|
VIC SABRINO WITH RED PERKSEY AND HIS ORCHESTRA
(We're Gonna) Rock Around The Clock (Jimmy De Knight [James Myers] - Max Freedman) Australia 1955 78 rpm record on Pacific label, B-side of The Magic Of Love. This may have been Australia’s first recording of a classic rock’n’roll song. Its jazz-swing style has led to speculation that those involved had not heard Bill Haley’s hit version but worked from sheet music. The recording seems to have been released in August 1955, the month Bill Haley’s version entered the Sydney charts. It was mentioned in a record review column in The Adelaide Advertiser on 3 September 1955: Vic Sabrino with chorus and orchestra conducted by Red Perskey features "Rock Around the Clock" on a Pacific standard 78. The coupling, an Australian number, should also be popular. Vic Sabrino was George Assang (1927-1997), Thursday Island-born jazz singer and actor who appeared, for example, in Barrier Reef and Number 96. See his filmography at the Internet Movie Database.
Red Perksey: a French jazz musician who arrived in Australia in 1951 and began to record conventional dance music for the Pacific label in 1953. (Liner notes to Jukebox Bop, 1988) Red Perksey and his Orchestra, with vocals by Ray Dickson, had a hit in 1956-7 with (A Little Boy Called) Smiley. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Vic Sabrino also ventured into current rock styles – specifically skiffle - with Don't You Rock Me Daddy-O!/John Henry, and Woody Guthrie’s Gamblin' Man/Skiffle Board Blues, recordings made with Graeme Bell & His Skiffle Gang (1957). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
References: 1. Discovered: Rock ‘n’ Roll’s Scratchy Start, Melbourne Age, 4 June 2005. This includes a discussion of the dating of the record. 2. Screensound Australia's First Wave discography (.pdf) and notes. 3. Harold Tiddeman, POPULAR, record review column, Adelaide Advertiser, 3 September 1955 (thanks to Christopher Smith). 4. Liner notes to ScreenSound Australia’s CD Jukebox Bop (AGPS, 1988) which has the Vic Sabrino-Ray Perksey versions of Blue Suede Shoes and Heartbreak Hotel from 1956. Thanks to John Pear for pointing out Vic Sabrino's wider discography; and to Christopher Smith for locating the Advertiser review.
JOHNNY COOPER [NZ]
(We're Gonna) Rock Around The Clock (Jimmy De Knight [James Myers] - Max Freedman) New Zealand 1955 Considered to be New Zealand's first rock'n'roll record, a single by country artist Johnny Cooper (b. 1928, Wairoa), known as 'The Maori Cowboy'. As Jason Ankeny tells it at All Music Guide: In mid-1955, Cooper was summoned to HMV's offices, where he was given a copy of Bill Haley's smash Rock Around the Clock and told that a cover version was to be his next record; baffled by the lyrics as well as the sound of the new music dubbed rock & roll, Cooper nevertheless approximated Haley's style as closely as possible, and backed by a local jazz group called Ken Avery and His Rockin' Rhythm, he cut New Zealand's very first rock record (probably also the first ever cut outside of the U.S.).Not to be confused with... This is not Johnny Cooper the Australian singer from the 1960s: see his Farmer John (1965). Further reading: The Birth of Kiwi Rock 'n' Roll at NZ History Online.
Thanks to Terry Stacey for the version alert.
BILL HALEY & HIS COMETS
(We're Gonna) Rock Around The Clock (Jimmy De Knight [James Myers] - Max Freedman) 1954 #1 USA #1 UK #1 Sydney #4 Perth B-side of Thirteen Women (And Only One Man), 78 rpm record on Decca, released April 1954 but charted from May 1955 in the USA. In the UK it initially charted in January 1955 for two weeks, #17. This recording by rockabilly singer and rock’n’roll pioneer Bill Haley (1925-1981) became one of the most popular and influential records of early rock’n’roll after it was heard in the 1955 film Blackboard Jungle and became the first international rock’n’roll hit. Recharted in the USA 1974 #39. Thanks to Tony Watson for clarification. 
SONNY DAE & HIS KNIGHTS
(We're Gonna) Rock Around The Clock (Jimmy De Knight [James Myers] - Max Freedman) USA 1953 Original version Recording on Arcade label, Philadelphia, by country artist Sonny Dae, born Paschal Vennitti. Also recorded in 1953 by Spade Cooley (instrumental). On CD: Sonny Dae's version is Track 26 on Rock & Roll The First 50 Years [Amazon  ]Further reading: Obituary of co-writer James Myers/Jimmy De Knight at Rockabilly Hall of Fame. Sonny Dae page at Rockin' Country Style. Song history at Arnold Rypens’ The Originals. Corrections or comments? Contact the writer. |