Talk:Bill Haley

Date of Birth
I find DoB listed as 6 July 1924. Where does the listed date come from?--(talk)BozMo 20:59, 14 May 2004 (UTC)
 * The 1924 birthdate is erroneous. I know his son and can confirm that Haley was born in 1925. 23skidoo 17:54, 23 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * 1925 is the right year of his birthdate

Haley's birthday and so on
Bill was born on July 6, 1925 in Highland Park, Detroit, MI...He died completely fool (paranoid) and of a heart attack back on February 9, 1981 in Harlingen, Texas (not too far from the Mexican border). At that time he sold an estimated 60 million records in his seminal r'n'r career... Please have a look at the French page with almost full discography  Stephan Koenig 10:35, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

Some label shots and photos are already taken in Commons :-) as "CC-NC" and "CC-BY" Stephan Koenig 10:48, 12 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Can you provide a link to the French page? 23skidoo 15:09, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

Band members
The material that was in this section has been moved to Talk:Jodimars. 23skidoo 13:10, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

touring Latin America and Mexico...
...I think you might have to write "Latin America and Mexico in the 60's and, in Europe, in the 50's, 60's, 70's and maybe in 1980 [he signed a contract to come back in Belgium and probably in Liège). (Great Britain, France, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Holland...). It is out of question to change anything in YOUR text. :-)  ~Juke Box Cannon Ball~ :-)
 * Read the Comets article. I mention this there. 23skidoo 18:29, 4 March 2006 (UTC)
 * OK. Fine. Stephan KŒNIG 21:55, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

See you later alligator in Spanish?
Bill Haley never recorded it in Spanish. Hasta luego cocodrillo is only a translation...81.243.168.181 19:17, 28 March 2006 (UTC)S.K.
 * This is true. I checked the article but there's no mention of him recording it in Spanish. He did record a number of other songs in Spanish between 1961-66 but when it came to re-recording his major hits, he stuck to English (an exception being Skinny Minnie which included both Spanish and English). 23skidoo 20:54, 28 March 2006 (UTC)


 * A song entitled Al compás del reloj was in fact another RATC version sung in...English! BUT was also another one sung in Spanish (1961) and had nothing to see to RATC.
 * Skinny Minnie : medley Spanish/English is quite sure. I hold this song.
 * It seems there were two versions of The Hucklebuck entitled Actopan and Actopan Twist.
 * An instrumental The Green Door is aka Puerta Verde.
 * Aaaaah, Florida Twist : the tune featured on the album "Twistin' Knights..." is an instrumental version with some vocals provided by Billy Williamson of the one released in Mexico in May 1961 not sung by Bill Haley but completely unknown (I'm not quite sure at all that is completely unknown!) by Mariachi Pedro Vargas de Tecalitlán of the 3rd Generation. Mariachi Vargas were formed by Don Gaspar Vargas in Tecalitlán, Jalisco (do you remember Jalisco Twist?), Mexico in 1898. Stephan KŒNIG 12:52, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

Clarification needed
"John W. Haley, his eldest son, wrote Sound and Glory, a biography of Haley,[10] and had another child, Sharyn, with his first wife, Dorothy Crowe." This needs clarification that, I presume, Dorothy's first two children with Bill were girls, and John was a son of his second or third wife. Even so, it sounds like the Greek tragedy of Phaedra. --01:46, 4 June 2017 (UTC)

Bill's children...
What about Scott Robert born in January 1960 to become a well known crack US football player? And Pedro? Martha and Georgina? Stephan KŒNIG
 * Georgina is Gina, already mentioned. Gina Haley is mentioned specifically as there is a Wikipedia article on her. What does Sticks Evens have to do with Bill's children? I deleted your nonsense statement regarding the Twisting Knights LP as that has nothing to do with Bill's family. Stick to the subject at hand. 23skidoo 21:52, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Musicians WikiProject inclusion
I'm aware that the Musicians WikiProject is more aimed at solo performers, however Haley had some experience as a solo performer as well as with the Comets, so I think it's justified to include him. 23skidoo 14:27, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

Texas
Adding the text WikiProject Texas so the User:WatchlistBot will not add the tag again. Ingrid 23:50, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

Deleted talk page content
Wikipedia is tightening its rules on what can be posted to talk pages. Talk pages are not to be used for general discussion or debate over the merits of the subject. They are to be used specifically for discussing matters related to the improvement, correction, or other maintenance of the article. For this reason, and after studying other talk pages, I have followed their lead and deleted discussions not directly related to this article. Such deletions are not to be seen as expressing a point of view regarding the discussions therein (some of which I participated in). Anyone wishing to consult these earlier postings may do so through the history. If there is a discussion that was deleted that you feel should be reinstated, please state your case below. 23skidoo 20:11, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

