At the time, Haley was recording for the Essex label, a company owned by Dave Miller. He championed it, pitching it first to his old friend Bill Haley. Freedman, who died in 1962, wasn’t around to dispute that account, but others, including founding Comets member Johnny Grande told NPR, “Freedman wrote the song.” Whether Myers pulled an Irving Mills and put his name on it, in a publishing arrangement, we may never be known.īut without Myers, the song may never have been recorded. According to what Myers told NPR in 2000, he had “most of the song written” when Freedman helped him finish it. Myers, a publisher and hustler who “dabbled” in songwriting, had collaborated with Haley on a few tunes in the late 1940s when the singer was with the Saddlesmen. Freedman and Jimmy DeKnight, whose real name was James Myers. “Rock Around the Clock,” copyrighted in 1952, is credited to Max C. He’d also started wearing the Brylcreem spit curl that would become an iconic image of early rock ’n’ roll. By the early 1950s, Haley had cut two songs, “Crazy Man Crazy” and “Rock the Joint,” that pointed the way to his future. It was one of his band members, a Philly kid named Joey Ambrose, who introduced Haley to rhythm and blues. In his 20s, he led a country swing band and had his sights set on becoming the next Gene Autry. Born Jin Highland Park, Michigan to musical parents, he became known as a teenage yodeler, then worked for a time as a DJ. Music historians may disagree about who recorded the first rock ’n’ roll song (Jackie Brenston’s “Rocket 88” and Fats Domino’s “The Fat Man” are two leading contenders), but there’s no doubt about what record punched an electric guitar–shaped hole in the society at large.īill Haley was an unlikely rock ’n’ roll hero. 50 years ago, when The Blackboard Jungle hit screens across the country, the controversial opening salvo of the film was a shot of amplified fury called “Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley and the Comets. The New York Times called it “nightmarish and bloodcurdling.” And after it incited a near riot in a local theater, the city of Memphis banned it.

The American Legion and the Boy Scouts denounced it.

Bill haleys rock around the clock