Bill Haley And His Comets - Rock 'N' Roll Stage Show Part 2 EP

Side 1:
01. A Rocking Little Tune
02. Hide And Seek

Side 2:
03. Choo Choo Ch'Boogie
04. Blue Comet Blues

Download from here:

http://www93.zippyshare.com/v/H1cQcY8R/file.html

The final EP in our Bill Haley UK EP posts. Brunswick OE 9279 was released in December 1956.

Recording details:

"A Rocking Little Tune" was recorded at The Pythian Temple, NYC on the 30th March 1956. Personnel: Bill Haley (rhythm guitar); Franny Beecher (lead guitar); Billy Williamson (steel guitar); Rudy Pompilli (tenor sax); Johnny Grande (accordion); Al Rex (double bass); Ralph Jones (drums).

"Hide And Seek" was recorded at The Pythian Temple, NYC on the 23rd March 1956. Personnel as above with vocal by Billy Williamson.

"Choo Choo Ch'Boogie" and "Blue Comet Blues" were recorded at The Pythian Temple, NYC on the 27th March 1956. Personnel as above with vocal on "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie" by Bill Haley, Johnny Grande plays piano. No vocal on "Blue Comet Blues."

Original release details:

"A Rocking Little Tune" and "Hide And Seek" were first released in August 1956 on US Decca LP "Rock 'N' Roll Stage Show" Decca DL 8345, and on US Decca EP "Rock 'N' Roll Stage Show Part 2" Decca ED 2417.

"Choo Choo Ch'Boogie" was first released in August 1956 on US Decca LP "Rock 'N' Roll Stage Show" Decca DL 8345, and on US Decca EP "Rock 'N' Roll Stage Show Part 2" Decca ED 2417. Subsequently issued in December 1956 on 45 and 78 on US Decca single 30148, B Side of "Don't Knock The Rock." Single failed to chart.

"Blue Comet Blues" was first released in August 1956 on US Decca LP "Rock 'N' Roll Stage Show" Decca DL 8345, and on US Decca EP "Rock 'N' Roll Stage Show Part 2" Decca ED 2417. Subsequently issued in October 1956 on 45 and 78 on US Decca single 30085, B Side of "Rudy's Rock." Single reached number 34 in the Billboard pop chart in November 1956.

Discographical information from Chris Gardner's Bill Haley Database.

I cannot recommend the above site too highly for all things concerning Bill Haley. Further information in these posts was gleaned from "Unsung Heroes Of Rock 'n' Roll" by Nick Tosches and "The Billboard Book Of USA Top 40 Hits" by Joel Whitburn.

This copy of "Rock 'N' Roll Stage Show Part 2" was one the first vinyl records I digitized back in 2007. It belonged to long time Glasgow friends the Lawson family and somehow I inherited it. The front cover was pretty trashed and torn mainly because as well as housing the EP, an original UK issue of "(We're Gonna) Rock Around The Clock" was also crammed inside. See this scan for the cover as it actually is:

I posted the EP on the old Rock Hall forum (Be Bop Wino was but a gleam in my eye back then) and a fellow forum member who wished to remain anonymous kindly produced cleaned up versions of the front and back covers:

For this post I've gone back to the original beat up version of the cover, worked on it a little with Photofiltre, and produced a version which is not quite so pristine looking as the above, but (I like to think) still preserves the "lived in" look of an artifact from the 1950s. I have also cleaned up the back cover, but it didn't require much work as it was in pretty good condition.

All three versions of the front cover are included in the download so you can chose whichever you prefer.

That's me all Bill Haleyed out now, but he may make a reappearance on the blog if and when I get round to restoring the epic post "Rock The Joint!"