Article does not cite sources
The non negotiable Wikipedia policy of WP:V through WP:RS and the how-to WP:CITE mean that this article must cite specific sources for statements made in the article. Any editor may remove unsourced article material. This article is unsouced. Please address this issue. Thank you. Mattisse(talk) 14:44, 14 November 2006 (UTC)
 * The article contains a bibliography. That satisfies WP:V. 23skidoo 14:46, 14 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Actually it doesn't. In WP:CITE it says you can choose which method you want to use, but "bunch at the end" method isn't one of the choices. Any editor can remove unsourced material from the article. Sourcing it is protecting it from being removed by anyone who wants to. Mattisse(talk) 02:37, 19 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Then delete the whole thing. 23skidoo 04:47, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

Rock Around the Clock
The wording "released as" is a bit confusing here, so instead I inserted the original Decca release title. The fact the song was originally written under another title can be covered by the article on the song (and indeed I'd forgotten about the "working title" and will add it to the RATC article if it isn't already there). 23skidoo 15:39, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

A 1950s photo would be preferable
The new photo is poor for the purposes of this article. You can barely see Haley and a couple members of the band. Surely an image from the 1950s would be preferable. I have such images but I will not provide them to Wikipedia on the grounds that WP:FAIR and other image use policies change with the wind so I am no longer contributing images of any kind to Wikipedia. I'd rather have no image on the article than the one that replaced the magazine cover. No disrespect to the person who took the photo, but this is an example of why commons images are generally inferior to what WIkipedia could have if it dropped the copyright paranoia. I have been asking for 3 years for someone to give me a single example of an image causing a legal issue related to fair use. To date, no one has provided me with any examples. 23skidoo (talk) 07:31, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

Page protected
Since it appears a number of non-registered losers, er, users have decided to make sport of vandalising this article, non-registered users are banned from editing this article until further notice. Good work to those editors who caught and reverted the vandalism. 23skidoo (talk) 01:08, 7 March 2008 (UTC) .... Don't you think it would be fair to state in the article that he is considered or at least known as "The Father of Rock 'n' Roll" music???????????? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 162.114.40.32 (talk) 13:50, 3 June 2008 (UTC)
 * The page has been protected again due to repeat dubious edits by an anonymous IP over the last couple of days. 23skidoo (talk) 18:38, 15 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure what your point is, but that's not why I protected the article. 23skidoo (talk) 14:09, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Copyright/WP:TALK violation removed
I have removed an addition to this talk page by an IP which consisted of nothing but the contents of a newspaper article on Rock and Roll. This had to be removed because it was a copyvio and because it was a violation of WP:TALK. 23skidoo (talk) 23:37, 14 June 2008 (UTC)

Compositions list
I have removed the compositions list for a few reasons. First, there is some dispute over Haley's authorship of a few songs (such as Crazy Man Crazy which Marshall Lytle claims he co-wrote), so therefore sourcing would be required. But mostly because Haley wrote a lot of songs, many of which were never recorded, so to do a proper list would be simply beyond the scope of this article. 23skidoo (talk) 17:16, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

what is this writer trying to say?
this is a copy of text from the article and section Bill_Haley second paragraph(starting towards the end of the second line), is this just a spelling error, or was the writer trying to say something else?

"there is little information extant about Haley's final days"

Pga1965 (talk) 05:56, 11 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Extant: existing or surviving (Oxford Dictionary) 68.146.70.177 (talk) 22:43, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

US performances in 1980
Although cited to a biography which in turn cites a newspaper, the statement in the Death and Legacy section claiming Haley performed in Texas in 1980 is bogus. Bill Haley only performed in South Africa in 1980 and was legally prevented from performing live in the US from about 1973-74 due to a management issue. 68.146.70.177 (talk) 22:43, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

Better sources needed
This has some rather weak "online" sources. The first source is a .ch site in a foreign language on a magazine style site. Billboard or Google books can provide far better sources. Billboard is the most important US music business paper and I bet there's quite a bit on Bill Haley. Just as I was writing this I did a quick search and within a few seconds had located a 1955 issue of Billboard mentioning an award given to "Rock Around The Clock". Here's the link:

Link to 1955 Billboard magazine with Bill Haley details

It's absolutely ridiculous that when reliable and related sources contemporary to the actual article details are available that anyone would choose to use a foreign language online magazine article from 50 years later. Billboard is an excellent source (check out my use of Billboard on The Clovers article). Give the Bill Haley article the scholarship and research it deserves.

