Customer Reviews

Decca Years & More

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I'm sorry but I don't agree with the last two previous reviews. The talk about a very expensive box set, a tremendous amount of music that can cause an amateur fan to get dizzy and the suggestion that a smaller collection would be better.
Well, If someone falls in love with Haley's music is because he/she has heard one or more of his songs and they will start collecting all his discography because they want to know more about this man (in the same way I did it). Yes, is kind of expensive, but tracks are good, some of them are almost unknown for the normal human being and that's the key, you get deeper in Haley's life.
I particularly like "Lean Jean", "Summer Souveniers" and "A fool such as I" even though the were not hits.
I also have "From the original Master Tapes-Bill Haley and his Comets" but for unconditional fans this is not enough. We want more !! By the way, I have ordered the other box set "The Warner Brothers Years and More"
Finally I have Haley's songs for almost all the important periods of time: The Essex age, The Decca golden years, The mexican period (my mother, my aunt and even my grand father like him. The saw him and heard his songs when he arrived here, Mexico City, and I love hearing him singing in spanish), some of the Warner Brothers time and the Sonet period. Some are Long plays, some others Ep's and some Cd's.
This is just a little example of what a loyal fan can do, and no matter all the material I have, I haven't got tired or crazy.
Conclusion: those people who want to know more beyond the Haley's classics, buy this collection.

I grew up listening to Bill Haley; he was the first real Rockabilly/Rock & Roll artist I ever heard. True, Elvis was earlier (and better), but you didn't hear Elvis's Sun Records in San Diego! Nor did you hear the R&B sounds of Big Joe Turner, Bull Moose Jackson and Wynone Harris...and so many others. (For those who love Bill Haley, I heartily recommend those artists; hell, check out all the '40s/'50s Jump Blues singers/bands.)

I remember watching Blackboard Jungle at the theater and jumping up and down to Rock Around the Clock! It was primal and started a passion for rock 'n' roll that's lasted over 50 years.

I was on a big Rock & Roll roots, Rockabilly and Jump Blues binge in the early 90s when the CD explosion really got the record companies to start mining the backroom vaults. I was buying almost all great Bear Family releases and this was my second or third box set, after Jerry Lee Lewis' Sun Sessions and the Carl Perkin's boxes. This set includes everything Bill did for Decca, including some real crap near the end when he lost his way. Most of the good stuff can be found on any of the 1 or 2 CD best-of releases; I recommend the Rock Around the Clock reissue for anyone who's not a Bill Haley/Rockabilly fanatic, like myself.

I like to have them all, and love the look and graphics of this great box set as well as the great book on Haley. It's pricey, but -- if you can afford it -- you can't go wrong with this set!

John

The Decca Years are where Bill Haley and his Comets had their greatest success, bringing rock & roll into the mainstream with the seminal "Rock Around the Clock." That track kicks off the exhaustive six-disc set "The Decca Years & More," which covers all of the group's recordings (including unreleased cuts) over the course of 132 tracks. This, to be sure, is something that only the dedicated will have the patience to sort through, not because the music is bad, but because there's so much of it and so much of it is at the same level---good, but not great, jumping R&B, rock, and country boogie. The Comets are often hot, Haley is a pretty good frontman, but as a full set it's simply too much for anybody outside of Haley's dedicated fanbase (and that includes hardcore fans of '50s rock & roll, who will be better-served with "From the Original Master Tapes").

