-- NEWS --
POSTED: September 7, 2012 
60 years of The Comets
This past Labor Day weekend marked a major
anniversary -- the 60th anniversary of Bill Haley & His Comets.
The group, of course, had its roots as
Bill Haley and the Saddlemen, a country swing-themed group formed in
the late 1940s. But as early as 1950-51, when the Saddlemen began
recording R&B covers with a country
feel, beginning with a cover of Ruth Brown's "Teardrops From My Eyes"
for Atlantic Records in 1950, followed by their version of Jackie
Brentson's "Rocket 88" in 1951, and "Rock the Joint" in early 1952, the
tide was already turning for the band.
By the fall of 1952, it was clear that
"Saddlemen" no longer accurately decribed the type of music the band
was performing in urban centres like Wildwood, N.J. and the
Philadelphia region.
There are differing views as to who was
responsible for
suggesting the name "Comets." Bass player Marshall Lytle credits Bob
Johnson, the program director at WPWA, a radio station where the band
often performed. Haley biographer John Swenson
suggested a deejay on WPWA, Bix Reichner, was the responsible party.
At first, the group was billed as Bill
Haley
with Haley's Comets, and the cowboy hats were swapped out for suits and
bow-ties. The original members were Bill Haley, Lytle on bass, Johnny
Grande on piano and accordion and Billy Williamson on steel guitar (who
initially got a special "featuring..." credit on the singles).
There is some debate as to who the
group's first drummer was, with Lytle indicating Earl Famous
was the original drummer for the band, with Charlie Higler joining soon
after (Dick Richards would join in 1953, although he's stated that he
was invited to join as early as 1952, but declined). Ultimately,
though, the first drummer to play on Comets record was actually a
session drummer, Billy Gussak, who played on the first "Haley's Comets"
recording session in the fall of 1952 that produced the single "Stop
Beatin' Around the Mulberry Bush"/"Real Rock Drive". In the spring of
1953 the group scored their first national hit with "Crazy, Man, Crazy"
for Essex Records. A year later, with the band now augmented with the
addition of sax player Joey Ambrose, the Comets jumped ship
for Decca Records and recorded a little song called "Rock Around the
Clock."
The Comets, in all their permutations, backed
Haley for 28 1/2
years in total, featuring a wide range of musicians (see the Bill Haley Who's Who feature for a listing).
Some
only played for a few performance dates; others, like sax player Rudy
Pompilli, stayed by Haley's side for years. Many others were never
considered "official" Comets, but through their session work
nonetheless contributed to the classic Comets sound (guitar virtuoso
Danny Cedrone's guitar solo on
"Rock Around the Clock" remains the gold standard for rock, jazz and
swing guitar players).
Sixty years on, so much has changed. Lytle
and
Higler are the only surviving members of the original version of the
Comets,
with Lytle continuing to perform as a solo performer after having left
the Original Comets several years ago. The Comets name continues to be
invoked by
several groups, including the Original Comets (now featuring sax man
Joey Ambrose and Dick Richards), who continue to tour when they're not
in residence in Branson, and two versions of Bill Haley's
Comets, one fronted by Al Rappa, who played bass with Haley in the
1960s, the other fronted by Lenny Longo, who continues to tour in honor
of his late band leader, drummer John "Bam-Bam" Lane. In Europe, The
Bill Haley Orchestra
grew out of a tribute group called Bill Haley's New Comets. Another
tribute group, Phil Haley and His Comments continues to tour the world,
and the music of Bill Haley & His Comets also continues to be kept
alive by Haley's talented offspring Gina Haley (who recently released
an album of her father's recordings - I hope to obtain a copy soon for
review) and Bill Haley Jr.
And, most recently, the Comets were
finally given their due by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Not a bad legacy after 60 years.
POSTED: September 7, 2012
Comets movie planned
As the Comets reach their 60th anniversary,
original member Marshall Lytle has announced that a film adaptation of
his memoirs is in the planning stages.
Lytle has announced that filming on Still
Rockin' Around the Clock is targeted for early 2013. Based upon
Lytle's 2009 autobiography, the film is expected to
chronicle
the early days of rock and roll and Bill Haley & His Comets. The
film is to be co-produced by Cayo Largo Productions and Lytle's Still
Rockin' Entertainment.
"We are very excited about the
possibilities of this PG-rated film about the early creation of Rock
& Roll and we expect it to appeal to audiences all around the
world," Lytle wrote in an e-mail earlier this summer
announcing the production.
Casting for the film has yet to be
confirmed.
This is Lytle's second recent foray into
films, having appeared in a role in another Cayo Largo production, Through
the Eye, which was released in 2011.
Attempts at telling the Bill Haley &
His Comets story on film have been made before, with both Jeff Bridges
and John Ritter at one point being reported as connected to various
never-made productions. As a character,
Haley has appeared briefly in several films, all made-for-TV movies: in
the 1985 Australian movie Shout! The Story of Johnny O'Keefe,
played by John Paramor; and in two 1999 US productions - Mr. Rock
'n' Roll: The Alan Freed Story
(Michael Daingerfield) and Shake, Rattle and Roll: An American Love
Story (Dicky Barrett). To date, none of the Comets have been
portrayed on film, with the two 1999 productions featuring Haley backed
by
unidentified musicians (and a big band in the Barrett prouduction).
POSTED: April 18, 2012
R.I.P. Dick Clark
Dick Clark, one of the last of the "old
guard" TV hosts who helped make Rock and Roll a household name, died on
April 18 at the age of 82.
Although Clark didn't become a household
name until 1957 when American Bandstand went national, there is
no denying that his impact on
the development of rock and roll ranks alongside that of Alan Freed,
Murray the K and other famous announcers and deejays.
Clark hosted Bill Haley & His Comets
on Bandstand several times; although clips only appear to have
survived of them performing "Rock Around the Clock" on a pair of
spin-off programs Clark
hosted, we know they also appeared on the show performing other songs
such as the 1957 hit "Billy Goat". The Comets' spin-off group The
Kingsmen also performed their hit instrumental "Week End" on the show.
Clark continued to be a supporter of Haley
throughout his career, and when asked to describe the origins of Rock
and Roll, invariably would begin where it should, with Bill Haley and
the Saddlemen. Clark's
appreciation of Haley reached a climax when, after Haley died in 1981,
Clark dedicated part of a TV special marking Bandstand's 30th
anniversary to assembling a supergroup of musicians to play along with
footage of Haley and the
Comets doing "Rock Around the Clock". It was the only major tribute
Haley received on American television after his death.
Clark hosted Bandstand until 1989,
by which time he was also one of TV's biggest producers of game shows
and live events (he established the American Music Awards). He hosted
countless game shows and TV specials over the years, and even inherited
the mantle of "Mr. Blooper" when he picked up the ball from
pioneering TV producer Kermit Schaefer and hosted TV shows and made
record albums preserving outtakes from TV, radio and cinema. He spent
40 years hosting Dick
Clark's New Year's Rockin Eve, continuing with the help of Ryan
Seacrest after suffering a stroke in 2004. The 2011 broadcast was his
final national appearance before cameras.
Clark was one of the last of a generation
that included the likes of Alan Freed who saw promise in what folks
like Bill Haley and Elvis Presley were trying to accomplish, and I
personally feel many of the names
you see listed in both the Rockabilly Hall of Fame and the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame owe Dick Clark a debt.
POSTED: April 18, 2012
Comets reunite at Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
It's finally happened: on April 14, the
Comets were inducted into Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, at an
event
that featured a rare reunion of the original surviving members of the
group.
During a ceremony that reportedly lasted
some five hours, the 2012 inductees were introduced, ranging from Guns
n' Roses to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. But the highlight for many
was the long-overdue induction of a number of backing groups whose
leaders had long since become Hall of Fame inductees. The Comets were
front and centre (Bill Haley gaving been inducted in 1987), alongside
Buddy Holly's Crickets, James Brown's
Famous Flames, Gene Vincent's Blue Caps, Hank Ballard's Midnighters and
Smokey Robinson's Miracles. Robinson, as the only surviving bandleader
from this group, introduced the inductees.
Accepting the award on behalf of the
Comets was Marshall Lytle, Joey Ambrose, Dick Richards and -- making
his first public appearance with the Comets since 1958 - 90-year-old Al
Rex. The induction specifically recognized the members of the Comets
from 1954 to 1956, which also included Franny Beecher (who was unable
to attend the ceremony), Rudy Pompilli, Ralph Jones, Johnny Grande and
Billy Williamson. Guitarist Danny Cedrone, who was never an official
Comet
but whose contribution to the Haley sounds is incalculable thanks to
his session work on "Rock Around the Clock" and other recordings, was
also included.
The event was attended by many luminaries
and family members. Bill Haley Jr. represented the Haley family, while
members of Danny Cedrone's family also attended, along with many
supporters of the Comets (apologies
if I missed anyone).
Lytle spoke on behalf of the Comets during
the presentation which saw members of all the groups take to the stage.
This was the first time Lytle, Ambrose and Richards had been together
on stage since Lytle left the Comets
to pursue solo work in 2009. Ambrose and Richards continue to perform
as Bill Haley's Comets in Branson and recently completed a tour in
Europe. Rex, though he no longer performs, recently attended a concert
by Bill Haley Jr. in Bridgeport, Penn., that was also attended by
Franny Beecher and Rex's brother Joe Piccirilli, who once did some
recording session work for Bill Haley and the Saddlemen.
The US cable network HBO is scheduled to
broadcast an edited-down version of the induction ceremony on May 5. It
remains to be seen if the induction of the Comets makes the final cut.
POSTED: February 9, 2012
Comets to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
After years of effort, The Comets have been
named to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Although Bill Haley -- who died 31 years
ago today -- was inducted as part of the Hall's second contingent in
1987, based on the rules of the time, backing bands were not eligible.
This oversight began to be corrected
when the HOF introduced a sidemen category. And in an announcement made
today, The Comets will join The Crickets, James Brown's Famous Flames,
Gene Vincent's Blue Caps, Hank Ballard's Midnighters and Smokey
Robinson's Miracles as the HOF's newest
members at an induction ceremony scheduled for April 14 in Cleveland.
Efforts to get the Comets, or individual
members, inducted have been ongoing for a number of years. A Facebook
group was even started calling
on the HOF to add the Comets.
The naming also comes on the eve of the
60th anniversary of the Saddlemen changing their name to the Comets in
the fall of 1952.
The induction of the Comets also includes
guitarist Danny Cedrone. Cedrone was never officially a member of the
Comets, being hired as a session musician prior to his death in 1954,
but
he nonetheless was pivitol to the success of "Rock Around the Clock"
and other early Comets and Saddlemen recordings. Cedrone's family has
been lobbying for him to be inducted in the Sidemen category for years.
POSTED: October 21, 2011; UPDATED:
October 25, 2011
Comets notes
It's been a busy summer so I haven't been
able to keep the site updated as much as I'd have liked. But here are a
few
updates from the world of the Comets.
First, a belated happy 90th birthday to
the legendary Franny Beecher, which he celebrated on Sept. 29.
One of the big pieces of news is how Bill
Haley's children have stepped up to the plate to celebrate their
father's
music this year. In the spring, Gina Haley, Bill's youngest
daughter, toured the UK and Europe performing her dad's music.
It was a double-barrelled tour for Gina, who started out performing as
a special guest with the popular UK tribute band Phil Haley and His
Comments,
after which she went over to the mainland to join the German tribute
group Bill Haley's New Comets for a number of shows. With both Phil
Haley and the New
Comets, Gina performed songs that aren't often performed by the Comets
or tribute groups, such as Haley's unknown 1967
country classic "Jealous Heart", the Essex-era "I'll Be True to You",
and the world's biggest-selling flipside, "Thirteen Women" (of course
tweaked to become "Thirteen Men" for the occasion). Bill Turner
of the 1970s-era Comets joined Gina on a number of European dates.
Bill Haley Jr., meanwhile, has also
followed his dad's path. After releasing an album of original music
backed by
The Satellites (see review below), Haley has been fine-tuning his own
tribute to his father. No word as to whether a collaboration between
Bill Jr. and Gina
is in the cards, but here's hoping.
The Original Comets continue to perform in
Branson, Mo., having opened at the Music City Centre on Sept. 1. Joey
Ambrose and Dick Richards bid
farewell to guitarist Jackson Haney earlier this year, but promise big
things in 2012.
Marshall Lytle parted company with
the Original Comets two years ago, but hasn't slowed down. He continues
to perform as a
solo - sharing the stage not long ago with Bill Haley Jr. But even more
exciting, you'll be able to see Marshall on the big screen! Marshall
plays Capt. Morgan in the motion picture Through the Eye, which
was filmed in several locations in
Florida in October 2010. Starring Tom Sizemore and directed by Julian
Higgins, the film had its Florida premiere in Palm Harbor, Fl. on
October 5 and 6. Meanwhile, keep an eye out for a film called Zombie
Presidents which
was shot earlier this year and features none other than Bill Turner
as one of the
presidential undead!
Meanwhile, Johnny Kay, who
returned to recording several years ago, has a new album of original
music out with his group, JK Rockets, called Ready 2 Rock! You
can find a review of the
album below, along with my
much-delayed review of Otto Fuchs' massive Bill Haley biography.
