Rock Around the Clock, Part 3--Welk and roll

I had a strange dream--very strange. Utterly improbable. Insane, even. I dreamed that it was March, 1956, and Lawrence Welk and His Orchestra were giving a live concert, and onto the stage comes this first-rate rockabilly guitarist. He's playing a state-of-the-rockabilly boogie number, and the Welk audience is loving it! A little later, the band does a decent cover of Billy Haley's version of See You Later, Alligator, and the audience loves that, too!

Totally at odds with reality, needless to say. As we all know from PBS, Rolling Stone, and other such indisputable sources, the non-youth pop audience of the day was confused, threatened, and/or appalled by rock 'n' roll--they wanted nothing to do with it. The Welk audience, of all audiences, wouldn't have stood for its inclusion in a concert:

Buddy's Boogie--See You Later, Alligator

BUDDY'S BOOGIE (Buddy Merrill)--Buddy Merill with Lawrence Welk Orch., 1956.SEE YOU LATER ALLIGATOR--Lawrence Welk Orch., 1956.
Okay, maybe it would have.

1955 was the year that RATC became a monster hit for Bill Haley, courtesy of the film Blackboard Jungle. The player of the amazing RATC solo, Danny Cedrone, didn't live to see the movie or RATC's second, unbelievable showing on the charts--tragically, he was killed in a fall down a flight of stairs in 1954. Nor did he live to hear his solo fairly decently imitated on the Broadway label cover of RATC: Broadway label solo, or lampooned on Stan Freeberg's Rock Around Stephen Foster (1955): Howdy Doody button. (Complete versions below.)

Note Freberg's use of a Marlon Brando accent, and note that he trashes rock 'n' roll for being "commercial." Of course, we all know from PBS and the others that the real objections to r&r had nothing to do with rock being too commercial or contrived or, in any way, a rehash (or watering down) of earlier styles--folks like Freberg simply couldn't stand the new, revolutionary, and rebellious nature of the music. Even if contemporary musicians gave different reasons. I mean, what did they know about how they felt?

Our playlist includes the Broadway and Stan Freberg takes on RATC, plus two additional parodies--Buddy Hackett's extremely politically correct Chinese Rock and Egg Roll and Mickey Katz' K'nock Around the Clock. Then two Dixieland-rock tracks by Boyd Bennett and His Rockets. Finally, Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen's Blues in the Night, the 1941 hit featuring the twelve-bar-blues form plus a bridge, just like the Beach Boys hit, Little Deuce Coupe. (RATC, of course, features the blues form preceded by an eight-bar verse.)

To the playlist: Welk and Roll

PLAYLISTROCK AROUND THE CLOCK--Jack Richards w. Vic Corwin Orch. (Broadway label.)ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK--The Canadians, 1955. (Embassy, U.K.)CHINESE ROCK AND EGG ROLL--Buddy Hackett, 1955. (Coral label.)K'NOCK AROUND THE CLOCK--Mickey Katz, 1955. (Capitol label.)ROCK AROUND STEPHEN FOSTER--Stan Freberg, 1955. (Capitol.)BLUE SUEDE SHOES--Boyd Bennett and His Rockets, Vocal: Bennett. (King label.)MUMBLES BLUES--Same; Vocal: Big Moe.BLUES IN THE NIGHT--Fred Waring and His Pennsylvanians, 1942. (Decca.)

Lee