Album Notes

THROUGH THE YEARS,JOEY WELZ HAS RECORDED WITH DIFFERENT MEMBERS OF THE COMETS BACKING HIM STARTING BACK IN BALTIMORE IN THE EARLY 60S. He replaced Johnny Grande as featured pianist with BILL HALEY WHEN HE RECORDED THEM FOR AFN IN 1962,He was stationed at AFN and joined them for a tour of the service clubs in Germany which ended in HAMBURG at the STAR CLUB, when the BEATLES were their opening act. After JOEY got out of the army in 1965,his friend AL RAPPA,the bass player persuaded Haley to hire Joey as THE NEW COMETS PIANO MAN. Haley used to introduce Joey as the BALTIMORE FLASH and always featured him on a few songs during his set like GREAT BALLS OF FIME or BLUE BERRY HILL.The last show Joey played with HALEY was the CELLAR DOOR in Washington D.C., where they filmed the HISTORY OF ROCK AND ROLL. When Bill Haley passed on in 1981, Joey called his friend AL RAPPA who always used to look after the young Joey on the road, and together they formed BILL HALEY'S COMETS again with FRANNIE BEECHER,DAVE HOLLY and RAY PARSONS. They did the TOM SNYDER TOMORROW TV SHOW ON NBC WHICH WAS VIEWED BY MILLIONS NATIONALLY. Joey sang a medley of their hits as a musical eulogy to their fallen leader and the phones lit up from club owners all over the country,wanting the COMETS back to play their clubs.In 1982,AL RAPPA continued to lead the COMETS and JOEY would play selected dates and is still making appearances with BILL HALEY'S COMETS Featuring leader AL RAPPA who owns the name. THIS IS THE ONLY LEGAL VERSION OF BILL HALEY'S COMETS PLATING TODAY and features original members AL RAPPA,JOEY WELZ and JOEY KAY. This album is a collectors dream because it features varios COMETS through the years and has been in the works since the early 60s with new recordings of their hits in the 21st century,Arranged and Produced by JOEY WELZ featuring AL RAPPA....TRUE ROCK AND ROLL SURVIVORS....