http://www.texasmonthly.c...ling-comet

In a time when most call "the kings of rock and roll" Elvis, Little Richard, Chuck Berry and, occasionally, Bo Diddley, this man is often not mentioned at all.

What a sad life he led, man.

SuperSoulFighter said:

Yeah, he deserves some respect! He was one of the pioneers. But, as the article says, Bill just didn't have the looks. Elvis did. Ever since then, being a good musician wasn't enough anymore.

True. And I dig Elvis but Haley had the show I heard...

If you read that article closely, it really wasn't Bill's looks that held him back so much as Bill himself and Bill's manager. As far as his sad ending, almost every one of those guys have a sad ending including Elvis. Great artcie though. Thanks for posting.

Thanks for posting this. It's such a shame how these guys get forgotten.

To my understanding, from conversations with people who were the original 50's rock n roll generation, what happened to Bill was that he had the sound but just lacked the image. It wasn't just good looking or not, he "felt" like an adult to the teens. Old people didn't criticize Haley the way they did Elvis, Little Richard, et al. He just lacked the rebellious image that had attracted people to Presley and before him James Dean and Marlon Brando. So, while Elvis' looks certainly had an impact on his own success, it was more the lack of a rebel image that really pushed Haley to the side.

While his and many other's story ends on a sad note it is also important to note that for the most part he maintained a pretty successful career of Rock around the Clock.

Couldn't you also argue that he just didn't have the songs that Elvis' writers got him or that Little Richard wrote for himself? At best, he had a handfull of good ones and a couple of great ones. My dad was a teen in the 50's and as a result, the first music I ever remember hearing comes from this era. When I was a little kid, I had know idea what Elvis , Little Richard , Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, or Haley looked like. I only knew what songs I wanted to dance around to and that Elvis and Richard had a lot of 'em. Put another way, Little Richard had an arsanal of killer songs. He good have looked like Snuffalufagus and Haley still wouldn't have been able to compete with him.

[Edited 12/3/13 20:12pm]