History Music / BillHaleyAndHisComets

->''"So long! That's all! '''Goodbyyyyye!!!'''"''

* ChristmasSongs: Almost averted. Unlike most of their contemporaries, Haley and his group recorded very few Christmas songs. During his lifetime, Haley released only one obscure Christmas single - in 1951, before the Saddlemen had become the Comets. In 1968 he recorded another single for United Artists, but due to being recorded too late in the year (October), UA decided there wasn't enough time to put a single out, so Haley and the Comets' surprisingly on-piste renditions of "Jingle Bell Rock" and "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" sat in the vaults until they were unearthed in the early 1990s. Even diehard fans had no idea the recordings existed.

** "Rock Around The Clock" has become somewhat of a cliché idea of TheFifties. Expect every film or TV series that takes place in this decade to have a scene where teenagers drive by while this song plays on their car radio, for instance in ''Film/{{Superman}}'' (1978) and more recently in a 1950s-set episode of ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'' that aired in 2016. ''Film/AmericanGraffiti'' and the first two seasons of ''Series/HappyDays'' both used it as their theme song.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* CoolOldGuy: Bill Haley was seen as this in the 1950s from those who thought 28-29 was old, and remained so when he actually did get "old" (though he was only 55 when he died). The surviving members of the 1950s Comets were treated as this when they reunited in the 1990s and continue to be seen as this in the 2010s. One of the original Comets, Dick Richards (a.k.a. Dick Boccelli), added to his "cool old guy" cachet by getting into acting in the 1970s and amassing a diverse set of credits that includes appearances in B-movie action films, the Creator/SteveMartin comedy ''Film/MyBlueHeaven'', and TV shows like ''Series/{{Kojak}}'' and ''Series/{{Oz}}''.

* HeavyMeta:
** "R-O-C-K" refers directly to Haley and his previous hit, "Crazy Man Crazy". (Haley recorded a number of songs that reference earlier hits this as early as 1952, right up to 1979 - including several tunes like "Mambo Rock", "Vive la Rock and Roll" and "Dance Around the Clock" that name-drop "Rock Around the Clock," but this is the best known example.)

* MusicOfNote: This cannot be overstated. Since rock and roll was ultimately an evolutionary process that emerged - for the most part - out of blues, it's really debatable as to when rock & roll officially began as a genre. Some say it began with Bill and his band, some say it began with Music/ChuckBerry, or some say even earlier with Music/FatsDomino, or some one-offs by other artists. All that said, Bill Haley & His Comets were the band that first brought it to the top of the charts, and to mainstream (white) audiences.[[note]]Haley recorded his earliest song in the rock and roll style, a cover of Ruth Brown's "Teardrops from My Eyes" in 1950, four years before Elvis recorded his first record at Sun.[[/note]] And the rest is history.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: "Shake, Rattle & Roll" has the line "I'm a one eyed cat, peepin' in a seafood store." This does '''not''' refer to visually challenged felines and fishmarkets. Reportedly, Haley either didn't know or didn't care about the double entendre; the singer was in fact blind in one eye, and the lyric was actually seen as a self-reference, even though it exists in the Joe Turner original.

* GenreTurningPoint: Rock and roll, in some form or another, under one name or another, had existed for years before the spring of 1955. There had been hit records in the genre for several years prior to 1955. But it was the release of "Rock Around the Clock" that blasted the genre into the mainstream and opened the floodgates.

* MemeticHair: Bill Haley's kiss curl hairstyle became a trend among men in the 1950s, and to this day all one needs is a closeup of the curl to identify Haley. Many rockabilly artists have also adopted the curl.

** In keeping with the standard for country and western groups of the time, prior to 1952 most of Haley's recordings had no drummer. This includes the prototypical rock and roll recordings of "Rocket 88" and "Rock the Joint". All percussion heard on these come from the slap bass and guitar strumming. On higher-fidelity issues of these tracks it results in a noticeably sparse sound far removed from the recordings from 1953 onwards when a drummer was part of the mix.

