Bill Haley, orig. William John Clifton, (born July 6, 1925, Highland Park, Mich., U.S.—died Feb. 9, 1981, Harlingen, Texas), U.S. singer and guitarist, one of the pioneers of rock and roll (see rock music). Haley worked as a disc jockey and sang and played guitar for several country music bands in the late 1940s, later forming his own band, the Saddlemen. Marrying elements of country to rhythm and blues, he renamed his band Bill Haley and His Comets and recorded some of rock’s earliest hits, including “Shake Rattle and Roll” (1954) and “Rock Around the Clock” (1955). He continued to tour as a nostalgia act into the 1970s.
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