POSTED: April 11, 2011
Ray Parsons R.I.P.
Ray Parsons sings "Rockin' Robin" with the Comets in the 1980 film
Blue Suede Shoes.
Ray Parsons, who was a well-known member of
Bill Haley & His Comets during the 1970s, died on April 10, his
family announced.
His cause of death was not immediately
indicated, but Parsons had been residing in a hospice in Cheyanne,
Wyoming.
Parsons joined Bill Haley & His Comets
in 1970 to play rhythm guitar and he was also a featured vocalist with
the group, best known for performing "Rockin' Robin" at shows such as
the legendary March 1974 concert at the Hammersmith Palais in London
(unfortunately, this part of the show has never been released on record
or CD).
Parsons also performed harmony vocals with
Haley and was involved in the October 1970 recording sessions that
produced the album Rock Around the Country for Sonet Records.
Parsons can be glimpsed during the Haley segment of the 1973 concert
film Let the Good Times Roll, and took part in performances by
the Comets during the late 1970s when Haley was (temporarily) retired.
He was front-and-centre when Haley came out of retirement in March 1979
for a tour of the UK. Parsons and bass player Jim Lebak were the only
"veteran" Comets involved in the tour, and Parsons was once again
called upon to sing "Rockin' Robin" as a solo.
There is quite a bit of video and film
footage of Parsons performing with the Comets during the spring 1979
tour; he is shown acting the "carnival barker" for Haley and singing
"Rockin' Robin" for the concert segment that concludes the documentary Blue
Suede Shoes and he performed harmony vocals with Haley on "Me and
Bobby McGee", one of the songs performed in Birmingham for an episode
of the documentary series Format V and later released in
numerous DVD editions (often labeled, incorrectly, as footage from
Haley's farewell tour). Watch carefully on some versions of this video
to see Parsons acting out one of his other roles in the Haley
organization - bodyguard - when he tackles a fan who rushes on stage in
the middle of a song!
Parsons did not participate in Haley's
final European tour in the fall of 1979, nor Haley's final live shows
in South Africa in May 1980, but after Haley's death he joined a
reunited group of Bill Haley's Comets and sang many of the Haley
vocals. This group of Comets (which also included Al Rappa, Franny
Beecher and Joey Welz) also recorded a single entitled "Bring Back the
Music"/"The Hawk Talks". In 1982, the National Enquirer ran a
photo page showing a version Comets performing on the bed of a flatbed
truck as a stunt driver soared overhead - I believe Parsons can be
shown singing during this stunt, though I've never been able to confirm
that.
Little is known of Parsons' activities
after this version of the Comets disbanded. At one point in his career
he recorded under the name Dorsey Ray Parsons. In the early 2000s, as I
was updating my Bill Haley Who's Who, Parsons was reported to have been
retired from music and living in Colorado.
Ray Parsons played an important role in
the Comets during the often-turbulent 1970s, and he will be missed.
POSTED: April 4, 2011
Massive Bill Haley biography published
To mark the 30th anniversary of Bill Haley's
death, Austrian fan Otto Fuchs has published a massive book paying
tribute to the founder of rock and roll.
Bill Haley: Father of Rock 'n' Roll clocks in at just shy
of 900 pages, and was originally published in a German-language edition
several years ago. The new English-language edition has been massively
revised and updated, incorporating many interviews Fuchs has conducted
with the likes of bass player Marshall Lytle and guitarists Bill Turner
and Johnny Kay.
A review of this long-awaited biography --
one of only four major biographies of Haley published since the early
1980s -- will be posted at a later date (needless to say, it takes a
while to read 900 pages!).
The book is published in paperback by the
German company Wagner Verlag. As of April 4, 2011, it is available via
several online retailers, including The Book Depository and also via
Amazon.co.uk's "Amazon Marketplace" (Amazon itself presently only
carries the German-language edition).
POSTED: February 7, 2011
Bill Haley: 30 Years Later
February 9, 2011 marks the 30th anniversary
of the death of Bill Haley, and I still remember the frustration I felt
the day I tried to make people give a damn.
I was all of 11 years old. I'd been a fan
of Haley's ever since I first saw him perform on a Canadian variety
show around 1973, and had already worn the grooves out of the two
albums I owned by him. So while fans in the UK and Europe apparently
had indications that Haley was not in very good shape in 1980-81 (a
German newspaper even reported in the fall of 1980 that he was dying,
which was claimed as the reason why a tour of Germany had been
cancelled), in Canada we'd heard none of that. A week before I'd seen
an interview on TV with Bo Diddley and thought it was cool that he
mentioned Haley. A year-in-review issue of either People or Us
Weekly had run a picture of Haley because 1980 had been the 25th
anniversary of "Rock Around the Clock". As a young fan in an HFZ (Haley
Free Zone) like Western Canada, I took what tidbits I could get. I
didn't even know sax player Rudy Pompilli had died five years earlier,
almost to the day. So to hear Bill Haley died was a shock.
Remembering how everyone had gone nuts
when Elvis died a few years earlier (incredibly, less than five years
earlier), I went to school and tried to get people to care. One of my
teachers kept asking who "Bill Haney" was. As for the other kids in my
class, the guy wasn't Gene Simmons or "insert popular singer of 1981
here" and they didn't care. In fact, they teased me about it.
It's not as if the media were covering it
either. Granted, I'd heard the news on a morning news show that had a
music expert discussing Haley's influence. A local radio station
replayed an interview Haley gave during a visit in 1972 and my
grandfather, being on the ball, managed to record it for me while I was
at school (see Page 3 for a transcript). But the local newspaper lumped
his death in with that of film composer Hugo Montenegro, and try as I
might I couldn't find a whole heck of a lot on TV about it.
The death of Bill Haley remains a sad
memory 30 years later. Had he not died, would he have gone on to record
more albums, do more tours? Might I have been able to see him in
person? Would the groundbreaking European tour by the Original Comets
in the late 1980s have been a reunion of Bill Haley & His Comets?
Would he have had a chance to perform with his children, including Bill
Haley Jr. and Gina Haley, as they launched musical careers of their own?
All academic questions, of course. But
one thing I wish Haley had been here for was so he could defend himself
against the historical revisionists who seem hellbent on reducing his
place in music history. There were signs of this even before Haley
died, of course. But I really started to notice it in 2001 with the
50th anniversary of "Rocket 88", a song originally recorded as a blues
song by Jackie Brentson and Ike Turner, and later transformed into the
textbook definition of rock and roll - country mixed with RnB - by
Haley. And it's happening again with the 60th anniversary - people
claiming that Brentson's song started rock and roll and Haley just
copied it. Listen to Haley's recording and you'll see it's not a copy.
Fast-forward to 2004-2005 and you saw
some magazines going to unforgivable lengths to push the agenda that
Elvis Presley started rock and roll, and the fact Bill Haley had had a
worldwide hit with his rock-and-roll version of Joe Turner's blues song
"Shake, Rattle and Roll", and a national American hit in 1953
with "Crazy, Man Crazy" (an original song, bear in mind,
written by Haley and an uncredited Marshall Lytle), and had been
recording rock and roll since, actually, his cover of "Teardrops From
My Eyes" in 1950 (before "Rocket 88") - well, that was an
inconvenient truth, to be ignored. When a major American magazine
basically proclaimed that Elvis' "That's All Right" was the de facto
start of Rock and Roll (with no other candidates to be considered) and
a UK magazine did an end run around sanity by suggesting not the first
demo Elvis recording, but the second (which was still a country
recording) was the first, I threw up my hands and realized Haley is
unlikely to get his due from mainstream media. As it is, it's February
6 as I write this I haven't found any North American magazine
mentioning the anniversary (fortunately the UK is a bit more on the
ball, with Now Dig This featuring an anniversary feature this
month co-written by Chris Gardner and myself).
Fortunately, there are many who continue
to push the truth - that, while Haley may not have invented rock and
roll, and let's be truthful - no one did - he was the one who first
recognized that what he had was not some swingy country-style
recordings, or just a faster-paced RnB. And he was the one who had the
first success, before Elvis, before Chuck Berry, before Little Richard
(OK, yes, after Fats Domino, but Domino's "The Fat Man" was not a rock
and roll recording). The numbers don't lie.
Today, there are no less than three
groups of Comets touring America and Europe, several other former
Comets, including Johnny Kay, Bill Turner, and Marshall Lytle, continue
to perform the songs Bill Haley and the Comets made famous, and several
of Bill Haley's children have followed in their dad's footsteps. Bill
Haley Jr. just released his first CD (see review here),
while Gina Haley has teamed up with Bill Turner and the tribute band
Bill Haley's New Comets and will be touring Europe with them in March
and April 2011 (with Haley's New Comets also planning Australian and
Asian performances in the near future, too). Meanwhile, writer Otto
Fuchs is preparing an English-language release of his massive German
biography of Haley, and there's always the hope of more rare recordings
from the man himself being released.
I have no doubt that the memory of Bill
Haley will live on, as will his music and his influence. Someone trying
to rewrite the history books isn't going to change that.
POSTED: November 8, 2010
2010: Year in Review
It's been a fairly busy year in the world of
The Comets.
That said, I haven't had much opportunity
to update this column over the past 12 months. Fortunately I have had a
chance to give my three Extra pages, and the "Rock Around the Clock"
tribute page, some revision. You'll find some articles have been moved
around, a few others retired, and I've added some new images along the
way. There's also a review of a new CD by former Comet Johnny Kay - no
less than his third new release in the last 18 months.
There have been a few changes in the world
of the Original Comets over the past year. Marshall Lytle announced his
departure from the group near the end of 2009, not long after
undergoing surgery that resulted in the partial amputation of one of
his legs. This hasn't stopped Marshall from continuing to give
energetic performances, whether during his final stints with the
Original Comets in Florida near the end of 2009, or in his solo
performances since then. He's also filmed a role in an upcoming movie,
and in October 2010 he took to the stage with 1970s Comets guitarist
Bill Turner and Bill Haley Jr. for a great show.
Meanwhile, the Original Comets with Joey
Ambrose and Dick Richards continue to pack concert halls in the US and
Europe, with a new bass player and a revised set list. They're still
going strong, with Dick in particular showing how drumming is a
real-life fountain of youth.
The two other Comets contingents also
continue to perform. Al Rappa, Haley's bass player from 1959 to 1969,
continues to tour fronting Bill Haley's Comets, recently joining forces
with mid-60s Comets piano player Joey Welz. And despite the passing of
their bandleader, John "Bam-Bam" Lane, several years ago, Lane's
version of Bill Haley's Comets has also continued to tour under the
leadership of lead singer Lenny Longo.
A number of former Comets also continue to
do what they love the most - perform. Johnny Kay (guitarist 1960-1967)
recently released his third album of new recordings since 2008,
fronting his revived pre-Comets group, the Rockets. Bill Turner
continues to tour extensively with his Blue Smoke Band. And Franny
Beecher, who will celebrate his 90th birthday in 2011, continues to
perform regularly near his home in Pennsylvania, recently joining
forces with Johnny Kay for a show.
Looking ahead to 2011, besides Franny's
90th birthday we can also look forward to a number of other milestones,
including the 60th anniversary of the recording of "Rocket 88" by Bill
Haley and Saddlemen, which helped usher rock and roll into the world.
On a more sombre note, the year will also mark the 30th anniversary of
Bill Haley's death.
The roadmap may have changed a little, but
when it comes to the veterans of Bill Haley and the Comets, all roads
continue to point to rock and roll!
FIRST POSTED: August 21, 2009;
REVISED AND UPDATED: August 31, 2009; Nov. 8, 2010
Marshall Lytle publishes autobiography
Marshall Lytle, a founding member of Bill
Haley & His Comets in 1952 and a driving force behind the reunion
of the 1954-55 Comets since the late 1980s, was there at the birth of
rock and roll. And now, he's telling his story
about those early days.
Still Rockin' Around the Clock: My Life
in Rock 'n' Roll's First Supergroup, co-written by Michael Jordan
Rush, tells Lytle's story of how he
was there when
Bill Haley and the
Comets made
musical history, and his musical career since those storied early days.
Although several books have been published
telling the Haley's story, this
is the first time a book has been published from the point of view of
one of the Comets.
Lytle joined Bill Haley and His Saddlemen
in 1951. Originally a guitar player, he was taught to play slap bass
by Bill Haley
himself and was brought in to replace Al Rex, who had left the band.
Lytle's earliest known recording with Haley is believed to have been
"Green Tree Boogie" recorded for Holiday Records in 1951. Lytle stayed
with the group as it changed names to the Comets in the fall of 1952,
co-writing (but not receiving credit on) the group's
first national hit, "Crazy Man, Crazy" in 1953, and playing
bass on the iconic "Rock Around the Clock" and "Shake, Rattle and Roll"
in 1954.
In September 1955
he, along with sax player Joey Ambrose and drummer Dick Richards, quit
the Comets in a salary
dispute and formed
their own group, the Jodimars, which scored several minor hits for the
Capitol Records label, most notably "Well Now Dig This". By 1958, the
Jodimars had split up, with Lytle
attempting
to revive the brand on a couple of occasions in the late 1950s before
moving into other business endeavours.
