Rock around the clock

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Rock Around the Clock is a rock 'n' roll - song from the year 1954. It was the band Bill Haley & His Comets known and one of the best-selling disc successes of all time. The song not only became the Marseillaise of a worldwide teenage revolution (Lillian Roxon), it catalyzed the musical age of rock 'n' roll and thus marked the birth of modern pop music.

History of origin

The true background to the composition of the song, which later became the most successful rock song of all time, can no longer be fully explained due to contradicting statements by the authors and those involved, who have all passed away. In a songwriting agreement between Freedman, Jimmy DeKnight and Jack Howard dated October 23, 1952, it is recorded that the epoch-making song was already in the works in October 1952. The authors named in the literature are Max C. Freedman and Jimmy Myers (under the pseudonym "Jimmy DeKnight"), the song was officially registered for copyright by Jimmy Myers. After Jim Dawson, Max C. Freedman gave the composition of the clock song to Harry Filler, a local music copyist, in early 1953. In the original handwritten document, words & music by Max C. Freedman is recorded in the upper right corner , the name Jimmy DeKnight is not listed there. With the exception of his interviews, there are no traceable sources for Jimmy Myers' active participation in this composition.

Since the beginning of 1953, Jimmy Myers had repeatedly suggested to Dave Miller, the director of Haley's record company Essex , that the composition should be recorded by Bill Haley & His Comets. The band Haleys, who came from Country & Western and became known at the time under the name The Saddlemen , had already had cover versions of black R&B artists such as Rocket 88 (1951) and Rock the Joint (1952), which they had in their own, since 1951 Fit the rhythm system, attracted attention. However, Dave Miller, who was more of the opinion that this song did not fit into the musical profile of his protégé, repeatedly declined a recording of the Freedman composition. But Bill Haley himself saw it differently and came to an agreement with his manager at the time, Jack Howard, to produce the clock song via the record company Arcade Records, which was newly founded by Howard . Although the song was already part of Bill Haley & His Comets' repertoire, he was unable to record it himself due to his contractual obligation to Essex. Myers and Howard then, on the advice of Bill Haley, committed his friend and music colleague Sonny Dae to record this 12-bar blues . So the white musicians Sonny Dae, Hal Hogan and Art Buono, known as Sonny Dae and his Knights , were the first to record Rock Around the Clock on Arcade Records. The song was recorded on March 20, 1954 and subsequently released as the twenty-third single by Arcade Records, but subsequently achieved only moderate success, primarily in Philadelphia. This caused Jack Howard to discontinue his commitment to this project after just a few weeks.

The Decca production

Participants in the Decca production

Musician
Bill Haley & His Comets:

Session musicians:

  • Danny Cedrone (lead guitar)
  • Billy Gussak ( drums )

Production / technology:

  • Milt Gabler (producer)
  • Larry McIntire (sound engineer)

After the argument about Rock Around the Clock with Dave Miller, Myers arranged a new record deal with one of the major labels in the USA, Decca Records . Haley signed his Decca contract on April 1st and the first session was scheduled to take place a short time later.

The first recording date was scheduled for April 12, 1954 at Decca Records, New York. From 11:00 am, Haley's new producer, Milt Gabler , had deliberately reserved the large ballroom of the Pythian Temple on 70th Street on the first floor for 6 hours in order to record the first two songs with Bill Haley & His Comets. Gabler knew that Haley was unfamiliar with his first A-side title, Thirteen Women . For this recording he had in mind to orient Bill Haley on the jump blues of Louis Jordan , who was also under contract with Decca , and that the band had to implement and rehearse before starting the recording.

But the new partnership between Decca Records and Bill Haley, which would bring Decca unimaginable worldwide record sales in the tens of millions over the next three years, seemed to be over before it really began. From 11 a.m. on April 12, 1954, Gabler and his recording technician Larry McIntire, session drummer Billy Gussak, who had to represent Haley's drummer Dick Richards, and Jimmy Myers stood at the window of the recording studio and waited for the musicians for over forty minutes. A fiasco seemed to be looming for Myers & Co., Milt Gabler snapped at Jimmy Myers rather indignantly “Where the hell are they? Are there no phones in Chester? Why didn't the idiots at least call? " Finally the good news from the Decca office that Bill Haley had to wait over two hours with his musicians, equipment and car on the Chester-Bridgeport ferry, which got stuck on a sandbank in the Delaware River. After the arrival of the Haley band in New York, it was finally two hours late at 1:00 p.m. The Haley group had almost three hours left for the two planned titles, and they had to practice the main title Thirteen Women according to Gabler's instructions. "I arranged the song based on the swing riffs used on Louis Jordan," Gabler later recalled. But after two hours and twenty minutes, six takes of Thirteen Women were played, the playbacks were flawless and Milt Gabler seemed happy with the result.

