![]() In England, there were small teenage riots where “Blackboard Jungle” played, as young “Teddy Boys” (English for tough gang members) would often rip out seats from the theater. Kids flocked to the theater, but for an unprecedented reason: they often came not to watch the film, but to hear its theme song play in the credits. The movie and the song both proved to be smash hits. “Blackboard Jungle” was released on March 25, 1955. It fit the bill perfectly, so they set the opening and closing credits to the song. So, they decided to raid Peter Ford’s record collection where they found “Rock Around the Clock”. Ford and the producers decided that they needed some music in the film that represented what the kids were listening to. In another classic example of Hollywood’s “Age Cheating”, Sidney Poitier, the angry delinquent high school kid, was actually 28 when he appeared in the film.) ![]() However, I may be missing an earlier more obscure role, so take that “fact” with a grain of salt and if you know of a previous such role, leave it in the comments below.) While Poitier’s delinquent punk character is unsympathetic and unlikable, he may have been playing a breakthrough character in film history. For most all of movie history up until the mid to late 1960s, with very rare exceptions, all African-American roles were either foolish clowns, subservient maids, unbelievably great tap dancers, or simply mild-mannered and cooperative, but always non-threatening, men and women. (By the way, was this the first-ever film to depict a strong, rebellious black character? This is an honest question, not rhetorical. It was the story of a teacher (Ford) trying to cope with a classroom filled with tough juvenile delinquents, led by the great Sidney Poitier. Glenn was about to star in a gritty film called “Blackboard Jungle”. Peter’s father was the popular actor Glenn Ford. And that’s where our story would have ended, if it wasn’t for a teenage boy named Peter Ford. “Thirteen Women (And Only One Man in Town)” was released and barely touched the lower reaches of the charts before quickly disappearing from American pop-culture history. Who was the next singer to record after “Rock Around the Clock” was cut? Sammy Davis Jr.) As Bill Haley and his band recorded “Rock Around the Clock”, a young black singer waited outside for his turn at the mic, to do some recording of his own. (As a great additional piece of trivia, I have to add one irrelevant, but fascinating, true factoid. The band ground out the soon-to-be-legendary song in just two takes. Session guitarist Danny Cedrone just used a guitar solo he’d already used on previous records for the song. Having spent most of their studio time on the A-side, Bill Haley and his session band had only 40 minutes to arrange “Rock Around the Clock” (hardly rocking around the clock then while recording it). Know it? Of course not- almost no one does. Selected for the A-side was a song called “Thirteen Women (And Only One Man in Town)”. In other words, the B-side is usually “filler”. It is traditionally reserved for experimental songs, half-hearted instrumentals and throwaways. For anyone who doesn’t know, the B-side of almost any record is the lesser important side. When Bill Haley recorded “Rock Around the Clock”, his producer insisted on slapping the song on the B-side of the record. If it wasn’t for the musical tastes of one teenage boy, the song that made Rock music cool and mainstream might have disappeared into obscurity. It transformed rock from a novelty and a curiosity to a dominant force in popular music, paving the way for the brilliance of Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, and countless others. “Rock Around the Clock” was, however, the first-ever Rock ‘n’ Roll song to hit the #1 spot on the pop charts. In fact, it wasn’t even Bill Haley’s first Rock record. Contrary to popular belief, “Rock Around the Clock” was not the first Rock ‘n’ Roll record to be recorded.
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