Johnny Ace, December 1954

   On Friday, December 24, 1954, while playing Russian roulette backstage at the City Auditorium in Houston, Texas, Johnny Ace accidentally shoots himself. He dies the next day at the age of 25, making him the first fatality of the rock 'n' roll era. His song "Pledging My Love" goes on to become one of the big hits of early 1955.

  wikipedia_Johnny Ace   discogs_com Johnny Ace   Pledging My Love

   December 25, 1954 - Rock 'n' roll suffers its first tragedy as one of its biggest stars Johnny Ace accidentally shoots and kills himself playing Russian Roulette backstage at a Houston Auditorium in between shows on Christmas Night. 

PITTSBURGH COURIER, January 15, 1955: FINAL NOTE - 

Members of the Johnny Ace band leave Memphis' Clayborn Temple 

A.M.E. Church with the body of their deceased leader.

Johnny Ace's funeral

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Ed Sullivan, November 1954

   November 23, 1954 - Ed Sullivan, host of the popular television variety show Toast Of The Town, signs a 20-year contract with CBS to host the program under a new title, The Ed Sullivan Show.

  "built and maintained an outstanding reputation..." Contract between CBS and Ed Sullivan, dated November 23, 1954, from Sullivan personal papers. 

   wikipedia_Ed Sullivan   The Ed Sullivan Show   discogs_com Ed Sullivan

Ed Sullivan, Elizabeth Taylor, actor Van Johnson, on variety show 

'Toast of the Town,' New York, November 14, 1954

Ed Sullivan and Nat 'King' Cole performs on 'Toast of the Town' on Halloween, 

October 31, 1954 in New York City, New York.

Ed Sullivan and Bing Crosby for the CBS Television variety show 

'Toast of the Town' at Pebble Beach, California, October 1954

Ed Sullivan with of his program guest Gina Lollobrigida, on variety show 

'Toast of the Town,' New York, September 19, 1954

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Bill Haley movie soundtrack, November 1954

   Bill Haley's version of "Rock Around The Clock" is the first rock song used in a movie soundtrack "Blackboard Jungle".

   Blackboard Jungle - filming dates: 15 November 1954 - December 1954.

 wikipedia_Bill Haley   wikipedia_Blackboard Jungle   imdb_com_Blackboard Jungle

   Peter Ford, a 10-year-old boy, in Los Angeles, was the son of actor Glenn Ford, who kept playing the b-side Bill Haley single called Thirteen Women And Only One Man In Town, song "Rock Around The Clock". Ford mentioned it to director Richard Brooks  and he decided to play Rock Around the Clock over the opening credits of the film.

(We're Gonna) Rock Around The Clock

   On Monday, April 12, 1954, at the Pythian Temple Studio in New York City, Bill Haley & His

Comets record "(We're Gonna) Rock Around The Clock." The song is moderately popular 

when released a few months later, but after being featured in the film The Blackboard

Jungle in 1955, it would go on to become the most successful rock 'n' roll song of all time, selling over 23 million copies.

May 10, 1954 - (We're Gonna) Rock Around The Clock is released in USA.

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Bill Haley. Actor Glenn Ford and son, Peter, visit Eleanor Powell on the set of her movie, 

"Duchess of Idaho," 1950. It was her final feature film performance. (MGM publicity photo)

  wikipedia_Glenn Ford   Eleanor Powell   Peter Ford

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The Drifters, Clyde McPhatter, October 1954

   October 1954 - Fall lead singer of the Drifters, Clyde McPhatter, was drafted into the army and leaves the group to enter the military. His replacement is a young man named David Baughan.

  wikipedia_The Drifters   discogs_The Drifters

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   billboard.com

March 6, 1954 - Lucille-Clyde McPhatter and The Drifters

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March 13, 1954 - Such A Night-Clyde McPhatter and The Drifters

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June 19, 1954 - Honey Love-The Drifters Featuring Clyde McPhatter

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November 13, 1954 - Bip Bam-The Drifters featuring Clyde McPhatter

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December 18, 1954 - White Christmas-The Drifters featuring Clyde McPhatter and Bill Pinckney

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Alan Freed, September 1954

   In September, Alan Freed leaves Cleveland, Ohio, to begin work at WINS radio in New York City, beginning a five-year term in New York that would help change the direction of rock 'n' roll forever.

 wikipedia_Alan Freed   Rock and roll

   On September 7, 1954, Alan Freed debuted his "Moondog Rock 'n' Roll House Party" on Radio Station WINS-AM And FM 1010, New York City, which also syndicated the program throughout the United States.

   Alan Freed moves to New York's WINS in September and quickly becomes the city's most famous DJ, attracting massive audiences to his newly named "Rock 'n' Roll Party".

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Alan Freed, August 1954

   August 1954, Alan Freed took his R&B revue show to New York. On August 1, 1954, Freed's "Moondog Jubilee Of Stars Under the Stars" was held at Brooklyn's Ebbets Field Ebbets, New York, then still home of baseball's Brooklyn Dodgers. On the bill at that concert were the Dominoes, the Clovers, the Orioles, Fats Domino, Little Walter, Muddy Waters, Count Basie's Orchestra, and Buddy Johnson's Orchestra.

  wikipedia_Alan Freed   Dominoes   Clovers   Orioles   Fats Domino   Muddy Waters

August 6, 1954 show in Cleveland, Ohio

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Newport Jazz Festival, July 1954

   The first Newport Jazz Festival is held, the first hazz festival in the world, known as the First Annual American Jazz Festival, was held on July 17th and July 18th, 1954 at the Newport Casino.

