Franny Beecher

Franny Beecher (b. 1921, Norristown, PA), also known as Frank or Francis Beecher, was lead guitarist for Bill Haley & His Comets from 1954 to 1962, and is best remembered for his innovative guitar solos combining elements of country music and jazz. He continued to perform with surviving members of the Comets into 2006.

By the time he first became associated with Bill Haley, Beecher already had a lengthy career as a guitarist behind him, having performed with the Benny Goodman orchestra and other similar groups, as well as several country western groups.

Beecher first worked with the Comets in the fall of 1954 as a session musician, replacing guitarist Danny Cedrone who had recently died. Beecher's first work with Haley was the single "Dim, Dim the Lights". According to the biographical work Bill Haley by John Swenson (W.H. Allen, 1982), Beecher had to be instructed to make his guitar solos less jazzy.

At the time Beecher began working for Haley's group, Haley did not employ a full-time lead guitarist who would also play on live shows and TV appearances (such duties were usually handled by Haley himself or steel guitarist Billy Williamson). In August 1955, Beecher appeared for the first time on national TV with the Comets performing "Rock Around the Clock" and, soon afterwards, was promoted to a full-time member of the band, appearing with the group in the films Rock Around the Clock and Don't Knock the Rock, as well as several other film appearances in Germany in 1958 and Mexico in the early 1960s.

Beecher has the ability to send his voice into a high pitch (making it sound like that of a small child). This gimmick was used for the opening of the hit Haley single's "See You Later Alligator", "(You Hit the Wrong Note) Billy Goat" and "Rip it Up". According to Swenson, Beecher would also occasionally perform the voice during live shows, with Haley or Williamson humorously introducing him as a baritone. In 1959, Williamson and Beecher recorded a duet, "ABC Rock", in which Beecher sang two entire verses in his little kid voice.

Beecher left the Comets in 1960 in order to work with a spin-off group called the Merri-Men; he returned to the group in 1961 only to leave again in 1962. A few months later, he agreed to sit in with the band for a live album recording session for Roulette Records (the album was entitled Twisting Knights at the Roundtable). After Haley's death in 1981, Beecher toured with a short-lived Comets reunion group. Finally, starting in 1987, the surviving members of the 1954-55 Comets reunited and proceeded to tour the world and make new recordings for the next two decades. Beecher performed with this group until July 2006, after which the group announced he had retired; although it was announced that the 85-year-old guitarist would tour Europe with the Comets in early 2007, this did not occur.

As of March 2007, Beecher occasionally performs as a special guest of the Rib House Band at the Bridgeport Rib House in Bridgeport, PA.

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