158 on the Rolling Stone magazine’s list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.” And in 2004, the American Film Institute ranked the song at No. Still today, in the annals of music history, “Rock Around The Clock” has held it own. Bill Haley and His Comets had started something of a revolution they had made the rock `n roll sound popular, and in the process became one of the first recording artists to advance rock `n roll music as both pop culture phenomenon and profitable enterprise. 1 spot on the music charts for about two months, and would repeat that showing in other countries. In 1955, “Rock Around The Clock” held the No. May 1954: Decca record label 45rpm version of “Rock Around the Clock,” by Bill Haley and His Comets. Kids-to say nothing of grown-ups-had never heard anything like it before….” And if it did that to me, imagine what it did to teens in 1955. It made me feel good it made me want to move. ‘Rock Around the Clock,’ the first song in the movie’s first scene, jumped out of the theater speakers: an exuberant 128 seconds of driving guitar and sax riffs, an amazing guitar solo, and Haley’s breathless vocal. “…I’ve been a fan of ever since I saw American Graffiti, in 1973, when I was fifteen.
ROCKIN AROUND THE CLOCK MOVIE
‘They have made a movie about us, therefore we exist’.”Īnd journalist Michael Hall, later writing a piece on Bill-Haley, describes his experience as a teenager hearing the same song nearly 20 years later in another film: had the old people winning in the end, it represented an endorsement. He was playing the teenage National Anthem and it was loud. Rock musician and social critic Frank Zappa was among young teens who saw Blackboard Jungle in the spring of 1955 and was energized by the sound of “Rock Around the Clock,” as he would explain some years later: “I didn’t care if Bill Haley was white or sincere. and in Europe, there would be riots and near riots, as the kids would resort to dancing in the aisles when the song came on, while others resorted to more serious mischief coming out of theaters at some locations. In fact, in some theaters where the film was shown, both in the U.S. But in the mid-1950s this was totally new territory – and the kids ate it up. It was the first time rock ’n roll music would be used in film, presaging a lucrative business relationship between rock ‘n roll and film that would grow to great levels in the decades that followed. Then, about a year later, in May of 1955, the song went to the top of the music charts after it was used as the opening music for the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie, Blackboard Jungle, a story about a high school teacher’s confrontation with juvenile delinquents.ġ955: Ad promoting “Blackboard Jungle.” Click for film. Yet when “Rock Around The Clock” was first released in May of 1954, it had modest success at best, and seemed headed for the rock `n roll dustbins.
In its day, the song also became an anthem for mid-1950s youth. In fact, “Rock Around The Clock” is widely considered the one song, more than any other, that brought rock `n roll into mainstream culture around the world.
Yet in its day it was a significant departure from the mostly staid fare of 1950s music, offering a sharp break with the status quo and setting popular music on a new course.Īlthough there were other songs at the time that were also part of the new, rising musical genre being called “rock `n roll” – including some by Fats Domino dating to 1950, Haley’s own “Crazy Man, Crazy” of 1953, and Big Joe Turner’s “Shake, Rattle and Roll” of 1954 – it would be Haley’s recording of “Rock Around the Clock” in 1954 that would become the break out tune for rock `n roll. By today’s standards, of course, the song may seem unexceptional. In fact, the reception overseas at the time was quite strong and surprising. “Rock Around the Clock” was also known by its somewhat longer title, “We’re Gonna‘ Rock Around The Clock.” It became one of the first American rock `n roll recordings to find major success and hit the top of the music charts, not only in America, but also around the world. One of the first major rock ‘n roll songs of the 1950s – and still ranked among the world’s all-time Top Ten best-selling singles – is “Rock Around The Clock.” The song was made popular by the American group, Bill Haley and His Comets, initially a Country & Western band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that morphed into a rock `n roll leader after discovering new potential in rhythm & blues music. 1950s: Bill Haley & some of his band performing.
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