On December 5, 1932, Richard Wayne Penniman was born in Macon, Georgia with a father who was a church deacon who owned a nightclub. When Richard was a child, family members nicknamed the small skinny kid, “Lil’ Richard.” He would grow up to shake up the rock and roll world as Little Richard.
Little Richard first break came after Sister Rosetta Tharpe heard the 14-year-old singing and invited him onstage with her at a concert. His first big hit, “Tutti Frutti,” came in 1955, and it would be followed by other classics like “Long Tall Sally,” “Lucille,” and “Good Golly Miss Molly.”
In 1966, Little Richard performed a show in France. Fortunately, much of the show was recorded, so you may watch part of the performance below to celebrate his birthday.
On April 12, 1954, Bill Haley & the Comets recorded the rock and roll classic, “(We’re Gonna) Rock Around the Clock.” During the recording session, the band spent most of the time on another song. It would be in the final forty minutes of that three-hour session where the band would make history, with a little later help by a 10-year-old kid.
The Rushed Recording Session
The band went in the recording studio for Decca Records that day and worked on the song “Thirteen Women (and Only One Man in Town)” for most of the three-hour session. Finally, with forty minutes left, they turned to “(We’re Gonna) Rock Around the Clock.”
At the start of that forty minutes, the group played “Rock Around the Clock” one time. Then, because the first recording of “Rock Around the Clock” did not sound right, they then ran through a second take, leaving Sammy Davis Jr. in the hallway waiting for his turn in the studio.
Time was running out. So, an engineer was able to put together the two takes to make the classic record we know today.
The Guitar Solo
Because of the rushed nature of the recording of “Rock Around the Clock” the guitarist for the session, Danny Cedrone, did not have time to put together a unique guitar solo for the song. So he stuck in a solo he had used two years earlier with Haley on a song called “Rock This Joint.”
You may hear the familiar solo that Cedrone took from “Rock This Joint” in the video below.
The B-Side Release and Modest Sales
That spring, Decca released “Rock Around the Clock” as the B-side to the song on which the Comets spent most of the recording session, “Thirteen Women (and Only One Man in Town).”
The single “Thirteen Women” and B-side “Rock Around the Clock” had modest sales that year. Perhaps the record would have remained a modest hit if not for a little boy.
Glen Ford’s Son Saves the Song
A 10-year-old named Peter Ford fell in love with the B-side of his new record. Peter eventually played the song for his father, the actor Glen Ford.
Ford was preparing to star in a movie called Blackboard Jungle (1955). Ford took the record, along with some others, from his son’s collection to the movie’s producers (or some accounts have the producers hearing the song at Ford’s home).
“(We’re Gonna) Rock Around the Clock” was selected to be played over the opening credits of the film about juvenile delinquency that also starred Sidney Poitier. With the boost from the movie, “Rock Around the Clock” sold more than a million copies in one month in 1955.
“Rock Around the Clock” Lives On
Twenty years later the song was familiar for another generation when it appeared on the soundtrack of American Graffiti (1973) and was used as the opening of the TV series Happy Days (1974-1984) for its first two seasons.
Funny how a rushed job, a 10-year-old kid, and a little luck created one of the most memorable records of the early rock era. It also helped send the late Bill Haley to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. And on April 14, 2012, a few days after the fifty-eighth anniversary of the recording of “Rock Around the Clock,” the Comets were finally inducted too.
What do you think of “Rock Around the Clock” and inducting the Comets into the Hall of Fame? Leave your two cents in the comments.
