Bill Haley (July 6, 1925 – February 9, 1981) was one of the first American rock and roll musicians, and is credited by many with first popularizing this form of music in the mid-1950s with his group Bill Haley & His Comets and their hit song "Rock Around the Clock".

Early life and career

In 1946, Haley joined his first professional group, a Pennsylvania-based western swing band called The Down Homers run by Shorty Cook, after which he set out on his own. He made a number of regionally successful country music singles in the 1940s for several local labels, including Cowboy Records 1948-1949 while working as a touring musician and later a radio DJ at WPWA. (Many of Haley's early recordings would not be released until after his death.) In 1948, he formed his own group, The Four Aces of Western Swing, later followed by The Saddlemen in either 1949 or 1950 (sources vary as to the exact year). In 1951, Haley began to change musical styles, recording cover versions of "Rocket "88"" (previously recorded by Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats), and in, 1952, "Rock the Joint", previously recorded by several bands including Jimmy Preston and His Prestonians. The relative success of these recordings (both sold in the 75,000-100,000 copy range in the Pennsylvania-New England region) convinced Haley that his new and as-yet officially unnamed hybrid of country and rhythm and blues could be a commercial success.

Bill Haley & His Comets

Main article: Bill Haley & His Comets

During the Labor Day weekend in 1952, The Saddlemen were renamed Bill Haley with Haley's Comets (inspired by a popular mispronunciation of Halley's Comet), and in 1953, Haley's recording of "Crazy Man, Crazy" (co-written by Haley and his bass player, Marshall Lytle although Lytle wouldn't receive credit until 2001) became the first rock and roll song to hit the American charts. Soon after, the band's name was revised to Bill Haley & His Comets.

In 1953, a song entitled "Rock Around the Clock" was written for Haley, but he was unable to record it until April 12, 1954. Initially, it was relatively unsuccessful, but Haley soon scored a major worldwide hit with a cover version of Big Joe Turner's "Shake, Rattle and Roll," which went on to sell a million copies and became the first ever rock'n'roll song to enter British singles charts in December 1954. Haley and his band were important in launching the music known as "Rock and Roll" to a wider (white) audience after years of it being considered an underground movement. When "Rock Around the Clock" appeared behind the opening credits of the 1955 film The Blackboard Jungle starring Glenn Ford, it soared to the top of the American Billboard charts for eight weeks, launching a musical revolution that opened the doors for the likes of Elvis Presley.

"Rock Around the Clock" was the first record ever to sell over one million copies in both Britain and Germany and, in 1957, Haley became the first major American rock singer to tour Europe. Haley continued to score hits throughout the 1950s such as "See You Later, Alligator" and he starred in the first rock and roll musical movies Rock Around the Clock and Don't Knock the Rock, both in 1956. His star was soon surpassed in the USA by the younger, sexier Elvis, but Haley continued to be a major star in Latin America, Mexico, and in Europe throughout the 1960s.

A self-admitted alcoholic (as indicated in a 1974 radio interview for the British Broadcasting Corporation), Haley fought a battle with liquor well into the 1970s. Nonetheless, he and his band continued to be a popular touring act, enjoying a career resurgence in the late 1960s with the Rock and Roll Revival movement and the signing of a lucrative record deal with the European Sonet Records label. After performing for Queen Elizabeth II at a command performance in 1979, Haley made his final performances in South Africa in May and June of 1980. Prior to the South African tour, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and a planned tour of Germany in the fall of 1980 was cancelled. Despite his ill health, Haley began compiling notes for possible use as a basis for either a biographical film based on his life, or a published autobiography (accounts differ), and there were plans for him to record an album in Memphis, Tennessee, when the brain tumor began affecting his behavior and he retired to his home in Harlingen, Texas where he died early on the morning February 9, 1981. Media reports immediately following his death indicated Haley displayed deranged and erratic behavior in his final weeks, although beyond a biography of Haley by John Swenson released a year later which describes Haley painting the windows of his home black and making rambling late-night phone calls to friends and relatives, there is little information extant about Haley's final days.

The exact cause of his death is controversial. Media reports, supported by Haley's death certificate (reproduced in the book Bill Haley: The Daddy of Rock and Roll by John Swenson), suggest he died of "natural causes most likely heart attack". Members of Haley's family, however, contest that he died from the brain tumor.

Haley was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

Haley's original Comets from 1954 and 1955 still tour the world to packed houses. Despite ranging in age from 72 to 84, the band shows no sign of slowing down, releasing a concert DVD in 2004 and playing the trendy Viper Room in West Hollywood in 2005.

Asteroid

Main article - 79896 Billhaley

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

Biographies

• In 1980, Haley began work on an autobiography entitled The Life and Times of Bill Haley but died after completing only 100 pages. The work is registered with the U.S. Copyright Office but has yet to be released to the public.
• In 1982, John Swenson wrote Bill Haley: The Daddy of Rock and Roll (published in the UK under the title, Bill Haley), which is controversial among Haley fans for alleged inaccuracies.
• In 1990, Haley's eldest son, John W. Haley, along with John von Hoëlle wrote Sound and Glory, a biography focusing mostly on Haley's early life and peak career years. This book is long out of print.
• A German-language biography was published soon after Haley's death, written by Peter Cornelsen and Harald D. Kain.
• A book on the history of Haley's most famous recording, Rock Around the Clock: The Record That Started the Rock Revolution by Jim Dawson was published in June 2005. ^*

Film portrayals

Bill Haley has also been portrayed - not always in a positive light - in several "period" films:

• John Paramor in Shout! The Story of Johnny O'Keefe (1985)
• Michael Daingerfield in The Alan Freed Story (1999)
• Dicky Barrett (of The Mighty Mighty Bosstones in An American Love Story (also 1999)

In March 2005, the British network Sky TV reported that Tom Hanks is planning to produce a biopic on the life of Bill Haley, with production tentatively scheduled to begin in 2006. However this rumor was quickly debunked by Hanks.

Children

External links

• Portal site providing links to all the major Bill Haley-related websites on the Net

1925 births | 1981 deaths | American rock musicians | American rock singers | American singer-guitarists | Hollywood Walk of Fame | People from Michigan | American radio personalities | Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees | Entertainers who died in their 50s

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