Bill Haley

The hoopla surrounding the purported fiftieth anniversary of rock & roll didn’t quite ring true. Bill Haley might have lobbied for 2001. fifty years after he’d covered Rocket ‘88’; or 2002. fifty years after he’d recorded Rock The Joint; or 2003. fifty years after he broke into the pop charts with Crazy Man Crazy, a record that fit every criterion of rock ‘n’ roll. But, of course, Bill Haley said not a word; he had died neglected and alone on the Mexican border in 1981, and even at the time of his death he was wondering why he’d be written out of the story.“ (Colin Escott, Nashville) On April 12th 1954, Bill Haley & His Comets created the “National Anthem Of Teenagers” (Lillian Roxon) with “Rock Around The Clock”, - the song which became the best-selling rock single of all time. It was not until July 6th 1954 when Elvis Presley cut his first disc - “That’s Alright” - which became only a local hit in Memphis. During the same year, Bill Haley & His Comets received their first gold records for their million-sellers “Shake, Rattle & Roll” and “Dim Dim the Lights”. Bo Diddley was a year away from scoring his first hit. The same applied to Chuck Berry. Buddy Holly was sixteen and playing with school friend Bob Montgomery as a Western swing duo. Little Richard did various odd jobs, whereas Fats Domino did not change his New Orleans R& B to a more mainstream rock & roll approach until 1955. Last but not least, Jerry Lee Lewis was still performing country music in the honky tonks of Louisiana. In 1955, Bill Haley’s highly controlled, syncopated chorus of sounds, all driven by a wild, primitive, but always thundering beat, was introduced worldwide in the box office smash teenage drama “Blackboard Jungle” starring Glenn Ford and a young Sidney Poitier. This film was the ignition for “Rock Around The Clock” becoming synonymous with rock & roll. With sales now exceeding 200,000,000 copies, it was recorded by more than 500 artists in 32 different languages. It has also been featured in 40 motion pictures and, of course, as the title track to the TV series “Happy Days”. „What happened to Bill Haley? These are just some of the questions that author Otto Fuchs set out to answer in what has become a totally absorbing biograhpy. Otto has left no stone unturned, no avenue unexplored in adding considerable flesh to the bone of the Bill Haley story.“ - Now Dig This Magazine „Bill Haley was a true frontiersman in the world of music. Not only did his calling card Rock Around The Clock kickstart the rock ´n´ roll revolution but he also significantly helped shape the very idea of what being a ´teenager´ was all about. He started riots, was branded as a ´gangster´ by the papers, ´suspicious´ by the FBI and even called a communist. He was the first bandleader to form a rock ´n´ roll band, the first rocker to pen his own tunes … there are frankly too many ´firsts´ in this man´s stellar career to mention. While many Bill Haley biographies have come before, Fuchs takes the story one giant leap forward, detailing Haley´s rise and fall, exploring the darker corners of his life to fill in the blanks and examining his premature death. Exhaustive research, several eye-opening interviews and the ability to tell a good yarn make this a must read for anyone interested in the real story of ´50s music.“ - Vintage Rock Magazine „Otto draws the reader in to a story of full of twists and turns, successes and a few failures, and brings not just Bill Haley but the times he lived in to life. A rewarding read.“ - UK Rock & Roll Magazine