Okay. I managed to post one thing and then took four weeks off.  Howard Jones says things can only get better.  Let’s hope so.

Song Of The Week will be a weekly feature (Yes, weekly! Do not laugh at me, family and friends) where I recommend a song for you to enjoy.  This is a bite-size way to check things out since whole albums are a bit time-intensive.  It might be an old song, it might be a new one, but you should get yourself some good speakers for your computer and pump up the volume, Christian Slater-style  (I’ll provide a link to Spotify, a program you should definitely have on your computer, or to another music provider if necessary).

Unless you watch a lot of Happy Days reruns, you probably haven’t heard this song in a while. Even oldies radio, at least in San Antonio, eliminated the Fifties (and most of the Sixties) a couple of years ago. So why should you care about this almost 60-year old song? Because it inspired my blog title, and it’s the beginning of rock ‘n’ roll. Don’t listen to music historians who try to tell you differently (and they will) because this is where it begins. Even if other songs technically fit the definition, nothing else swings as hard or just plain rocks as much.  It also took rock ‘n’ roll into the mainstream — so now your parents knew what it was, not just your hep cat English teacher.

The difficulty with any song older than you are is truly appreciating the impact it had upon release. No matter how ground-breaking or electric, these songs tend to sound dated or quaint to modern ears, especially the further back you go. To put “Rock Around The Clock” in some perspective, when it was released in the UK as part of the soundtrack to the movie The Blackboard Jungle in 1956, teen audiences rioted and ripped up seats in the theaters when the song came on. It doesn’t get more rock ‘n’ roll than that.

Bill Haley & The Comets – Rock Around The Clock