BILL HALEY JR Rocks Around North Haven

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So I've got Bill Hayley Junior on the line.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Hey, Vinny, how are you man?

Speaker 1 (00:05):
I love it. I love that I've got you on
the show right now, and then we're going to get
you in town too at small Batch Sellers, which is
a great spot too.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
That is Saturday May seventeen.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Saturday May seventeen, Small Batchelos. You know, if it's nice
have they said to you yet that Because they're both
an outdoor venue and an indoor if it's nice enough,
it could be an outdoor show.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yeah, I think you know. Fernando Pinto, who who's the
booking agent for this, told me that they're going to
set it up indoors, but if the demand is highing
up they sell enough tickets, they will move it outdoors
because they can accommodate a few hundred more people, I
believe outdoors. So we're not sure yet it'll be interact.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yeah, I will rock around the clock outside. I mean,
do is it still safe to say? I certainly grew
up believing that was the first rock and roll song.
I mean that's what my parents told me.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Well, you know, a lot of people argue about what
constitutes the first rock and roll records et cetera, et cetera.
But rock and Around the Clock was undoubtedly officially the
first number one rock and roll record. They didn't even
call it rock and roll yet. They called it a
fox trot with vocal chorus on the label. But it

(01:21):
was actually recorded in April of nineteen fifty four as
a B side to a record called Thirteen Women and
Only One Man in Town. And when it was released,
it did chart, but it didn't do much.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
I love that title right there.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, yeah. So a year later it was used on
the soundtrack of a movie called Blackboard Jungle about juvenile delinquency,
and that was released in March of nineteen fifty five.
And when that came out, that movie came out, the
kids ran out of the theaters and started requesting it
on the radio and the record stores, and by July
of nineteen fifty five it reached number one, the first

(01:59):
rock and roll record to reach number one, and a
lot of historians we'll say that's the demarcation point where
rock and roll became mainstream and acceptable to the major
record labels, and so they started looking to sign people
like Elvis Presley and Chuck Burry and Little Richard and
nineteen fifty six, all those pioneers emerged too, But you know,

(02:21):
Rock around the Clock in nineteen fifty five was really
the beginning of the rock and roll And of course
my dad was playing this hybrid of hillbilly and Western
or country music and rhythm and blues or race music
as they called it, since the late nineteen forties he
was experimenting. In nineteen fifty one, he recorded a record
called Rocket eighty eight the cover Up a Jackie Princeton

(02:42):
in the Delbi Cats tune, and historians will say that
it might be the first, you know, technically the first
rock and roll record where an artist combined these two
genres of country and Western and rhythm and blues and
made something unique out of it. So my dad was
kind of working that for four or five years before
Rocking around the Clock, and then of course with Rock
around the Clock, Shake ladle and roll, see you later, Alligator,

(03:04):
he became the biggest name and entertainment for a couple
of years, and then of course he took it over
to England, Australia and continental Europe and South America in
nineteen fifty seven and fifty eight spread the gospel of
rock and roll around the world.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
He was doing live, but he performed till the very
end too, didn'ty. I know he passed away in the
early eighties, but I feel like I saw him doing Liya.
I'm going to be fifty eight years old. I was
born in sixty seven. I feel like I saw him
on TV, like maybe Shanna Nah or somebody doing a
live performance. Late seventies. He played until the very end.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
Oh well, yeah, well he played his whole life, with
the exception of a few years. Toward the end he
took off and then came back out again. He did
a command performance for the Queen of England in nineteen
seventy nine. I did maybe more of South America nineteen eighty.
I'm sorry South Africa. He died in nineteen eighty one.
But he was a big part of that rock and
roll revival period you're talking about. And then this was

(04:03):
like the late sixties, early seventies, and he was on Sure,
David Frost and a lot of the TV shows, Richard
Nator's Rock and Roll Revival shows at Madison Square Garden.
So yeah, he was very active for his entire life.
When a saxophone player died in nineteen seventy six, he
took a few years off. He was, you know, kind

(04:24):
of depressed about that, and they were best friends and
they kind of made a pack that have one died,
the other one wouldn't continue. But then my dad couldn't
stay home and he got back out on the road
in the late seventies, of course, he died in Nikenadie
one unexpected.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
Yeah, well, it's interesting the timing of that too, and
the elephant in the room always being when you're talking
Bill Hayley and Rock around the Clock. Moreover, is it
was the Happy Days theme? I mean I knew, I
you know, proud to say I knew the song long
before that. I think a lot of kids. I was

(04:58):
the youngest of four the house, you know, my parents
big Beatles fans, big Elvis fans, uh, you know, rock
and roll fans, sock sock hoppers till the end, you know.
But I mean, you know, I would imagine it being
the theme song to Happy Days for the what little
period of time it even was. I don't know why
they ever bumped it that there was a whole resurgence

(05:20):
came with that too.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
No, oh, absolutely, but is that actually there was a
movie called American Graffiti Sure, which which it was used
in that film as well, and then that inspired The
Happy Days. So yeah, so so yeah, that was a
big boost for the song and my dad and that
song kept coming back and it actually charted in in
England and Europe and France and you know, in the

(05:44):
in the nineteen seventies. It came back. So it's a
it's a record that just keeps on, you know, coming back.
It's probably still being played right now somewhere.

