"Rock Around the Clock" is an early rock and roll song written by Max C. Freedman and James E. Myers (the latter being under the pseudonym "Jimmy De Knight") in 1952. The best-known and most successful rendition was recorded by Bill Haley & His Comets in 1954 for American Decca. It was a number one single for two months and did well on the United Kingdom charts; the recording also reentered the UK Singles Chart in the 1960s and 1970s.
It was the first rock and roll record to top the pop charts in both the US and UK—Bill Haley had American chart success with "Crazy Man, Crazy" in 1953, and in 1954, "Shake, Rattle and Roll" (originally sung by Big Joe Turner, who reached No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart.) Haley's recording became an anthem for rebellious 1950s youth, particularly after it was included in the 1955 film Blackboard Jungle. It was number 1 on the pop charts for two months and went to number 3 on the R&B chart.
The recording is widely considered to be the song that, more than any other, brought rock and roll into mainstream culture around the world. The song is ranked No. 159 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Myers claimed the song had been written specifically for Haley but, for legal reasons, Haley was unable to record it himself until April 12, 1954.
The original full title of the song was "We're Gonna Rock Around the Clock Tonight!". This was later shortened to "(We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock", though this form is generally used only on releases of the 1954 Bill Haley Decca Records recording; most other recordings of this song by Haley and others (including Sonny Dae) shorten this title further to its present form.
In 2018, it was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Contents
False starts
There are sources that indicate that "Rock Around the Clock" was written in 1953, but documents uncovered by historian Jim Dawson indicate it was in fact written in late 1952. The original arrangement of the song bore little resemblance to the version recorded by Haley, and was in fact closer to a popular instrumental of the day called "The Syncopated Clock" (written by Leroy Anderson).
The song was credited to Myers (as "Jimmy DeKnight") and Max C. Freedman when it was copyrighted on March 31, 1953. However, its exact authorship is disputed, with many speculating that Freedman wrote the song on his own. There were several earlier songs of the title "Rock Around the Clock" (by Hal Singer and Wally Mercer), but they are unrelated to the Freedman/Myers song. In addition, it is sometimes erroneously stated that "Rock Around the Clock" is copied from a late-1940s Big Joe Turner recording, "Around the Clock Blues". Though the titles are similar, the two songs bear little resemblance. There are many blues songs with the theme of partying or making love "round the clock", with various actions specified at various hours.
However, the verse melody of "Rock Around the Clock" does bear a very close similarity to that of Hank Williams' first hit, "Move It On Over", from 1947.
According to the Haley biographies Bill Haley by John Swenson and Rock Around the Clock by Dawson, the song was offered to Haley by Jimmy Myers in the wake of his first national success, "Crazy Man, Crazy" in 1953, after being copyrighted with the U.S. Library of Congress on March 31. Haley and his Comets began performing the song on stage (Comets bass player Marshall Lytle and drummer Dick Richards say the first performances were in Wildwood, New Jersey at Phil and Eddie's Surf Club), but Dave Miller, his producer, refused to allow Haley to record it for his Essex Records label (Swenson suggests a feud existed between Myers and Miller).
Haley himself claimed to have taken the sheet music into the recording studio at least twice, with Miller ripping up the music each time. Nonetheless, rumors of a 1953 demo recording by Haley persist to this day, although surviving members of the Comets deny this, as did Haley himself (quoted in the Swenson biography); a late-1960s bootleg single of the Decca Records version of "Rock Around the Clock", with "Crazy Man, Crazy" on the B-side and carrying the Essex label, occasionally turns up for sale with the claim that it is the demo version.
Decca recording session
After leaving Essex Records in the spring of 1954, Bill Haley signed with Decca Records, and the band's first recording session was set for April 12, 1954, at Decca's studios in the Pythian Temple in New York City. The recording session almost failed to take place because the band was traveling on a ferry that got stuck on a sandbar en route to New York from Philadelphia. Once at the studio, producer Milt Gabler (Gabler was the uncle of actor Billy Crystal and had produced Louis Jordan as well as Billie Holiday), insisted the band work on a song entitled "Thirteen Women (and Only One Man in Town)" (written and previously recorded by Dickie Thompson), which Gabler wanted to promote as the A-side of the group's first single for Decca.
Near the end of the session, the band finally recorded a take of "Rock Around the Clock", but Haley's vocals were drowned out by the band. A second take was quickly made with minimal accompaniment while Sammy Davis Jr. waited outside the studio for his turn behind the microphone. Decca engineers later combined the two versions into one version. (Comets piano player Johnny Grande tells a slightly different version, claiming that the only reason a second take was recorded was that the drummer made an error.)
Many musicians have claimed that they performed on the recording session for "Rock Around the Clock". Song co-writer Myers once claimed he had played drums on the piece, although he also claimed to have been advising the sound mixer in the recording booth. According to the official record sheet from the session, however, the musicians on the famous recording are:
Bill Haley – vocals, rhythm guitar
Marshall Lytle – double bass
Franny Beecher – guitar
Billy Williamson – steel guitar
Johnny Grande – piano
Billy Gussak – drums (session musician)
Danny Cedrone – electric guitar
Slow road to classic hit status
As Gabler intended, "Rock Around the Clock" was first issued in May 1954 as a B-side to "Thirteen Women (and Only One Man in Town)". While the song did make the American Cashbox music charts (contrary to popular opinion that it was a flop), it was considered a commercial disappointment. It was not until 1955, when "Rock Around the Clock" was used under the opening credits and four additional times in the film Blackboard Jungle, that the song truly took off.
