My dad was the original king of rock and roll...
TELLS ALEX GREEN WHY HIS FATHER SHOULD HAVE A SPECIAL PLACE IN THE HISTORY OF MODERN MUSIC
CONSIDERED by many to be the father of rock and roll thanks to his 1954 hit Rock Around the Clock, Bill Haley helped inspire a generation of artists.
But according to his son, the singer and guitarist, who died in 1981 aged 55 after a long battle with alcoholism, has not received the recognition he deserves.
“My father was a very important figure who was overlooked, particularly here in the US,” says Bill Haley Jr via video call from Pennsylvania. “He is much more appreciated in the UK, in Europe and Germany in particular, but here in the US he was dismissed by a lot of the music critics. When the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame started, the first year he was not even included in the first class of inductees.”
Bill Jr has written a book about his father, titled Crazy Man, Crazy after one of his best-known songs. He also performs a “rock and roll history show” with his own band, sharing stories behind the classic tracks. Despite a difficult relationship with his father – who left the family in 1962 when his son was just six – Bill Jr feels a responsibility to educate others about his legacy. “From conversations with him at the end of his life and also the quotes I have read, he was troubled a little bit,” he says.
“He was disappointed that he didn’t receive more recognition for the hard work that he put in. He was dismissed as a one hit wonder, as an insignificant figure, and was really eclipsed by Elvis Presley.”
With his trademark kiss curl hairstyle, sharp suits and energetic stage presence, Bill helped launch the genre that would take over the Western world. The flamboyant showman was married three times and had some 10 children.
Born in July 1925 in Highland Park, Michigan, his interest in music began early. Bill made his first record in 1948 and worked as a DJ while playing in country bands.
But upon hearing the nascent rock and roll genre, he dropped his cowboy image and launched Bill Haley and His Comets.
“This phenomenon that we call rock and roll was really the coming together of two distinctly American forms of music,” says his son.
“One was hillbilly and Western music, as they called it back when my father was performing it. We now call it country music. But that was my father’s first love. “And of course rhythm and blues, which was called race music back then. In a highly segregated society white individuals weren’t really exposed to that kind of music. “Those two forms were going to collide at some point and certainly they did in a phenomenal way.
“My father’s contribution was that he recognised very early on – like 1949 or 1950 – that it was a means of becoming popular and selling records.
“He was looking for a way to get kids and teenagers dancing again.” Now firmly associated with rock and roll, Bill almost found fame as a country artist and dreamed of becoming one up until his death. In 1952, he recorded a tune called
Icy Heart which riffed on the Hank Williams hit Cold Cold Heart. “My father really thought at the time that that record was going to get him on the Grand Ole Opry [the country music stage concert held weekly in Nashville, Tennessee], which was his dream,” says his son. The young musician was on his way to Nashville to promote the track when he got a call from his record producer saying b-side Rock The Joint was going to be the hit. He was told to turn around and instead head for the more metropolitan markets of Cleveland, Baltimore, New York and Philadelphia. “That really changed direction for him,” says Bill Jr. “But he never lost his love of country music.
“From that point forward, obviously, he was obligated to perform the rock and roll tunes. And so he did, and I’m sure he was quite grateful that he had the opportunity.
“He called Rock Around the Clock a little piece of gold he carried around in his pocket, and no matter how bad a show went, when he did that song the audience would react enthusiastically. That made the show.
“I don’t think he disliked playing rock and roll but in an ideal world where he had his choice, he would have loved to have had some success as a country artist as well.
“That probably would have given him even more satisfaction.
“But he never complained about being a prisoner of his hits.”
His performance of Rock Around the Clock on the Ed Sullivan Show in August 1955 was a pivotal moment in the US. His tour of the
UK in 1957 was seen by Beatle Paul McCartney, singer-songwriter Graham Nash and the Who’s Pete Townshend, and left an indelible mark on the country.
“Similar to when the Beatles came to New York in 1964 and appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show,” Bill Jr explains. “Every American kid from 13 years old to 18 went out and bought a guitar and wanted to become a rock and roll star.
“My father’s tour of the UK in ‘57 had a similar impact on the British youth and in particular Paul McCartney has expressed how important it was to him.
“I saw an interview where Graham Nash said he had lost homes, he had lost wives, but he never lost that ticket stub to the Bill Haley concert in Manchester in 1957. It was that important to him.” Bill struggled with his overnight fame and the competition of the acts that followed him, such as Elvis and Little Richard. He descended into alcoholism which triggered physical and mental health problems.
In later life, Bill produced country music and ballads, even if many still clamoured for his rock and roll.
His son believes he would have further explored that musical vein if he had lived longer.
Bill Jr only reconnected with his father in the final years of his life as he struggled with addiction. “Without turning dark about this,” he begins, “my relationship with my father and the conversations I had with him were very difficult because he was usually very, very intoxicated at that point in his life.”
Bill Jr says his father had great admiration for Elvis but also resented him for “stealing his crown”.
Still, his sense of self-worth, and sense of humour, remained intact until the end.
Bill Jr tells how in August 1977 when Elvis died, his father quickly rang home. “He wanted to let us know that he was still alive in case we saw the newspaper headlines saying ‘The King of Rock and Roll’ had died. He was the original king of rock and roll, and later he became the father of rock and roll.”
Bill Haley and the Comets feature on Dreamboats & Petticoats’ What A Wonderful World, out now on Decca. Bill Jr’s book Crazy Man, Crazy: The Bill Haley Story is available now