Rock Around The Clock - Decca Recording Session

Decca Recording Session

After leaving Essex Records in the spring of 1954, Bill Haley signed with the then-important Decca Records label, and the band's first recording session was set for April 12, 1954 at the Pythian Temple studios in New York City. The recording session almost failed to take place because the band was traveling on a ferry that got stuck on a sandbar en route to New York from Philadelphia. Once at the studio, producer Milt Gabler (Uncle of actor Billy Crystal, who had produced Louis Jordan as well as Billie Holiday), insisted the band work on a song entitled "Thirteen Women (and Only One Man in Town)" (previously written and recorded by Dickie Thompson), which Gabler wanted to promote as the A-side of the group's first single for Decca.

Near the end of the session, the band finally recorded a take of "Rock Around the Clock," but Haley's vocals were drowned out by the band. A second take was quickly made with minimal accompaniment while Sammy Davis, Jr. waited outside the studio for his turn behind the microphone. Decca engineers later combined the two versions together into one version. (Comets piano player Johnny Grande tells a slightly different version, claiming that the only reason a second take was recorded was that the drummer made an error.)

Many musicians have claimed that they performed on the recording session for "Rock Around the Clock." The song's co-writer, James E. Myers, once claimed he had played drums on the piece, although he also claimed to have been advising the sound mixer in the recording booth. According to the official record sheet from the session, however, the musicians on the famous recording are :

• Bill Haley – vocals and rhythm guitar
• Marshall Lytle – string bass
• Joey Ambrose (aka Joey D'Ambrosio) – tenor saxophone
• Billy Williamson – steel guitar
• Johnny Grande – piano
• Billy Gussak – drums
• Danny Cedrone – electric guitar

Despite not being members of Bill Haley and His Comets, Gussak and Cedrone were trusted session players that Haley had used before. Cedrone's guitar solo was one that he used before on Bill Haley And The Saddlemen's version of "Rock the Joint" in 1952, and is considered one of the classic rock and roll guitar solos of all time. (Cedrone died in a fall down a stairway on June 17, 1954 and never lived to see his contribution become famous and legendary.) The second instrumental break recreates a popular rhythm and blues "out chorus" with tenor sax and guitar emulating the rhythm section.

The version of "Rock Around the Clock" that was used in the movie Blackboard Jungle differs from the hit single version. The difference is in the two solo breaks. The record has the guitar solo taking the first break and the sax solo taking the second break. The movie version is just the opposite with the sax solo coming first.

In a 2005 retrospective on his uncle Milt Gabler's work (The Milt Gabler Story), Billy Crystal identifies Haley's 1954 recording of "Rock Around the Clock" as the single most important song Gabler ever produced. Gabler had previously been responsible for the highly successful string of R&B and jump blues recordings by Louis Jordan in the late 1940s, which were characterised by their strong beat, clearly enunciated lyrics and high production values, all features which Gabler sought to repeat in Haley's recordings. Also significantly, "Rock Around The Clock" was recorded in the very same month that Atlantic Records issued Big Joe Turner's "Shake, Rattle and Roll". In relation to "Rock Around The Clock", Gabler said: "I was aware that rock was starting. I knew what was happening in the Philadelphia area, and "Crazy Man, Crazy" had been a hit about a year before that. It already was starting and I wanted to take it from there."