In 1987, the original members of the
Comets from 1954-55, including Lytle, Ambrose, and Richards, along with
pianist Johnny Grande and guitarist Franny Beecher, were reunited for a
special show in
Philadelphia, and began touring regularly in the early 1990s. The
reunited Comets also recorded
several CDs in both Europe and the US, and put out several DVDs (the
line-up of the reunited group remained unchanged until the death of
Grande in 2006, followed soon after by Beecher retiring from touring).
Since around 2002 Lytle has been the lead singer for the band,
initially for North American shows and later in Europe, too, taking on
most of the
vocals on the Haley classics, and he also contributed several original
songs to the group, including "Viagra Rock" which gained some radio
play in the
early 2000s.
UPDATE: As of November 2010, the
book
was available via Amazon.com here.
See below for
a review.
POSTED: May 5, 2009
Ten years of Extra
It's hard to believe, but more than a decade
has now
passed since I began writing this column for the Rockabilly Hall of
Fame.
This column began at the kind invitation
of webmaster Bob Timmers, after I had written a review of a performance
by the
Original Comets in Edmonton, Canada during the summer of 1997. At
first, I wasn't sure if a column would work. For one thing, although I
had been lucky
enough to meet Marshall Lytle, Joey Ambrose, Dick Richards, Franny
Beecher and Johnny Grande in Edmonton, and was corresponding regularly
with
Marshall via e-mail (as I still do today), I did wonder if I'd be able
to dig up enough stuff to keep a column going. After all, Bill Haley
himself
had been dead many years.
I needn't have worried!
Before long, I have lots to write about,
from exciting new releases of brand-new recordings by the Comets, to
archival
releases to die for from the likes of Hydra and Bear Family, to the
50th anniversary of "Rock Around the Clock", which led me to write a
spin-off page
on the history of the song which has been used as source material by at
least one book, several documentaries, and also led me to meet Peter
Ford, the son
of Glenn Ford of Blackboard Jungle, and with whom I helped set
the record straight regarding the discovery of the record that helped
kick off the
rock and roll era.
Things reached a climax in 2005 when I was
invited to attend the Rock is Fifty celebrations in Los Angeles.
Organized by
Martin Lewis, co-founder of the influential Secret Policeman's Balls
charity concerts for Amnesty International (the films from which,
incidentally, were relaesed
to DVD here in North America earlier this year - check them out!), the
event brought the Original Comets and Bill Haley international
attention, and gave me the chance to meet Haley's second wife, Cuppy,
and his daughter, Gina Haley, a rising musical star in her own right.
Other rewarding moments have included my
creation of the Bill Haley Who's Who, which has helped identify the
many musicians who
worked with Haley and the Comets over the years (while setting a few
records
straight in the process). This, in turn, has put me in direct contact
with a number
of Comets ranging from Bill Nolte to Johnny Kay to musicians whose
contact with Haley was brief, but no less appreciated, such as Bill
Faye
and Louis Torres.
There have been some sad moments along the
way, too, such as the deaths of long-time Comets Johnny Grande and John
"Bam-Bam" Lane, but
their music lives on! And so, hopefully, will Extra for some time to
come.
Ironically, considering this is the
anniversary year for Extra, I haven't had the chance to update this
column over the past year, for
a number of reasons. But it's been a busy one for some of the musicians
who once shared the stage with Bill Haley, and those who appreciate the
music.
The Original Comets continued strong
through 2008 and into 2009, alternating performances in Branson, Mo.
with tours of Europe and
elsewhere. Dick Richards, now the elder statesman of the band, can
still knock out a drum solo like no one else, and Marshall Lytle and
Joey Ambrose haven't
missed a beat. Newcomers David Byrd and Jackson Haney, who succeeded
the late Johnny Grande and the
very-much-still-alive-and-still-rockin-in-Pennsylvania Franny Beecher,
have become popular members of the group, with Haney stepping into the
shoes of Comets musicians past like Nick Nastos and Johnny Kay as a
featured singer.
Speaking of Johnny Kay, the former Comet
has joined the ranks of the Original Comets, Bill Turner, and others by
not letting the clock
stop him from rocking. In the past year he's recorded and released no
less than two albums of new recordings, the second of which, Songs
from the Cradle of Rock 'n'
Roll, was just released, and I've written a review below.
And if you're in Germany, be sure to keep
an eye out for the Bill Haley Orchestra, a big-band-style tribute to
Haley's music led by
one of the best Haley tribute artists around, Jo "Bill" Clifton. You
can download the "BHO's" latest album, Let the Good Times Roll
through Amazon here.
I'd like to take a moment to thank Bob
Timmers, the curator of this online museum all these years, for the
endless hours of hard
work he's put into this site, and in particular for putting up with my
infrequent updates!
-- REVIEWS --
POSTED:
October 21, 2011; REVISED: October 25, 2011
Book review: Bill Haley: Father of Rock 'n' Roll - Otto
Fuchs
(Wagner Verlag, ISBN 978-3-86683-901-4)
"Clocking" in at nearly 900 pages, Otto
Fuchs' massive biography of Bill
Haley is the most extensive volume to date dedicated to the man.
This book was originally published
several
years ago in a German language edition,
but the English release isn't a simple translation. In the intervening
years, Fuchs has extensively
revised the text, removing some errors from the original version and
inserting quite a bit of new material, while also distilling and
reinterpreting information
from past Bill Haley biographies and articles.
At times I felt this book was a bit too
detailed, so much so it
occasionally became a rather slow read as it got bogged down a bit in
minutae.
But where the book took off was in the interviews, when Fuchs moves
away from decantering
his research and starts adding new information
by way
of several in-depth
interviews with several Comets and, most notably, Haley's youngest
daughter, Gina Haley.
Fuchs also manages to shine a light on
a part
of Haley's career that
tends to get little coverage - the final years when Haley alternated
between retirement in Mexico and returning to the stage for a pair of
European tours in 1979. Fuchs interviews Mal Gray, who served as
the Comets' band leader during those final shows. Gray's interview is
firey as he lashes out at writers
who pepetuate myths about Haley's last years (present company excluded,
I hope!), and he also gives insight
into Haley's late-day career plans.
Gina - who at the time this book was
published
last spring was touring Europe with a show promoting her
father's music (first with the UK group Phil Haley & His Comments,
and later the German-based Bill Haley's New Comets (alongside
former Comets guitar player Bill Turner)) - talks candidly about her
father and his music. We also hear from Turner, as well as Johnny Kay,
Haley's guitarist in the 1960s and who is enjoying his own career
resurgence, and Fuchs also chats with members of the
Original Comets - Marshall Lytle, Dick Richards and Joey Ambrose. Al
Rappa, who continues to perform with his own version of Bill Haley's
Comets, chats about his memories of Haley, as does piano player Joey
Welz. And one of the coolest "catches" by Fuchs for this book has
to be drummer Bill Nolte, who joined the Comets in 1969 after working
with Haley's legendary late-60s/early-70s guitar player Nick Nastos in
the Country
Showmen. It's great to see these folks - many of whom were never
involved in the previous Haley biographies - provide their stories and
recollections. On the basis of these interviews alone I recommend the
book.
Unfortunately, there are some technical
issues with
the book. The book could have used a stronger final edit in terms of
fixing the errors that typos that are inevitable when a work of this
size is
translated. There were also some puzzling format choices, like long
sections presented in italics, for example. Similarly, the book
is loaded with rare photos -
many of which I've
never seen before (which is saying something), but many of them suffer
from muddy reproduction. It's my hope that if a new edition of this
book sees print down the line
(or is converted to e-book) that some of these issues are rectified.
Bill Haley: Father of Rock 'n' Roll
is a
paperback German release, however it is available (as of October 2011)
through online retailers such as Amazon UK and Book Depository.
POSTED:
February 7, 2011
Ready 2 Rock! - JK Rockets
(SCJ Corp SCJ2003)
Former Comets guitar player Johnny Kay is
making up for lost time after returning to the studio world a couple of
years ago with his third album of all-new recordings.
Ready 2 Rock! is essentially a
two-man project this time around, with Johnny Kay playing lead, bass,
synth and performing vocals
on many of the tracks, and his brother Stan Kay (who also has some
Comets credentials) on vocals and drums/percussion. Joe Mauro makes
a guest appearance on one track and J. Willy plays harp (no, not that
kind of harp - the other kind) on the album-closer. So this is quite an
intimate affair.
This time 'round, the JK Rockets deliver a
more blues-tinged
album than previous releases. "Paid My Dues" has some fun
tongue-in-cheek lyrics that are
quite timely these days. "Play Me Sumptin' Dirty" is a strong blues.
while "Not Easy" has a very 1960s
sound to it. "Nashville, I Will", as you can guess from the title, is a
shade of country.
Kay, like many of his contemporaries,
enjoys paying tribute to the early days and you-know-who, and
he delivers with "Rock-a-Beatin' Bill" which is one of the better
efforts of this mini-genre (reminiscent of some of the late
Hank Kerns' tributes). The title track also is a nostalgic look back.
"Have You See My Gina", with guest vocalist Joe
Mauro, is another 60s-style ballad, nicely handled. "Wintertime Blues"
has an unusual beat, and the album closes out on a bluesy beat with "J
Willy is Here".
Another spirited release by the former
Comet!
Ready 2 Rock! is a private-label
release, but is available via the JK Rockets
website and on iTunes.
Tracks: 1. Ready 2 Rock; 2. Paid My
Dues; 3. The Beat; 4. Dirty City; 5. Gotta Be Bad;
6. Play Me Sumptin Dirty; 7. Not Easy; 8. Nashville I Will; 9.
Rock-a-Beatin Bill; 10. Together; 11. Simple Said; 12. Tell Me Sumptin;
13. Have You Seen My Gina; 14. Walk By; 15. Wintertime Blues; 16. J
Willy is Here..
POSTED:
February 7, 2011
Already Here - Bill Haley & The Satellites
(private release)
Bill Haley Jr. proudly follows in his dad's
tradition with the release of his first CD, Already Here.
Backed by the Satellites, a tight combo
that includes lead guitarist (and second vocalist as well as CD
producer) Mike De Naro, bass player Jason Moore, and drummer Mike
Angelucci (with Lee Clark contributing MIDI bass on one track), Haley
delivers a solid seven-track modern rock and roll CD. This isn't a
rockabilly album -- like his younger sister, Gina, Haley has carved his
own musical niche.
That said, Haley carries on in the spirit
of his dad (and, indeed, while the song isn't included on this CD, a
YouTube clip of Haley Jr. performing an excellent cover pf "Rock Around
the Clock" with the Satellites is making the rounds, and last fall he
performed on stage with Comets veterans Bill Turner and Marshall
Lytle). It's the enthusiasm for the music that I think he shares, and
provides here a collection of original songs that stand up there with
the best blues-tinged rock I've heard in a while.
"Every Time", which opens the set, has a
great 1960s feel, while "Already Here" is a bluesy song that has an
interesting set of lyrics - you name another blues song that has a
storyline with spaceships from outer space! "A Call From Yesterday",
written and sung by De Naro (it's the only song on the CD not written
by Haley) is catchy, and "Broketown Blues" is a song that I bet plays
very well on stage (and it does pretty well on the disc, too). Another
excellent track is "Missing Link", in which Haley reminisces about the
people in his life, with some thought-provoking commentary that sticks
with you after the song fades out. In fact - and I don't mean this as a
knock against other performers, by any means - I was struck by the
intelligence of the lyrics on this album.
As a bonus, Haley, who is also a talented
painter, provides original artwork that adorns the back cover and disc.
Already Here is an apt title --
with this quality of recording, Bill Haley & The Satellites won't
be going away anytime soon.
This album is a private release and (as of
February 2011) is available for US$10 from the Digstation website here.
Haley says he hopes to have it available through iTunes and CDBaby
soon, too
Tracks: 1. Every Time; 2. A Call
From Yesterday (Mike De Naro vocal); 3. Broketown Blues; 4. Missing
Link; 5. Already Here; 6. Writing on the Wall; 7. Happy Birthday Baby.
POSTED:
November 8, 2010
The Rite Mix - Johnny Kay's Rockets
(SCJ Corp. - private release)
I heard a rumor not long ago that Johnny Kay
had turned 70; you certainly can't tell from listening to his latest
album, The Rite Mix.
Recorded privately, this is Kay's third
album of new material in less than two years, following on from Songs
from the Cradle of Rock 'n' Roll, and his contributions to Hydra
Records' Bill Haley and Friends Vol. 4 (both reviewed below).
Once again, the album is credited to
Johnny Kay's (or JK) Rockets, the group Kay led before becoming Bill
Haley's lead guitar player in 1960, though this time around it's a more
intimate affair, with Kay playing guitar and synth and vocals (and
writing all 13 tracks), while brother Stan Kay handled drums and
additional vocals while also taking care of the recording and mastering
of the record. A third musician, "Killer Joe" is credited on harp (not that
type of harp) on one track.
As with Cradle, Kay has chosen not
to spend the whole CD revisitng past glories, with most of the songs
being brand-new, updated works covering country, blues, and jazz -
several of the tracks enter the rockabilly-fusion-country-blues arena.