Many versions of the story behind how "Rock Around the Clock" was chosen for Blackboard Jungle circulated over the years. Recent research, however, reveals that the song was chosen from the collection of young Peter Ford, the son of Blackboard Jungle star Glenn Ford and dancer Eleanor Powell. The producers were looking for a song to represent the type of music the youth of 1955 were listening to. The elder Ford borrowed several records from his son, one of which was Haley's "Rock Around the Clock". In 2004, the song finished at #50 in AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema.
On July 9, 1955 "Rock Around the Clock" became the first rock and roll recording to hit the top of Billboard's Pop charts, a feat it repeated on charts around the world. The song stayed at this place for eight weeks. The record was also no.1 for seven weeks on the Cashbox pop singles chart in 1955. The Bill Haley version also hit number three on the R&B charts. Billboard ranked it as the No. 2 song for 1955, behind Perez Prado's "Cherry Pink (and Apple Blossom White)".
In the UK, Haley's "Rock Around the Clock" was released on Brunswick Records (and Germany as well), reaching number 17 on the UK Singles Chart in January 1955, four months before it first entered the US pop charts. The song re-entered the UK chart to reach number one in November 1955 for three weeks, and after a three-week break returned there for a further two weeks in January 1956. It re-entered the charts again in September 1956, reaching number 5. The song was re-issued in 1968, when it made number 20, and again in 1974, when it reached number 12. The song's original release saw it become the UK's first million selling single and it went on to sell over 1.4 million copies in total.
The band performed the song on the May 31, 1955 episode of Texaco Star Theater hosted by Milton Berle in an a cappella and lip-synched versions. On August 7, 1955, the band performed the song on The Ed Sullivan Show, hosted by Ed Sullivan.
Length variation
Although originally released on vinyl 45 and shellac 78 at a running time of 2 minutes and 8 seconds, most digital/CD releases of the original 1954 recording, starting with the "From The Original Master Tapes" compilation of Haley's work with Decca Records, mastered by Steve Hoffman and released in 1985, clock in at 2:10. This is due to the inclusion of a "count-in" by one of the Comets (saying, "One ... two") at the very start of the song. This was never included in the original single or album releases of the song. (All of Haley's subsequent studio rerecordings of the song run longer than 2:10 with the exception of the abbreviated version recorded for Happy Days.) There are no other studio-recorded versions after the 1950s and Happy Days versions.
Tributes
In tribute to the influence of the song and the movie that launched its popularity, the March 29, 2005 50th anniversary of the opening of Blackboard Jungle was marked by several large celebrations in the United States organized by promoter Martin Lewis under the blanket title "Rock Is Fifty". Rock Is Fifty also hosted additional celebrations in Los Angeles in July, 2005, as part of a "Rock Around the Clock-a-Thon" to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the date the song reached the No. 1 spot on the American charts, as well as to observe what would have been Haley's 80th birthday. These events included numerous appearances and performances by surviving members of the original Comets, including the band's induction into the Rock Walk hall of fame, a performance at the Viper Room club on the Sunset Strip, and a special performance for employees of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena to celebrate the success of the Deep Impact space probe. A special video of "Rock Around the Clock" was created to mark the occasion and was featured on NASA's website during July and August 2005. The anniversary was also marked by the publication of a book entirely devoted to the history of the song, Rock Around the Clock: The Record That Started the Rock Revolution, by Jim Dawson.
The United States House of Representatives also recognized the 40th anniversary of the composing of "Rock Around the Clock" with a special statement by Rep. Robert A. Borski of Pennsylvania, which was read into the Congressional Record on March 31, 1993.
The Belgian band Telex covered the song in 1979. They performed the song on Top of the Pops. Their version peaked at number 34 in the UK and number 51 in Australia in 1979.
The Sex Pistols covered it for their soundtrack The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle in 1979.
The song was featured in Season 7 of the series Dancing with the Stars in 2008 in a jive dance sequence.
Haley's version appears in a 2017 commercial for Subway's Reuben sandwich promotion.
The 1954 Decca Records studio recording was featured on the ABC TV show Dancing with the Stars: Juniors in the 2018 season during a dance sequence.
Albums
As Bill Haley's best-known recording, there have been dozens of compilation album releases over the years entitled Rock Around the Clock. The most notable of these compilations was the 1955 Decca Records album Rock Around the Clock (Decca DL 8225) which contained most of the tracks Haley recorded as singles for the label in 1954 and 1955.
Another notable album release entitled Rock Around the Clock was the 1970 Hallmark Records UK release Rock Around the Clock (SHM 668) which was the first British release of a 1968 album entitled Bill Haley's Biggest Hits which had been released in Sweden by Sonet Records. The album consisted of newly recorded renderings of Haley classics from the 1950s, along with some previously unrecorded songs.