Al Rex

Al Rex (1958)

Al Rex (* 13 July 1928 as Albert Piccarelli ; † 24. May 2020 in Jeffersonville , Pennsylvania ) was an American Country - Rockabilly - and rock 'n' roll musician. Rex was a member of Bill Haley's Saddlemen and from 1955 on Haleys Comets, but also had a solo career.

Life

There are different opinions about Al Rex's real surname - while "Piccarelli" is given by many sources, Bill Turner and Alex Frazier-Harrison name "Picirilli" as his real name. Rex also had a brother, Joe, who played with the saddlemen in 1949 and 1950 and also attended one session.

Early career in Philadelphia

Al Rex was primarily active as a musician around Philadelphia during his career . He and Bill Haley had been “old friends” since the late 1940s, and they knew each other from various appearances in and around Philadelphia. He was there when Bill Haley, Johnny Grande and Billy Williamson founded the Saddlemen in December 1949 in “Luke's Musical Bar” in Chester , and a good year later Rex also got involved - he replaced “Big” Al Thompson as bassist who, due to his enormous body, could no longer fill this part on stage to the satisfaction of Haley and the other band members.

Al Rex was one of the first bassists to use the slap technique in country music, in rockabilly and later also in rock'n'roll as a regular stylistic device. In May 1951, Haley and the Saddlemen were one of the first white musicians to work on a cover version of a black R&B artist - they gave Jackie Brenston's hit Rocket 88 more drive and a stronger rhythm and for the first time Rex's slap technique on bass can be heard clearly on record . Thus, Al Rex can easily be described as a pioneer of this technology within the "white music scene". The slap technique had been used by Afro-American bands since the late 1920s, but country musicians only rarely used this percussive stylistic device. While only Haley can be heard as the singer on the records, Rex sometimes took on the vocal part or acted as a comedian on stage appearances.

A few months after recording Rocket 88 , Rex left the group to start his own band and continue to perform as a vocal soloist. He also took on Bill Haley's radio show on WPWA in Chester. A year later he recorded a record for Arcade Records , the label in the region.

With the Comets

When the Comets Marshall Lytle Joey Ambrose and Dick Richards turned their backs on Bill Haley in September 1955, Al Rex was the first to be approached by Bill Haley and replaced as bassist Marshall Lytle. At that time, Bill Haley was the most successful musician in the States after the triumph of the song Rock Around the Clock . In the meantime, Rex had also written pieces of music in addition to his engagements with his band and as a solo artist. Along with Haley joined Rex in the Columbia films Rock Around The Clock ( Except of hand ) and Do not Knock The Rock (except edge and volume II) and was from the beginning of 1956 until the summer of 1958 on all tours of the ensemble here . His studio career with Bill Haley & His Comets began on September 22, 1955 in Pythian Temple, New York, with the successful DECCA hits ROCK and Rock-A-Beatin 'Boogie , and ended at the same place on June 18, 1958 with the titles Sweet Sue, Just You and Charmaine .

In 1957 Rex wrote the song Wee Willie Brown for singer and former saddlemen member Lou Graham , which was recorded by Graham for Bill Haley's Clymax Records label . Rex played the Kingsmen bass for this session as well as for Better Believe It .

Later career

In the summer of 1958, Al Rex left Bill Haley & His Comets in anger and frustration. The golden days in the States were already over for the Haley band and the Haley management made the musicians wait more and more often for their fee. In addition, Rex's wife insisted that he finally get a regular job back home after touring. So he was no longer there when, in the fall of 1958, Bill Haley was the first rock'n'roll star to set out on a European tour, during which there were serious riots at the concerts, among other things. a. in Berlin and Hamburg, came. His successor in the band was Rudy Pompilli's cousin Al Pompilli.

Al Rex subsequently recorded Hydrogen Bomb and I Gotta Go for Arcade , but these titles disappeared from the Arcades shelves and only saw the light of day in 1978 for the first and so far only time when they were featured on the rollercoaster LPs Rockaphilly! and The Return of Rockaphilly were released. Rex himself continued to perform and spent the 1960s mainly as a studio musician for Arcade. In the late 1970s, Rex led a band called Al Rex and the Sound of Haley's Comets . Later, in the early 1990s, Rex worked on the Haley biography Sound and Glory .

Al Rex lived in the Philadelphia / Chester area and died on May 24, 2020 at the age of 91 in Jeffersonville.

Discography

year	title	Label #
1952	Paid in Full / Wandering Blues	Arcade 107
1963	Mollie Darling / Within This Broken Heart of Mine	Arcade 175
Unpublished titles
1958	Hydrogen bomb	Arcade
1959	I gotta go	Arcade

literature

• Rob Finnis, Ray Topping: Rockaphilly! (1978) & The Return of Rockaphilly (1980), Rollercoaster LP

Web links

Commons : Al Rex  - Collection of Images

• Al Rex in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ bespw. atomicplatters.com
2. ↑ rockabillyhall.com
3. ↑ Pioneering bass player for the Comets passes away. Retrieved June 4, 2020 .