Bill Haley Part 2

In this episode, Bill records two albums in Mexico; the high price of success; touring the Pacific and Europe and its effect on him and the Comets. Recorded at CFUN/Vancouver 5-31-66 It’s hard to put a finger on the first Rock and Roll record but there is no doubt Bill Haley made it happen all over the world. Here was a Country and Western singer playing "Western Swing" much like the music of Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys. The novel part of Bill Haley's music - its rhythm - was the dominant factor that made Rock and Roll. At Bill's first session with Decca, he recorded "Rock Around the Clock" and "Shake, Rattle and Roll", which were to transform the concept of what popular music could be. "Rock Around the Clock" was featured in a youth-oriented movie called "Blackboard Jungle" and all hell broke loose. This movie and the song "Rock Around the Clock" became the focal points of the young and gave greater thrust to the popularity of this new hybrid of music, "Rock and Roll". In July of 1955 I had just graduated from High School and I was a young, high-voiced, rapid-patter deejay on CJOR/Vancouver. It all came together when a Decca recording landed on my desk. It was Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock" and it changed music - and radio - forever. Bill Haley arrived in Vancouver to play the first real Rock and Roll concert at the Kerrisdale Arena in June of 1956. When he arrived in Vancouver for his concert it was sheer bedlam. The show had been sold out for weeks before his arrival. I stepped out on to that stage and felt the electricity in the air immediately. I thanked Jack Cullen for asking me to MC the show and introduced Bill Haley. The screams started just after I said "And now the man you've been waiting for..." I thought the roof was going to be ripped off by the sheer weight of the noise. While Bill Haley played through his set I waited backstage for my first interview with the man who brought it all together. He was an utter surprise to me. He was kind and friendly, he was aware of my nervousness in his presence, but made me feel comfortable instantly. We talked for about an hour, had a few photographs taken together (by renowned Vancouver photographer John McGinnis) and he vanished into the night like so many of the stars I was to meet over the years. I knew then that here was a man of significance in the history of North American music. One of the most fascinating stories from that meeting was his almost prophetic offering to me. Bill said in the midst of the conversation, "Red, we have just about reached the end of our time in the spotlight." I could not understand this thinking; he was at the height of his career and the hits just kept on coming. Yet, he insisted that he and the Comets were about to be overtaken by a young man from Memphis. Haley said, "Red, the next giant of Rock and Roll is going to be Elvis Presley. He's got the looks, the talent and the magic to make him very, very important in the months and years ahead." Bill Haley was right. You know that, I know that, but in that dressing room at the Kerrisdale Arena during that hot Spring night in 1956 standing there with the world's number one Rock and Roll artist, it was hard to conceive of anyone bigger than Bill Haley and the Comets.