May 10: Rock Around the Clock

“Rock Around the Clock,” by Bill Haley and the Comets, was released on this date in 1954. (To see them playing it on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1955, see below). The first rock and roll song in history to reach number one on the Billboard charts, it was written two years earlier by Max C. Freedman and James Myers (credited as “Jimmy De Knight”), Jewish Tin Pan Alley songwriters — although several sources, including members of the Comets, claimed that “De Knight” had little or nothing to do with the song’s creation. Milton Gabler (also Jewish) had signed Bill Haley and the Comets to Decca Records just the month before. “Rock Around the Clock” became the theme of the film, Blackboard Jungle, the following year. Ultimately it was the best-selling 45 rpm single of all time, according to the Guinness Book of Records. In 1958, Mickey Katz and his orchestra recorded a version called “K’nock Around the Clock.” You can read everything anyone could ever want to know about “Rock Around the Clock” by clicking here.

“We’re gonna rock around the clock tonight,
We’re gonna rock, rock, rock, ’til broad daylight.
We’re gonna rock, gonna rock, around the clock tonight.” —Max C. Freedman

Watch Bill Haley and the Comets perform “Rock Around the Clock” on American Bandstand: