Bill Haley’s “Rock Around The Clock" is the biggest hit in the history of rock ’n’ roll. It has sold more copies—over 25 million, according to the Guinness Book of World Records— than any other rock record, and has been the popular anthem of the 50’s for a quarter of a century now, from The Blackboard Jungle to Happy Days. In light of this, it might seems odd to describe Bill Haley as an unsung hero of rock ’n’ roll, but the truth is that it is what Bill Haley did before “Rock Around The Clock,” rather than that silly song itself, that deserves recognition.

William John Clifton Haley was born on July 6, 1925, in Highland Park, Michigan. When he was seven, he moved with his family to Wilmington, Delaware. Not long after, Haley built and began to play a homemade guitar. At the age of 13, he got his first paying job, performing at a local auction for a dollar a night. Two years later, he left home and picked up work as a hillbilly singer with various bands in rural Pennsylvania.