Although they would be come known for one of the first smash singles of the rock
and roll era, Chester, Pennsylvania’s Bill Haley & His Comets began in 1949 as
the country music act Bill Haley and the Saddlemen. They became the Comets in
1952 and began to incorporate R&B into their country sound on early singles like
“Crazy Man Crazy”, a number 12 hit in 1953. They signed with Decca in 1954 and
their first single featured “Rock Around the Clock” on the B side. The song
eventually became the A side and topped the charts in America and the UK and is
widely recognized as the first r...