bill haley we’re gonna rock around clock

Ed:

I don't want to speak for Pat, but I'm guessing he may not have listed the 1974 re-release of Bill Haley and His Comets' "(We're gonna) Rock Around the Clock" due to its low peak position on other major music chart publications besides Billboard. Still, in my humble opinion I think it warrants mentioning the "with countdown/without countdown" distinction between the two releases.

edtop40 wrote: what's interesting is the original issue as Decca 29124 doesn't have the count of "1, 2" at the beginning while the re-issue MCA 60025 does

MCA 60025 may have its own set of variations, not only because it remained in print over several decades and three label designs, but because it had already been a part of the label's 60000-series oldies lineup prior to being promoted as a current in 1974. The reissue which charted in 1974 was on the black-and-silver rainbow label, and my copy does not have the spoken "1-2" count-off. It begins with the drumbeats/"One, two, three o'clock, four o'clock rock..." intro just as the original Decca 29124 did. I don't have the 1974 DJ 45, but remember playing it at the time, and it likewise did not have the spoken "1-2" count-off. I'd never even heard that count-off prior to the track's appearance on MCA's Vintage Music, Vol. 3 CD.

Ed, Decca 29124 was first issued in May of 1954 and it charted in Billboard for one week at number 23 at the end of that month. It would take one calendar year and a jumpstart from its exposure in The Blackboard Jungle before it became a smash hit.

The deadwax on my 60025 reissue is "86163 W-1", with the numeral "2" opposite, which indicated it was pressed by MCA's Pinckneyville, Illinois plant. That "2" also indicated that it was an older stamper from MCA's pre-1973 Decca label, as the "2" was replaced by the "<>-P-<>" symbol in '73 for Pinckneyville pressings.

I own the MCA 60025 single in original black rainbow label and blue rainbow last label. The Black Rainbow I have has "Rock Around The Clock" from a new MCA Stamper, "Thirteen Women" is an old Decca stamper. And has bass to die for. And "Rock Around The Clock" has no 1-2 countoff. My Blue Rainbow issue has MCA stampers on both sides, and 1-2 on "Rock Around The Clock"

Not relating to the 45 at all, but when the song was used in an episode of Quantum Leap (the Good Morning, Peoria episode when Sam leaps into a DJ in Peoria, Illinois in 1959), the song gets put on the air and one hears a fade-in of the countoff before the song starts, which I found a bit funny.

As for the MCA issues of the 45, I have a blue rainbow label copy which does not have the countoff.

The compilation, "American Heartbeat 1955" doesn't have the count-off or drumbeat, but starts cold with Bill Haley singing, "One, two, three o'clock,
four o'clock rock". That's the only time I've ever heard the song open cold with vocals.