Gerry & the Pacemakers

Gerry & the Pacemakers was a British rock and roll group during the 1960s, and one of the few groups to challenge the Beatles in popularity. Like the Beatles, they came from Liverpool and were also managed by Brian Epstein.

Gerry and the Pacemakers, 1963

Gerry Marsden formed the group in the late 1950s with Fred Marsden (his brother), Les Chadwick and Arthur Mack. They rivalled the Beatles early in their career, playing in the same areas of Hamburg, Germany and Liverpool, England. They began recording in 1963 with "How Do You Do It?"; the song became a #1 hit.

Their next two songs, "I Like It" and "You'll Never Walk Alone", both reached no. 1 in the UK -- the first time this feat had ever been achieved (first three singles by a performer all reach no. 1). Despite this early success, Gerry and the Pacemakers never had another number one single in the UK.

Marsden began writing most of their own songs, including "It's All Right" and "Ferry Cross the Mersey". The band also starred in a moderately successful film called Ferry Cross the Mersey. By 1965, though, their popularity was rapidly declining on both sides of the Atlantic and they soon seemed un-hip. They disbanded in 1966 (see 1966 in music). Gerry Marsden maintained a career as a television personality, and starred in the West End musical, Charlie Girl.


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Gerry Marsden maintained a career as a television personality, and starred in the West End musical, Charlie Girl. For a complete discography and song list, visit Bill Haley Central (http://www.billhaleycentral.com).. They disbanded in 1966 (see 1966 in music). This list consists of songs that are often cited by Comets fans as among their best recordings, however Bill Haley and His Comets recorded hundreds of songs between 1952 and 1979. By 1965, though, their popularity was rapidly declining on both sides of the Atlantic and they soon seemed un-hip. 1, 2004, Lane filed a lawsuit against the 1954-55 Comets, alleging trademark infringement. The band also starred in a moderately successful film called Ferry Cross the Mersey. All three groups lay claim to the title of "official" band, and on Oct.

Marsden began writing most of their own songs, including "It's All Right" and "Ferry Cross the Mersey". Two additional groups also claim the name Bill Haley's Comets and extensively tour in the United States: one featuring Haley's 1965-68 drummer John "Bam-Bam" Lane, the other run by his 1959-69 bass player, Al Rappa. Despite this early success, Gerry and the Pacemakers never had another number one single in the UK. The Original Comets, who performed with Haley in 1954-1955, are still touring the world as of 2004, packing showrooms in the United States and Europe. 1). Several Comets reunions were attempted in the 1980s. 1 in the UK -- the first time this feat had ever been achieved (first three singles by a performer all reach no. More than 100 musicians performed with Bill Haley & His Comets between 1952 and Haley's death in 1981, many becoming fan favorites along the way.

Their next two songs, "I Like It" and "You'll Never Walk Alone", both reached no. But further concerts and recording sessions were cancelled -- including a potential reunion with past members of the Comets -- and he returned to his home in Harlingen, Texas where he died in his sleep of an apparent heart attack on February 9, 1981. They began recording in 1963 with "How Do You Do It?"; the song became a #1 hit. The tour was critically lambasted, but surviving recordings of a show in Johannesburg show Haley in good spirits and good voice. They rivalled the Beatles early in their career, playing in the same areas of Hamburg, Germany and Liverpool, England. In 1980, Bill Haley and His Comets toured South Africa but Haley's health was failing and it was reported that he had a brain tumor. Gerry Marsden formed the group in the late 1950s with Fred Marsden (his brother), Les Chadwick and Arthur Mack. It was also the last time he performed in Europe and the last time most fans saw him perform "Rock Around the Clock.".

Like the Beatles, they came from Liverpool and were also managed by Brian Epstein. In November 1979, Haley and the Comets performed for Queen Elizabeth II, a moment Haley considered the proudest of his career. Gerry & the Pacemakers was a British rock and roll group during the 1960s, and one of the few groups to challenge the Beatles in popularity. An almost completely new group of musicians, mostly British, were assembled to perform as The Comets, and Haley appeared on many TV shows as well as the movie Blue Suede Shoes, filmed at one of his London concerts. In 1979, Haley was persuaded to return to performing with the offer of a lucrative contract to tour Europe. The Comets continued to tour on their own.

In early 1977 he announced his retirement and settled down at his home in Mexico. Haley continued to tour for the next year with a replacement musician, but confessed that his heart was no longer in it. In February 1976, Haley's saxophone player and best friend, Rudy Pompilli, died of cancer after a 20-year career with the Comets. In 1974, Haley's original Decca recording of "Rock Around the Clock" hit the American sales charts once again thanks to its use in American Graffiti and Happy Days.

The band was also kept busy in the studio, recording numerous albums for Sonet and other labels in the 1970s, several with a country music flavor. After 1974, tax and management problems prevented Haley from performing in the United States, so he performed in Europe almost exclusively, though he also toured South America in 1975. The band's popularly never waned in Europe, and the group signed a lucrative deal with Sonet Records of Sweden in 1968 that resulted in a new version of "Rock Around the Clock" hitting the European charts that year. By the late 1960s, Haley and the Comets were considered an oldies act, and toured with great success with Richard Nader's Rock and Roll Revival tours through the early 1970s.

