Fantastic, to see this on TV in 1955 must've been unbelievable. Bill Haley & his Comets were the true instigators & leaders of the Rock n Roll revolution & movement. They're the ones that lit the fuse igniting the explosion. It was so new & exciting & nothing tops Rock Around The Clock everytime I hear it it drives me crazy. This was before Franny Beecher joined & it's Bill Haley playing the Danny Cedrone guitar solo. Interesting.
There is a sharp dividing line between before and after Bill Haley, the man who started the rock revolution!."Rock Around the Clock" is the real rock and roll anthem. “Before it became a hit in summer 1955 - more than a year after it was recorded - rock ‘n’ roll was virtually an underground movement, something kids listened to on the sly,” wrote journalist Alex Frazer-Harrison. “This changed after ‘Rock Around the Clock.’ The music was everywhere.”.
The song was used as the theme song for the first two seasons of "Happy Days" (1974-1975). Beginning in Season 3 (1975-1976), they changed "Rock Around the Clock" to "Happy Days". In 1981, a portion of the 1954 recording was featured in the opening credits of Season 6 of Austin City Limits.
Terrific big band treatment, and production! Great to see Arnold Stang on top of the piano...anyone remember him from those Chunky candy TV commercials in the 50s and 60s? His big line was "Chunky...what a chunk of chocolate..."
A rare Haley performance with more or less the band that actually recorded RATC in April '54 less the already deceased Danny Cedrone,who had died weeks after the recording session. By 1956 when most Haley TV appearances were broadcast,Joey Ambrose on sax, Marshall Lytle on bass and Dick[last name escapes me,sorry] on drums had left in a money dispute to form the Jodimars[JOe, DIck, MARShall]. .
Wow! That's amazing that The Van Halen Brothers & David Lee Roth wrote this song considering they were all less than 3 years old when that song came out. Talk about prodigies (check the credits under "Show More")
The band that actually recorded RATC minus Danny Cedrone on lead guitar and Billy Gussack who played drums on the session in place of Dick Richards who does appear here.
В союзе тех кто танцевал рок энд ролл исключали из комсомола а иногда выгоняли из института но все равно музыка как то доходила и все знали про эту музыку на мое поколение пришёлся уже твист с каким удовольствием я его танцевала
April 12th, 1954. Recorded at Decca's Pythian Temple studio. Originally the B side of "Thirteen Women", recorded in two takes with less than thirty minutes remaining of the recording session. Released in May 1954, the record went almost nowhere until the daughter of a film producer suggested that RATC should be used as the title music for a 1955 MGM film, "Blackboard Jungle". Due to its exposure in the film, DJ's "flipped the record over". Haley and RATC began a journey into musical history. Little more than ten years LATER, the first wave of the "British Invasion" would redeem the music that had been almost totally destroyed by continued attempts from the record industry to "broaden" it during the 1958-63 period. By 1966, The Yardbirds reprised RATC's bass line in "Over Under Sideways Down", bringing Haley's breakthrough moment full circle.
@Black Buick There's a couple of versions of who the " kid" was. Lost to time apparently. Gabler was so disinterested in "RATC" that the tape reels of two takes lay on a studio table after the session and there was no sense if urgency to join them. Eventually, the released version was both of the takes synched together to account for imbalances in band volume and then vocal volume. Had the band not arrived late to the session, there may have been more time to perfect "RATC". "Thirteen Women" has gathered respect in the "Rockabilly/Poseur" community over the years, mainly due to its guitar line intricacies, harder to replicate than the "RATC" lead break. As for the lyric, it is immediately dated due to its inclusion about nuclear attack and the idea that the singer survived to find thirteen women left in the world. There is no information about Haley ever performing the song live.