One older song featured is "You Changed", which Kay says was one of the
first songs he ever wrote back in the 1950s; in the mid-60s onetime
Comets piano player Joey Welz recorded a version (included on the Hydra
CD) with Kay and other Comets members backing him. Kay has recorded a
new version of the song for this release but has stuck to the original
late-50s/early-60s arrangement, giving it a Grease-like
nostalgic feel.
Several tracks take a look at different
aspect of rock and roll history from Kay's perspective, such as the
title track, which is a new addition to the pantheon of RnR history
songs. Kay also finds a new angle on "This Guitar is a Star" which is
an ode to Bill Haley's trademark "big blonde" guitar. My favorite of
the trio is "If Rock Had Never Rolled" which suggests what might have
happened had Haley and his contemporaries never started the music.
"Rock and Roll Shoes" has a great
tongue-in-cheek feel as Kay tells the story of a guy who wants to go
rockin', but he can't find his shoes! "I Dun No" has an unusual sound -
the first time I listened to it I wasn't quite sure about it, but it's
grown on me. And "Delusional" is just plain catchy; the fact I find
myself identifying with the lyrics is a matter of some concern,
however...
Kay's guitar playing in the 1960s always
had a somewhat harder edge than that of his precedessors, and nothing
has changed on this new record. There are plenty of rough edges on this
recording - but that's the point. Rock and Roll was never intended to
be all slick and smooth and engineered to the moon. These recordings
have a level of personality a lot of today's mass-produced stuff is
lacking. That in itself is enough for me to recommend this album for
not only Comets fans, but those looking for an antidote to all the American
Idol and Glee-influenced stuff. I'd personally love to see
the students of McKinley High tackle "Delusional"!
This album (as well as Cradle) can
be ordered from Kay's website here, and on
CDBaby.com.
Tracks: 1. The Rite Mix; 2. I Ain't
Got the Blues;
3. Delusional; 4. Can We Do It Again?; 5. You Changed; 6. Rock &
Roll Shoes; 7. Just Playin'; 8. This Guitar is a Star; 9. Love Me
Everyday; 10. Just a Little Lie; 11. If Rock Had Never Rolled; 12.
Mississippi Sue; 13. Keep it Real;
14. I Dun No; 15. She's an Angel; 16. Rock & Roll is Good for the
Soul.
POSTED:
April 12, 2010
Bill Haley & Friends Vol. 4: Johnny Kay - Tale of a Comet
(Hydra Records BCK 27139)
For its fourth installment of the
long-running Bill Haley & Friends compilations, Hydra
Records has turned the spotlight on one
long-standing member of Bill Haley's Comets.
Johnny Kay, a.k.a. John Kaciuban, was
Haley's lead guitarist from 1960 to 1967, returned for some session
work in 1968, and returned to the Comets again for some live shows in
1972. He was
initially hired as a replacement for Franny Beecher,
and shared lead duties with Beecher for a time when the elder musician
returned to the Comets in 1961-62, but after Beecher left for good it
was
Kay who served as lead for much of the
1960s. Kay recently returned to recording rock and roll,
and this German release is a companion
to last year's Songs from the Cradle of Rock 'n' Roll, recorded
by Kay with his pre-Comets 1950s group, the Rockets.
Tale of a Comet is divided into
three parts. The first part consists of a selection of mostly
instrumental work featuring Kay that the Comets recorded
in the 1960s, and leads off with a previously unreleased live
recording of "Guitar Boogie". Longtime Haley fans will know of Nick
Nastos' versions of this crowd-pleaser, but here's
a chance to hear how Johnny Kay handles the guitar acrobatics. The
track rocks. The liner notes erroneously identify it as having been
recorded at the Star Club in Hamburg in 1962. In fact,
this particular version was recorded at an American military base in
Germany in 1966. That doesn't take away the fact it's a great Comets
performance and a nice bonus for fans who think
they "have everything". (Just to split hairs for a moment, the track
has been circulated privately, but this is "Guitar Boogie's" first
official, label release.)
The next nine tracks come from the
prolific Mexican Orfeon/Dimsa sessions of 1961-1966, during which time
the
Comets recorded far more instrumentals than they did vocal
performances. The tracks included here have been released elsewhere,
but are included because they were either written by Johnny Kay, or
focus on his guitar or vocal work. Anyone not sure
who Johnny Kay is will no doubt recognize his youthful vocals on "The
Seventh Son" (El Septimo Hijo) and "Mohair Sam" (El Traje de Sam). The
best tracks in this selection are the Kay/Beecher composition "Tampico
Twist", though for some reason a remastered version with modern drum
overdubs has been used rather than the original version, and "Feelin'
Happy", a sampling from a
groundbreaking recording session the Comets did with Big Joe Turner in
1966. I'm still amazed no one thought to do a version of "Shake Rattle
and Roll", but the rockin' version of "Feelin' Happy"
shows the Comets and Turner in top form.
Part one concludes with two tracks
featuring Kay on lead vocals recorded during the German AFN Network
radio broadcasts of 1962 (previously released by Hydra on On the Air),
an instrumental called "White Parakeet" recorded
during the Comets' obscure sojourn with Newtown Records in 1963, and
"You Changed", a single recorded by Joey Welz in 1965
and backed by members of the Comets. Kay takes credit for writing this
when he was first starting out in the music business.
The second section of the CD consists of
recent recordings by Kay and his J.K. Rockets band (which includes his
brother - and onetime Comet - Stan Kay). After a heartfelt
tribute to Haley, "Rockabilly Bill", Kay presents nine re-recordings of
Comets classics, ranging from "Crazy Man Crazy" to Haley's unexpected
1968 country classic "That's How I Got to Memphis."
I don't really consider these "remakes". They
come off more as "reimaginings". A few of the tracks, such as "Farewell
- So Long - Goodbye" and "Live it Up" stick fairly
close to the original arrangements, but "Skinny Minnie" and "Crazy Man
Crazy" are virtually unrecognizable. It does take a little getting used
to at first, and some of the tracks are
more successful than others. But the Rockets' enthusiasm for the source
material shines through, and several tracks remind me of some of Bill
Haley's later country-rock recordings for Sonet
Records.
The best tracks in this section are the
reimaginings of "That's How I Got to Memphis" (with Johnny Kay on
vocal) and "How Many" (with Stan Kay singing). These are timeless
country songs, and they stand the test of time well. Also excellent is
a new recording of "Crime Doesn't Pay", a tongue in cheek song that Kay
had originally recorded with the Rockets
back in the 1950s.
Speaking of which, the final four tracks
in this diverse collection are true rarities -- unreleased acetates
from Kay's 1958 band, the Rockets, including the original version
of "Crime Doesn't Pay". For those interested in rare early rock and
roll (so rare it's never been released until now), it's a real bonus.
The CD booklet is packed with rare photos
and document reproductions (including Kay's performance contract with
the Comets!), and Kay's personal thoughts about each song on the CD.
Like most Hydra releases, this CD is for a
specific Bill Haley fan -- one who is not just interested in the music,
but also in the people who made the music. Although there are
a few tracks I wouldn't have minded seeing included (besides that
"Guitar Boogie" there are also excellent live recordings of Kay
performing a medley of calypso songs, as well as the comedy song
"Greenback Dollar Bill", plus the Newtown sessions that begat "White
Parakeet" also begat a fine vocal performance by Kay on
"Cottonfields"), but the CD is worth checking out for fans of Kay who
want
to learn more about the musician, then and now. If Hydra does a Bill
Haley & Friends Vol. 5, I wouldn't mind seeing other Comets
given the spotlight as has been done here with Johnny Kay.
Tracks: (# indicate first known
release; * means first known CD release). Tracks 1-12; 14 by Bill Haley
and His Comets - 1. #Guitar Boogie (inst.); 2. Yucatan Twist (inst.);
3. Pure de Papas (inst. with Johnny Kay interjections); 4. Oaxaca Twist
(inst.); 5. Tampico Twist (inst.); 6. El Trajo de Sam (Mohair Sam) (Kay
vocal); 7. Twist Del Dia (inst.); 8. El Septimo Hijo (The Seventh Son)
(Kay vocal); 9. Viajando Con El Madison (inst.); 10. *Feelin' Happy
(Big Joe Turner vocal); 11. The Peppermint Twist (Kay vocal); 12.
Wolverton Mountain (Kay vocal); 13. *You Changed (Joey Welz with Comets
backing);
14. White Parakeet (inst.). Tracks 15-25 by J.K. Rockets (all Johnny
Kay vocal except where noted) - 15. #Rockabilly Bill; 16. #Watcha Gonna
Do; 17. #Skinny Minnie; 18. #That's How I Got to Memphis;
19. #Crime Doesn't Pay 2007; 20. #Live it Up; 21. #How Many (Stan Kay
vocal); 22. #Rock-a-Beatin' Boogie; 23. #ABC Boogie; 24. #Crazy Man
Crazy; 25. #Farewell - So Long - Goodbye. Tracks
26-29 by Johnny Kay's Rockets, 1958 - 26. #Catalina Kitten; 27. #Crime
Doesn't Pay; 28. #Angel; 29. #Teenage Man.
POSTED:
September 21, 2009
Book review: Still Rockin' Around the Clock - Marshall
Lytle with
Michael Jordan Rush
(Michael Jordan Rush, ISBN 978-1-4414-7780-2)
Marshall Lytle was there at the birth of
rock and roll, and in a new book, he tells his story of those
hectic early days.
For those who have had the pleasure of
meeting and interviewing Marshall over the years, much of Still
Rockin' Around the
Clock will be familiar. That's not a bad thing, by any means, as
this is a chance to have many of Lytle's stories and reminiscences
preserved in a single volume. And even for diehards, there's a lot of
new
information in this privately published book.
Still Rockin' isn't one of those
super-polished star bios that litter the bookstores. It's a more
intimate affair,
and probably the closest thing you could come to spending an evening
with the veteran bass man, just shooting the breeze about his history.
Lytle spends the first part of the book
relating his early history. I usually find this is where most
autobiographies
drag, even though it's a necessary evil - showing how one built up his
or her life before stardom arrived. Lytle early years were fascinating
to read
about, and provided the first surprises of the book as we learn how the
man who pioneered bass-throwing was born with a foot defect that could
have forever altered his life. And we learn how his family first met a
yodelling cowboy/radio deejay named Bill Haley, as well as how Lytle
began to make
a name for himself in show business several years before signing up to
replace Al Rex as Bill Haley's bass player in 1951.
Although Lytle and his Original Comets
colleagues have spent the last 20 years keeping Bill Haley's name and
his music alive,
that doesn't mean Haley is above criticism. For example, Lytle recalls
composing "Crazy Man, Crazy" alongside Bill Haley, only to have
Haley take sole writing credit for writing the song, which would
become
the band's first national hit. Later, Lytle describes his memories
regarding how he and his fellow salaried band-mates
grew more and more frustrated over their place in the Haley
organization, culminating in their decision to bolt from the Comets in
late
summer 1955 and form their own group. Despite the hard feelings towards
Haley still evident
more than 50 years after Lytle, along with fellow Comets Joey Ambrose
and Dick Richards formed the Jodimars, I felt Lytle was
pretty even-handed in his treatment of the subject; he could have taken
more of a muck-raking approach to a fairly touchy subject, but to his
credit he mostly sticks to
relaying the
facts as he recalls them.
When you're writing about events of more
than half a century ago, there's always going to be differing
recollections, and there's
a bit of this in Lytle's book. He gives his own recollection of how
Alan Freed is said to have coined the phrase "rock and roll", and
also
gives a slightly different timeline regarding when he and his fellow
Comets first started playing a new song called "Rock Around the Clock"
then that offered in other books. But he shines in his
behind-the-scenes recollections, such as meeting movie stars while the
Comets were in Hollywood to film the Round-Up of Rhythm short
film, and when the Jodimars, during one of their first gigs in New
York, were given a movie legend's old dressing room.
For me, as someone familiar with different
sides of the Haley story, the book becomes even more interesting once
we get into the
Jodimars and post-Jodimars
eras, which have not been well documented. We hear Lytle's take on why
the group wasn't as successful as it could have been, we find out why
Lytle thinks an iconic TV star might have been responsible for
scuttling a
set of 1958 Jodimars recordings, and we learn
about how and why
Marshall Lytle reinvented himself as Tommy Page in the 1960s, forming a
musical act that would not only outlast the Jodimars, but also connect
him with a future wife.
Lytle also spends time reminiscing about
his life in the 1970s, including his final, cordial meeting with Bill
Haley, and leads up to his reunion with Richards, Ambrose, as well as
Johnny Grande and Franny Beecher, in the late 1980s which has led to
a 20 year-plus association with the Original Comets that Lytle has
called the greatest retirement plan in the world.
Lytle follows his life all the way up to
early 2009, with the Comets still knocking them dead in Branson.
The book features a number of rare photos
of the Comets and the Jodimars, and also includes a foreword by Jimmy
Jay. A second foreword has been provided by Peter Ford by way of his
mini-memoir
"Rock Around the Clock and Me", in which the son of Glenn Ford
describes the role he played in "Rock Around the Clock" ending up in
his dad's film, Blackboard Jungle. This story has been printed
in a few magazines and published online, but it was good
thinking of Lytle and Rush to also preserve it in this book.