In 1966, the Comets (without Bill Haley) cut a Mexican album with Big Joe Turner, who had always been an idol to Haley; no joint performance of "Shake, Rattle and Roll" was recorded, however. The band had continued success in Mexico and Latin America over the next few years, selling many recordings of Spanish and Spanish flavored material and simulated live performances (overdubbed audience over studio recordings). They hosted a TV series entitled Orfeon a Go-Go and appeared in several movies. In 1961-1962, Bill Haley y sus cometas (as the band was known in Latin America) scored an unexpected hit with "The Spanish Twist" and later had what was, for a time, the biggest selling single in Mexican history with "Florida Twist." Although Chubby Checker and Hank Ballard were credited with starting the Twist craze in America, in Mexico and Latin America, Bill Haley and His Comets were proclaimed the Kings of the Twist. The group continued to be a top concert draw in Europe throughout the 1960s, including a successful stint at the Star Club in Hamburg, Germany where they played around the same time the Beatles performed there.

For commercial success in the 1960s, the band had to turn to venues outside the United States. In 1964 there was an abortive attempt to return to Decca with a low-selling recoring of Jim Lowe's "The Green Door" backed by "Yeah, She's Evil!" a song that would later be recorded by Elvis Presley for the soundtrack of his movie, Girl Happy. Guest Star Records released an album of Haley recordings under the name Scott Gregory, possibly due to the fact Haley was having major problems with the Internal Revenue Service at the time. Sees Combo in order to trick American radio stations into playing music by the so-called "has been" group.

APT Records even went so far as to release a single under the name B.H. Between 1961 and 1969, Haley and His Comets recorded unsuccessful singles for a number of small labels in America such as Newtown Records, Guest Star Records, APT Records, as well as for United Artists Records. That year, Haley left Decca Records for the new Warner Brothers label, where his band recorded a series of critically acclaimed, but commercially unsuccessful songs, many in the country and western style. In 1960, the band enjoyed its last new hit in the United States with an instrumental version of "Skokiaan".

After "Skinny Minnie" hit the charts in 1958, Haley found it difficult to score further successes Stateside. The band's popularity began to wane as sexier, wilder acts such as Elvis and Little Richard began to dominate the record charts. In 1957, the band became the first major American rock and roll act to tour England, and their arrival at Waterloo Station in London was greeted by thousands of screaming fans who created a scene that became known as The Second Battle of Waterloo. In 1956, Bill Haley and His Comets appeared in two of the earliest rock and roll movies: Rock Around the Clock, and Don't Knock the Rock.

When Elvis Presley recorded the song in 1956, he combined Haley's arrangement with Turner's original lyrics but failed to score a subtantial hit. Many more people heard Joe Turner's version because Haley covered it. The difference between the two illustrates the difference between rhythm and blues and rock and roll. Furthermore, Haley's cover of "Shake, Rattle and Roll" was a completely new performance built out of incompletely bowdlerized bits and pieces of the original by Big Joe Turner.

Other hits enjoyed by the band included R&B covers of "See You Later Alligator" in which Haley's frantic delivery contrasted with the Louisiana langour of the original by Bobby Charles. Haley hired several new musicians to take their place: Rudy Pompilli on sax, Al Rex (a Saddlemen musician prior to 1951) on double bass and Ralph Jones on drums, as well as Frank Beecher aka Franny Beecher on electric guitar. This version of the band became even more popular, and appeared in several motion pictures over the next few years. In 1955, Lytle, Richards and Ambrose quit the Comets in a salary dispute and formed their own group, the Jodimars. Their music and their act were part of a tradition in jazz and rhythm and blues, but it all came like a thunderclap to most of their audience.

Ambrose's acrobatic saxophone playing, along with Lytle on the double bass--literally on it, riding it like a pony, and holding it over his head--were highlights of the band's live performances. Haley's biggest hit, and one of the most important records in rock and roll history, "Rock Around the Clock", started slow but eventually sold an estimated 25 million copies and marked the arrival of a cultural shift. Along with the other original Comets, plus session musicians Danny Cedrone on electric guitar and Billy Gussak on drums (standing in for Boccelli), this was the group that recorded "Rock Around the Clock" for Decca Records on April 12, 1954. Later, he added Joey Ambrose on tenor sax and Dick Boccelli (aka Dick Richards) on drums.

In 1953, Haley scored his first national success with an original song (co-written by an uncredited Marshall Lytle) called "Crazy Man Crazy", a phrase Haley said he heard from his teenaged audience. Grande usually played piano on record, but switched to accordion for live shows as it was more portable than a piano and easier to deal with during musical numbers that involved a lot of dancing around. The original members of the Comets when the band officially received its new name in the fall of 1952 were Johnny Grande (piano/accordion), Billy Williamson (steel guitar) and Marshall Lytle (string bass). A friend of Haley's, making note of the common alternate pronunciation of the name Halley's Comet to rhyme with "Bailey", suggested that Haley call his band The Comets.