** Bill Haley didn't hire a full-time lead guitarist to perform concerts until Franny Beecher was promoted to full-timer in the fall of 1955. Prior to this, live performances usually featured Billy Williamson playing lead guitar parts on his steel guitar, or Haley himself would play solos. Recordings of this exist, and the short film ''Round Up of Rhythm'' shows Haley playing lead guitar for the instrumental "Straight Jacket". There is also surviving footage of an appearance on Milton Berle's show in which the group had to lip-synch to the original recording, requiring Haley to pretend to play the famous "Rock Around the Clock" guitar solo himself as the original musician had died a year earlier.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: A musical equivalent. Not only was their 1952 hit "Rock the Joint" very similar in arrangement to the later "Rock Around the Clock," Danny Cedrone even plays an early version of the same guitar solo immortalized in "Clock."

** Bill Haley didn't hire a full-time lead guitarist to perform concerts until Franny Beecher was promoted to full-timer in the fall of 1955. Prior to this, live performances usually featured Billy Williamson playing lead guitar parts on his steel guitar, or Haley himself would play solos. Recordings of this exist, and the short film ''Round Up of Rhythm'' shows Haley playing lead guitar for the instrumental "Straight Jacket". There is also surviving footage of an appearance on Milton Berle's show in which the group had to lip-synch to the original recording, requiring Haley to pretend to play the famous "Rock Around the Clock" guitar solo himself.

* IAmTheBand: It was Bill Haley's band, unquestionably.

* IconicOutfit: The band trademark outfit in the 1950s was plaid jackets, and they can be seen wearing them in the ''Rock Around the Clock'' film, and during their landmark 1957 UK tour. Although some might dismiss the outfit as cheesy by today's standards, it's worth noting that similar apparel was worn on stage by Creator/BoDiddley around the same time and was often also sported by iconic deejay/movie personality Creator/AlanFreed. And there are even fashion photographs of Creator/AudreyHepburn wearing a plaid jacket similar to that worn by Haley.

* PunBasedTitle: Bill Haley & His Comets refers to the Comet of Halley (in the US, it is common to mispronounce the name "Hay-lee").

** Another example is the Music/BillyJoel single "We Didn't Start the Fire".

* YoungerThanTheyLook: Haley was only 30 when "Rock Around the Clock" took off. Due to the ageism that existed back in the 1950s, and continues to today, there are those who think he looks older.

* TheBusCameBack: Several times. Haley and the Comets enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in the UK in 1968, in the US in 1969 (where they received an 8 1/2 minute standing ovation after a concert at Madison Square Garden), and in 1974 "Rock Around the Clock," thanks to being used in ''Film/AmericanGraffiti'' and ''Series/HappyDays'', returned to the US and UK Top 40, 20 years after it was recorded. The last time he appeared on television, in November 1979, was for a command performance for Queen Elizabeth II, who reportedly considered Haley's appearance a highlight in a show that included luminaries such as Creator/CarolChanning and Creator/YulBrynner and the cast of TheKingAndI.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: "Shake, Rattle & Roll" is one long tirade against somebody who "never done nothin' to save his doggone soul" and has a "heart cold as ice".

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: "Shake, Rattle & Roll" has the line "I'm a one eyed cat, peepin' in a seafood store." This does '''not''' refer to visually challenged felines and fishmarkets. Reportedly, Haley either didn't know or didn't care about the double entendre; the singer was in fact blind in one eye, and the lyric was actually a self-reference.
* HairstyleInertia: Haley's trademark was a curl of hair (variously called a kiss curl or spit curl) that he always let droop down over his forehead. According to biographies, he began sporting the curl when he was a teenager and kept it for the rest of his life. His basic hairstyle remained unchanged throughout his career, too. The purpose of the curl is actually HarsherInHindsight for those who categorize it initially as cheesy: at a very young age, Haley underwent surgery that went wrong and resulted in his being blinded in one eye, which subsequently became a "lazy eye" (which is why he looks a bit wild-eyed in some photos). He adopted the curl, the biographies say, to call attention away from his bad eye, and later kept it as his trademark - although not right away as there are numerous publicity images from his early (late 1940s) country music career in which the curl is kept hidden under a cowboy hat.
* HeavyMeta: "R-O-C-K" refers directly to Haley and his previous hit, "Crazy Man Crazy". (Haley recorded a number of songs that do this right up to 1979, but this is the best known example.)

* {{Rockabilly}}: Bill Haley's version of "Rocket 88" (''not'' the Jackie Brentson original) is often seen as the first song in this genre.

