William John Clifton Haley was born 6th July 1925 at Highland Park, Michigan. His father,
William Albert Haley was from Firebrick, Kentucky. His mother, Maude Green was English,
she came from Ulverston in Lancashire and emigrated to the States during her teens. Later
the family moved to Boothwyn, near the town of Chester, Pennsylvania.  At home, Bill was
surrounded by music, his father played Banjo, his mother who had been classically trained,
taught piano.

His first performances date from about 1938, when as a child he sang and played guitar at
variety shows, put on by local children to raise money for local causes. Haley was a shy
child, perhaps due to the fact that he had been blind in his left eye since infancy.  This made
him extremely self conscious about his appearance.

In his late teens, Bill found work playing the local amusement parks, which featured live enter-
tainment. His first break came when he signed on with 'Cousin Lee's Band' who had a popular
radio show. Haley sang, played his guitar and yodelled. Because of his disability, he avoided
being called into the armed forces in WWII. At this time a group called the 'Downhomers'
were looking for a singing yodeller to replace their lead singer, who had been drafted in 1944.
Haley joined the group and even at this early stage was talking about combining country and
pop music. At the age of 22, Bill left the 'Downhomers', and returned to Chester to host a
local radio programme on the newly formed station WPWA. At this time he also married his
childhood sweetheart Dorothy Crowe a beautiful part American Indian girl.

the Four Aces of Western Swing
In 1948, Bill released his first records on the 'Cowboy' label with his backing group  the 'Four
Aces of Western Swing', made up of  Al Constantine (Accordion), Barney Barnard (bass)
and Tex King (guitar)

The Saddlemen
The 'Four Aces' disbanded in mid '49 and Haley formed a new band, 'The Saddlemen' which
in turn was ultimately to become the very first rock and roll band in history, the 'Comets'. Al
Rex on bass, Billy Williamson on steel guitar and  Johnny Grande played piano and accordion.
Haley fronted this group wearing a ten-gallon stetson covering his trademark kiss-curl, a hair
style he developed to take attention away from his blind eye. Bass player Al Rex would leave
the group in 1951 to be replaced by 17 year old Marshall Lytle.

'You women have heard of jalopies, you've heard the noise they make', so began the song that
was to break the mould and create a piece of musical history. 'Rocket 88' originally recorded
by the black group Jackie Brenston and his Deltacats. The year was 1951 and this was the
first time a white country singer had covered a hard rhythm and blues tune. Danny Cedrone
supplemented Billy Williamson's guitar playing on this release and Haley delivered the song in
a low, forceful vocal complemented by Al Rex's heavy slap bass.

In 1952 the band cut 'Rock The Joint'  with sales topping 75,000. In early 1953 Bill began
further developing his formula for what was ultimately to become rock and roll. He added
drums to the line up, initially hiring young drummer Charlie Higler. He was replaced in the
Summer of 1953 by Dick Richards. The transformation from Western swing band was almost
complete. Only one last ingredient remained to be added in the form of sax player Joey
D'ambrosio. Whilst 'Rock The Joint' had been a modest hit, their next release was to give them
their first taste of stardom. 'Crazy, Man, Crazy', written by Haley and Marshall Lytle sitting at
Bill's kitchen table. The lyric was purportedly based on a phrase Bill picked up while performing
on one of his numerous high school shows.

On a personal level the pressures of touring began to take their toll on his marriage ultimately
leading to his divorce from Dorothy. He was shortly afterwards to marry a pretty young blonde
girl, Barbara Joan Cupchack (Cuppy).

'Crazy, Man, Crazy' shot into the U.S. Top 20 and gained Haley national success. Newspapers
ran stories which gave the impression that Bill's story was one of overnight success, conveniently
forgetting it was the culmination of many years hard work.

we're gonna Rock . . .
April 12th 1954, Pythian Temple Studio, West 80th Street, New York City. The song that
introduced rock & roll to the unsuspecting public was recorded in a converted ballroom, the high
vaulted ceilings adding to the dynamics of the recording.

The Comets - Danny Cedrone, Billy Williamson, Johnny Grande, Joey D'Ambrosio (tenor sax),
Marshall Lytle (bass) and Billy Gussack (drums)*, stood on a stage, some four feet above Haley.
He  stood, facing the stage, on the beautiful wooden dance floor, close to the microphone, about
eight feet from his musicians. *at the insistance of Gabler the Comets regular drummer, Dick
Richards was replaced by Gussack at the session  1,2, 3 o'clock  Milt Gabler, sat in the control
room, urging the engineers to crank up the levels, as the meters bounced up into the red.

Gabler was an experienced producer, having previously recorded The Inkspots, Louis Jordan
and Ella Fitzgerald. He was to remain in control of Bill's recording dates for the next 5 years.

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