60 Years Ago Today, Bill Haley Helped Birth Rock’n’Roll
“Rock Around the Clock” wasn’t the first rock’n’roll song–I do a 60 minute lecture on why is wasn’t (drop me a line if you want a booking)–but it was certainly very important to this nascent sound that was soon to take over the planet.
It was 60 years ago today–April 12, 1954–that Haley and his cats went into Pythian Temple Studios on West 70th Street to lay down this track. There were two takes (Haley’s voice was drowned out by the band on the first take) which were then combined into the final hit version. (Wikipedia actually has a very good entry on the song.)
