"Rock Around the Clock" was a Last-Minute Addition to
the recording session. 

On April 12, 1954, Bill Haley and His Comets recorded
“(We’re Gonna) Rock Around The Clock” at a Decca
recording session in New York City.

If rock and roll was a social and cultural revolution,
then “(We’re Gonna) Rock Around The Clock” was
its Declaration of Independence. And if Bill Haley
was not exactly the revolution’s Thomas Jefferson,
it may be fair to call him its John Hancock.

The song was chosen to play over the opening
credits of the film Blackboard Jungle, which is
how it became a pop sensation, selling a million
copies in a single month in the spring of 1955.

William (Bill) John Clifton Haley
(July 6, 1925 – February 9, 1981)

By the spring of 1965, Bob Dylan’s presence in the world of
music was beginning to be felt well outside the boundaries
of his nominal genre. Within the world of folk music, he had
been hailed as a hero for several years already, but now his
music was capturing the attention and influencing the
direction of artists like the Byrds, the Beatles and even a
young Stevie Wonder.

With Dylan as a direct inspiration, popular music was about
to change its direction, but so was Dylan himself. On June
16, 1965, on their second day of recording at Columbia
Records’ Studio A in Manhattan, he and a band featuring
electric guitars and an organ laid down the master take of
the song that would announce that change: “Like A Rolling
Stone.” It would prove to be “folksinger” Bob Dylan’s
magnum opus and, arguably, the greatest rock and roll
record of all time.

Bob Dylan had his 83rd birthday in May.

 
     SANDY KOZEL                                    

   
On July 9, 1955 "Rock Around the Clock" became the first rock
and roll recording to hit the top of Billboard‘s Pop charts.

The song is ranked No. 159 on the Rolling Stone magazine’s
list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

The Pythian condominium building,
formerly the Pythian Temple where
the recording session for “Rock
Around the Clock” took place.  

Johnny Cash, backed by an all-star ensemble of talent, stepped
on stage at California State Prison in Folsom on this day in
history, Jan. 13, 1968. 

The concert and the subsequent live album launched him back
into the charts and re-defined his career.

The Man in Black recorded a landmark album that included
a song written by inmate Glen Sherley (right).