Bill Haley & His Comets

I don't think the Big Bopper was really inspiring a whole lot of crime back then.

I don't think fucking Bill Haley and his Comets were causing riots, and I don't think that fucking Little Richard was inspiring people to commit rapes.

I just don't think that that was happening.

And so here is this weird guy...

All right.

okay so uh we're looking at the very end of september and a few days into october so we're looking at the week of september 28th to october 4th we're gonna go back we don't do this very often we're gonna actually go back 70 years uh this concert of note because this was 1956 september 29th bill haley and the comets the platters chuck bearer the clovers i think there was frankie lyman and the

No, Chuck Berry was not on that.

He was on the first one.

I tried to find if there was any local acts, but apparently there wasn't on that one.

Oh, okay.

So this show is significant because it was the second time Bill Haley played the Maple Leaf Gardens.

And just earlier, months earlier in the spring, it was April – Bill Haley played for the very first time in Toronto and the significance of that show was widely considered as the very first rock and roll show in Toronto at Maple Leaf Gardens.

And it was just starting to become the hit record that it became.

It's Bill Haley and the Comets Rock Around the Clock.

Not unlike American Graffiti.

It opens up with Rock Around the Clock under the main titles.

I got yelled at because I was mixing monitors, and I thought there were channels at the end of the monitor.

It was like one of those old PV, like four channels, and it was like Stephen was recording, Bill, Pegren, and there was these ones at the end that were like barely on.

And I'm like, oh, those probably aren't even working.

And I just turned him down.

And Bill was like, where'd my whole drum kit go in my monitors? I was like, oh, shoot.

Turn it back up.

Yeah.

The fact that I feel like of the people we're going to talk about, this was the beginning of him coming back up is interesting in the context of when we've talked the last... few episodes about this fascination in the mid, like, early to mid-80s with, like, looking back at that era of rock and roll.

He was hired by Decca in 1941 and would work with Louis Jordan and many others for a long time.

In 1954, he was responsible for signing Bill Haley and the Comets to Decca.

So not only did he have a huge impact on jazz and R&B, but he was also partly responsible for bringing rock and roll to the mainstream.

The other important thing about this session from July 21st is it was Louis' last session before the recording ban of 1942.

Right.

You know, like Bill Haley.

Bill Haley and all of that.

We're now moving into the world of pop stars for the first time.

People like Bobby Darin, 1962.

just is.

And we got on the 7th of June of 1954, Bill Haley and his Comets cover Shake, Rattle and Roll.

You gotta shake, rattle and roll.

It was a big

It was a big deal.

And now the 19th of March, 1955, we have the first multimedia version of rock in a way.

The film Blackboard Jungle is released and it plays a pivotal role in introducing rock and roll with its social commentary on teenage antisocial behavior with Bill Haley and his Comets rock around the clock as a theme song.

And it hits number one