* HarsherInHindsight: As described under "Hairstyle Inertia", above, Haley's trademark hair curl, often dismissed as goofy and cheesy, has a tragic rationale.
** One of Haley's funniest recordings, 1970's "I Wouldn't Have Missed it for the World", becomes less humorous once one realizes it was recorded at a time when, in real life, Haley was battling alcoholism.

[[caption-width-right:350:Left to right: Rudy Pompilli, Billy Williamson, Al Rex, Johnny Grande, Ralph Jones, Franny Beecher. Top: Bill Haley.]]

Haley was born in Highland Park, Michigan and worked in radio, primarily in the Philadelphia region, while trying to launch his musical career. Initially a member of the western swing group The Down Homers, he formed his first country music group, the Four Aces of Western Swing, circa 1946. In 1949-1950 this group evolved into the Saddlemen. Their CoverVersion "Rocket 88" (1951) fused African-American R&B with country swing and is seen as the very ''first'' rock 'n' roll and {{Rockabilly}} recording, though it didn't make much impact[[note]]The group had actually been experimenting with this hybrid of rhythm and blues and country swing for at least a couple of years previously, such as a recording of Ruth Brown's "Teardrops From My Eyes" released on Atlantic Records in 1950.[[/note]]. In the fall of 1952, the Saddlemen changed their name to ''Bill Haley and His Comets'' and in 1953 scored their first national chart hit with an original song titled "Crazy Man, Crazy". In 1954 they recorded two of the first international rock and roll hits: "Rock Around the Clock" (technically a cover song, but only virtue of the fact the owner of Haley's previous record label wouldn't let him record it first), which was the first Rock and Roll song to hit No. 1 on the charts when it was reissued in 1955, and "Shake Rattle and Roll," another CoverVersion which was the group's first million seller. A third million-seller, "See You Later Alligator," was recorded in late 1955.

Haley and the Comets are credited with introducing rock and roll to the mainstream (read: white) audiences, forming a buffer between the big band era familiar to most, and the wilder forms of rock and roll developed by artists such as Music/ElvisPresley (who recorded "That's All Right Mama" months after Haley recorded "Rock Around the Clock"). Much of Haley's popularity was caused by the use of "Rock Around The Clock" in films such as ''Film/BlackboardJungle'' (1955) and ''Film/RockAroundTheClock'' (1956), in which the band appeared. (They also appeared in the sequel, ''Film/DontKnockTheRock'' (1956).) Such films also helped make the genre more popular in the rest of the world. The band toured in Europe, Australia and South America with equal success during the late 1950s, with Haley's arrival at Waterloo Station in London in the spring of 1957 sparking a riot.

As the "father of rock 'n' roll" Haley's music was praised by teenagers, but the elder generation was genuinely outraged and scared by this wild music that inspired teenage rebellion and disobedience of authority. In the wake of theirs, and Music/ChuckBerry's, success, countless other rock & roll performers, most notably such as Music/ElvisPresley, Music/LittleRichard, and Music/JerryLeeLewis became superstars, eclipsing Haley's own stardom in the end, because they looked far younger, sexier and energetic compared to Haley himself. For the Comets, chart hits in the US ended in 1960, however the group continued to have major success in Latin America where they recorded "Florida Twist" in 1961, co-written by Haley's sax player and which for a time was Mexico's biggest-seller ever and today is considered a standard. They also returned to the charts in the UK several times with "Rock Around the Clock" during the 1960s and early 1970s, with a 1974 reissue of the song, tying in with its dual use in ''Film/AmericanGraffiti'' and ''Series/HappyDays'' leading to it returning to the Billboard Top 40 as well. In the late 1960s and 1970s, Haley and the Comets continued to be popular on the oldies revival circuit and notably secured an 8 1/2-minute standing ovation after a 1969 performance at Madison Square Garden.

Haley and his ever-changing band continued performing right through the 1970s, even getting to perform for Queen Elizabeth II in November 1979. His final performances were in May 1980 in South Africa, but ill health forced him to cancel a 1980 German tour. Haley, who had battled alcoholism since the 1960s, died of a brain tumor in 1981 (though media reports at the time suggested heart attack). He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

Since his death, numerous versions of The Comets have continued to perform and record, with at least four different contingents known as of 2016. The Comets as a band, meanwhile, entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012 as part of a special induction of backing groups.

* TheAlcoholic: Haley suffered from alcoholism beginning in the 1960s, and admitted to being an alcoholic in a 1974 interview for BBC Radio. According to a biography by John Swenson, he was inebriated during at least some of the recording sessions for his 1972 album ''Just Rock and Roll''.

