JAM'IN IN THE CRADLE
of OL' ROCK "N" ROLL
As a Comet, I was very privileged to have been a part of the group that really made ROCK ‘N’ ROLL a part of everyday life. But first, let's go back to my initial experience with this sound.
In the early 1950s I heard a new sound coming from my little table top radio. It wasn't jazz, it wasn't blues, and it wasn't country, but an entirely new kind of music that was fresh and alive. Hearing this gave me the desire to play the guitar. Two years later I was performing around the greater Philadelphia area with my group, "Johnny Kay's Rockets". By then, this "new music" had a name, ROCK ‘N’ ROLL.
As rewarding as that was, the real thrill came when I was ask to play lead guitar in the very band that made ROCK 'N’ ROLL popular world-wide, BILL HALEY AND THE COMETS! His recording of "Rock Around The Clock” set in motion the ROCK ‘N’ ROLL phenomenon that is still with us today. For over a decade I traveled the planet having a ball playing the songs that started the "Big Beat". It's an experience that I will never forget. And about the song that I heard on that little radio so many years before - it was an early recording by Bill Haley and the Comets “Crazy Man Crazy”.
It must have been fate!
IT'S NEVER 2 LATE 2 ROCK
After leaving the Comets, I came back to the Philadelphia area to play locally and to teach guitar. In 2007, I received a call from a European record producer who wanted to meet me and talk about my "Comet days". He told me that the original sound of ROCK 'N’ ROLL was still very popular in Europe. I thought that perhaps I could have fun recording some of Bill Haley's early, lesser known songs, and someone would enjoy listening to them! So I recorded several of Haley's tunes to be released in Europe. Recording those songs was really fun. But then, what would I do as an encore?
Again, fate stepped in. In November of 2008, I picked up my phone to hear the voice of Bill Rapp, an old high school buddy and an award winning song writer. He gave me that idea to record new material in the style of original ROCK ‘N’ ROLL. The result is this collection of Rock songs that are just plain fun! Yes, JK Rockets, three guys from Chester, PA - the "Cradle of ol' Rock ‘N’ Roll" and the home of Bill Haley & the Comets – have come together to have fun and ROCK ‘N’ ROLL again!
We are JK ROCKETS - “Dedicated to keeping the original sound of ROCK ‘N’ ROLL fresh and alive". Yeah, I guess that it's really "NEVER 2 LATE 2 ROCK".
Johnny Kay
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