@Black Buick The issue beyond the stuck ferry was how acts were recorded at Pythian Temple. Haley's group was likely the first amplified group ever recorded in the space, well known since Decca's big band days. For that matter, it was likely Gabler's first time with a non- "Pop" act. The bands would set up on stage while the vocalist would stand on the floor in front of the raised stage. One take had Haley's vocal down in the mix, the other had Haley at good level but the band not so much. Because they HAD played RATC enough up to that point, they were able to step it off identically both times. The variable would only be Cedrone's lead break, requested by Haley to copy the same break Cedrone had done on "Rock The Joint" in '52. Close listening to clear copies of "RATC" will reveal " ghost notes" from the two takes synched together. Cedrone did not work on a regular basis with Haley on live shows and was a welcome addition anytime he was available. The "RATC/RTJ" break was something of a Cedrone signature piece that was an audience favorite on Danny's own shows. For Cedrone's work in laying down possibly the most iconic Rock break, he earned roughly $36.00. Cedrone never lived to see any of the money "RATC" would go on to generate, having died in July 1954 from injuries sustained from a fall down a flight of steps in Philadelphia, PA after picking up a meal for his family. Succeeding guitarists hired by Haley were expected to replicate the recorded lead break, starting with Frank Beecher, who got the closest of all of Haley's guitar players. Haley would say to the end that only Cedrone could play the break correctly. Beecher carved out his own legendary niche on guitar breaks during his 1955-c.1959 tenure. Of all the members that played on the "RATC" session, only Joey Ambrose is still alive as of 7/2020. Ambrose ( sax) Dick Richards (drums) and Marshall Lytle (bass)left Haley soon after( by early 1955) over money issues. Richards did not play on the RATC session as Billy Gussack, a vaudeville era drummer was hired to do the rim shots integral to the arrangement on the recording. Ambrose,Richards and Lytle went on to form the "Jodimars" with a second drummer and guitarist. They were at best a Comets sound alike act with some successes playing the Vegas lounge circuit in the mid-late '50's. Many years later, a reconstituted version of "The Comets" toured with Ambrose,Richards, Lytle, Beecher and Grande sometimes backing up Haley's daughter(!) on vocals. Haley's son has also attempted to perform a Comets style act but with some lesser level of players. Billy Williamson who, along with Johnny Grande was in partnership with Haley and who together were the original Comets/Saddlemen from about 1951 forward. By the Sixties, Williamson got out of the music business, reportedly never playing another note. To his dying day, he refused all attempts by interviewers to discuss his time with Haley. Haley, hounded by tax issues, spent most of the rest of his life living in Mexico where he remained a big star , performing and recording while touring Europe and Central/South America until his 1982 passing in Harlingen, TX. To see the band( more or less) that actually recorded RATC, the Berle clip posted here is probably the only extant TV footage of them. Elsewhere on YT, two clips from a c.1954 Universal short show the band less Cedrone, doing "Crazy Man Crazy" and "Straight Jacket", a predecessor to the same stage routine they later did on " Rudy's Rock" with different personnel .
@Black Buick One of my great memories was seeing Joey and Dick with whatever iteration of Comets existed in 2015 at Fox Park, Wildwood, NJ which is a few blocks south of the site where the Hofbrau once stood where they appeared many times in the 1950's. There is a commerative plaque on the street corner marking the site. Also in town, there is a mural of their "Hot Rod" album art showing Haley, Johnny, Billy, Joey and Dick. That day,they were opening for Chubby Checker who went on to do the worst show I have ever seen by anyone anywhere including Chuck Berry, but I digress............ Later, mentioning that I had seen the two "survivors" to a close friend who was Danny Gatton's guitar tech, said friend offered to take me to Dick's house anytime I wanted to go. Sadly, I didn't. Much as I also declined an invite to Frank Beecher's house in Gloucester, NJ in the early 2000's while on tour. Silly me. It was a joy to see Richards still pounding the drums at 90. They closed that day with " Rock The Joint". In Wildwood, where they once ruled, sixty plus years later, they were(unlike Checker) doing just that- Rocking The Joint.
@Black Buick I was offered the opportunity during the second half of 2015. I was not told of his vocal issues, only that " Dick has an assload of stories". Apparently, by then he wasn't articulating any of them vocally. A similar thing with the offer to meet Beecher; A guy involved in the "Rockabilly/Poseur" scene in PA after hearing me play said (quote) " I'm going to give you Franny's address in NJ, just go by, tell him I said you're OK! He'd love to meet you! " Right. I've met lots of people who always claim they have a connection to older artists. Maybe they do. Or not. I don't test the situation. I did have the opportunity to meet Scotty Moore when he was appearing with Lee Rocker just months before he could no longer play. I did give him a copy of the album we had out at the time, telling him "Because of listening to you as a kid, I was able to make this record, Thanks! A very gracious man, he signed my copy of his mid sixties solo album.
