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===Bill Haley & His Comets===
[[Image:Bill Haley, 1974, Liége 1.jpg|thumb|upright|Bill Haley and the Comets performing during 1974]]
{{main|Bill Haley & His Comets}}
During the [[Labour Day]] weekend in 1952, The Saddlemen were renamed '''Bill Haley with Haley's Comets''' (inspired by a popular mispronunciation of [[Halley's Comet]]), and in 1953, Haley's recording of "[[Crazy Man, Crazy]]" (co-written by Haley and his bass player, [[Marshall Lytle]] although Lytle would not receive credit until 2001) became the first rock and roll song to hit the American charts, peaking at no.15 on Billboard and no.11 on Cash Box. Soon after, the band's name was revised to '''Bill Haley & His Comets.'''

In 1953, a song called "[[(We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock|Rock Around the Clock]]" was written for Haley.<ref>Dawson 2005</ref> He was unable to record it until April 12, 1954. Initially, it was relatively unsuccessful, staying at the charts for only one week, but Haley soon scored a major worldwide hit with a cover version of [[Big Joe Turner]]'s "[[Shake, Rattle and Roll]]", which went on to sell a million copies and became the first ever rock 'n' roll song to enter [[United Kingdom|British]] singles charts in December 1954 and became a Gold Record.He retained elements of the original, but threw some country music aspects in to the song (specifically, Western Swing) and cleaned up the lyrics. Haley and his band were important in launching the music known as "Rock and Roll" to a wider, mostly white audience after years of it being considered an underground genre. When "Rock Around the Clock" appeared behind the opening credits of the 1955 film ''[[Blackboard Jungle]]'' starring [[Glenn Ford]], it soared to the top of the American ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' chart for eight weeks.  The single is commonly used as a convenient line of demarcation between the "rock era" and the music industry that preceded it; ''Billboard'' separated its statistical tabulations into 1890-1954 and 1955-present. After the record rose to number one, Haley was quickly given the title "Father of Rock and Roll," by the media, and by teenagers that had come to embrace the new style of music.  

"Rock Around the Clock" was the first record ever to sell over one million copies in both Britain and Germany and, in 1957, Haley became the first major American rock singer to tour [[Europe]]. Haley continued to score hits throughout the 1950s such as "[[See You Later, Alligator]]" and he starred in the first rock and roll musical movies ''[[Rock Around the Clock (film)|Rock Around the Clock]]'' and ''[[Don't Knock the Rock]]'', both in 1956. His star was soon surpassed in the USA by the younger, sexier [[Elvis]], but Haley continued to be a major star in [[Latin America]], [[Mexico]], and in Europe throughout the 1960s.