Still Rockin' Around the Clock is a
fun read, and a fascinating look at the birth of rock
and roll - and it's aftermath - from the perspective of one of the guys
who was there at the beginning. The book doesn't pretend to be anything
more than what it is, one man's memories of his life and his role in
being part of the group that changed the world of music forever, and
who, despite challenges along the way, refuses to stop rocking around
the clock.
As of November 2010, Still
Rockin' Around the Clock was available via Amazon.com.
POSTED:
May 5, 2009
Songs from the Cradle of Rock 'n' Roll - JK Rockets
(SCJ Corp)
From 1960 to 1967 (and off and on into the
1970s), Johnny Kay rocked the house as Bill Haley's lead guitarist.
When he was hired to replace the immortal
Franny Beecher in 1960, I bet he must have felt the way George Lazenby
felt when he
took over from Sean Connery. But before long the firey guitarist
established himself, holding his own during a brief period when both he
and Beecher
shared lead duties, and he became a major presence in the many
recordings Haley made for Orfeon during the mid-60s. Kay helped the
band appeal to younger
audiences, and when Haley began incorporating Beatles songs into his
sets, it was Kay who was often given the job of singing them. He also
took lead vocal duties
on a number of Comets recordings, including "Mohair Sam" and "The
Seventh Son" for Orfeon, not to mention an alternate take of "Tenor
Man" and another song
called "Cottonfields", both of which were unearthed by Bear Family
records in the 1990s for the Warner Brothers Years and More box
set.
After leaving the Comets, Kay became a
guitar teacher and later got into video production. This past year saw
Johnny Kay fire up his own group, JK Rockets -- the name comes from
Johnny Kay's Rockets, a band he fronted in the
1950s -- and record two CDs of new recordings, one for Hydra Records in
Germany, and a new American release, Songs from the Cradle of Rock
'n' Roll. While the first CD consisted mainly
of new versions of Haley classics, this new CD contains all-original
songs composed either by Kay or award-winning songwriter Bill Rapp.
The key to this record is that the three
musicians featured - Johnny Kay, Stan Kay (making this a family
affair), and Rapp, are based
around Chester, Pennsylvania. This was Haley's headquarters in the
1950s, and it was here that "Rock Around the Clock" was truly born,
making this the true "cradle" of the
music.
Cradle is an interesting album in
that it combines old-school rock and roll/rockabilly with more modern
sounds. I always found Kay's
guitar playing to be somewhat harder-edged than Beecher's on the Orfeon
recordings, and so it takes on a very modern sound here, too. And the
songs themselves include surprises
such as "Text Me Baby", which leads one to wonder how an artist in the
1950s might have handled the latest communication crazes ("Rockin'
Robin" might have sounded a lot differently with
"Twitter-Twitter-dee..." at the beginning!).
Other highlights include the title track,
which pays tribute to Haley, and several defiant "never too old to
rock"-style tracks, including "Never 2 Late 2
Rock" which makes a nice companionpiece to the Comets' "We Ain't Dead
Yet" track of a few years back, and the nostalgic "Cradle of Ol' Rock
'n' Roll."
Top-to-bottom this is a great-sounding
set, covering old-style blues ("Ol' Man Blues" is fun), to "Sudden Soul
Full of Rock 'n'
Roll" which is something KISS might have recorded had they worked for
Decca back in the 60s, and Bill Rapp channels Johnny Cash on "Good Good
Thing". Johnny Kay sounds like he's back in
the 60s with Haley on the closing track, "Too Much Rock 'n' Roll in 'em
Bones". There are also a couple of good 50s-style ballads, including
the standout, "Brand New Me."
Worth checking out for fans of old-school
Pennsylvania-style rock and roll
The CD is available on Kay's website here and through
CD Baby here.
Tracks: 1. Text Me Baby; 2. Brand
New Me; 3. You Don't Know You Love Me Yet; 4. I Miss Those Rock 'n'
Roll Nites;
5. Ol' Man Blues; 6. Rain Rain; 7. Sudden Soul Full of Rock 'n' Roll;
8. Good Good Thing; 9. Never 2 Late 2 Rock; 10. Cradle of Ol' Rock
'n' Roll;
11. I'll Be There for You; 13. Too Much Rock 'n' Roll in 'em Bones.
POSTED:
March 20, 2008
Guitar Virtuoso - Danny Cedrone
(DJC Records E-00821)
Before Scotty Moore picked up a guitar to
back Elvis, and even before the legendary Franny Beecher brought his
expertise to Bill Haley's
Comets, Danny Cedrone was already a rock-and-roll veteran. This new CD
casta a long-overdue spotlight on one of rock and roll's most
overlooked pioneers.
Danny Cedrone died accidentally in the
summer of 1954, not long after working on the Bill Haley & His
Comets recording of "Shake Rattle and Roll."
As such, he never got a chance to experience any of the success of that
song, or the recording from April 12, 1954 that carried his
never-to-be-equalled guitar solo,
"Rock Around the Clock". (Cedrone was never an official member of The
Comets, but instead was a favored session player who first worked with
Haley on the groundbreaking
"Rocket 88" in 1951.)
You won't find either of those
world-famous recordings on this CD. And that is a good thing, because
they're everywhere. Much harder to find are the recordings Cedrone made
on his own and as the leader of The Esquire Boys, and it is this side
of his career that Cedrone's family spotlights with this CD.
The first half of the CD features
primarily instrumental recordings by the Esquire Boys, including a
rollicking "Guitar Boogie Shuffle," an exotic "Caravan", and
great versions of "St. Louis Blues" and "Taboo.". A brief excerpt from
Haley's 1967 interview with Vancouver, B.C. deejay Red Robinson
introduces two versions of
Haley's composition "Rock-a-Beatin' Boogie", which Haley wrote for
Cedrone (it would also be recorded by the Treniers and the breakaway
Jodimars before Haley himself
recorded it in the fall of 1955). Receiving their first release on CD
(as is the case with all the other musical tracks here), the two
"Rock-a-Beatin' Boogie" recordings
are quite different in style, with the first featuring Cedrone on lead
vocals, and the second featuring a female supporting vocal by Kay
Karol. Most importantly, though, both recordings include the building
blocks for the later "Rock Around the Clock"; RATC's second
instrumental break makes an early appearance in one recording, while
Cedrone dances around his famous guitar solo in the second take.
(Incidentally, one of the Esquire Boys
heard on these recordings is Bob Scaltrito, who is believed to have
been the lead guitar player
on Bill Haley's 1951 recording of "Green Tree Boogie".)
The second half of the CD takes us into
the Cedrone family archives, with six ultra-rare performances
(I don't believe any have been
released before), starting with two charming recordings of proud Papa
Cedrone performing Louis Prima's "Oh Babe" and a medley of standards
dubbed "Nickelodeon Jamboree"
with his daughters Marie, Theresa and Lorraine. This is followed up by
four live recordings. I'm not sure if these are solo performances or
with the Esquire Boys, and I
have to take the label's word for the fact they're live because you
can't hear any audience sounds. But live recordings from the early
1950s are almost unheard of, and that makes these recordings
particularly valuable - and they don't sound too bad, either! It's
interesting to compare Cedrone's performance of "Fingers on Fire" with
the much-later version by Bill Haley's late-60s guitar player, Nick
Nastos.
The Cedrone family pull out all the stops
with this disc, adding an Enhanced CD component to the mix. Put this in
your computer and you're treated
to several slideshows of rare family photographs and several more
Cedrone and Esquire Boys recordings, including the amusing "Let's Play
Ball". I found the slideshow
to be very interesting because I finally got a chance to learn more
about Cedrone, whose story was - for many - shrouded in mystery until
fairly recently.
Rounding out the set is "Hip-Hop-a-Billy",
a track by The Business, a group led by Cedrone's grandson (and one of
the people behind the
CD), Dan Vanore. This is an up-to-date tribute to both Cedrone and Bill
Haley, and while the sudden appearance of more-modern music is a little
jarring at first, it's a
vivid illustration of how Danny Cedrone's musical legacy has been
carried on by his offspring.
Considering the fact many of these
recordings have sat unissued for more than 50 years, I was quite
impressed by the sound quality. I wouldn't
call this a rock and roll collection per se. Cedrone and the Esquire
Boys were very versatile performers, so this collection goes all over
the map, from country to
pop to rhythm & blues to, yes, rock and roll.
There's actually very little to criticize
about this CD. I would have liked it if the songs included on the
enhanced portion of the CD were
also available as regular music tracks, but that's about it. As a Mac
user, I was very pleased to discover that the application used on the
enhanced portion actually worked -
and worked well - on my computer (I'm used to such features being
PC-only).
This release, coming at the same time as
the Rock n' Roll is Born documentary, which also provides
never-before-heard
insight into Danny Cedrone's life and legacy, is a must-have
acquisition for serious fans of rock and roll and for fans of Bill
Haley & His Comets, as it vividly illustrates
the range and talent of a musician who deserves more attention.
As of March 20, 2008, this CD is available
for US$20 (domestic) or US$25 (overseas), cheque or money order, from
DJC Records, 511 Queen St., Philadelphia, Pa.,
USA, 19147.
Tracks: (Those marked with + are,
to my knowledge, being released for the first time. All tracks (except
for the Haley interview) are making
their CD debut.) 1. Guitar Boogie Shuffle; 2. Caravan; 3. Taboo; 4. St.
Louis Blues; 5. Bill Haley Interview excerpt; 6. Rock-a-Beatin' Boogie
(version 1); 7. Rock-a-Beatin'
Boogie (version 2, with Kay Karol); 8. +Oh Babe; 9. +Nickelodeon
Jamboree; 10. +Forgetting You (live); 11. +China Boy (live); 12.
+Fingers on Fire (live); 13. +Tico Tico (live).
The enhanced CD includes the following songs: 1. Forgetting You; 2. We
Drifted Apart; 3. Let's Play Ball; 4. Hip-Hop-a-Billy (by The Business).
POSTED:
March 7, 2008; REVISED: March 31, 2008
DVD review: Rock n' Roll is Born: The Story of 'Rock Around
the Clock' and
the Dawn of the Rock 'n' Roll Era
(Universal International Music Group)
For decades, fans of Bill Haley and the
Comets have been patiently waiting for a major documentary to be made
about the band and its place in Rock and Roll history, and a new DVD
release by Universal International Music finally gives the band and
their most famous
song a chance at the spotlight.
Written and directed by Barry Barnes, the
UK-produced Rock
n' Roll is Born takes an in-depth look at how Bill Haley and the
Comets came
to record "Rock Around the Clock" way back in April 1954, and the
immediate impact this song had on the music world in those stormy
months before Elvis Presley arrived and kicked Rock and Roll into
overdrive.
Through interviews with members of the
Comets, several film luminaries, and other rock pioneers, the
documentary paints a fair and,
generally, positive picture of Bill Haley and his band. It was
refreshing to see Haley not discussed - and ultimately dismissed - the
way so many other
historians appear predisposed to do, cutting and pasting phrases like
"too old," "too gentile", "too fat" and "not sexy enough" as they try
to get past him
quickly in order to get to their real interest, Elvis.
Not so with Barnes. Instead, he sticks
with Haley and provides an eye-opening view of how the former country
band came to record
"Rock Around the Clock", propelling them to the same levels of stardom
currently enjoyed by the likes of Miley Ray Cyrus and Nickelback today.
If I had one complaint, it is that no one
from Haley's family appears on camera to be interviewed, although John
Haley's biography of
his father, Sound and Glory, was a prime source for Barnes'
research. However, he still managed to assemble an impressive array of
people to talk about
Haley, the Comets, and the song. First and foremost are Comets Marshall
Lytle and Johnny Grande, both of whom played on the original recording
and who talk
about how it came to be, how the name "rock and roll" came to be (with
Lytle acknowledging that there are many versions of that story), and
the origin of the breakaway
group, The Jodimars. Grande died not long after his interview was
recorded, but he looks and sounds well here and it's nice that Barnes
was able to include
him in the documentary.
To discuss Blackboard Jungle and
the introduction of "Rock Around the Clock" to the world, Barnes turns
his cameras toward Peter Ford,
son of the film's star, Glenn Ford, and who is now credited with
indirectly
getting the song into the film thanks to it being part of his eclectic
record collection. One
of the surviving actors from the film, Jamie Farr (who is best
remembered as Corp. Klinger on M*A*S*H) recounts the experience
of first hearing the song
blaring from movie-theatre speakers.
We also get some perspective from other
musicians active at the time, including Pat Boone who was, perhaps
unfairly, vilified by critics and music historians for his
popularity in recording "cover versions" of black recordings (even
though Presley's practice of same is generally accepted). His
discussion of cover records might
well be an eye-opener in its own right; it certainly made me look at
his early work with a new perspective.
The documentary takes an unexpected turn
midway through when it provides a glimpse at the life and times of
Danny Cedrone, the brilliant
guitarist who immortalized the "Rock Around the Clock" solo, but died
in a freak accident before he'd experience any of its success. His
daughter's emotional
recollection of her father -- the pain of his death nearly 54 years ago
still evident -- provides the documentary with an emotional lynchpin.
