And Haley himself had what some would consider the first real pre-rock "rock hit" on the pop charts with "Crazy, Man, Crazy" in '53. The title "Rock Around the Clock" had been used for an entirely different (and unsuccessful) R&B tune in 1950. On April 12 of '54, Alan Freed had still not adopted and popularized the term "rock & roll," although there'd been a song by that name as early as 1934, and "Good Rockin' Tonight" had been a hit in 1948. 1, a little more than a year after it was recorded.Īnd to think that Haley had been an aspiring country yodeler not long before he was being blamed - or hailed - for corrupting the morals of American youth with his ode to pre-Red Bull all-nighters. They were ready to rock, and although Haley is not as cool a figure as Elvis or Chuck Berry to cite as ushering in the new movement - squares with receding hairlines don't make the most picturesque revolutionaries, right? - there is no disputing that "Clock" was the single that suddenly seemed to change everything, at least when it finally hit No. So Decca Records designated it as a fox trot record.īut the kids were not ready to trot, trot, trot till broad daylight. The biggest indignity of all: When it came time to assign a genre or dance mode to "Rock Around the Clock" on the 45's label, as was common in that day, the term "rock & roll" hadn't yet been assigned to the nascent style of music the song represented.
After being patched together from those two hastily recorded takes, "Rock Around the Clock" was relegated to flip-side status when first released a month after the session, taking a back seat to A-side "Thirteen Women," which did not rock anyone 24/7.
For a song destined to rock around the centuries, "Rock Around the Clock" - recorded 60 years ago this week - had the humblest and least expectant of beginnings, starting life as a lowly B-side that didn't even have a genre to call its own.īill Haley & the Comets recorded it on Apalmost as an afterthought, devoting 40 minutes and two takes to the tune at the tail end of a session otherwise devoted to "Thirteen Women (And Only One Man in Town)," a novelty song about the happy benefits of sexual inequity after a nuclear blast.
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