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 "Rock Around the Clock" is a rock and roll song in the Twelve-bar blues, 12-bar blues format written by Max C. Freedman and James E. Myers (the latter being under the pseudonym "Jimmy De Knight") in 1952. The best-known and most successful ren ...

" .

Background

Freedman was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, and became a radio announcer, writer and entertainer, before joining the staff of a music publishing company. He joined

ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadca ...

in 1942. One of his first successes as a writer, credited as Ray Freedman, was "

Sioux City Sue "Sioux City Sue" is a 1945 song and a 1946 movie. Lyricist Ray Freedman and composer Dick Thomas wrote the song. Thomas recorded the song in February 1945 for National Records and it was a number one Country charts hit for him. The song was Tho ...

", a hit record for the song's co-writer Dick Thomas in 1945, and later recorded by many others including

Gene Autry Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, was an American singer, songwriter, actor, musician, rodeo performer, and baseball owner who gained fame largely by singing in a crooning s ...

Bing Crosby Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, musician and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide. He was a ...

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'' (1978 ...

. 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 James Edward Myers (October 26, 1919 – May 10, 2001) was an American songwriter, music publisher, actor, director, producer, and raconteur. Myers is best known as the credited co-writer of "Rock Around the Clock" for which he used the pseudo ...

.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 Bill Haley & His Comets were an American rock and roll band founded in 1947 that continued until Haley's death in 1981. The band was also known as Bill Haley and the Comets and Bill Haley's Comets. From late 1954 to late 1956, the group record ...

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 area ...

novelty group,

Sonny Dae & His Knights Sonny Dae and His Knights was an American vocal and instrumental group in the early 1950s. The group was the first to record the hit song "Rock Around the Clock". The group comprised Italian-American singer Sonny Dae (born Paschall Salvatore Venni ...

. Haley finally recorded it in 1954 for

Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American Decca's president. ...

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 an ...

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