Bill Haley died convinced that his role in shaping and popularizing rock & roll was largely undervalued. If he was around today you'd have to agree with him, because his recorded legacy has been relegated on the one hand to bargain-basement hits collections and, on the other, to prohibitively expensive box sets that most folk will never hear. Haley's 20th Century Masters set is yet another too-slight selection of his groundbreaking work, though it does contain all the basics: "Rock Around the Clock," "Shake, Rattle and Roll," "See You Later, Alligator," and nine others. Haley is generally thought of as tame and conservative compared to, say, Elvis, which is probably true. But consider this unbelievably randy double-entendre from "Shake, Rattle and Roll": "I'm like a one-eyed cat / Peepin' in a seafood store." Yikes. If they'd chosen that as the theme to Happy Days, instead of "Rock Around the Clock" America would be a different nation today. --Daniel Durchholz
