Victor Credenza playing Shake, Rattle & Roll - Bill Haley and His Comets

"Shake, Rattle and Roll" is a prototypical twelve bar blues-form rock and roll song written in 1954 by Jesse Stone under his assumed songwriting name Charles E. Calhoun. It was originally recorded by Big Joe Turner, and most successfully by Bill Haley & His Comets.

Bill Haley & His Comets' cover version of the song, recorded on June 7, 1954 (the same week that Turner's version topped the R&B charts), featured the following members of the Comets: Johnny Grande (piano), Billy Williamson (steel guitar), Marshall Lytle (bass), and Joey Ambrose (sax). It is known that Danny Cedrone, a session musician who frequently worked for Haley, played lead guitar, but there is controversy over who played drums. Music reference books indicate that it was Panama Francis, a noted jazz drummer who worked with Haley's producer, Milt Gabler, however in a letter written in the early 1980s, Gabler denied this and said the drummer was Billy Gussak. Bill Haley's own stage drummer, Dick Richards, did not play on this record but may have provided backing vocals since he participated in the recording of the song's B-side, "A.B.C. Boogie". This was Cedrone's final recording session as he died only ten days later.

Gabler has explained that he would "clean up" lyrics because, "I didn't want any censor with the radio station to bar the record from being played on the air. With NBC a lot of race records wouldn't get played because of the lyrics. So I had to watch that closely"

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The record is being played on a 1926 VV 8-30 Orthophonic Victrola, using a platinum-tipped Fidelitone needle.

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Music

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• CIMG0058

[frenchmarky]

So would the quieter versions of records this 'new' still sound pretty good on the Credenza? I have a Credenza that I restored but the newest discs I have are a few from the 40s. One duddy set of 4 from the 50s but are early vinyl so can't play them on an acoustic or of course they would be demolished. I'd love to find a few 50s records like this for myself just to see what they sound like on my old machine. Wonder what the last year was for 78s that could be played acoustically like this?

[cubantoro]

I still can't get over the sound quality of an Orthophonic! Victor engineers where geniuses!

[DaMadFiddler]

@Dulcephone I do have one Elvis record... paid $5 for it at a used book store in Santa Cruz, CA. Check out my most recent post.

[novaseline4u]

Another cool record! I have that one on an original EP 45. I'm amazed at how good that machine sounds.