Track Listing

1. (We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock
2. Shake, Rattle and Roll
3. ABC Boogie
4. Thirteen Women (And Only One Man in Town)
5. Razzle-Dazzle
6. Two Hound Dogs
7. Dim, Dim the Lights (I Want Some Atmosphere)
8. Happy Baby
9. Birth of the Boogie
10. Mambo Rock
11. Burn That Candle
12. Rock-A-Beatin' Boogie
13. R-O-C-K [*]
14. Saints Rock & Roll [*]
15. See You Later, Alligator [*]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #74360 in Music
• Brand: MCA
• Released on: 2004-03-23
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Customer Reviews

"Rock Around The Clock" More Than a Great Album - It's an album of Rock n Roll History
Rock Around The Clock - the album, should be just as significant in music history as James Brown's Please Please Please album, a not only great sounding album but an album demonstrating the roots of Brown.

I do however have a special interest in both albums. My father co-wrote Dim Dim The Lights featured on the Rock Around The Clock album. My father knew Haley and Alan Freed so what I am about to say not only gives this album its deserved kudos, it also sets the record straight via primary source information about the history of some of the songs on the album.

Haley first recorded Rock Around The Clock in April of 1954. It didn't do that great, coming in at #33 and only staying on Billboard's Popular chart for one week.

Freed had met Haley in 1953. He showed great interest in Haley, even having him on his radio show out in Cleveland Ohio. What interested Freed about Haley, like Elvis interested Sam Phillips, was that he was looking for a white artist to take R&B to the mainstream and thought Haley could be that vehicle. Freed wasn't naive. He knew he had to do it in this racist world using a white music act. However, he was not willing to do it at the expense of legitimacy. Haley would first have to get the stamp of approval not by white music critics or a white music audience. Haley would have to get his stamp of approval by the Black music audience. This is why, other than a featured guest spot,you don't hear Haley songs until Dim Dim The Lights on Freed's radio shows.

Haley than scored a #7 pop hit doing a cover of Joe Turner's "Shake Rattle and Roll." He recorded his version somewhere in July of 54. Even that song was not played on a Freed show, although maybe Freed wanted to play it.

However, after Haley recorded Dim Dim The Lights in the month of November 54, Freed noticed that it was getting a lot of airplay on R&B stations. Freed started playing the song when Dim Dim The Lights became the first R&B song recorded by a white artist to not only get on the R&B charts but land in its Top Ten. Freed was on WINS New York by then playing an authentic R&B program. Dim Dim was also a Top Ten Pop hit on the Variety Charts, which was a more prestigious chart than Billboard or Cash Box back then, making Dim Dim The Lights the first record by a white act to be on two charts - top ten at that.

Everyone started playing and buying the three Haley songs that were lingering out there, which included left over Rock Around The Clock 45's still hanging around record stores from 54 and juke boxes. That's why one might see Rock Around The Clock getting significant juke box play around January of 55, which was clearly off the heels and success of Dim Dim The Lights.

This would explain why the producer of the movie "The Blackboard Jungle" starring Glen Ford heard his little preteen daughter playing Rock Around The Clock in January of 55 on her record player. He liked the response his daughter was giving the record so he decided to use it in the movie's soundtrack.

The success of the movie and its soundttrack told Decca Records to re-release Rock Around The Clock as a single in July of 55. That's why this album gets to us in 56.

While there is no question that Rock Around The Clock became the anthem of the R&B genre under the now agreed term Rock n' Roll with its first Rock n' Roll Icon, Bill Haley, rather than Rhythm and Blues and historically is considered the first international R&B/RR record, Dim Dim The Lights no doubt led the way and as Alan Freed said, "...is the grand daddy song of Rock n Roll."

There is room for little doubt that when Haley put an original thumb print on an R&B song he clearly performed a song in the Rhythm and Blues' spirit. That he didn't do with Shake Rattle and Roll. Maybe because he leaned away from the genre due to a command R&B performance by Joe Turner. But when he recorded Rock Around The Clock it was original and in the true R&B vain. It just had to wait for a stamp of approval. That came after he decided to record Dim Dim The Lights. My father told me that Haley did follow his demo that was given to him.

So when listening to this great album you will see Haley at his finest R&B performance level with most of the songs. Pay close attention to Thirteen Women. It has a Cab Calloway Band feeling to hit.

What's on it
1. Rock Around the Clock
2. Shake, Rattle & Roll
3. A.B.C. Boogie
4. Thirteen Women
5. Razzle Dazzle
6. Two Hound Dogs
7. Dim, Dim the Lights
8. Happy Baby
9. Birth of the Boogie
10. Mambo Rock
11. Burn that Candle
12. Rock-A-Beatin' Boogie

Bonus Tracks:
13. R-O-C-K
14. The Saints Rock'n'Roll
15. See You Later, Alligator

THE FIRST GREAT ALBUM OF THE ROCK 'N' ROLL ERA
Before Elvis checked into the heartbreak hotel, before Chuck Berry caught Maybellene on the top of the hill, before Carl Perkins put on his blue suede shoes, Bill Haley and his Comets were rockin' around the clock. What do you get with this c.d.? Guitar work that would sound right at home with todays modern jump blues, some of the earliest rockabilly ever recorded, birth of the boogie, and the first great album of the rock'n'roll era! He may have looked like a square, but hey, Bill Haley was one hip cat.
See you later, alligator
Thanks,
Tom