Once you have your Billboard ref or Google book then you don't even have to type a ref out - all you do is copy the address and paste it into this tool:

click here for a simple online tool that creates references from Google books for use in a Wikipedia article (Open the 1955 link above and the link to the tool and try it)

If I get the time I'll try to find some better refs but if someone else wants to do the work its as easy as typing "Bill Haley Billboard Google books" into Google's search box and checking the magazine dates for all the 1950s issues. You get the original ads, release details, info to do with distribution and regional sales (very important as I found out doing The Clovers article where the Washington regional juke box charts of the 1950s normally had their tunes appearing earlier than on other regional charts due to the fact they were based in Washington D.C).

Use sources nearer to the date for hard facts and leave the newer online magazine stuff out of the article. Since I've been rattling those pots and pans its time to say see yer later alligator.

Sluffs (talk) 23:06, 28 April 2013 (UTC)
 * Hey, per WP:BOLD if you see better sources, use them. Keep in mind the majority of people these days who care about Bill Haley are located in Europe, so naturally they'll go with the foreign sources. The only biography of Bill Haley published in the last 23 years was issued in Germany and later republished in English translation. And Billboard becomes pretty much useless as a source for Bill Haley after about 1970. I know - I personally (for another project) checked every reference to Haley in Billboard between 1945 and 1981. Anyway, Wikipedia is not an American website, it is an international one and thus the only "weak" sources are those that violate Wikipedia policy in terms of being reliable. 70.72.211.35 (talk) 14:27, 1 June 2013 (UTC)

Fair use
This article uses quite a lot of images as fair use, although several images are available on commons under a free license. I that still appropriate? Jan Arkesteijn (talk) 14:51, 13 January 2015 (UTC)

Rocket 88
The article claimed that many historians consider Haley's version of 'Rocket 88' the earliest 'rock n roll' song. This was unverified. Could find no corroboration with Google search. Found a lot recognition of Ike Turner's version as one of the first 'rock' songs. Turner's version was the #1 R&B hit of 1951. It was, ergo, more influential. Ergo, removed the unverified claim. Tapered (talk) 04:58, 7 February 2015 (UTC)

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Assessment comment
Substituted at 09:38, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

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Death and legacy
The death and legacy is way way too long. I don't think we need more than three sentences, tops, about his erratic behavior at the end of his life. That's not what makes him notable, and most of our sources don't mention it. Kendall-K1 (talk) 18:20, 7 September 2018 (UTC)

Using liner notes for sources
The section about the Saddlemen relies on uncredited liner notes from a 1955 album. This is dubious at best. For one thing this makes the article (before I corrected it) say Rocket 88 was recorded for Keystone which is instantly verifiable as wrong. I believe online sources show the Keystone recordings were actually made in 1950, and I believe the first Saddlemen recording to be released was actually on Atlantic Records but I need to confirm with sources I don't have easy access to right now which came first, Atlantic or Keystone. 136.159.160.5 (talk) 17:30, 25 March 2019 (UTC)

Article title
Does this page have the best title, or is it the primary topic for the term Bill Haley and thus worthy of being moved back to the base name? Over 99% of |Bill_Haley_(Texas_politician)|Bill_Haley_(Wyoming_politician)|Bill_Haley_(footballer)|Bill_Haley page views seem to be for the musician, and external searches give similar results. Certes (talk) 16:32, 26 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Looks like it was unnecessary to move the musician and add him under the disambig. I've cleaned it back up now. Thanks for the notice! –eggofreason(talk &middot; contribs) 20:49, 26 November 2019 (UTC)

Bill Halley
I don't know if there's a place for this in the article, but it is rather common to see the early 20th century songwriter Bill Halley (who wrote Miss the Mississippi and You) mistaken for this Bill Haley. Aside from seeing misspelling of the surname on songwriter credits, I've seen Bill Haley of Rock Around the Clock fame outright being called the songwriter of Miss the Mississippi and You. Again, not quite sure how to approach, especially as the other Bill Halley at present has no Wikipedia article. 23skidoo (talk) 18:20, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
 * To add to my earlier note, at present Bill Halley redirects here, which is fine (since it's a common misspelling for Haley in any regard), but if someone adds a wikilink to the Mississippi and You songwriter's name at any point, then they'll be taken here. 23skidoo (talk) 18:09, 10 November 2022 (UTC)