BILL HALEY

Bill Haley was a singer and bandleader from the 1950s to the 1970s, best known for being leader of Bill Haley and the Comets. From late 1954 to late 1956, the group placed nine singles in the Top 20, one of those a number one and three more in the Top Ten. Haley had previously been a country music performer but later changed musical direction to a new sound which came to be called rock 'n' roll (rock and roll). Although several members of the Comets became famous, Bill Haley remained the star. With his spit curl and the band's matching plaid dinner jackets and energetic stage behavior, many fans consider them to be as revolutionary in their time as the Beatles were a decade later! Haley passed away in 1981 at the age of 55. He had had drinking problems, as well as a brain tumor, but it was a heart attack that led to his relatively early demise.