+jojorobino5312 The band is lip-synching this. But what is interesting is that Haley did do a close facsimile to how Danny Cedrone may have played that last measure!
@@Pickinbuddy Hello there legendary Bill Turner. I like how 7 years later I know who you are now were even friends on Facebook. It's just amazing to me as a young fan I can still talk and interact with you as a huge Bill Haley fan. Thank you!
It's obvious that they are not playing live as guitarist Frank Beecher is not yet in band and what you hear is the actual recording made the previous year with then guitarist Danny Cedrone on lead guitar who by this time had passed away. Guitarist Fank Beecher probably joined the group soon after this performance on Milton Berles show in 1955........
Fascinating debating point....should Franny Beecher not have been there,was he sick,indisposed or had he not yet joined the band?....someone tell us ageing Rocknrollers,before it's too late!
How I've pieced things together, Franny Beecher was not yet a full-time member (only providing session work). He officially joined the Comets in August of 1955. As someone pointed out, it's more plausible that this clip is from 1955, and therefore sometime before August. Bill Haley must have actually played that solo live.
@Black Buick After having listened to a genuine live version from the same year, I think you're right. The steel guitar played a much different solo in place of Danny's famous guitar solo on the recording (and here).
Franny Beecher wasn't in the Comets yet. Until he joined Bill Haley played lead guitar he wasn't sure he needed a lead guitarist yet The iconic solo was recorded by session guitarist Danny Cedrone shortly after the session in 1954 he had an accident falling down a flight of stairs & died. By the time Bill Haley did the Ed Sullivan show later in 1955 Franny Beecher was in the Comets. The Comets had lots of line up changes thru the years. This show also shows the original bass & sax player & drummer on the actual record.
Wow--amazing how Bill Haley, with his limited technique, nails Danny Cedrone's famous solo. But, seriously, yet another instance of the band miming to the 1954 recording.
Greetings--Does anyone know where I could find the rest of this particular episode of the Milton Berle Show? I have been looking for it for years. The pianist who appears for a few seconds in this clip is Johnny Maddox who was a close friend. I would love to be able to find this for his family and myself. I don't even see a way to contact the person who posted this clip directly. Does anyone have ideas? Thanks so much --Adam Swanson
Milton is irritating and weird he was a hit. Did he roll his eyes about the song?Hmm They almost lamed it up however it must of been already a hit. Why would adults like it? it was a song about excitment. acceleration music mimics human excitement. It wasn't for old people. they missed the point the previous music days were over. Kids would rule record sales.
Considering that Bill Haley was 30 at the time, I'm not sure how "young" you have to be to enjoy the music. Yes, a lot of people in Berle's generation (born in 1908) probably weren't gung-ho for it, but he understood that times change and he also knew what audiences wanted. In order to keep young fans, and viewers, he couldn't just dismiss it. And who knows, maybe he actually liked it? I mean, Ed Sullivan (born 1901) wasn't exactly young when he promoted all those early rock stars either.
Fantastic, to see this on TV in 1955 must've been unbelievable. Bill Haley & his Comets were the true instigators & leaders of the Rock n Roll revolution & movement. They're the ones that lit the fuse igniting the explosion. It was so new & exciting & nothing tops Rock Around The Clock everytime I hear it it drives me crazy. This was before Franny Beecher joined & it's Bill Haley playing the Danny Cedrone guitar solo. Interesting.
It's even before Rudy Pompilli
Uncle Milty really brought out the party on this one!
The song that invented youth.
you write shit!
and Rock'n'Roll.
There is a sharp dividing line between before and after Bill Haley, the man who started the rock revolution!."Rock Around the Clock" is the real rock and roll anthem. “Before it became a hit in summer 1955 - more than a year after it was recorded - rock ‘n’ roll was virtually an underground movement, something kids listened to on the sly,” wrote journalist Alex Frazer-Harrison. “This changed after ‘Rock Around the Clock.’ The music was everywhere.”.
Milton Berle 1956 fast foward Uncle Milty 1984 Ratt's round and round. Love them both!
So cool how even though they aren’t actually playing bill Haley knows how to play the solo, that’s pretty cool
Yeah, he was also very good at bass too. Search up the 1958 concert in Belgium. He kicks ass on bass
Woow...Bill Haley on lead guitar!
