On this day in 1955, “Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley and His Comets became the first rock-and-roll single to hit number one on the Billboard pop charts. Along with “Shake, Rattle and Roll,” “See You Later, Alligator” and many others, Haley garnered seven top 20 singles in the U.S. alone, according to his official website. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame posthumously in 1987, and in 2018, “Rock Around the Clock” was inducted into the National Recording Registry, which is an archive maintained by the Library of Congress to preserve culturally significant recordings. While there’s dispute as to whether he or others invented rock-and-roll, there seems to be consensus that Bill Haley and His Comets were indeed the first rock-and-roll band.
NCPA
