Haley Bill, born William John Clifton Haley, *6 July 1925 Highland Park, Michigan, †9 February 1981 Harlingen, Texas, American guitarist and singer. From the age of fifteen he performed country and western music, including with the Downhomers and the Four Aces of Western Swing bands, with whom he made his first recordings in 1948. In 1949 he worked as a radio presenter in Chester, Pennsylvania, and founded the country group Saddlemen. In the early 1950s he began recording “white” versions of rhythm and blues hits; at the same time his band changed its name to The Comets. His first bestseller was Crazy Man Crazy (1953). In 1954 Haley recorded the hit of African American singer Joe Turner, Shake, Rattle and Roll, as well as Rock Around the Clock by M. Freedman and J. Myers, later one of the most famous standards of rock and roll and the musical theme of the film Blackboard Jungle (1955). In 1956 Haley and The Comets presented several of their greatest hits in the film Rock Around the Clock. Haley’s peak popularity in America fell in 1955–56; he remained popular longer in Europe (notably sensational tours of the United Kingdom in 1957 and of West Germany in 1958). Remaining faithful to his earlier style, he gave occasional performances in the 1960s for devoted fans. At the turn of the 1960s and 1970s, during the revival of early rock and roll, he again performed to full houses during tours in the United States, documented in the film Let the Good Times Roll.
Haley was the first white musician to achieve major success performing rock and roll. In his and his band’s version, it was an expressively simplified form of rhythm and blues (Crazy Man Crazy), as well as dixieland melodies (e.g., When the Saints Go Marching In) and country music, sometimes performed (though not invariably) with the rhythm-and-blues-derived accentuation on beats 1 and 3 in 4/4 time. The instrumentation (saxophone, electric guitar) derived from rhythm and blues, while the vocal and instrumental style drew on country and western. The Comets presented a stage show modeled on African American groups (instrument shaking, spins, playing while lying down), elements of which were later adopted by British rock-and-roll bands.
Literature: J. Swenson Bill Haley. The Daddy of Rock and Roll, New York 1983.
