gussack in 1994, Billy Williamson in 1996, Jimmy Myers in 2001, Johnny Grande and Glenn Ford in 2006, Marshall Lytle in 2013, Franny Beecher in 2014, and Johnny Ambrose was the band's last survivor, living until 2021. As of July 9, 2025, Peter Ford, the boy who saved "Rock Around the Clock," changing the world in ways we can only imagine, is still alive.
July 9, 1955 was a Saturday. Actor Jimmy Smits, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and English soccer star Steve Coppell were born.
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