RARE ROCKABILLY / BILL HALEY on ESSEX #117 / EP with PS

$

90

BILL HALEY a 'ROCKABILLY' LEGEND and his COMETS

ESSEX # 117 (ORIGINAL PRESSING) RELEASED IN 1954

A SIDE   'FAREWELL SO LONG,GOODBYE' / 'FRACTURED'

B SIDE   'REAL ROCK DRIVE' / 'LIVE IT UP'

THIS IS ESSEX # 117 HIS RAREST AND MOST VALUABLE 7" RECORD (TIED WITH # 118 & 119)

A CAREFUL INSPECTION SHOWS THE FOLLOWING:

THE CARDBOARD PICTURE SLEEVE LOOKS PERFECT EXCEPT FOR A TINY BUMP (HARDLY NOTICEABLE) NEAR THE TOP EDGE.........THE SLEEVE IS BRIGHT WITH SHARP CORNERS AND NO SIGNS OF AGEING....

THE WAX IS VERY GLOSSY AND ALMOST MARK FREE......THERE IS SOME SLIGHT ROUGHNESS NEAR THE SPINDLE ON SIDE 'A'....THIS IS A RECORD THAT HAS BEEN PLAYED ONLY A FEW TIMES.....THE 'B' SIDE MAY HAVE NEVER BEEN PLAYED....

FINDING A BETTER EXAMPLE OF THIS NEAR-MINT RECORD WILL BE VERY DIFFICULT 

THE RECORD LOOKS NICER THEN MY BAD PHOTOS

BILL HALEY IS IN THE 'ROCKABILLY' HALL OF FAME

Bill Haley is the neglected hero of early rock & roll. Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly are ensconced in the heavens, transformed into veritable constellations in the rock music firmament, their music respected by writers and scholars as well as the record-buying public, virtually every note of music they ever recorded theoretically eligible for release. And among the living rock & roll pioneers, Chuck Berry is given his due in the music marketplace and by the history books, and Bo Diddley is acknowledged appropriately in the latter, even if his music doesn't sell the way it should. Yet Bill Haley — who was there before any of them, playing rock & roll before it even had a name, and selling it in sufficient quantities out of a small Pennsylvania label to attract attention from the major labels before Presley was even recording in Memphis — is barely represented by more than a dozen of his early singles, and recognized by the average listener for exactly two songs among the hundreds that he recorded; and he's often treated as little more than a glorified footnote, an anomaly that came and went very quickly, in most histories of the music. The truth is, Bill Haley came along a lot earlier than most people realize and the histories usually acknowledge, and he went on making good music for years longer than is usually recognized.

The central event in Haley's career was the single "Rock Around the Clock" topping the charts for eight weeks in the spring and summer of 1955, an event that most music historians identify as the dawn of the rock & roll era. Getting the song there, however, took more than a year, a period in which the band had already done unique and essential service in the cause of bringing rock & roll into the world, with the million-selling single "Shake, Rattle and Roll" to their credit; equally important, in the three years before that, Haley and his band had already broken new ground with the singles of "Rocket 88," "Rock the Joint," and "Crazy, Man, Crazy."

Born in Highland Park, MI, in 1925, Haley was blind in one eye from birth, and, as a consequence, suffered from terrible shyness as a boy. The family moved to Boothwyn, PA, during the mid-'30s, where Haley developed a strong love for country music and began playing guitar and singing; by 14, he had left school in the hope of pursuing a career in music. He bounced through a few country bands based in the Middle Atlantic states and also tried to establish himself as a singing and yodeling cowboy. His first big break came in 1944, when he replaced Kenny Roberts — who was being drafted — in the Downhomers, with whom Haley made his first appearance on records. Haley left the group in 1946 and went through several other bands before returning to his home in Chester, PA, where he initially hoped to get some work as a DJ. Instead, he formed a new band, the Four Aces of Western Swing, with keyboardman Johnny Grande, bassist Al Rex, and steel guitar player Billy Williamson, and signed a contract with Cowboy Records, a new label formed by James Myers, a composer, musician, and publisher, and his partner, Jack Howard. Their first record was released in 1948, a version of "Candy Kisses"; by 1949, the group had changed its name to the Saddlemen and began moving between labels, including liaisons with the fledgling Atlantic Records, Ivin Ballen's Gotham Records, and Ed Wilson's Keystone Records, before finally settling at Holiday Records, a small label owned by David Miller, in 1951. Their first release, done at Miller's insistence, was a cover of "Rocket 88," a song that originated out of Sam Phillips' fledgling recording operation in Memphis, courtesy of Jackie Brenston. It was a pumping piece of sexually suggestive, rollicking R&B, and Haley and the Saddlemen simply put a broader, slightly loping country boogie sound onto it and boosted the rhythm section, while a lead guitar (probably played by Danny Cedrone) noodled some blues licks on the break. Haley hadn't liked the idea of doing the song, but Miller wanted it, and the result — though no one knew it at the time — was the first white-band cover of what is now regarded by many scholars as the first real rock & roll song.

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PLEASE SEND ALL PAYMENTS TO: PATRICIA BOHNER BOX 127 PALMERTON,PA 18071

WE OFFER THE OPTION TO BUYERS OR WINNING BIDDERS THE CHOICE OF PAYING NOW OR LATER......THE REASON FOR THIS IS THAT THEY MAY WANT TO MAKE ADDITIONAL PURCHASES THAT WILL ALLOW FOR COMBINED SHIPPING FOR LOWER POSTAL RATES.....THIS MAY BE ESPECIALLY HELPFUL TO FOREIGN BUYERS WHO ARE FORCED TO PAY HIGHER CHARGES

THIS RECORD IS FROM A COLLECTION / (HOARD) OF OVER 100,00 RECORDS OF ALL GENRES DATING FROM THE EARLY 1900s TO THE MID 1980s THAT WE WILL BE SELLING ON E-BAY IN THE UPCOMING MONTHS..... THIS FABULOUS COLLECTION HAS NEVER BEEN OFFERED TO THE PUBLIC BEFORE.... THIS WILL BE A SPECIAL OPPORTUNITY FOR SOME COLLECTORS TO FIND THOSE SCARCE RECORDS THAT THEY HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO LOCATE IN THE PAST.

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