Rock Around The Clock - Bill Haley and His Comets

"Rock Around The Clock"  (M. Freedman, J. Myers) - Bill Haley and His Comets;  Decca label,   # 1 Billboard Hot 100, # 3 Billboard R&B - 1955.  Inducted in 2007.

Bill Haley's biggest hit didn't sell when it was first issued in 1954 as the b-side of "Thirteen Women (And Only One Man In Town)".  "Rock Around The Clock" was re-released as the a-side the following year, however, after it was used on the soundtrack of Blackboard Jungle, a movie about high school juvenile delinquents.  It became the first rock and roll song ever to reach # 1 in the summer of 1955.  "Rock Around The Clock" also had the distinction of becoming a Top 40 hit again in 1974 due to its use as the original opening theme of TV's Happy Days. 

Haley, who was born in Highland Park, Michigan, was a featured performer in two early rock and roll movies (Rock Around The Clock and Don't Knock The Rock). 

In 1957, Haley and the Comets became the first American rock and roll act to tour England.  Bill Haley was even more popular in Great Britain than in the United States, and "Rock Around The Clock" re-entered the British charts seven times from 1955 through 1974. "Rock Around The Clock" was the first rock and roll recording to be honored with induction into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1982.