CoronaVinyl Day 174 (H): Bill Haley's Greatest Hits! by Bill Haley & His Comets

For an explanation of CoronaVinyl, click here.

Today's CoronaVinyl category is "H," and I'm going with a greatest hits album from one of the biggest early rock and roll bands, Bill Haley & His Comets.  I have their 1968 album Bill Haley's Greatest Hits!, and it has eleven of the group's songs, including some of their biggest hits.

For those too young or unlearned to know, Bill Haley & His Comets released "Rock Around the Clock" in 1954, and it changed music forever.  It is considered one of the first rock and roll songs ever released, and it set off the early rock and roll era, thanks in part to its inclusion at the beginning of the 1955 teen drama Blackboard Jungle.  That film is credited as one of the impetuses for teenage rebellion in the '50s, and there were often riots in the theaters because teenagers were going so crazy over the film and the music in it.

"Rock Around the Clock" became the first rock and roll song to reach #1 on the Billboard pop chart, and it stayed at the top spot for eight weeks.  The group also had a 14 other Top 40 hits between 1953 and 1959, including three other Top 10 songs.  However, as more "rebellious" rock and rollers, like Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Gene Vincent, and Little Richard, began to rise to fame in the mid to late '50s, Haley & The Comets' popularity waned.

The album doesn't have a couple songs I would have liked to have seen on there, like the band's first hit, 1953's "Crazy Man Crazy," but it's still a nice slice of '50s rock and roll.  The version of the album on Spotify contains an extra track, and the track listing is different than the one on the album.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Rock Around the Clock"

As alluded to above, it's hard to overstate this song's influence.  While I don't think it was the first rock and roll song ever -- I'd agree with many pundits that that distinction belongs to Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats' 1951 song "Rocket 88" -- "Rock Around the Clock" kind of started the whole damn craze.  It was #1 in the U.S., UK, and Australia, and it paved the way for the Rock and Roll Era.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Shake, Rattle & Roll"
The Comets' cover of Big Joe Turner's fantastic uptempo R&B song (both of which were released in 1954) brings some rock and roll flair to the song.  The original reached #1 on the Billboard R&B singles chart and #22 on the Billboard pop chart, while the Comets' cover went to #7 on the pop chart.