Barnes has also assembled an impressive
array of rare footage, much of it brand new even to longtime Haley
fanatics like me. There are two
beautifully restored performances from the Comets' ultra-rare short
film Round Up of Rhythm, and a selection of terrific home movie
footage taken by Comets
drummer Ralph Jones -- including the only known color footage of the
set of the Rock Around the Clock movie. Barnes does a
remarkable bit of editing by
combining the Decca recording of "See You Later Alligator" with Jones'
footage to give us an idea of what the "Alligator" scene from the RATC
movie might have
looked like had it been filmed in color. There is also a snippet of
tantalizing footage showing Haley and producer Milt Gabler at work in
the recording studio.
Aside from the lack of any Haley family
interviews, the only other shortcoming I can think of is that, like
most other articles and
biographical articles on Haley, the story pretty much ends at the end
of the 1950s, with little reference to Haley's later resurgence of
popularity in the 1960s and 70s,
or the 20-year success story of the Original Comets' reunion. But
otherwise, this is a fantastic document about a time in musical history
that too many music
historians are trying to revise into oblivion. Elvis may have kicked
Rock and Roll into high gear, but it took Bill Haley and His Comets to
put gas in the car and
turn the ignition key. And this documentary makes the strongest case
for the band's rightful place in musical history that I have seen in
many years. Keep this one in pride of place next to Jim Dawson's
history of "Rock Around
the Clock" and John Haley and John Von Hoelle's Sound and Glory.
Rock n' Roll is Born is expected to
be released in Europe in March 2008, with a
North American release coming later this year. Universal Music, the
company distributing the DVD, is the same
company that inherited Bill Haley's catalog of Decca recordings, and
its CD arm has issued several compilations of
Haley recordings on both sides of the Atlantic over the last few years.
Additional: My review above was
based upon a preliminary review copy of the DVD. I've since seen a
final version
of the DVD, and was pleased to discover that it also includes several
extra features, including additional interview footage of Lytle and
Grande and other participants, and
the two Round Up of Rhythm performances presented on their own
(sadly, "Straight Jacket" is still omitted, with its ultra-rare
footage of
Haley playing lead guitar). Also included (and these are getting to be
increasingly rare these days) is a beautifully illustrated booklet
featuring information
about the participants in the documentary, along with some very rare
photographs of Haley in action.
(DVD cover art courtesy Barry Barnes.)
POSTED:
June 29, 2007; REVISED: Sept.
28, 2007
Bill Haley & Friends Vol. 3: The Story of Rock Around the
Clock
(Hydra Records BCK 27128-1.5)
At first thought, the idea of a CD with no
less than 63 of the same song might seem like overkill – even when it
comes down to that all-time classic Bill Haley & His Comets
recording, "Rock Around the Clock."
Yet the third volume in Hydra Records' Bill
Haley & Friends series manages to turn repetition into
something approaching an art form. Not to mention a fascinating
document chronicling the evolution and influence of the most important
rock and roll song ever recorded.
Originally scheduled for release back in
2004 to mark the 50th anniversary of Bill Haley's first recording of
the song, release of The Story of Rock Around the Clock was
delayed for nearly two years until 2006, presumably to allow more time
for Hydra to access and license the many tracks heard here. The first
CD features 31 versions of the song as recorded by Bill Haley & The
Comets between 1954 and 1979, plus a few more recent versions by the
various post-Haley incarnations of the Comets.
The second disc features 32 wildly
different interpretations of the song by artists ranging from Carl
Perkins and Chubby Checker to Mae West and Tenpole Tudor with the Sex
Pistols.
Perhaps it's because I'm so familiar with
the Haley versions (there's only one version on Disc 1 that I'd never
heard before) I actually found myself enjoying Disc 2 more because of
how it demonstrates the versatility of the song. There are some
fascinating renditions here, some based upon the original sheet music
arrangement from 1953 (which honestly sounded like a cross-breeding of
a Hungarian funeral dirge and "Syncopated Clock"), a number that
adapted Haley's arrangement, and a few that have a unique voice of
their own.
Some of my favorites include a version
credited to Jimmy DeKnight himself, James Myers. The ultra-rare "Rock
Around the Clock Cha Cha" is a terrific instrumental version that tries
to meld "RATC" with "Istanbul Not Constantinople" – and it works! Other
highlights include comedic versions such as Mae West's double
entendre-filled take, a ersatz-Yiddish version by Mickey Katz who
sounds so much like Danny Kaye I had to check to make sure it wasn't
actually Kaye working under another name, a waltz version by Bubblerock
is Here to Stay (don't ask), and an unintentionally funny version by
the usually reliable Platters. (Not every version of the song is a
gem.) For some reason I also found that a number of performers seemed
to have misheard the original lyrics; as a result you have a number of
singers inviting their listeners to "rock rock rock to the Broadway
lights."
There are also some pleasant surprises.
I'd always been told the Nilsson/John Lennon version was awful, but
hearing it for the first time in this collection, it isn't that bad
(makes me wish a recording of the Beatles doing it would surface). On
the other hand, the version by Tenpole Tudor and the Sex Pistols gets
more awful every time I hear it – perhaps that's why I love that
version so much; it's the musical equivalent of an Ed Wood movie. But
for me the best cover version is the RnB rendition by the Deep River
Boys, and Hydra kindly includes it here. Hydra has done a very good job
of collecting different arrangements rather than simply include a bunch
of people parroting Haley, though they could have done a better job of
editing the version by Adriano Celentano which begins as another song
entirely before finally medley-ing into "Clock."
For rockabilly and rock and roll fans, the
most significant recording on this disc is the one by Sonny Dae and His
Knights – the version recorded for Arcade Records only weeks before
Haley recorded his version for Decca; I'm not aware of this track being
made available on CD before. There is also a rare instrumental jam
session version by the great Eddie Cochran. Track 30 on the disc also
shows how RATC continued to make history in a mid-70s rendition by
Telex – a very early example of what we'd now call electronica.
With the possible exception of the Isley
Brothers version and the version by Pat Boone, I'm pretty certain a
good 90 per cent of these cover versions here have never been released
to CD before now.
As for the Haley disc, it's a mixed bag.
Although it's great to have all of Haley's studio versions together in
one collection for the first time – including a never-before-released
version from the Happy Days soundtrack – a sense of repetition
does set in after awhile. While Haley did experiment with some of his
hits as time went on (not always effectively, witness the horrendous
remakes of "Shake Rattle and Roll" and "See You Later Alligator" from
the 1966 Orfeon sessions), it's clear he saw "Clock" as untouchable and
save for some minor variations heard in the 1960 Warner Bros. remake
(mostly due to Franny Beecher altering the guitar solo) one version
pretty much sounds like the next. Until the 1970s, that is, when Haley
developed the annoying tendency to drop one of the verses and the
second instrumental break, leaving audiences feeling decidedly
short-changed.
Still, there are some great performances
to be heard here, from the never-to-be-equaled 1954 recording for Decca
to the last known recording of Haley performing the song for Queen
Elizabeth in 1979 (released here commercially for the very first time,
this was one of the only occasions in the late 1970s that Haley
actually performed a complete rendition of "Clock"; it is also the
first-ever commercial release of any recording featuring the line-up of
Comets that toured with Haley in the fall of 1979).
Sound quality leaves a little to be
desired on a few tracks, although this can be forgiven on a number of
examples since they come from tapes that are decades old. It is ironic
that the two 1955 performances recorded in Cleveland (previously
released on Hydra's Rock and Roll Show a decade ago) sound
better than the versions from the 1970s. The Happy Days version
could sound much better, though; with the show having been released to
DVD surely a better quality copy could have been located.
Rounding out the first disc is an
assortment of versions by the various incarnations of the Comets that
have existed since Haley died in 1981. These include a rare version by
the Comets contingent led by Joey Rand in the mid-80s, and an equally
rare version by John Lane and Al Rappa from around 1989. We also get a
live recording and two studio versions by the 1954-55 Comets with Jacko
Buddin on vocals. (Recorded in 1999 and 2000, the studio takes
originate from the two long out-of-print and rare CDs the Original
Comets did for Ronny Weiser's Rollin Rock Records a few years back and
it's terrific to see them available again; they're the final studio
recordings of the song featuring the late Johnny Grande.)
For the more diehard Haley fans, many of
the recordings here will be nothing new, with the exception of real
rarities such as the Command Performance and Happy Days
versions and a snippet of a 1970s performance. There are some
additional live performances from the 1960s that exist on tape – some
are even listed in the booklet – that are omitted from the collection.
It would have also been nice to include one of the more recent (as of
the CD's compilation in 2004, that is) Original Comets performances
featuring Marshall Lytle on vocals. But I imagine an 80-track
collection would have truly been overkill!
If "Rock Around the Clock" is not your
cup of tea – and there are some Haley fans who don't consider it their
favorite song, believe it or not - this set is probably going to be the
equivalent of Chinese water torture. But if you appreciate the
historical significance of the song, and enjoy the opportunity to have
every commercially available Bill Haley version of the song in one
spot, as well as a collection of diverse and fascinating
interpretations of the tune, then this CD is a must.
Tracks: Disc 1 (all by Bill
Haley & His Comets unless noted; # indicates first known release; *
indicates first known CD release) – 1. Decca 1954; 2. Cleveland 1955
(first performance, introduced by Billy Williamson); 3. Cleveland 1955
(second performance); 4. Toast of the Town 1955 (introduced by
Ed Sullivan); 5. Alan Freed radio show 1956; 6. Washington Square
1956 (introduced by Ray Bolger); 7. Australian radio 1957; 8. Paris
Olympia 1958; 9. Warner Bros. Records 1960; 10. Armed Forces Network
radio 1962; 11. Orfeon Records Mexico 1966; 12. *Paris 1966; 13.
Stockholm live version for Sonet Records, 1968; 14. Sonet Records
studio version 1968; 15. New York Bitter End 1969 (first performance);
16. New York Bitter End 1969 (second performance); 17. *Detroit 1973 (Let
the Good Times Roll soundtrack); 18. London Wembley Stadium 1972 (London
Rock and Roll Show soundtrack); 19. #Happy Days opening
credits 1973; 20. London Hammersmith Palais 1974; 21. *Paris, December
1974; 22. *London, March 1979 (Blue Suede Shoes soundtrack); 23.
#Royal Command Performance, November 1979; 24. #Netherlands TV
performance, October 1979 (fragment); 25. The Comets (John Lane/Al
Rappa contingent), Rock and Roll Palace c.1988 (incomplete);
26. *Joey Rand version of the Comets, 1980s; 27. Bill Haley – Kenny
Denton remix for Sonet Records c.1989 (Haley’s 1968 vocals spliced with
a new backing); 28. Original Comets, England 1993 (from Hydra CD We're
Gonna Party); 29. Original Comets Las Vegas 1999 (Still Rockin’
Around the Clock- Rollin Rock Records); 30. Original Comets Las
Vegas 2000 (Aged to Perfection- Rollin Rock); 31. Swing Cats
Remix (Haley’s 1966 Orfeon vocals with new backing; produced by Danny
Harvey).
Disc 2: 1. Dick Clark introduction;
2. Sven Assmussen; 3. Pat Boone; 4. Bubblerock is Here to Stay; 5.
Freddy Cannon; 6. Adriano Celentano (in medley with another song); 7.
Chubby Checker; 8. Eddie Cochran and Gary Lambert; 9. Sonny Dae and His
Knights (pre-Haley recording; possibly first CD release); 10. Deep
River Boys; 11. Phil Flowers; 12. Nilsson and John Lennon; 13. Gary’s
Gang; 14. Ted Herold; 15. Lee Jackson (Bill Haley is credited as
producer on this 1976 version); 16. Goran Odner and Matti Viljasen
Septetti; 17. Mickey Katz; 18. Jimmy DeKnight ("Rock Around the Clock
Cha Cha"); 19. Buddy Knox; 20. Dinah Lee (only female vocal in this
collection); 21. Tenpole Tudor and the Sex Pistols; 22. Los Hispanos;
23. Renato Carosone; 24. Sandy Nelson; 25. Die Optimisten; 26. Carl
Perkins; 27. Pirron & Knapp; 28. The Platters; 29. Gene Simmons;
30. Telex; 31. Isley Brothers; 32. Mae West; 33. Paul Wurges.
POSTED: February 3, 2007; updated June
26, 2007
DVD review: Don't Knock the Rock/Rock Around the Clock
(Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
Ever since the VHS tape was introduced back
in the late 1970s, North American fans of Bill Haley & His Comets
have been patiently waiting for the official home video release of the
two films the band made in 1956. At last, it's here as a two-DVD set.
But it's a mixed blessing.
It's difficult to be too harsh on a
release like this, which Sony Pictures had no obligation to do. And as
I say above, some of us have been waiting neigh on three decades for
this to finally arrive. But, as a fan of Bill Haley, I must start out
by criticizing the incredibly shoddy packaging being used for the
release. Yes, I know the movie and the music are the important thing,
but one of the purposes of releasing this film to DVD - and this was
something promoter Martin Lewis had in mind when he first suggested to
Sony that they release the films to DVD back in 2005 at the height of
the Rock is Fifty celebrations (though the current release appears
unconnected to his efforts) - is to introduce Haley and his music to
new audiences.
