As musicians go he was talented but never brilliant. As for singing he could cope but you’d hardly rate him as anything above average.

To look at he was certainly no Adonis, more a Mr Average, thinning on top and slightly overweight.

For years he eked out an existence with his fellow musicians known as The Saddlemen, playing popular music around the States.

It was all unremarkable stuff, mundane and un-extraordinary.

But then Bill Haley found the winning formula.

It really began in 1953. Shortly before then Haley and The Saddlemen had started using numbers with a rhythm and blues influence as a result of Haley noticing that white teenagers were tending to favour black music.

Such a mixture went down well and The Saddlemen achieved growing popularity.

After a successful first record in 1951 Haley-  born William John Clifton – longed for a second and  two years later made Crazy Man, crazy, the title being taken from a popular catchphrase used by  teenagers. It proved a hit and was later hailed as the first rock and roll record to enter the charts.

But another two years would pass before Bill Haley was to earn himself a place in pop history as the man who led a teenage revolution.

The song which catapulted him to international fame was a number issued on two previous occasions. Rock Around the Clock failed to take off – until it was included in a film called Blackboard Jungle.

Then –suddenly – the song was in demand and not only in America. Teenagers throughout the world flocked to buy it, the disc selling millions of copies. The record became the theme song of rock ‘n’ roll and Bill Haley its founding father.

Haley’s life at the top, though, was to be short lived – only about two years. But that one hit song lived on and on. In Britain alone it entered the charts on no less than eight occasions and even today is still regarded as the rock classic.

And the man himself?

He said of the rock ‘n’ roll movement: “We gave the teenagers something of their own, something that was strictly theirs.”

Following on from Rock Around the Clock Haley had several hits, although none ever attracted such hysteria. These included classics like Shake Rattle and Roll, See You later Alligator, R-O-C-K, Saints Rock ‘n’ Roll and Rip It Up.

Haley played on for many more years after his initial success, but had little else to offer.

As the years passed he faded from the scene, becoming increasingly reclusive and in his later years living in seclusion in Harlington, Texas, refusing interviews or to make a comeback performance.

But for many the memories created by the man they called he father of rock ‘n’ roll were still brought flooding back whenever that first hit record was played.

And the man himself?

He died following a heart attack at the age of 53 on February 9, 1981.