New York Was First to ‘Rock Around the Clock’
- edgarstreetbooks
- Jul 15
- 2 min read
‘New York Rock & Roll History: The 1950s’ Book Excerpt
Frank Mastropolo
Enjoy this excerpt from the new mini-book New York Rock & Roll History: The 1950s.
The Pythian Temple was built in 1927 as a meeting place for the city’s 120 lodges of the Knights of Pythias, a fraternal order popular in the early 20th century. Its facade is decorated in brightly colored, glazed terra cotta and historical figures. As its popularity waned in the 1940s, the lodge leased part of the building to Decca Records. The third-floor auditorium was transformed into a recording studio where some of the seminal rock and roll songs were produced.
Decca producer Milt Gabler wanted Bill Haley and His Comets to record “Thirteen Women (And Only One Man in Town)” at the band’s first session at the Pythian. The B-side recorded almost as an afterthought was “Rock Around the Clock.”
“On April 12, 1954, we drove from Chester, Pennsylvania to New York City to record our first session for Decca Records,” Comets bassist Marshall Lytle recalled in For Bass Players Only.
“We were a little late in arriving and only had three-and-a-half hours to record two songs. The first one was called ‘Thirteen Women.’ We had never heard that song before we got to the studio and it took us three hours to get to it finished.
“That left us only 30 minutes to record ‘Rock Around the Clock.’ Fortunately, we had an arrangement. We recorded it with just two takes. In those days, everything was recorded together at the same time, without mistakes. ‘Rock Around the Clock’ just came together like magic.”
First released in 1954, “Rock Around the Clock” reached number one the following year when it was included in the film Blackboard Jungle.
In 1956, Haley and His Comets starred in Rock Around the Clock, a musical film that featured DJ Alan Freed and groups that included the Platters.
Buddy Holly’s final studio sessions were on Oct. 21, 1958, at the Pythian, when he recorded “True Love Ways” and three other tunes. Bobby Darin, Billie Holiday, and Sammy Davis Jr. also recorded at the studio. The Pythian was converted to residential use in 1986.
Frank Mastropolo is the author of new mini-book New York Rock & Roll History: The 1950s, part of the New York Rock History series. For more on our latest projects, visit Edgar Street Books.
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