Well, they’re playing along to a recorded track.
The song was used as the theme song for the first two seasons of "Happy Days" (1974-1975). Beginning in Season 3 (1975-1976), they changed "Rock Around the Clock" to "Happy Days". In 1981, a portion of the 1954 recording was featured in the opening credits of Season 6 of Austin City Limits.
The dancing and outfits look like they are from the early to mid sixties. Amazing the styles of dress and dancing were around then.
"SONG OF THE CENTURY"
+Pickinbuddy Yep, you're absolutely correct
correct.
Terrific big band treatment, and production! Great to see Arnold Stang on top of the piano...anyone remember him from those Chunky candy TV commercials in the 50s and 60s? His big line was "Chunky...what a chunk of chocolate..."
"The Man with the Golden Arm"
A rare Haley performance with more or less the band that actually recorded RATC in April '54 less the already deceased Danny Cedrone,who had died weeks after the recording session. By 1956 when most Haley TV appearances were broadcast,Joey Ambrose on sax, Marshall Lytle on bass and Dick[last name escapes me,sorry] on drums had left in a money dispute to form the Jodimars[JOe, DIck, MARShall].
.
The drummer in the video is Dick Richard, and he wasn't on the ROTC recording. Haley used a session drummer named Billy Gussak .
I remember when Rock Around came out in 1954 I was in New York City.
The dancers are real pros....they add punch to the production!!!!
Wow! That's amazing that The Van Halen Brothers & David Lee Roth wrote this song considering they were all less than 3 years old when that song came out. Talk about prodigies (check the credits under "Show More")
Berle announced it was a current hit record- that would make this 1955.
It was a hit in 54, 55, 56 and a few other years.
The band that actually recorded RATC minus Danny Cedrone on lead guitar and Billy Gussack who played drums on the session in place of Dick Richards who does appear here.
Bill Haley and the Jodimars
В союзе тех кто танцевал рок энд ролл исключали из комсомола а иногда выгоняли из института но все равно музыка как то доходила и все знали про эту музыку на мое поколение пришёлся уже твист с каким удовольствием я его танцевала
Many thanks to share it (poor english, sorry, I'm French)
Thanks oliver didnt know this existed
April 12th, 1954. Recorded at Decca's Pythian Temple studio.
Originally the B side of "Thirteen Women", recorded in two takes with less than thirty minutes remaining of the recording session.
Released in May 1954, the record went almost nowhere
until the daughter of a film producer suggested that
RATC should be used as the title music for a 1955 MGM film, "Blackboard Jungle".
Due to its exposure in the film, DJ's "flipped the record over".
Haley and RATC began a journey into musical history.
Little more than ten years LATER, the first wave of the "British Invasion" would redeem the music that had been almost totally destroyed by continued attempts from the record industry to "broaden" it during the 1958-63 period.
By 1966, The Yardbirds reprised RATC's bass line in "Over Under Sideways Down", bringing Haley's breakthrough moment full circle.
@Black Buick There's a couple of versions of who the " kid" was. Lost to time apparently.
Gabler was so disinterested in "RATC" that the tape reels of two takes lay on a studio table after the session and there was no sense if urgency to join them.
Eventually, the released version was both of the takes synched together to account for imbalances in band volume and then vocal volume.
Had the band not arrived late to the session, there may have been more time to perfect "RATC".
"Thirteen Women" has gathered respect in the "Rockabilly/Poseur" community over the years, mainly due to its guitar line intricacies, harder to replicate than the "RATC" lead break.
As for the lyric, it is immediately dated due to its inclusion about nuclear attack and the idea that the singer survived to find thirteen women left in the world.
There is no information about Haley ever performing the song live.
@Black Buick The issue beyond the stuck ferry was how acts were recorded at Pythian Temple.
Haley's group was likely the first amplified group ever recorded in the space, well known since Decca's big band days. For that matter, it was likely Gabler's first time with a non- "Pop" act.
The bands would set up on stage while the vocalist would stand on the floor in front of the raised stage. One take had Haley's vocal down in the mix, the other had Haley at good level but the band not so much.
Because they HAD played RATC enough up to that point, they were able to step it off identically both times.
