I am going to kick off
this edition of the Tuesday Timeline by wishing my sister a happy
41st birthday today. Granted, I really doubt that she is
actually going to see this blog, but I just wanted to get the message
out there just in case.
Today is the ninth of
July, and I'll admit that I was having a tough time choosing a topic
for this week. I had to search through a number of different sources
for ideas, and it took me a bit of time to really come up with an
appropriate topic.
And, let's just say that
for a Tuesday Timeline entry, this topic choice could not be any more
perfect.
Of course, we have some
business to take care of first before we propel ourselves back
through time. So, let's begin with this look back on July 9 with
celebrity birthdays.
I want to wish a very
happy birthday to the following famous faces; Ed Ames, Brian Dennehy,
Richard Roundtree, Dean Koontz, Chris Cooper, John Tesh, Jimmy Smits,
Tom Hanks, Marc Almond, Kelly McGillis, Jim Kerr (Simple Minds),
Courtney Love, Pamela Segall Adlon, Scott Grimes, Enrique Murciano,
Dani Behr, Jack White (The White Stripes), Fred Savage, Ashly
DelGrosso, Jacob Hoggard (Hedley), Kiely Williams, and Mitchel Musso.
(Oh, yeah...O.J. Simpson
was born on July 9 as well...but I consider him more INFAMOUS than
famous.)
And, what was going on in
the world throughout the history books on this date? Well, lots of
things!
1572
– Nineteen Catholics suffer martyrdom for their beliefs in the
Dutch town of Gorkum
1776
– George Washington ordered the Declaration of Independence to be
read aloud in New York City for the first time to members of the
Continental Army
1793
– The Act Against Slavery is passed in Upper Canada, and slave
importation is prohibited in Lower Canada
1810
– Napoleon annexes the Kingdom of Holland as part of the First
French Empire
1816
– Argentina declares its independence from Spain
1850
– Millard Fillmore becomes the 13th
President of the United States following the death of Zachary Taylor
1863
– The siege of Port Hudson ends during the American Civil War
1877
– The inaugural Wimbledon Championships opens
1918
– The deadliest rail accident in the United States occurs when an
inbound local train collides with an outbound express, killing 101
people in Nashville, Tennessee
1922
– Johnny Weissmuller swims the 100 metre freestyle in 58.6 seconds,
breaking a world record
1944
– British and Canadian forces capture Caen, France during the
Battle of Normandy
1946
– Original lead singer of AC/DC Bon Scott is born in Forfar, Angus,
Scotland
1956
– Dick Clark becomes the host of a television program entitled
“Bandstand” - which would eventually evolve to become “American
Bandstand”
1958
– Lituya Bay is struck by a megatsunami with a wave measuring a
height of 524 metres – the largest wave in recorded history
1962
– Andy Warhol's “Campbell's Soup Cans” exhibition opens at the
Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles
1981
– Donkey Kong is released in arcades by Nintendo; marks the very
first appearance of the character that would come to be known as
Super Mario
1986
– The Parliament of New Zealand passes the Homosexual Law Reform
Act legalizing homosexuality in New Zealand
2004
– Actress Isabel Sanford passes away in Los Angeles, California at
the age of 86.
Okay,
so which year will be be turning back the calendar pages to?
July 9, 1955.
1955
was a year in which a new kind of music was just making its way onto
jukeboxes, record players, and radios everywhere.
That
music was good, old-fashioned, rock and roll.
And,
on July 9, 1955, one of these rock classics hit the #1 spot on the
charts...at a time before the Billboard 100 ceased to exist (the
Billboard Hot 100 didn't start ranking songs until November 1955).
What
was interesting about the song was that the band who made it famous
wasn't the band who first recorded the single.
The
song history dates all the way back to 1952, when songwriters James
E. Myers and Max C. Freedman penned the lyrics (although some music
historians claim that Freedman was the sole composer). And, in late
1953, the song was offered to man who had had success earlier in the
year with his song “Crazy Man, Crazy”.
The
band was “Bill Haley and His Comets”.
The
band began performing the song at their live concerts, and were
interested in recording the single. But for whatever reason, the
record company that the band was signed to refused to give
permission. In fact, according to Haley himself, the head of Essex
Records (Dave Miller), reportedly tore the sheet music for the single
into shreds – on two different occasions!
While
this was going on, another group – Sonny Dae & His Knights –
recorded the song instead. But while this version was a moderate
success, Haley was still determined to record this single himself.
And,
in 1954, Bill Haley got his wish.