Turning to Jimmy Myers, Bill Haley and the Comets, Gabler then explained: "I hope you don't need any special time for your song, we only have forty minutes and two takes to record it." Hungry and tired looked each other Haley and the Comets on. After all the stress and excitement of the day, an almost impossible undertaking for the musicians. Another handicap seemed to be the failure of Art Ryerson, Haley's current studio guitarist, who had already agreed to record a recording with Mitch Miller , Columbia Records, and Haley had to cancel. But Bill Haley was lucky, at the last minute he was able to get Danny Cedrone to replace him for the recording day, who was no longer in the studio with the Comets after the rockabilly titles Rock the Joint and Rocking Chair on the Moon produced in 1952 . Johnny Grande, Haley's pianist and arranger, briefly advised Bill Haley on the musical line for the recording, especially the decision on a guitar solo for the song was still open. Danny Cedrone was skeptical, the remaining short time did not allow a new recording and coordination with the band. In this situation, Marshall Lytle made Bill Haley and Danny Cedrone the suggestion to repeat the "Rock the Joint Solo". D'Ambrosio confirmed Cedrone and Haley: "Nobody has ever heard 'Rock the Joint', it has the same key!" That is how it happened, and a year later this guitar solo would make a significant contribution to the global success of this song.

Bill Haley & His Comets - Rock Around the Clock

After the first recording and playback the next problem came up. Bill Haley's voice was drowned in the volume of the instrumental recording and it was only 15 minutes before they had to leave the studio. After a brief consultation with Bill Haley, Gabler decided to repeat the recording in the last take, but sound engineer Larry McIntire was only supposed to record Bill Haley's voice. After this take, the recording day was over for those involved and without the precise and good work of Larry McIntire at the mixer the next day, Rock Around the Clock would certainly have been completely forgotten after a short time, as would the A-side Thirteen Women .

To produce the master tape, he mixed Bill Haley's solo, recorded in the second take, with the instrumental recording, which had been freed from Haley's voice, so well that this song became a world hit a year later. In production, the clock song was then declared a Foxtrot and released as the B-side of the main song Thirteen Women on May 15, 1954, as a 45rpm and at the same time as a 78rpm single. Presented as a Foxtrot in the May issue of Billboard magazine, the single reached number 23 on the pop charts and sold 75,000 copies within a short period of time. Decca was not dissatisfied with this; after all, this was the sales level at Haley's last record company, Essex Records. But after a week Thirteen Women disappeared from the charts again and with it Rock Around the Clock , as radio stations and DJs at that time hardly dealt with the B-sides of published recordings and usually did not play either. The clock song was an insider tip for real Haley fans even then, not least because of Bill Haley's dynamic song beginning. This is also the case with Peter Ford, son of the film actor Glenn Ford, who then played the lead role in the MGM film Blackboard Jungle .

Breakthrough to world success

Coincidentally, the director Richard Brooks , who was staying at the home of his main actor Glenn Ford during a break from filming the American youth revolt movie Blackboard Jungle (German title Die Saat der Demokratie ), heard Peter Ford's Haley single and was impressed by the dynamism of the B- Side of the song Thirteen Women (written by Dickie Thompson ) clearly impressed. He quickly realized that this song would be a great addition to his new film and intuitively decided to play Rock Around the Clock in the opening credits and again as background music at the end of the film. Richard Brooks immediately got in touch with Jimmy Myers and Milt Gabler from Decca Records and was amazed when he was able to purchase the rights to the Clock song for just one dollar. Gabler later laughed in an interview: "I hoped that they could improve the disappointing sales!" The film was released on March 19, 1955 in the US. It became a worldwide success because Rock Around the Clock and its topic appealed to the youth. Thanks to the film Blackboard Jungle , Rock Around the Clock climbed to number one on the American charts for over eight weeks on May 14, 1955. Rock Around the Clock was the first real rock and roll single to hit number one on the US charts. It stayed in the charts for six months, from May to October 1955. By the end of the year it had sold six million times, in the period that followed, with an estimated 25 million records sold, it finally became the top-selling pop hit of all time. In Great Britain the record was the first ever million seller. Not until two years later, in October 1957, should Elvis Presley , after his 56s, stylistically softer No. 1 hits such as Heartbreak Hotel , Don't Be Cruel and Love Me Tender , start with a rhythmically aggressive rock & roll record Jailhouse Rock followed at number 1 in the US charts.