The variable would only be Cedrone's lead break, requested by Haley to copy the same break Cedrone had done on "Rock The Joint" in '52.
Close listening to clear copies of "RATC" will reveal " ghost notes" from the two takes synched together.
Cedrone did not work on a regular basis with Haley on live shows and was a welcome addition anytime he was available. The "RATC/RTJ" break was something of a Cedrone signature piece that was an audience favorite on Danny's own shows.
For Cedrone's work in laying down possibly the most iconic Rock break, he earned roughly $36.00.
Cedrone never lived to see any of the money "RATC" would go on to generate, having died in July 1954 from injuries sustained from a fall down a flight of steps in Philadelphia, PA after picking up a meal for his family.
Succeeding guitarists hired by Haley were expected to replicate the recorded lead break, starting with Frank Beecher, who got the closest of all of Haley's guitar players.
Haley would say to the end that only Cedrone could play the break correctly.
Beecher carved out his own legendary niche on guitar breaks during his 1955-c.1959 tenure.
Of all the members that played on the "RATC" session, only Joey Ambrose is still alive as of 7/2020.
Ambrose ( sax) Dick Richards (drums) and Marshall Lytle (bass)left Haley soon after( by early 1955) over money issues.
Richards did not play on the RATC session as Billy Gussack, a vaudeville era drummer was hired to do the rim shots integral to the arrangement on the recording.
Ambrose,Richards and Lytle went on to form the "Jodimars" with a second drummer and guitarist.
They were at best a Comets sound alike act with some successes playing the Vegas lounge circuit in the mid-late '50's.
Many years later, a reconstituted version of "The Comets" toured with Ambrose,Richards, Lytle, Beecher and Grande sometimes backing up Haley's daughter(!) on vocals.
Haley's son has also attempted to perform a Comets style act but with some lesser level of players.
Billy Williamson who, along with Johnny Grande was in partnership with Haley and who together were the original Comets/Saddlemen from about 1951 forward.
By the Sixties, Williamson got out of the music business, reportedly never playing another note.
To his dying day, he refused all attempts by interviewers to discuss his time with Haley.
Haley, hounded by tax issues, spent most of the rest of his life living in Mexico where he remained a big star , performing and recording while touring Europe and Central/South America until his 1982 passing in Harlingen, TX.
To see the band( more or less) that actually recorded RATC, the Berle clip posted here is probably the only extant TV footage of them.
Elsewhere on YT, two clips from a
c.1954 Universal short show the band less Cedrone, doing "Crazy Man Crazy" and "Straight Jacket", a predecessor to the same stage routine they later did on " Rudy's Rock" with different personnel .
@Black Buick One of my great memories was seeing Joey and Dick with whatever iteration of Comets existed in 2015 at Fox Park, Wildwood, NJ which is a few blocks south of the site where the Hofbrau once stood where they appeared many times in the 1950's.
There is a commerative plaque on the street corner marking the site.
Also in town, there is a mural of their "Hot Rod" album art showing Haley, Johnny, Billy, Joey and Dick.
That day,they were opening for
Chubby Checker who went on to do the worst show I have ever seen by anyone anywhere including Chuck Berry, but I digress............
Later, mentioning that I had seen the two "survivors" to a close friend who was Danny Gatton's guitar tech, said friend offered to take me to Dick's house anytime I wanted to go. Sadly, I didn't.
Much as I also declined an invite to Frank Beecher's house in Gloucester, NJ in the early 2000's while on tour.
Silly me.
It was a joy to see Richards still pounding the drums at 90.
They closed that day with " Rock The Joint".
In Wildwood, where they once ruled, sixty plus years later, they were(unlike Checker) doing just that- Rocking The Joint.
@Black Buick I was offered the opportunity during the second half of 2015. I was not told of his vocal issues, only that " Dick has an assload of stories".
Apparently, by then he wasn't articulating any of them vocally.
A similar thing with the offer to meet Beecher; A guy involved in the "Rockabilly/Poseur" scene in PA after hearing me play said (quote)
" I'm going to give you Franny's address in NJ, just go by, tell him I said you're OK! He'd love to meet you! " Right.
I've met lots of people who always claim they have a connection to older artists. Maybe they do. Or not.
I don't test the situation.
I did have the opportunity to meet Scotty Moore when he was appearing with Lee Rocker just months before he could no longer play.
