Bill Haley and His Comets – Rock Around The Clock
(Coral Records 1970 CP55 Mono)
UK Pressing
Front Laminated Sleeve in Excellent+/Nr MINT condition
– a little very light ringwear and a couple of thumbnail creases to laminate at opening edge
Vinyl in Nr MINT condition
(there are some surface marks visible on the vinyl when held up to the light but they don’t affect the sound quality apart from the odd light pop/crackle)
Bill Haley & His Comets were an American rock and roll band, founded in 1952 and continued until Haley’s death in 1981. The band was also known as Bill Haley and the Comets and Bill Haley’s Comets (and variations thereof). From late 1954 to late 1956, the group placed nine singles in the Top 20, one of those a number one and three more in the Top Ten.
Bandleader Bill Haley had previously been a country music performer; after recording a country and western-styled version of “Rocket 88”, a rhythm and blues song, he changed musical direction to a new sound which came to be called rock and roll.
Although several members of the Comets became famous, Bill Haley remained the star. With his spit curl and the band’s matching plaid dinner jackets and energetic stage behavior, many fans consider them to be as revolutionary in their time as the Beatles were a decade later.
Following Haley’s death, no fewer than seven different groups have existed under the Comets name, all claiming (with varying degrees of authority) to be the continuation of Haley’s group. As of the end of 2014, four such groups were still performing in the United States and internationally.
Rock Around the Clock was the third album of rock and roll music by Bill Haley and His Comets. Released by Decca Records in December 1955 it was, like the two albums that preceded it, a compilation album of previously issued singles. Most of the album’s contents had in fact been previously issued by Decca earlier in 1955 on the album Shake, Rattle and Roll. Unlike the previous release, which was in the 10-inch format, the new album was a full 12-inch release and included additional tracks from 1955. It was also the first Haley album to make the Billboard charts, and was one of the very first album releases of the rock and roll genre to do so.
The recording was made in the Decca Records studio located in the Pythian Temple in New York City.
Track listing
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | “Rock Around the Clock” | James E. Myers, Max C. Freedman | 2:08 |
| 2. | “Shake, Rattle and Roll” | Jesse Stone | 2:31 |
| 3. | “A.B.C. Boogie” | Al Russel, Max Spickol | 2:29 |
| 4. | “Thirteen Women (And Only One Man in Town)” | Dickie Thompson | 2:53 |
| 5. | “Razzle-Dazzle” | Charles E. Calhoun | 2:43 |
| 6. | “Two Hound Dogs” | Bill Haley, Frank Pingatore | 2:59 |
| 7. | “Dim, Dim the Lights (I Want Some Atmosphere)” | Beverly Ross, Julius Dixon | 2:31 |
| 8. | “Happy Baby” | Frank Pingatore | 2:36 |
| 9. | “Birth Of The Boogie“ | Haley, Billy Williamson, Johnny Grande | 2:15 |
| 10. | “Mambo Rock” | Bix Reichner, Mildred Phillips and Jimmy Ayre | 2:38 |
| 11. | “Burn That Candle” | Winfield Scott | 2:46 |
| 12. | “Rock-A-Beatin’ Boogie” | Haley | 2:21 |
Personnel
Additional personnel
-
- Bill Haley – rhythm guitar, vocals
- Danny Cedrone – lead guitar on 1-4
- Franny Beecher – lead guitar on 5-12
- Billy Williamson – steel guitar
- Johnny Grande – piano
- Marshall Lytle – bass on 1-10
- Billy Gussak – drums on 1, 4-10
- Joey d’Ambrosio – tenor sax on 1-10
- Panama Francis – drums on 2, 3
- Al Rex – bass on 11, 12
- Cliff Leeman – drums on 11, 12
- Rudy Pompilli – tenor sax on 11, 12
- Dick Richards – triangle on 3; tom toms on 9; backing vocals on 2, 5, 6
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