Rock Around The Clock (2004 Reissue) Framingham MA

Rock Around The Clock (2004 Reissue)

Bill Haley & The Comets

Geffen, 2004

REVIEW BY: David Bowling

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 05/03/2008

Many music historians consider Rock Around The Clock the first rock & roll album and its title track the first true rock song. “Rock Around The Clock” was recorded April 12, 1954 and only made a minor dent on the charts, but in 1955 this song was included on the soundtrack of the film Blackboard Jungle and became the first rock & roll hit, staying at number 1 on the pop charts for eight weeks.

In retrospect, Bill Haley may seem like an odd person to have achieved rock immortality. As frontman for a country swing band in the late 1940s, he began covering rhythm & blues hits of the day. This country and R&B fusion, complete with sax breaks, thumping stand-up bass and guitars up-front, would land Haley right in the center of the early rock & roll movement.

The infamous “Rock Around The Clock” is now over half-a-century old, but the opening line “1-2-3 o’clock, 4 o’clock rock” will still catch any listener’s attention. Follow that track with “Shake, Rattle & Roll,” and you have some serious toe-tapping going on. The third song, “ABC Boogie,” contains some of the earliest guitar solos in music history, while “Two Hound Dogs” makes use of a dual sax sound that takes over and dominates the song.

Possibly the single song that would characterize Haley’s new sound best was “Birth Of The Boogie.” Here, Haley combines drums, guitars, and saxophone together into one explosive sound, and what may seem so elementary today was groundbreaking in 1954.