Released in 1956, Rock Around The Clock was a musical film featuring the talents of Bill Haley & His Comets, and named after the group’s highly successful rock and roll record. Haley and his band were featured in the film, along with The Platters, The Ernie Freeman Combo, and more stars of the time.
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Rock Around The Clock told the fictionalized story of the start of rock and roll. Before that, big band music had been all the rage, but guitars were starting to make their mark. Upon its release, the film led a couple of young, aspiring musicians to later become two of the most iconic guitarists in classic rock.
Pete Townshend of The Who saw the film around 1957, before he had even picked up a guitar. He was interested in music already, but the musical climate in the U.K. at the time wasn’t too inspiring.
“I was still playing the harmonica, and getting good at it, but it was clear that the guitar was the instrument that mattered,” Townshend said in his 2012 memoir Who I Am, recalling his first viewing of Rock Around The Clock.
Bill Haley Directly Inspired Two Great Classic Rock Guitarists
Pete Townshend spoke about his childhood friend, Jimpy, and their reaction to Bill Haley in Rock Around The Clock. “Jimpy and I had been mesmerized by Rock Around the Clock, and Haley’s band only had a single sax player,” he said. “They marked their Country and Western heritage with a pedal-steel guitar, and the swing was jaunty and extremely cheerful. Bordering on manic.”
Townshend’s father had taken the two boys to see the film. His father thought it was just “OK.” But for Townshend, “After seeing Rock Around the Clock with Bill Haley, nothing would ever the quite the same.”
A year later, Townshend would see Bill Haley & His Comets in person when they came to the U.K. As he recalled, “The birth of rock and roll for me? Seeing Bill Haley and The Comets. God, that band swung!”
Another iconic guitarist who was directly influenced by Bill Haley was David Gilmour of Pink Floyd. While Gilmour was more inspired by the single “Rock Around The Clock” that the film, Bill Haley’s influence still permeated the young minds of two future rock and rollers.
“The first record I bought and which turned me around a bit was ‘Rock Around The Clock’ by Bill Haley, when I was ten,” Gilmour once told BBC 6 Music. “That was the first moment to me when I thought ‘this is something new and original.’”
Photo by PoPsie Randolph/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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