I did give him a copy of the album we had out at the time, telling him "Because of listening to you as a kid, I was able to make this record, Thanks!
A very gracious man, he signed my copy of his mid sixties solo album.
Haley did the solo!
+jojorobino5312 The band is lip-synching this. But what is interesting is that Haley did do a close facsimile to how Danny Cedrone may have played that last measure!
Pickinbuddy Haley must of known to play to solo anyway. It was his song and plus he played guitar. Very interesting information.
That's wild, I didn't even notice at first
@@Pickinbuddy Hello there legendary Bill Turner. I like how 7 years later I know who you are now were even friends on Facebook. It's just amazing to me as a young fan I can still talk and interact with you as a huge Bill Haley fan. Thank you!
@@jojorobino5312 Believe me, I still love this music...and still play it with my own band.
Unusual for the song to be mimed in that period.But, great seeing the clip.
No, that was very typical in that period
It's obvious that they are not playing live as guitarist Frank Beecher is not yet in band and what you hear is the actual recording made the previous year with then guitarist Danny Cedrone on lead guitar who by this time had passed away. Guitarist Fank Beecher probably joined the group soon after this performance on Milton Berles show in 1955........
Lightning in a bottle, and so it became.
I do think it´´s 1955 not 1956.But thanks for posting.
Is this audio not remastered?
Fascinating debating point....should Franny Beecher not have been there,was he sick,indisposed or had he not yet joined the band?....someone tell us ageing Rocknrollers,before it's too late!
How I've pieced things together, Franny Beecher was not yet a full-time member (only providing session work). He officially joined the Comets in August of 1955. As someone pointed out, it's more plausible that this clip is from 1955, and therefore sometime before August. Bill Haley must have actually played that solo live.
SlashMan.EXE Good thinking Slash,I'll go with that,thanks!
He first recorded with the band in 1954 on "dim dim the lights"
@Black Buick After having listened to a genuine live version from the same year, I think you're right. The steel guitar played a much different solo in place of Danny's famous guitar solo on the recording (and here).
Franny Beecher wasn't in the Comets yet. Until he joined Bill Haley played
lead guitar he wasn't sure he needed a lead guitarist yet The iconic solo was recorded by session guitarist Danny Cedrone shortly after the session in 1954 he had an accident falling down a flight of stairs & died. By the time Bill Haley did the Ed Sullivan show later in 1955 Franny Beecher was in the Comets. The Comets had lots of line up changes thru the years. This show also shows the original bass & sax player & drummer on the actual record.
Arnold Stang on piano! (Not "playing" it...but ON it nonetheless!)
+Pickinbuddy Thank u very much
Hah! So he is, puffing away on a smoke! He was Arinies bud in the 1970 Hercules in new York movie.
Wow--amazing how Bill Haley, with his limited technique, nails Danny Cedrone's famous solo. But, seriously, yet another instance of the band miming to the 1954 recording.
They did actually play live on Ed Sullivan, where Franny Beecher does the solo. Other than that I think every TV appearance is mimed.
Greetings--Does anyone know where I could find the rest of this particular episode of the Milton Berle Show? I have been looking for it for years. The pianist who appears for a few seconds in this clip is Johnny Maddox who was a close friend. I would love to be able to find this for his family and myself. I don't even see a way to contact the person who posted this clip directly. Does anyone have ideas? Thanks so much --Adam Swanson
Milton is irritating and weird he was a hit. Did he roll his eyes about the song?Hmm
They almost lamed it up however it must of been already a hit.
Why would adults like it? it was a song about excitment. acceleration music mimics human excitement. It wasn't for old people.
they missed the point the previous music days were over. Kids would rule record sales.
Considering that Bill Haley was 30 at the time, I'm not sure how "young" you have to be to enjoy the music. Yes, a lot of people in Berle's generation (born in 1908) probably weren't gung-ho for it, but he understood that times change and he also knew what audiences wanted. In order to keep young fans, and viewers, he couldn't just dismiss it. And who knows, maybe he actually liked it? I mean, Ed Sullivan (born 1901) wasn't exactly young when he promoted all those early rock stars either.
It's shame it's in black and white. All those colorful costumes!
It's sort of sad that even that long ago, they were just lip-synching to the record.