It soon became apparent that a new name was needed to fit the music the band was now playing. Both songs were released under the increasingly incongruous Saddlemen name. Haley began his rock and roll career with a cover of "Rocket 88" in 1951 which sold well and was followed up a cover of a 1940s rhythm and blues song called "Rock the Joint" in 1952. Many Saddlemen recordings would not be released until the 1970s and 1980s, and highlights included romantic ballads such as "Rose of My Heart" and western swing tunes such as "Yodel Your Blues Away.".

The band was formed as Bill Haley and the Saddlemen c.1949-1950, and performed mostly country and western songs, though occasionally with a bluesy feel. With his spit curl and the band all in plaid dinner jackets jumping about, many fans consider them to be as revolutionary in their time as the Beatles or the Rolling Stones were in theirs. Although several members of the Comets became famous, Bill Haley was the star. Haley was a country performer who converted to rock and roll almost before there was such a thing.

Bill Haley and his Comets was a rock and roll band of the 50s led by guitarist Bill Haley, one of the earliest groups of white musicians to record rock and roll bring it to the attention of white America and the rest of the world. "God Bless Rock and Roll" (1979) - Haley's final single release. "Hail Hail Rock and Roll" (1979). "I Got a Woman" (1976) - Ray Charles cover previously recorded by Haley in 1959.

"Same Old Loverman" (1975) - Rudy Pompilli solo instrumental recording of the Gordon Lightfoot song. "Rudy's Rock" (1975) re-recording; Rudy Pompilli solo recording with the Comets sans Haley. "Games People Play" (1970) - cover of the Joe South protest song. "No Letter Today" (1970) - re-recording of a song Haley first recorded in 1960.

"A Little Piece at a Time" (1970). "Dance Around the Clock" (1970) - re-recording of a song Haley introduced in 1964 as a sequel to "Rock Around the Clock". Unreleased until 1999. "Almost Persuaded" (1969) - country cover featuring a vocal by drummer Bill Nolte.

Hall hit. "That's How I Got to Memphis" (1968) - cover of the Tom T. "Flip, Flop and Fly" (1968) - Big Joe Turner cover (Haley recorded this song many times over the years, but the 1968 version for Sonet is considered his best attempt). "Cryin' Time" (1968) - country cover originally by Buck Owens.

Unreleased until 1999. "Jealous Heart" (1967) - solo recording made by Haley without the Comets. "How Many?" (1966) - remake of a song originally recorded for Decca in 1957. "Land of A Thousand Dances" (1966).

"The Green Door" (1964) - recorded for Decca. "She Thinks I Still Care" (1964), country cover. "Jimmy Martinez" (1964) - recorded in Spanish without the Comets. "One Phone Call" (1963) - instrumental featuring Rudy Pompilli, unreleased until 1999.

"Tenor Man" (1963). "Marie Twist" (1962). "The Spanish Twist" (1962). "Yakety Sax" (1962) - cover of the Boots Randolph classic.

"Florida Twist" (1961) - top-selling single in Mexican history up to this time. "Chick Safari" (1960). "Hawk" (1960). "I Don't Hurt Anymore" (1960).

"Stagger Lee" (1960) - folk blues based upon the story of Frankie and Johnny. "Tamiami" (1960) - instrumental featuring Rudy Pompilli and Johnny Grande. "Skokiaan" (1959), cover of one of the first Afro-pop hits. "A Fool Such As I" (1959) - previously recorded by Elvis Presley.

"Joey's Song" (1958) - instrumental featuring Rudy Pompilli. "Corrine Corrina" (1958) - folk song also recorded by Big Joe Turner. "Skinny Minnie" (1958) - Haley's last top-40 hit in the United States. "Ain't Misbehavin'" (1957) - Fats Waller composition.

"Rock the Joint" (1957) - re-recording of the 1952 hit. "Rock Lomond" (1957). "Rip it Up" (1956) - cover of the Little Richard hit. "Rockin' Thru the Rye" (1956).

"Don't Knock the Rock" (1956)- title song of the film. "Hot Dog Buddy Buddy" (1956). "Goofin' Around" (1956) - instrumental featuring Franny Beecher. "Rudy's Rock" (1956) - instrumental featuring Rudy Pompilli.

"See You Later Alligator" (1955). "The Saints' Rock and Roll" (1955). "Rock-a-Beatin' Boogie" (1955). "Razzle-Dazzle" (1955).

"Mambo Rock" (1955). "Dim, Dim the Lights" (1954). "Shake, Rattle and Roll" (1954). "Rock Around the Clock" (1954).

"Real Rock Drive" (1953). "Crazy Man Crazy" (1953). "Rock the Joint" (1952) - originally released under the name Bill Haley and the Saddlemen. "Rocket 88" (1951) - originally released under the name Bill Haley and the Saddlemen.