BILL HALEY AND HIS COMETS – Rock ‘N Roll Pioneers Topped The UK Charts With ‘ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK’ 60 Years Ago Today
Top singles from the past
20 November 2025
American musician BILL HALEY (1925-1981) was a rock ‘n’ roll pioneer,
credited by many as the first artist to popularize the then-new form of
music in the early 1950s. Along with his band, the Comets he scored
a series of notable hits.
The biggest one and best known, as every music fan knows,
unless you lived/live on Mars, ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK.
The recording is widely considered to be the song that, more than
any other, brought rock and roll into mainstream culture around
the world.
It was written by Max C. Freedman and James E. Myers.
Although it was first recorded by Italian-American band Sonny Dae and His Knights
in March of 1954, Myers (who was part of that band) claimed the song had been written specifically for Haley, but for legal reasons, Haley was unable to record it himself until
April 1954.
The hit topped the UK Charts this day 60 years ago, on 20 November 1955. It also reached the top spot in the US, Germany, and Australia, and Top-10 in multiple other countries.
“One, two, three o’clock, four o’clock rock
Five, six, seven o’clock, eight o’clock rock
Nine, ten, eleven o’clock, twelve o’clock rock
We’re gonna rock around the clock tonight”
