Max Charles Freedman ( Friedman; January 8, 1893 – October 8, 1962) was an American songwriter and lyricist, best remembered for co-writing the song " Rock Around the Clock" .

Background

Freedman was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

, and became a radio announcer, writer and entertainer, before joining the staff of a music publishing company. He joined ASCAP in 1942. One of his first successes as a writer, credited as Ray Freedman, was " Sioux City Sue", a hit record for the song's co-writer Dick Thomas in 1945, and later recorded by many others including Gene Autry, Bing Crosby,

Bob Wills James Robert Wills (March 6, 1905 – May 13, 1975) was an American Western swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader. Considered by music authorities as the founder of Western swing, he was known widely as the King of Western Swing (although ...

and

Willie Nelson Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American country musician. The critical success of the album '' Shotgun Willie'' (1973), combined with the critical and commercial success of '' Red Headed Stranger'' (1975) and '' Stardust'' (1 ...

. His other successful songs, several of which were written with Morty Berk and Frank Capano, included "Dreamy Old New England Moon", "Heartbreaker" (1947), and "Tea Leaves" (1948). Freedman co-wrote the words and music to the landmark song "Rock Around the Clock" with "Jimmy DeKnight", a pseudonym used by composer, music publisher, and promoter James E. Myers.Catalog of Copyright Entries: 1953, p. 202. "We're gonna rock around the clock".
/ref> The song was copyrighted on March 31, 1953, although there is evidence that it was written in 1952. There are also claims that Freedman wrote the song in its entirety.
Accessed 12 February 2012 Although Bill Haley & His Comets were supposed to be the first to record it, a dispute between Myers and Dave Miller, the owner of

Essex Records Essex Records was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1951 by David Miller primarily to record contemporary country and western, rhythm and blues as well as jazz and gospel. Jack Howard was the promotion manager. The label had little pop ...

, prevented Haley from doing so. The first recording of the song was made by an

Italian-American Italian Americans ( it, italoamericani or ''italo-americani'', ) are Americans who have full or partial Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeast and industrial Midwestern metropolitan areas, ...

novelty group, Sonny Dae & His Knights. Haley finally recorded it in 1954 for Decca Records and in 1955, the song became a no. 1 record, one of the first of the

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm a ...

era. Freedman died in 1962 at the age of 69.

References

Sources

* Dawson, Jim. ''Rock Around the Clock: The Record that Started the Rock Revolution''. Backbeat Books, 2005. * John Swenson. ''Bill Haley''. London: W.H. Allen, 1982. * Haley, John W. and John von Hoelle. ''Sound and Glory''. Dyne-American, 1990. {{DEFAULTSORT:Freedman, Max C. 1893 births 1962 deaths Songwriters from Pennsylvania Bill Haley Musicians from Philadelphia