* CulturalRebel: In retrospect, Bill Haley must be one of the most unlikely rock 'n' roll stars ever. He was already near 30, balding, and had children when "Rock Around The Clock" broke through (of course, then again, Music/BuddyHolly didn't fit the mold either, and Music/ChuckBerry was older than Haley). Today, of course, 30 is considered young, even for a pop singer, and no one cares if someone's bald and has kids or not.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: "Shake, Rattle & Roll" has the line "I'm a one eyed cat, peepin' in a seafood store." This does '''not''' refer to visually challenged felines and fishmarkets.
* HairstyleInertia: Haley's trademark was a curl of hair (variously called a kiss curl or spit curl) that he always let droop down over his forehead. According to biographies, he began sporting the curl when he was a teenager and kept it for the rest of his life. His basic hairstyle remained unchanged throughout his career, too. The purpose of the curl is actually HarsherInHindsight: at a very young age Haley underwent surgery that went wrong and resulted in his being blinded in one eye, which subsequently became a "lazy eye". He adopted the curl, the biographies say, to call attention away from his bad eye, and later kept it as his trademark - although not right away as there are numerous publicity images from his early (late 1940s) country music career in which the curl is kept hidden under a cowboy hat.

* IconicOutfit: The band trademark outfit in the 1950s was plaid jackets, and they can be seen wearing them in the ''Rock Around the Clock'' film, and during their landmark 1957 UK tour. Although some might dismiss the outfit as cheesy by today's standards, it's worth noting that similar apparel was worn on stage by Creator/BoDiddley around the same time. And there are even fashion photographs of Creator/AudreyHepburn wearing a plaid jacket similar to that worn by Haley.

A pioneering American RockAndRoll band, led by Bill Haley (1925–1981), the Comets are credited with popularizing rock & roll to an international young white audience, thanks to their biggest hit and SignatureSong: "Rock Around the Clock". They had two other major hits with "See You Later Alligator" and "Shake, Rattle and Roll".

Haley was born in Highland Park, Michigan and worked in radio, primarily in the Philadelphia region, while trying to launch his musical career. Initially a member of the western swing group The Down Homers, he formed his first country music group, the Four Aces of Western Swing, circa 1946. In 1949-1950 this group evolved into the Saddlemen. Their CoverVersion "Rocket 88" (1951) fused African-American R&B with country swing and is seen as the very ''first'' rock 'n' roll and {{Rockabilly}} recording, though it didn't make much impact. In 1952 the Saddlemen changed their name into ''Bill Haley and His Comets'' and in 1953 scored their first national chart hit with an original song titled "Crazy Man, Crazy". In 1954 they recorded two of the first international rock and roll hits: "Rock Around the Clock" (technically a cover song, but only virtue of the fact the owner of Haley's previous record label wouldn't let him record it first), which was the first Rock and Roll song to hit No. 1 on the charts when it was reissued in 1955, and "Shake Rattle and Roll," another CoverVersion which was the group's first million seller. A third million-seller, "See You Later Alligator," was recorded in late 1955.

* HairstyleInertia: Haley's trademark was a curl of hair (variously called a kiss curl or spit curl) that he always let droop down over his forehead. According to biographies, he began sporting the curl when he was a teenager and kept it for the rest of his life. His basic hairstyle remained unchanged throughout his career, too. The purpose of the curl is actually HarsherInHindsight: at a very young age Haley underwent surgery that went wrong and resulted in his being blinded on one eye, which subsequently became a "lazy eye". He adopted the curl, the biographies say, to call attention away from his bad eye, and later kept it as his trademark.

* WhenTheClockStrikesTwelve: "Rock Around The Clock".

* CoolOldGuy: Bill Haley was seen as this in the 1950s from those who thought 28-29 was old, and remained so when he actually did get "old" (though he was only 55 when he died). The surviving members of the 1950s Comets were treated as this when they reunited in the 1990s and continue to be seen as this in the 2010s. One of the original Comets, Dick Richards (a.k.a. Dick Boccelli), added to his "cool old guy" cachet by getting into acting in the 1970s and amassing a diverse set of credits that includes appearances in B-movie action films and TV shows like ''Series/{{Kojak}}'' and ''Series/{{Oz}}''.