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FeedWhat Kids Want
With local teens in mind, Bill Haley recorded rock ’n’ roll’s seminal anthem.
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What do kids like? Corporations spend millions to find out. But William John Clifton Haley Jr. just listened. Then he used what he learned to invent rock ’n’ roll.
In 1952, while packing up after a gig at Eddystone High School, the leader of a little-known rockabilly band asked an audience member what he thought of the performance. It was, the kid answered, “like, crazy, man, crazy.” Crazy meant very good, the ’50s equivalent of “awesome.”
Haley wrote down the phrase. Then the young musician from Booth’s Corner drove home and, with a fellow band member, began throwing tunes and lyrics together. Written in 30 minutes, “Crazy Man, Crazy” was recorded in April 1953. It was the first rock ’n’ roll recording to appear on the U.S. music charts, peaking at No. 12.
But the blockbuster came two years later when Haley and his band, the Comets, released “Rock Around the Clock,” the biggest-selling rock ’n’ roll single of all time. At least 25 million copies were sold, according to The Guinness Book of World Records. Among all vinyl records, that would place “Rock Around the Clock” second only to Bing Crosby’s 1942 hit, “White Christmas.” An estimated 100 million copies were sold in other forms. Supposedly, “Rock Around the Clock” is playing somewhere in the world every minute of the day.
Born near Detroit, Haley was the son of an auto mechanic from Kentucky who played country music on mandolin and banjo. His mother had studied classical piano in her native England and played the church organ. In 1929, after the elder Haley lost his job, the family moved to Boothwyn to stay with relatives. Haley Sr. eventually found a 25-cents-per-hour factory job, moved his family to Chester and, in 1933, to Booth’s Corner.
Haley was a loner. When he was 4, a bungled ear operation severed an optic nerve, leaving him blind in the left eye. At first, no one noticed. Then, one day, Haley was looking up at a passing airplane, and his father saw he was shading only one eye.
It was a Tom Sawyer sort of childhood for Haley. He swam in Naaman’s Creek and played in the woods, but his partial blindness made him unsuited for sports. He couldn’t hit or catch a baseball. Instead, he preferred to read adventure books and dream of becoming famous. His parents gave him a guitar, which he carried everywhere and played when the family sang together.
Once, a group of local girls chanced upon Haley giving a “concert” in the woods. “After Billy sang each song, he would bow as if pretending the trees were his audience,” one told historian John von Hoelle (co-author of Sound and Glory). “Then, one of the girls coughed or something, and Billy—who didn’t know we were there—looked startled and ran home.”
Given Haley’s background, his success in show business is remarkable. In 1940, he quit school after the eighth grade to work at a bottling plant, filling 5-gallon bottles for 35 cents an hour. Later, he drove a delivery truck.
“The day Bill Haley got his driver’s license, the people of Booth’s Corner began walking on the telephone lines,” said former co-worker Bob Miles. “Boy, did Bill like to drive fast.”
Haley’s first stage performance, in 1941, was at an amateur night sponsored by Siloam Methodist Church. It was a disaster. Haley—who carried his guitar everywhere—had fallen on his bicycle and damaged the instrument. Only four strings worked. He lost to a teen who performed “Wreck of the Old 97” on harmonica. Haley didn’t play in public again for two years, and only then by accident.