   The two day event featured academic panel discussions and live music performances from Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Lee Konitz, Eddie Condon, Oscar Peterson, Gene Krupa, George Shearing.

   wikipedia_Newport Jazz Festival   setlist_newport jazz festival 1954

  wikipedia_Billie Holiday   twitter_com

   Billie Holiday, with Teddy Wilson at the piano and Milt Hinton on bass, at the Newport Jazz Festival in July 1954

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Elvis Presley - That's All Right, July 1954

   On Monday, July 5, 1954, Elvis Presley, Scotty Moore, and Bill Black enter Sam Phillips's
Memphis Sound Services studio at 706 Union Avenue in Memphis and record several
songs including Arthur "Big Boy" Cruddup's "That's All Right (Mama)," which would be
Elvis's first release for Sun Records and the song to launch the Elvis phenomenon.

  wikipedia_Elvis Presley   discogs_Elvis Presley

Sun 209 - That's All Right-Elvis Presley, Scotty and Bill

Elvis Presley - Backstage at the Overton Park Shell, Memphis, Friday, July 30, 1954
  It is Elvis' first live, professional appearance.

Elvis Presley, left, with bass player Bill Black, guitarist Scotty Moore and Sun Records and Memphis Recording studio head Sam Phillips at an early recording session in Memphis in 1954. Presley cut his first records in the studio owned by Florence, Ala., native Phillips. With this backup band, Elvis played a trio of thrilling concerts in 1955 on the stage of the Sheffield, Ala., Community Center. When Presley arrived in the Shoals, the Florence Times billed Elvis as the "King of Hillbilly Bop." These photos were released to the Florence, Ala., Times by Sam Phillips.
(AP Photo/Times Daily, Sun Records, File)

   July 8, 1954, WHBQ (Memphis) DJ Dewey Phillips played "That's All Right, Mama" on his popular radio show "Red, Hot & Blue" shortly after 9:30 p.m., the first time anywhere.

   July 19, 1954--Sam Phillips releases Elvis Presley's That's All Right on his Sun Records label [Sun 209]. A version of bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe's Blue Moon of Kentucky is on the flip side.

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The Chords, The Crew-Cuts song Sh-Boom, July 1954

   [July 3, 1954] The song "Sh-Boom" by the Chords crosses over from the R&B charts to the pop charts and becomes a number one national hit for the Crew-Cuts [July 10, 1954], making it the first major crossover record. This breakthrough resulted in many more R&B records getting airplay on pop music stations.

  wikipedia_The Chords    wikipedia_The Crew-Cuts     The song "Sh-Boom"

Cat 104 - Sh-Boom-The Chords

  discogs_com_The Chords

Mercury 70404 - Sh-Boom-The Crew-Cuts

 With David Carroll And His Orchestra

  discogs_com_The Crew-Cuts

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The Record Mirror magazine, June 1954

   17 June 1954 - The Record Mirror started out as a weekly newspaper, a British music magazine, begins publication.

  wikipedia_Record Mirror    twitter_com

Joe Turner, Bill Haley, Rock Around The Clock, May 1954

   Joe Turner cuts the blues novelty [rnb chart May 8, 1954] and Bill Haley [pop chart August 21, 1954] each record "Shake, Rattle & Roll" and have dueling hits that stay on the charts for months on end.

  wikipedia_Joe Turner    wikipedia_Bill Haley

Atlantic 1026 - Shake, Rattle & Roll-Joe Turner and his Blues Kings

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Decca 29204 - Shake, Rattle And Roll-Bill Haley and His Comets

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   May 10, 1954 - (We're Gonna) Rock Around The Clock is released in USA as the B-side of Thirteen Women (And Only One Man in Town) by Bill Haley and His Comets. It did not chart immediately.

Decca 29124 - (We're Gonna) Rock Around The Clock-Bill Haley and His Comets

  twitter_com   bill haley april 1954   telegraph_co_uk

Alan Freed's Coronation Ball, May 1954

   Alan Freed's show, a dance at Newark's Sussex Avenue Armory on May 1, 1954, drew so many kids there was no room to dance. Morever, a quarter of the audience was white.

   wikipedia_Alan Freed  wikipedia_Moondog Coronation Ball   

   In May 1954, Alan Freed traveled to Newark, New Jersey where he held the "Eastern Moondog Coronation Ball" at the Sussex Avenue Armory in Newark. It was Freed's first personal appearance in the New York area. Among the R&B artists who appeared there were: Buddy Johnson and his orchestra and vocalist Ella Johnson; The Clovers, a vocal quartet; Roost Bonnemera and his Mambo Band; Nolan Lewis, Mercury recording star; Sam Butera, jazz saxophonist; Muddy Waters, blues guitar player; the Harptones; and Charles Brown. A crowd of some 11,000 came out for Freed's Newark show. RCA Victor recorded the entire show for use on a special Moondog album. 'Our World' magazine also covered the event in a featured pictorial story.

  wikipedia_Our World

   10,000 fans attend Alan Freed's first east coast Rock 'n' Roll Show held in Newark New Jersey, featuring the Clovers and Harptones. The success of it outside Freed's base of operations in Cleveland is further proof that rock 'n' roll has national appeal.

  discogs_Alan Freed   twitter_com

Bill Haley, Rock Around The Clock, April 1954

   On Monday, April 12, at the Pythian Temple Studio in New York City, Bill Haley & His Comets record "(We're Gonna) Rock Around The Clock." The song is moderately popular when released a few months later.

  wikipedia_Bill Haley   Rock Around The Clock   telegraph_co_uk_song

  12 April 1954--Atlantic Records releases Shake, Rattle and Roll by Big Joe Turner.

Shake, Rattle and Roll

twitter_com   wikipedia_Joe Turner