The success and impact of the songs on the youth were so overwhelming in the US in 1955 that the film company Columbia decided to get a feature film with the same title Rock Around the Clock ( Except of hand to produce). It was released in cinemas in the USA on March 21, 1956, made rock 'n' roll popular worldwide and ensured constant sales of this world hit with its triple use of the clock song. In Germany, Rock Around the Clock was the first foreign record to be sold over a million times and to be awarded a gold record. It entered the German single charts in November 1955 , remained number one for two months and was in the top 10 for five months and in the charts for 14.5 months.

Economic

The original title of the composition was We're Gonna Rock Around the Clock Tonight! , later shortened to (We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock and finally to Rock Around the Clock . The song, which is copyrighted by ASCAP , appeared there in 42 cover versions. In total, it is estimated that the song has been covered by around 10,000 performers worldwide and has sold around 200 million times. However, a cover version - not even one of Bill Haley's subsequent productions - never achieved the musical quality that the Decca recording has to offer.

See also

literature

  • Otto Fuchs: Bill Haley - Father of Rock'n'Roll , Wagner, Gelnhausen 2008, ISBN 3-86683-351-2 .
  • Fred Bronson: The Billboard Book of Number One Hits . 3rd revised and expanded edition. Watson-Guptill, New York City, NY 1992, p. 1, ISBN 0-8230-8298-9 ( English ).
  • Werner Faulstich: Bill Haley: Rock Around The Clock - the pleasure principle against the performance principle . In: ders .: From rock 'n' roll to Bob Dylan. Edition of the Rockpaed authors, Gelsenkirchen 1983, ISBN 3-89153-004-8 , pp. 43–47 (= Tübingen lectures on rock history . Part 1: 1955 - 1963 ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Siegfried Schmidt-Joos, Barry Graves: Rock Lexicon . 1973, p. 337
  2. ↑ For the lyrical interpretation of the song and its significance for the development of rock music, cf. Werner Faulstich: Bill Haley: "Rock Around The Clock" - the pleasure principle versus the performance principle . In: ders .: From rock 'n' roll to Bob Dylan. Tübingen lectures on rock history. Part 1: 1955-1963 . Rockpaed Verlag, Gelsenkirchen 1983, pp. 43-47
  3. ↑ Myers had already composed the country song Ten Gallon Station in April 1950 for "Bill Haley and the Saddlemen"
  4. ↑ Rock Around The Clock . Backbeat Books, San Francisco, pp. 62-63
  5. ↑ Rock Around The Clock . Backbeat Books, San Francisco, pp. 61-63
  6. ^ John Swenson, Bill Haley: The Daddy of Rock and Roll , 1983, p. 83
  7. ↑ for the musicological analysis of the version of Bill Haley's "Rock Around The Clock" see: Ansgar Jerrentrup: Development of rock music from the beginning to the beat . Regensburg: Gustav Bosse Verlag, 1981 (Cologne contributions to music research, vol. 113), also Diss. Phil. University of Cologne 1980, pp. 191f; the score transcription of Haley's version, pp. 218–222, written by Jerrentrup on the basis of the Decca recording
  8. ↑ with the catalog no. Decca 9-29124
  9. ^ John Swenson: Bill Haley: The Daddy of Rock and Roll . 1983, p. 78
  10. ↑ John von Hoelle, John W. Haley: Sound and Glory . Dyne-American Publications, p. 105
  11. ↑ Hank Bordowitz, Turning Points in Rock And Roll , 2004, p. 72. However, violent and delinquent young people in the film were then models of a rock & roll culture initially associated with violence.
  12. ↑ In the meantime Decca had converted the B-side to the A-side
  13. ↑ History: This day in History 1954 ( Memento of the original from April 20, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.history.com
  14. ↑ Otto Fuchs: Bill Haley - Father of Rock'n'Roll , 2008, ISBN 3-86683-351-2 , p. 253 assumes 42 million copies have been sold.
  15. ↑ Every Hit
  16. ^ Günter Ehnert: Hit balance sheet - German chart singles 1956-1980 . 1st edition. Verlag popular music-literature, Norderstedt 2000, ISBN 3-922542-24-7 , p. 444 .
  17. ↑ Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley & His Comets. chartsurfer.de, accessed on October 9, 2019 .
  18. ↑ 60 years of “Rock around the clock”.
  19. ↑ Rockabilly Hall for more information
  20. ↑ Booklet of the CultConsult Show Production for the music revue of the Bill Haley Orchestra Rock Around The Clock