Speaker 1 (05:52):
Sure it's timeless, message is timeless. It's simple in the
best of ways. I have, you know, rock around the
clock one, two, three o'clock. I mean, how can you not?
So as far as Bill Haley Junior and the comments
are concerned original music, have you been recording original music
of your own all this time too? And what are

(06:13):
we getting get small batchsellers?

Speaker 2 (06:16):
No, I actually was doing some of my original stuff.
I kind of avoided this whole connection to my father
a lot of my life for a lot of reasons.
They've you know, ended up writing a book about it,
that's a biography called crazy Man Crazy. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:27):
I saw that. I want to read it. I I
just discovered it. When did you.

Speaker 2 (06:30):
Write it came out in twenty nineteen, I believe, Oh okay, yeah, so,
but I tell the story in the book, But basically
I would this my whole life until I was in
my fifties. But I actually went to a studio and
recorded a CD of my original tunes and did a
CD release party, and at the party, the host that,
can you do some of your dad's tunes? So I

(06:50):
did that reluctantly, and somebody took a cell phone video
put it on YouTube, and I get a call from
a booking agent who says, if you could put together
a band to do your father's music authentically, I can
get you some work. So I decided I would do that,
and that was in twenty ten, and we've played pretty
much all over the states. I've played in England many times.

(07:13):
We actually toured New Zealand. So but it's a rock
and roll history show and we performed the music of
Bill Haley and the Sattlement Bill Haley in the comments,
and I tell a lot of stories between the songs
about the very beginning days of rock and roll. And
depending on the venue, I'm not sure if small badgs
could do this, but we bring a PowerPoint show of
about four hundred and fifty photographs that run during our

(07:34):
show and even a little opening video where we tell
the Bill Haley story. So it's really kind of a
combination music and music and history show all all combined,
and people love it. They always come up after the show.
Of course, they love the band, the music. It's fun music.
It's entertaining to watch because there's a lot of high
jinks on stage with a bass player throwing the bass

(07:55):
and running around and the sax player going crazy. Variably.
They always say, boy, we love the stories. It's so interesting.
So that's that's our approach.

Speaker 1 (08:04):
Yeah, I can't wait to see the show again. It's Saturday.
It's Saturday, May seven. G I'm looking on your Facebook
page right now, Bill Haley Junior and the comments and
it's good. It's going to be do you step outside
your father's and your own music at all? And maybe
some other you know, classic fifties ditties if you.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
Will, Well, we do a few in our show and
depending on the show, because you know this this music
is really it's the beginning. So you're talking seventy years
ago for this music. Yeah, some people, now most of
our audience are there they kind of remember, like yourself
from Happy Days whatever. But some people are even younger.
So depending on the show and the audience, we'll throw in,

(08:46):
you know, some of the classic uh you know, early
rock and roll tunes, you know, like Kansas City and
you know, hold our Shaking going on and those kind
of tunes. But we do we do a uh, what's
what's his name, the big bopper Chantilly Lace. We do
Johnny be Good. So we throw a couple of those

(09:08):
into Bill Hailey tunes because there's so many of them
in there. They're all three minute, quickly peavy, you know,
exciting tunes. But but yeah, we'll for a few John
Haley classic Brock tunes in there as well.

Speaker 1 (09:19):
Sure, Chantilly Lace is tough fun vocally, I had that
forty five. I mean I had Rock around with you know, uh,
Rock around the Clock forty five too, But Chantilly Lace,
that's that's that's a whole different tone.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
No, well, yeah, we have our guitar players sing that
with so we actually give my voice a break. So
we have my guitar players sing a few songs.

Speaker 1 (09:43):
That really takes me back then and.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
That's just you know what when he does that, the
audience just loves it. Me. He just walks around, he
hams it up, he does the whole, you know, the
whole big bopper routine, and people love it. They just
love it.

Speaker 1 (09:56):
Yeah, I'm gonna love it. I can't wait until the show.
Can't wait until we get to North Haven. I love
what you're doing. I loved your dad American Rock and
Roller and it's Bill Hayley Junior in the comics coming Saturday,
May seventeenth, small batchsellers, and I appreciate you coming on today. Hey,
will you be selling your book? Will that be part

(10:17):
of the merch at the event, because I'll snap it
up right there.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
Yep, I will bring some with me. And we also
have a CD. We recorded of these tunes studio CD,
so we have CDs and books, and yes, I'm happy
to sign the books and meet the audience after the show.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to it.
Thanks very much for your time, and I'll.

Speaker 2 (10:37):
See you then, all right, May Thanks very opportunity.

Speaker 1 (10:39):
All right, Bill,