If that's the case, why on earth would
Sony use an absolutely ludicrously cut-and-pasted image of Haley for
the illustration representing Rock Around the Clock? They took
his head and placed it over another man's body - I'm convinced it's a
photo of Elvis from one of his movie posters. It looks stupid. And for
the Don't Knock the Rock film, there is not a single image of
Haley to be found anywhere on the packaging, and he was the top-billed
star! Instead it promotes Little Richard as the star, even though he's
only on screen for about two minutes.
In some respects, it's a minor thing -
what picture is used for the cover - but I found it rather
disrespectful.
Now, onto the contents of the DVD. The
lack of any extra features - including a Scene Selection screen - is
very annoying, indicating, to me, that this was a rush job. But once
the films start, things pick up considerably.
Despite my complaints above, Sony has done
a wonderful job in remastering the two films. They look and sound
great. The fact they're presented in widescreen may come as a surprise.
I believe the two films were released in this format initially -
certainly there appears to be little indication of cropping in the
image - and this makes these films well-suited for the next-generation
widescreen sets and HD.
As for the films themselves, well, they
are what they are: two quickies made to capitalize on what was, at the
time, expected to be a passing fad. The first of the two films, Rock
Around the Clock, (billed for some reason as the second release in
this set) provides the best showcase for Haley and the Comets, from
their classic performance of "See You Later Alligator" to a
barnstorming "Rudy's Rock" which is a different performance than the
one released on record.
Haley is supported by dancer Lisa Gaye,
who is the female romantic lead of the picture, wooing promoter Johnny
Johnston. Gaye is one of the 1950s most underrated sex symbols, and she
definitely livens up the moments when the Comets aren't onscreen.
Also highlighted in classic performances
are the Treniers-inspired Freddy Bell and the Bellboys, and the
Platters. And Alan Freed also makes his first film appearance.
The most amazing thing is the song "Rock
Around the Clock" is never performed on screen in its entirety.
Instead, we hear part of it over the opening credits, we see Haley and
the boys sing the intro during a montage, and then at the end, when
you'd logically expect the whole song to be performed, you hear it
faintly in the background while Johnston and cougar Alix Talton (the
"villain" of the film) resolve the plot with a lengthy bit of dialogue!
No wonder the film caused riots back in 1956 - people came to hear the
song, not listen to romantic banter.
The sequel, Don't Knock the Rock
was made and released as Haley's star was already on the decline in
America. Although top billed, he is only on screen for a scant few
minutes and the band is never really given a chance to shine like they
do in the first film. Performance highlights include the "Rudy's Rock"
sequel, "Calling All Comets," and a unique performance of the Franny
Beecher instrumental "Goofin' Around" which is different from the
record release, but sadly the complete version is not heard in the
film. Haley's big numbers, "Hot Dog Buddy Buddy" and "Rip it Up" show
him on screen fairly briefly, the camera instead deciding to focus on
dancers for most of the two numbers. And the only time the band gets to
do the theme song is over the opening credits.
Musical cameos include the Treniers and
Little Richard, and you can tell the filmmakers put more stock in them
than in Haley - they get full performances.
The film also shows that the producers
still weren't sure what to make of rock and roll. Alan Dale plays the
lead role and gets several musical numbers. He's supposed to be a
bigtime rock and roll star, but his songs are more of the Mel Torme
variety, and his version of Haley's "Don't Knock the Rock" that closes
the film is awful.
There are a few good moments in the film,
such as when Alan Freed (back again) presides over a play about the
history of music, which Haley fans will immediately recognize as an
adaptation of Haley's song "Teenager's Mother" (but without the music).
The lack of extras is disappointing. When
Martin Lewis first proposed the films be released, there was talk of
recording commentary with the surviving Comets and others who knew
Haley, and this might have also been a great opportunity to make
available the rare short film Round Up of Rhythm in which Haley
and the Comets appeared in 1954. Unfortunately this didn't happen and
the loss last year of Johnny Grande leaves only Al Rex and Franny
Beecher as the sole surviving Comets who appeared in Don't Knock
the Rock and the Rock Around the Clock film.
In summary, I have major issues with how
these two films have been packaged by Sony, and I will admit that they
aren't the best musicals ever made, but for Bill Haley fans, rock and
roll historians, and people interested in having a good time at the
movies, the release of these two films to DVD is long overdue and,
concerns aside, still very welcome.
Update: After writing the above
review I learned that contrary to my earlier statements the two films
were not issued in widescreen, and therefore were altered for
the DVD release. For the record I oppose such altering of films.
There’s no need for this to be done and while I will admit it seems to
have been well-executed for these two releases, the fact their aspect
ratio has been altered has left me with a sour taste in my mouth
regarding this release, above and beyond the concerns stated above.
Hopefully some company like Criterion or Kino will issue these films in
their proper screen ratio in the future.
POSTED:
November 1, 2006
Rock 'n' Roll Arrives ... The REAL Birth of Rock 'n' Roll
1946-1954
(Bear Family Records BCD 16509)
Over the last two decades, the German label
Bear Family has been slowly but surely chronicling the career of Bill
Haley, and earlier this year they released the third and, perhaps, most
unique set of Haley recordings ever released.
First, a word of warning. Despite the
title, there is very little actual rock and roll in this 5-CD set. As
any Haley fans worth their salt can tell you, Haley began as a
country-western singer and yodeller, and it is this side of the
musician's career that is spotlighted above all else in this set. Bear
Family, in my opinion, made an error in billing this set as being by
"Bill Haley and His Comets". In truth of fact, the Comets per se only
appear on about a dozen of the recordings, while the group's
precedessor, The Saddlemen, are also outnumbered by recordings either
by Haley himself or with other groups.
This is also not an album for audiophiles.
Many of these recordings are only available on the crudest of recording
materials -- half-century old acetates, worn tapes, and other sources
that hardly add up to pristine sound quality. Listeners have to balance
this off with the knowledge that these are truly historic recordings.
Many have never been released until now -- including the first known
recordings Haley ever made 60 years ago -- and of those that have been
released before, the original 78rpm singles are each fetching prices on
eBay far greater than the sticker price of this set.
That said, I did find a few recordings had
poorer sound quality then I was used to hearing on previous releases.
This is particularly the case with "Rocket 88" and "Rock the Joint",
two widely-available recordings that for some reason had
greater-than-expected surface noise and hiss in this set. Ironically,
some of the previously-unreleased recordings that have been sitting in
personal collections for more than 50 years sound better.
Chris Gardner and Bear Family have done a
terrific job of compiling tracks from a wide variety of sources, with
perhaps the greatest coup being the discovery of a 1946 radio show by
the Down Homers recorded when Bill Haley was a member. This 15-minute
set includes the first known recorded Haley solo performance, "She
Taught Me How to Yodel" and if you're a diehard Haley fan, is worth the
price of admission. However I do question the decision to also include
the four songs the Down Homers recorded for Vogue Records earlier that
year. Although long rumored to have included Bill Haley, this rumor was
debunked years ago. Perhaps Bear Family felt that Haley collectors who
had heard about these recordings for decades deserved to finally hear
them -- and they are terrific western swing songs, and it's clear to
see where Haley got his yodelling aspirations from.
A true highlight is the deluxe hardbound
book included with the set. Written by Gardner, it is an exhaustive and
fascinating look at Haley's early career -- there were things even I
didn't know -- and as usual he has done his usual bang-up job with the
discography. This book deserves to be published on its own.
For listeners who think Bill Haley began
and ended with "Rock Around the Clock", this set is sure to be a
revelation. And anyone who is serious about studying the roots of rock
'n' roll -- the building blocks and stepping stones that led ultimately
to "Rock Around the Clock" -- will also find the experience worthwhile.
Here's a disc-by-disc summary of this set:
Disc 1: Bill Haley was hardly the
big star he would later become at the time the first tracks on this
disc were recorded. In fact, the first A-side single released by Bill
Haley and the Four Aces of Western Swing, the mini-morality play "Too
Many Parties, Too Many Pals" didn't even feature Haley on vocals, but
rather Tex King, and the B-side, the fast-moving "Four Leaf Clover
Blues" (an ode to gambling) was a duet between Haley and Barney
Barnard. Yet these two tracks lead off the first set of recordings,
which were recorded circa 1948-49 for the Cowboy Records label. Anyone
who purchased Hydra's Bill Haley and Friends Vol. 2, which
focused on the Cowboy label's output, will have heard these already but
they're always worth a listen. The remainder of the disc contains
ultra-rare recordings from 1949 and 1950 that were leased out to labels
such as Atlantic and Center Records. These original discs fetch
hundreds of dollars on the collector's market. "Loveless Blues" and
"Teardrop From My Eyes" are terrific examples of the proto-rock and
roll Haley was recording in the years before "Rocket 88". The disc also
includes the single that was bizarrely released under the name Reno
Browne and Her Buckaroos (Gardner's book tells the story), plus a pair
of previously unreleased alternate takes.
Disc 2: This disc looks at the work
Haley did in 1951-52 for Holiday Records, and also showcases the work
of the Saddlemen as session musicians during this same period. "Rocket
88" leads off the set, and while the Sun Records public relations
machine would have you believe Jackie Brentson's original recording was
the first rock and roll song, in fact it was this version by Haley that
combined rhythm and blues and country western music to create true rock
and roll. Compared to the stuff on Disc 1, the change is truly jarring.
As noted above the sound quality on "Rocket 88" is less than I've heard
elsewhere, but otherwise the other tracks sound great. For the first
time on CD we get to hear the two duets Haley recorded with Loretta
Glendenning, and Bear Family has located better-quality copies of the
two Christmas songs that had previously been issued by Hydra Records
for their Merry Christmas Bill Haley and Friends collection.
Rounding out the set are tracks by Lou Graham and Curly Herdman backed
by the Saddlemen (Herdman performs a version of Haley's "Rose of My
Heart"), including some alternate takes by Graham. The disc ends back
in 1946 with the controversial Vogue Records recordings by the Down
Homers. Do they belong here? Not really, but they're worth listening to.
Disc 3: This disc, which runs less
than 45 minutes, contains the obligatory (but no less appreciated)
Essex Records sessions from 1952-1954. Nothing new here for most
listeners, except perhaps an alternate take of "Yes, Indeed". "Rock the
Joint" for some reason is of lesser sound quality than previous
releases by Rollercoaster and Alshire.
Disc 4: Many recordings made by
Haley in the late 1940s were never released until the late 1970s. This
disc contains most of these recordings, which had previously appeared
in LP form on releases such as Hillbilly Haley by Rollercoaster
and Golden Country Origins by Grassroots. Why these excellent
recordings never saw the light of day for 30 years is a great mystery,
and you can definitely hear elements of rock and roll in these tracks
-- check out the introduction to "Candy and Women", a Haley original
that was never released by him but instead became a national hit when
Andy Reynolds recorded it. "Rose of My Heart" is a wonderful cowboy
ballad that deserved greater exposure. A number of
never-before-released recordings appear here, including some fantastic
country work on "My Bucket's Got a Hole in It" and "Sunday Down in
Tennessee" -- recordings of a type Haley would never do again. This
disc includes the Down Homers radio show from 1946 -- the earliest
known confirmed recordings involving Bill Haley, and it's a fun listen.
The disc ends with a couple of archived recordings reflecting Haley's
second career as a radio announcer: here he promotes a Rex Allen
western film alongside his manager, Jack Howard, and records an
advertisement for refrigerators which segues into a promotion for an
upcoming Saddlemen concert with Billy Williamson (a truncated version
of this recording was released by Rollercoaster Records but now the
complete version is released for the first time so all can enjoy Haley
espousing the virtues of refrigerator technology).
Disc 5: Audiophiles beware: there
is no such thing as high-end digital sound quality on these recordings.
But considering these are the only known copies of some of the rarest
recordings in the Haley archive, we can live with hisses, pops and
fades because it's unlikely better quality copies of any of these rare
recordings exist, and Bear Family has done their best to make them
sound as good as possible. This remarkable set of recordings show Haley
trying out a number of different country western recordings, including
false starts and demo recordings of songs such as "Rose of My Heart"
and "Yodel Your Blues Away", and an album's worth of previously
unreleased recordings with the Four Aces of Western Swing, including
"Little Rock, Arkansas" and an early instrumental, "Whispering" that
could have easily fit into the Comets' repertoire. The set ends with a
previously unreleased (but, sadly, degraded) Saddlemen recording of
"Teardrops From My Eyes" that, had it been released back in 1950-51,
would have probably been remembered as a Haley classic alongside
"Rocket 88" and "Rock the Joint".
