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3 unusual facts about Bill Haley


Bill Haley's Chicks

The Mummies, 1990, Rekkids; Never Been Caught album, Telstar, 2002

Sonet Records

It was distributed by Pickwick Records in North America in the 1960s, where it was involved in releasing some of Bill Haley's latter-day material, among other things.

Zoku

Some Japanese youths admired American music, and Japanese Bill Haley clones were known as rokabiri zoku (the rockabilly tribe).


Big Jay McNeely

The honking style was fading somewhat by the early 1950s, but the honkers themselves suddenly found themselves providing rousing solos for doo wop groups; an example was Sam "The Man" Taylor's eight-bar romp on The Chords' 1954 "Sh-Boom." Bill Haley also used honking sax men Joey D'Ambrosio and Rudy Pompilli on his rock and roll records, including "Rock Around the Clock."

Honey Hush

A year later, in 1954, a Turner song very similar to this one, "Shake, Rattle and Roll," with its boogie-woogie rhythm and squawking saxophone was cleaned up by Bill Haley to become a huge hit as rock and roll changed the face of music.

Mikey Jukebox

Much of his songwriting was influenced by a “1950’s Memphis & Rock ‘N’ Roll” phase (Bill Haley, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Sun Studios-era Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis) combined with a passion for Klaxons, CSS and a love for French House music and early Source Records.

Rockabilly 514

Some of the original 1950s rockabilly stars also appear in the documentary: Wanda Jackson (the first lady of rockabilly); The Comets (Bill Haley's original band) and Joe Clay.

The Jodimars

Additional recordings exist from a demo session in 1955 ("Flip, Flop and Fly", "Rock-A-Beatin' Boogie" (written by Bill Haley) and "The Big Beat").


see also

Danny Cedrone

During this time, Cedrone made a number of recordings with the Esquires, most notably a version of the Bill Haley composition, "Rock-A-Beatin' Boogie", several years before Haley would record it himself.

James E. Myers

A later claim by Myers (cited in John Swenson's biography Bill Haley: The Daddy of Rock and Roll) that he played drums on "Rock Around the Clock" has been debunked by the existence of an official recording session document indicating the drummer was Billy Gussak.

The Matys Brothers

On this song and the three others recorded for Clymax, the Matys Brothers were backed by members of Bill Haley's band, The Comets (several of their recordings were also written by members of Haley's group.