Like A Comet

Happy birthday, Bill Haley. What an unusual guy to start off the rock and roll explosion.  It almost didn't happen.

In 1954 he and his group the Comets went into the Decca studio to record a single, "Thirteen Women (And Only One Man In Town)." It took a couple of hours and they didn't have much time left, so for the B-side they recorded a song they'd been doing regularly in concert, "Rock Around The Clock." They nailed it in two takes.

The single didn't do that well, but one fan who bought it was a youngster into R&B named Paul Ford. His dad was Glenn Ford and his mom was Eleanor Powell, so he was well-connected.  Glenn was about the make a gritty drama about a high school teacher in a tough neighborhood. The producers wanted a new sound to open the film, so he borrowed some records from his son's collection.

With the movie behind it, the recording became a huge hit, the first rock and roll song to go to #1. And it stayed there for eight weeks. It's continued to sell and with over 25 millions units is by my count one of the top five singles of all time.



"Thirteen Women" has long since become the B-side. Not bad.