Track listing (* indicates tracks never before released; #
are tracks making their first appearance on CD):
Disc 1: Four Aces of Western Swing - 1. Too Many
Parties, Too Many Pals (Tex King vocal); 2. Four Leaf Clover Blues
(with Barney Barnard); 3. Candy Kisses; 4. Tennessee Border (with
Barney Barnard); 5. The Covered Wagon Rolled Right Along; 6. Yodel Your
Blues Away; 7. Behind the Eight Ball (with Barney Barnard); 8. Foolish
Questions. Johnny Clifton and His String Band - 9. #Loveless
Blues; 10. #Stand Up and Be Counted. Saddlemen - 11. #Deal Me a
Hand; 12. #Ten Gallon Stetson; 13. #Susan Van Dusen; 14. #I'm Not to
Blame; 15. #I'm Gonna Dry Every Tear With a Kiss; 16. #Why Do I Cry
Over You?; 17. *Teardrops From My Eyes; 18. *Loveless Blues. Reno
Browne and Her Buckaroos - 19. My Sweet Little Girl from Nevada;
20. My Palomino and I.
Disc 2: Saddlemen - 1. Rocket 88; 2. Tearstains on
My Heart; 3. Green Tree Boogie; 4. Down Deep in My Heart; 5. #I'm
Crying (with Loretta Glendenning); 6. #Pretty Baby (with Loretta
Glendenning); 7. A Year Ago This Christmas; 8. I Don't Want to Be Alone
for Christmas; 9. Jukebox Cannoball; 10. Sundown Boogie. Curly
Herdman - 11. #Barnyard Special; 12. #Rose of My Heart. Lou
Graham - 13. Two-Timin' Blues; 14. Long Gone Daddy; 15. #I'm
Lonesome; 16. #A Sweet Bunch of Roses; 17. #Please Make Up Your Fickle
Mind; 18. #My Heart Tells Me; 19. I'm Lonesome (alt. take); 20. A Sweet
Bunch of Roses (alt. take); 21. Please Make Up Your Fickle Mind (alt.
take); 22. My Heart Tells Me (alt. take); Down Homers (without
Haley) - 23. Out Where the West Winds Blow; 24. Who's Gonna Kiss
You When I'm Gone? 25. Boogie Woogie Yodel; 26. Baby I Found Out All
About You.
Disc 3: Saddlemen - 1. Rock the Joint; 2. Icy
Heart; 3. Dance with a Dolly; 4. Rocking Chair on the Moon. Comets
- 5. Stop Beatin' Around the Mulberry Bush; 6. Real Rock Drive; 7.
Crazy Man Crazy; 8. What'cha Gonna Do? 9. Pat-a-Cake; 10. Fractured;
11. Live it Up; 12. Farewell, So Long, Goodbye; 13. I'll Be True; 14.
Ten Little Indians; 15. Yes Indeed; 16. Yes Indeed (alt. take); 17.
Chattanooga Choo Choo; 18. Straight Jacket (instrumental).
Disc 4: Four Aces of Western Swing - 1. #Rovin'
Eyes; 2. #Candy and Women; 3. #My Mom Heard Me Cry Over You; 4. #Cotton
Haired Gal; 5. #Wreck on the Highway; 6. #A Yodeller's Lullaby; 7. #All
I Need is Some More Lovin'; 8. #Candy and Women (alt. take); 9. #Yodel
Your Blues Away; 10. #Red River Valley (Tex King vocal); 11. #Behind
the Eight Ball (with Barney Barnard); 12. *Foolish Questions; 13. *Easy
Rocking Chair; 14. *I Wasted a Nickel; 15. *My Bucket's Got a Hole in
It; 16. *Sunday Down in Tennessee; 17. *Behind the Eight Ball. Saddlemen
- 18 #Rose of My Heart; 19. #Within This Broken Heart of Mine. Down
Homers Radio Show - 20. *Down Home; 21. *Following the Sun; 22.
*She Taught Me How to Yodel (Haley solo vocal); 23. *Cool Water; 24.
*Baby I Found Out All About You; 25. *Open Up Those Pearly Gates for
Me; 26. *Who's Gonna Kiss You When I'm Gone? Bill Haley airshots
- 27. *Arizona Cowboy Advert (with Jack Howard); 28. *Westinghouse and
Twin Bars Advert (complete, with Billy Williamson).
Disc 5: Bill Haley solo - 1. *Rose of My Heart
(false start); 2. *Rose of My Heart (incomplete); 3. *Cherry Tree Lane;
4. *Cute Little Brown-Eyed Gal; 5. *A Sweet Bunch of Roses; 6. *Yodel
Your Blues Away. Four Aces of Western Swing - 7. *Candy and
Women; 8. *Behind the Eight Ball; 9. *Ages and Ages Ago; 10. *Honestly;
11. *I Dreamed of An Old Love Affair; 12. *Whispering (instrumental);
13. *I Love You So Much it Hurts; 14. *Little Rock, Arkansas; 15. *A
Bundle of Kisses; 16. *Are You Teasing Me? 17. *I Want You; 18. *Gotta
Have My Baby Back; 19. *Take Me in Your Arms and Hold Me; 20. *Candy
and Women. Saddlemen - 21. *Teardrops From my Eyes.
POSTED:
November 1, 2006
DVD reviews:
Bill Haley and His Comets Live! and One for the Money: The
Birth of Rock 'n' Roll
Two editions of the same DVD release: left, St. Clair
Entertainment Encore Series; right, Legacy Entertainment.
Over the past year, some rare footage of
Bill Haley and His Comets has quietly made its way onto the budget-line
home video market here in North America.
At least two DVD editions have been
released featuring excerpts from a live show Bill Haley gave in March
1979 at the Odeon in Birmingham, England. This show was videotaped by
Thames Television for broadcast that same evening as part of "The
Father of Rock and Roll", an episode of the documentary series Format
V. Only a few songs from that performance were actually broadcast,
and the more-or-less complete tape has circulated among private
collectors for years.
The two DVDs I have located have been
released by the American/Canadian company St. Clair Entertainment
(under the title Bill Haley and His Comets) and the British
company Legacy Entertainment (as Bill Haley and His Comets Live!).
Both discs appear to originate from the same slightly deteriorated
25-year-old videotape source. As such sound and video quality is
variable -- there appears to have been little done in terms of
restoration, though whether much could actually be done to
upgrade the video and sound is certainly the question to ask. Both DVDs
are being sold through the "budget-line" market; I paid only $6 Cdn.
for the Legacy DVD where I found it among assorted DVDs of public
domain films at a local drug store. The St. Clair edition I paid less
than $10 Cdn. for through Amazon. (So if you see these being sold for
$20, buyer beware.)
The performance itself is better than one
would expect. A lot of music journalists have suggested that by 1979
Haley was over the hill and unable to put in a good performance. In
fact, this was far from the case. Rested from a two-year sabbatical
(sparked, Haley claimed, by the death of longtime sax player Rudy
Pompilli in 1976), Haley is in good voice. And while the group of
Comets assembled for the March 1979 British tour were mostly UK
musicians with no prior Haley connection, they do a pretty good job of
backing Haley in front of a fairly raucous crowd. (Incidentally, the
Legacy edition contains an error on the packaging suggesting this was
the group's last-ever professional performance; in fact, Haley
continued to perform for another year.)
Highlights of this performance include the
old standbys such as "Shake Rattle and Roll" and "Rock Around the
Clock", of course. You also get to see a rare videotaped performance
(possibly the only one known to exist) of Haley performing his version
of "Me and Bobby McGee", a song he'd recorded back in 1970.
Unfortunately the performance is marred by the fact the opening verse
is missing (the tape starts partway into the song) and, also, at one
point an audience member jumps on stage and gets tackled by security.
It's a throwback to the old riot days of the 1950s, to be sure, but not
really appropriate for the song. The video also includes Haley being
presented a gold record for his recent recordings for Sonet Records
(for some reason some audience members can be heard booing afterwards).
Also included is a performance by supporting act Mal Gray (before he
became a full-time Comet later in the year) of Chuck Berry's "Promised
Land". Of particular note is the guitar work of Jerry Tilley, who I
consider to be one of the more underrated of the post-Golden Years
Comets.
The two editions are virtually identical
in terms of content, except that the St. Clair edition, for some
reason, repeats the performance of "The Saint's Rock and Roll" at the
end (and in fact the packaging doesn't mention several other songs
included on the DVD, either). Both editions present the songs out of
original performance order, with "Rock Around the Clock" appearing
midway through. Also edited out is a bizarre moment following the
performance of "Rock the Joint" showing another audience member jumping
on stage and this time being tackled by Haley's rhythm guitar player,
Ray Parsons (this was broadcast on Format V, however).
This isn't necessarily the best showcase
of Bill Haley and His Comets, but it's worth checking out for those
interested in sampling some of his final work.
Tracks: Shake Rattle and Roll,
Razzle-Dazzle, Rudy's Rock (instrumental), The Saint's Rock and Roll,
See You Later Alligator, Rock Around the Clock, Rock the Joint, Me and
Bobby McGee (joined in progress), Bill Haley receives a Gold Record,
Rock-a-Beatin' Boogie, Rip It Up, The Promised Land (Mal Gray vocal).
The St. Clair edition ends with a repeat of "The Saint's Rock and Roll".
Another recent DVD of note is One for
the Money: The Birth of Rock 'n' Roll. Produced in 2005 and
released to DVD in North America by Passport Video, this is an
extensive documentary on the early days of rock and roll. Unlike many
similar documentaries that seem to start and end at Elvis, this
production actually takes a moment to give Bill Haley and His Comets
their due, including interviews with music historian Jim Dawson, author
of the history of Rock Around the Clock (see review, below).
For Haley fans, the rare footage of the
band is the attraction here, and Passport has kindly included as a
bonus feature the two complete Comets performances that were included
in the documentary. Recorded in either late 1955 or early 1956 for
either The Ted Steele Show or Washington Square
(exactly which show this is is unknown), the performances of "Rock
Around the Clock" and the instrumental "Huckleberry" have been released
previously on DVD and broadcast on television, however the producers
have managed to get ahold of two very clean, bright prints of these
kinescopes -- I have never seen better images from these two
performances and for that alone I recommend this DVD. From a Haley
historian standpoint the performance by Rudy Pompilli and bass player
Al Rex of "Huckleberry" (with obligatory bass-riding and sax
acrobatics) is worth noting as the song was written by ex-Comet Joey
Ambrose, who had quit the band to join the Jodimars in the fall of
1955. Exactly why Rudy is shown performing this and not his own "Rudy's
Rock" is unknown, but suggests this must have been one of the very
first filmed performances of the so-called post-Jodimars Comets.
Also worth checking out on this DVD is a
terrific performance by the Treniers of "Rockin' is Our Business" with
uncredited contributions by Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis!
POSTED:
December 9, 2005
Book review:
Rock Around the Clock - The Record That Started the Rock
Revolution! - Jim Dawson
Backbeat Books (ISBN 0-87930-829-X)
Don't let revisionists tell you any
different - it may not have been the first rock and roll song, but
"Rock Around the Clock" was undeniably the song that launched the rock
and roll era, and music historian Jim Dawson has written a book that
makes this case in a convincing and entertaining manner.
Rather than just being a blow-by-blow
account of the recording of the song (though he does this, too -
grounded ferry story and all), Dawson digs deeper, exploring beyond the
writing of RATC to the very roots of rock and roll. His thesis is that
the events of April 12, 1954 was the culmination of factors going back
decades. "Rock Around the Clock" was literally the right song at the
right time.
Although the book is about "Rock Around
the Clock", Dawson also explores the history of some of Haley's other
epochial hits, such as "Crazy Man Crazy" and "Shake Rattle and Roll".
Along he way, he has uncovered some gems of information, like the fact
"Crazy Man Crazy" was the first rock and roll song played on national
TV when it was heard during a live TV play starring James Dean in 1953
(long before he became a Rebel Without a Cause). Or the fact (known to
us Haley fanatics but unknown to everyone else) that Sonny Dae and His
Knights - the first band to record "RATC" was not a black
rhythm and blues band which is so often reported, but was actually made
up of a group of white Italian-Americans led by one Paschal
Vennitti. Dawson even dug up a photo of the band to prove the point.
The book isn't perfect - there are a few
minor factual errors and Dawson seems a bit skeptical of Peter Ford's
claim to have been indirectly responsible for "RATC" being chosen for
his father Glenn's film Blackboard Jungle. And, like Sound
and Glory , Haley's later years from 1958 on (including his
successful forays into Latin America and the Rock and Roll Revival) are
sped through in about a dozen pages (though to be fair, Dawson is
focusing on the song, not Haley himself). But I have rarely seen any
book devoted to a single song that takes such a detailed approach to
its subject matter.
This is only the third English-language
book ever written about Bill Haley and His Comets, and the only one now
remaining in print. For that reason alone the book is worth getting for
Haley fans. For scholars of the history of Rock and Roll music,
especially the more-than-a-few who still claim it all started when
Elvis Presley came along, Jim Dawson's book should be mandatory reading.
Rock Around the Clock is available
through Amazon.com and can also be found in bookstores in North
America. I'm uncertain of its publishing status overseas as of December
2005.
OLDER REVIEWS ON PAGE
3
Go to "PAGE TWO"
for A BILL
HALEY WHO'S WHO
Go to "PAGE THREE" for NEWS
ARCHIVE
plus OLDER REVIEWS,
1972 INTERVIEW,
and ROCKIN' LINKS
"ROCK AROUND THE
CLOCK" TRIBUTE PAGE
