50s - Rock Around The Clock

Rock Around The Clock

"Rock Around the Clock" is a 12-bar-blues-based song written by Max C. Freedman and James E. Myers (aka Jimmy DeKnight) in late 1952. The best-known and most successful rendition was recorded by Bill Haley and His Comets in 1954.

Although it was not Bill Haley's first rock and roll record (he had American chart success with "Crazy Man, Crazy" in 1953, and in 1954, "Shake, Rattle and Roll" reached #1 on the Billboard R&B chart), this recording became an anthem for the rebellious Fifties youth and is widely considered to be the song that, more than any other, brought rock and roll into mainstream culture in the USA and around the world.

The song, 'though recorded in 1954, only topped the US Single Charts in June 1955, when it was used playing over the credits of the movie, Blackboard Jungle.

"Rock Around the Clock" became the first rock and roll recording to hit the top of US Billboard's Pop charts. The song stayed at this place for eight weeks.

In the UK, the song reached number 17 on the pop charts in January 1955, four months before it first entered the US pop charts. The song re-entered the UK charts to reach #1 in November 1955, and after a three-week break returned to the top place for a further two weeks in January 1956.