After
cutting ties with Essex Records, Bill Haley and His Comets signed
onto the Decca Records label, who had no issue with Haley's band
recording the very single that Dave Miller of Essex Records prevented
them from recording. But when the band finally got around to
recording the single, the band drowned out Haley's vocals, and a
second session had to be recorded. But because the band was on a
limited time frame (Sammy Davis Jr. was next in line to record
material for one of his albums), the second version was more of a
minimal arrangement, and the two separate recordings were merged into
one single.
A
single that appeared in the classic film “Blackboard Jungle”. A
single that served at the theme song for the first season of “Happy
Days”. A single that spent eight weeks at the top of the charts in
the summer of 1955. A single that first hit #1 on July 9, 1955.
ARTIST:
Bill Haley and His Comets
SONG:
Rock Around the Clock
ALBUM:
Rock Around the Clock
DATE
RELEASED: May 20, 1954
(re-released in 1955)
PEAK
POSITION ON THE CHARTS: #1 for
8 weeks
How
timely that the Tuesday Timeline entry for today is “Rock Around
the Clock”! And, why wouldn't it be? Although it was not the very
first rock and roll record to be released, it certainly set the tone
for what music would be like for many, many years. The song is
ranked at #158 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the “500
Greatest Songs of All Time”, and the song is also widely considered
to be the greatest song of the 1950s.
And,
for the record, while the line-up of musicians has been questioned
over the years, this was the official list of band members as stated
on the official record sheet for the recording session.
BILL
HALEY – vocals/rhythm guitar
MARSHALL
LYTLE – string bass
JOEY
AMBROSE – tenor sax
BILLY
WILLIAMSON – steel guitar
JOHNNY
GRANDE – piano
BILLY
GUSSAK – drums
DANNY
CEDRONE – electric guitar
But
one thing that you might have noticed was that the song was
officially released on May 20, 1954...a full fourteen months before
the song became a chart-topper. Why did it take so long?
Well,
when the song was first released, it didn't do that great on the
charts, and was destined to be another forgotten hit. But then the
film appeared on the soundtrack to the classic film “Blackboard
Jungle”, which starred Glenn Ford, Anne Francis, Sidney Poitier,
and Louis Calhoun. The film was released on March 19, 1955, and the
song was featured in the opening credits. Teenagers flocked to the
silver screen to watch the film, and as a result, they also purchased
the album that the single appeared on, helping the song reach the top
of the charts in July 1955.
BELIEVE IT
OR NOT: The song hit its peak
on the charts in the United Kingdom in January 1955 – a full six
months before the song hit #1 in the United States, and a full two
months before the release of “Blackboard Jungle”. The song
peaked at #17 in January 1955, but was re-released in September of
the same year performing much better on the charts, peaking within
the Top 5.
The
song was a huge hit all over the world, and the success of the single
helped Bill Haley and His Comets secure a job performing the song on
a couple of films...1956's “Rock Around the Clock”, and 1957's
“Don't Rock the Clock”. And, believe it or not, a sequel of
sorts to the song was recorded by the same band entitled “Dance
Around the Clock” in 1964. Unfortunately, that song didn't do as
well as “Rock Around the Clock”, but the fact that the song was
so big that it deserved a sequel...that's almost unheard of, even in
the year 2013.
In
1974, the song made a return to the pop charts when the single was
used in the soundtrack for the 1973 film “American Graffiti”,
which starred Ron Howard. And, later on, Ron Howard would star in
the American sitcom, “Happy Days”, which also used “Rock Around
the Clock” as the show's theme song for the first few episodes.
And,
Bill Haley would continue to perform the single well into the late
1970s. Although in his later years, he often performed abbreviated
versions of the song, dropping the second verse altogether. The lone
exception being a 1979 performance of the song that he performed for
Queen Elizabeth II, in which he performed the full version.
It
was a sad day in the music industry when Bill Haley died of a brain
tumour at the age of 55 on February 9, 1981. And after his passing
came a wave of tributes from a special all-star performance on the
30th
anniversary special of American Bandstand to a posthumous Grammy Hall
of Fame award presented to Bill Haley in 1982. And, thirty-two years
after his passing, Bill Haley's legacy continues to live on through
the song that made him a star.
The
song is estimated to have sold 25 million copies in total, and
several artists have covered the song themselves including The Isley
Brothers, Mae West, Harry Nilsson, The Sex Pistols, and even Alvin &
The Chipmunks and Sharon, Lois & Bram, introducing new
generations to a rock and roll classic.
A
rock and roll classic that hit the top of the charts on July 9, 1955.
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