Any casual listener looking over this 132-track five-CD set would probably conclude that it was far more Bill Haley than they need bite off in one gulp --- and they'd be right, as casual listeners. For the serious rock & roll enthusiast, as well as the hardcore Bill Haley fan, however, there's a wealth of worthwhile material to be found here, some of which will amaze even those fans: a dozen great songs and 55 or so more that are good, and another 20 that are fascinating mistakes, and that's a good average for an artist who is generally thought of as having generated just a handful of important records. What Haley had most of all was a distinctive sound --- between the backbeat, the country boogie roots, and the R&B sources --- that pretty much defined white rock & roll for almost its first two years (until Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins emerged in the spring of 1956); the first two CDs here offer that sound in abundance. They offer Haley's complete recordings from April 12, 1954 (the session that yielded "Rock Around the Clock"), until July 15, 1957, capturing an urgent, creative, and exciting era in the music and the band's output, when they seemingly couldn't help but make good records. The first 40 songs in the box are a reminder of a time when Haley and company were still very much in the game, with Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, and more in the front ranks of rock & roll (although, to be fair, the later sides on the second disc show them losing that game). Discs three and four's chronology cover the group's decline in 1958-1959, as they careened from one especially disastrous idea (the "Rockin' Around the World" album) through some good, thumping rock & roll that just happened to be out of date in 1958 (in the guise of "Skinny Minnie"), then into a movie-related musical liaison with Caterina Valente, and to their final sessions for Decca. That was a point where Haley and his band got back some of their vitality and creativity and cut some better-than-decent rock & roll, tagging on his good 1964 single "Green Door" and a pair of 1958 vintage demos. Disc five is a fascinating bonus, a 62-minute assembly of excerpts from two complete recording sessions in January 1959 working their way back to a body of musically (if not commercially) viable, solid rock & roll on numbers like "A Fool Such As I" and "I Got a Woman." In addition to the usual excellent Bear Family mastering job, the box offers a very nicely designed booklet by rockabilly scholar Colin Escott, and one of the better accounts of Haley's overall career up through 1964. The price may be steep, but most of what's here --- and most of it isn't easily found anywhere else, or organized as neatly as where it does show up --- will appeal to anyone who ever took a closer listen on their own to "Rock Around the Clock," just to pick up on what's going on inside of it between the boogie-woogie beat and the string-bending by Danny Cedrone. The total immersion that it allows in the work of Haley, Cedrone's successor, Frannie Beecher, and saxman Rudy Pompilli will delight those listeners who have the budget to afford it.

The best box-set of the real Rock'n'Roll Kings. They was first and they are greatest of all of them! Their rhythm and drive is inimitable! Real KINGS!!

I remember the first time I saw Bill and the boys, it was on my grandparents round screen black & white TV... holy cow ! Who are these guys? Sure, I'm still a fan... and why not. Haley literally wrote the book about rock 'n' roll... everyone else followed in his footsteps. While this collection is indeed overkill, for early rockers like me and for students of rock and roll music, it's a must have collection. I sure wish I live long enough to see Bill and his Comets get their just "due" and I look forward to a major motion picture focused on Bill Haley's complex and tragic life.

5 CDs, 132 tracks, 5 hours, 42 min., good Haley left Essex in 1954 and signed with Decca; his first release was "Rock Around The Clock" and, as luck would have it, it failed miserably. It wasn't until the movie Blackboard Jungle that the song became a massive hit. So did Haley's neutered cover of Joe Turner's "Shake, Rattle And Roll." For the casual Haley fan this collection is overkill in the extreme, including as it does an entire disc's worth of alternate takes (almost all previously unreleased)--6 takes in a row of "I Got A Woman" is likely to be a bit much. Likewise, Haley's instrumental sessions--he plays rhythm guitar--may be of limited interest to many. But the first 2 discs are chock full o' winners and sure to please even casual fans of fifties R&R. And the diehard Haleyophile will glory in such unclassics as "Wooden Shoe Rock"/"El Rocko"/"Rockin' Rollin' Schnitzelbank"/"Piccadilly Rock," and other thematic musical experiments. It's all here and much more, his decade or so at Decca. The man often credited with performing the first rock and roll song deserves a box set this nice with a LP-sized, 32 page booklet full of info and pics, but it is not for all markets.

Just to correct a previous reviewer, Bill Haley was recording rock and roll in 1951, a full 3 years before Elvis Presley made his first record at Sun. Rocket 88, Rock the Joint, Crazy Man, Crazy and many more were recorded on the Essex label in Philadelphia before Haley signed with Decca in 1954. Presley and Haley are both great in different ways. While you can argue about who is better, the fact is that Bill Haley was first and deserves credit for it.

I'm a Bill Haley's great fan since I heard his "See you Later Alligator" version along time ago, when I was 15. Since then, I have been searching and collecting anyone of his songs. One day, I saw this collection and with no doubt, I order it for me.
I'm not sorry to had done it. It contains his recordings from 1954-1959. Many of them are his classic hits, and many are not, but gives you a complete vision of his music. It also has a 32 page book with rare photos and his discography.

Particularly, I had heard Elvis Presley version of "A Fool Such as I", but when hearing Haley's version (recorded 2 years before) it went right into my heart. I sang it to my girlfriend and she loved it too!!!

If you really like Haley's music, this collection is an obligation.

My father sang the song "Charmaine" to my mother and that is the middle name he choose for me. I'd like to purchase this song because it holds many memories for me. After the passing of both my mother and father, I try to hold on to as many memories as I can. I have this song on a 78 record. Please let me know if it is possible to purchase just the song "Charmaine" on a single cd. Thank You