On this day in 1981, rocker BILL HALEY stopped rocking around the clock.

In the early 1950s, Haley changed direction. He found a name for his band–Bill Haley and His Comets-and a new upbeat, rock and roll sound. The group recorded a cover of Jimmy Preston’s “Rock the Joint,” which sold 75,000 copies. The following year, Haley’s original “Crazy Man, Crazy” became the first rock and roll record to make the Billboard Top 10. “Rock Around the Clock,” a No. 1 hit, was selected as the theme song for The Blackboard Jungle (1955), the first film to feature rock music. “Rock Around the Clock” was also featured on the television dance show American Bandstand.

By the mid-1950s, Haley was the world’s most popular performer, and he piled up 12 Top 40 hits in 1955-56, including “See You Later, Alligator.” His last Top 40 hit was “Skinny Minnie,” recorded in 1958, but throughout the 1970s Haley and his band traveled with the “Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival” shows documented in the 1973 film Let the Good Times Roll. He had sold an estimated 60 million records by the time he died of a heart attack in 1981. Five years later, he became one of the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.