Rock Around the Clock

A friend of mine was a DJ at a radio station in Calgary in 1955. He said the best part of the day was when new music arrived. All the DJ's would crowd around in the library and listen, deciding which records were good and which were bad.

He especially remembers "Bill Haley and the Comets". "Rock Around the Clock" was getting a lot of press and the DJ's headed down the hall to put it on the air right away.

The production manager said "Hey, just a minute! We're going to have to run this by the station manager. This music isn't what we usually play!" He was right. In many ways, this was still the era of Frankie, and Dean Martin and Dinah Shore! What could be more different than Bill Haley and the Comets! The music shocked many people. They thought it loud, and tacky, and even inflammatory. (“Rock Around the Clock” became the anthem for rebellious 50's youth. It was used for the movie "Blackboard Jungle")

This seems very funny in hindsight, and I said as much to my friend. "I know. After what music has become today, this seems like "much ado about nothing". Rock Around the Clock was rejected by management. The MGM Studio Orchestra used to record softer versions of upstart music, and "this is what we were told to play" says my friend. "It was painful. Our young listeners would call us and sneer".

Not for long. Everyone was playing it. "Rock Around the Clock" stayed at #1 for 8 weeks and sold an estimated 25 million copies worldwide.

Rock n' Roll. Bill Haley has been called the father of it all.

Here's a picture of the MGM record. It's a "78".