Editing Bill Haley (section)

==Early life and career==
Haley was born July 6, 1925, in [[Highland Park, Michigan|Highland Park]], [[Michigan]]. In 1929, the four-year-old Haley underwent an inner-ear mastoid operation which accidentally severed an optic nerve, leaving him blind in his left eye for the rest of his life. It is said that he adopted his trademark [[kiss curl]] over his right eye to draw attention from his left, but it also became his "gimmick", and added to his popularity.<ref name=Fuchs>{{cite book|last1=Fuchs|first1=Otto|title=Bill Haley: The Father of Rock & Roll|date=2014|publisher=Wagner|isbn=9783866839014|page=16}}</ref> As a result of the effects of the [[Great Depression]] on the [[Detroit]] area, his father moved the family to [[Bethel Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania|Bethel Township, Pennsylvania]], when Bill was seven years old.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Goodley|first1=George Walter|title=Bethel Township Delaware County, Pennsylvania Thru Three Centuries|date=1987|page=97}}</ref>  Haley's father William Albert Haley (1900–1956) was from [[Kentucky]] and played the [[banjo]] and [[mandolin]], and his mother, Maude Green (1895–1955), who was originally from [[Ulverston]] in [[Lancashire]], [[England]], was a technically accomplished [[keyboardist]] with classical training.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.classicbands.com/haley.html|title=Bill Haley and his Comets|publisher=Classic Bands}}</ref> Haley told the story that when he made a simulated guitar out of cardboard, his parents bought him a real one.<ref>Bill Haley: The Daddy of Rock and Roll. John Swenson. 1982. Stein and Day. pages 15, 17. {{ISBN|0-8128-2909-3}}</ref>

One of his first appearances was in 1938 for a Bethel Junior baseball team entertainment event, performing guitar and songs when he was 13 years old.<ref>{{cite book|last1=McCarrick|first1=Elizabeth|title=Bethel Township, Delaware County|date=2013|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|location=Charleston, South Carolina|isbn=978-0-7385-9818-5|page=105}}</ref>

The anonymous sleeve notes accompanying the 1956 Decca album ''Rock Around the Clock'' describe Haley's early life and career: "When Bill Haley was fifteen [c. 1940] he left home with his guitar and very little else and set out on the hard road to fame and fortune. The next few years, continuing this story in a fairy-tale manner, were hard and poverty-stricken, but crammed full of useful experience. Apart from learning how to exist on one meal a day and other artistic exercises, he worked at an open-air park show, sang and yodelled with any band that would have him, and worked with a traveling medicine show. Eventually he got a job with a popular group known as the 'Down Homers' while they were in [[Hartford, Connecticut|Hartford]], [[Connecticut]]. Soon after this he decided, as all successful people must decide at some time or another, to be his own boss again – and he has been that ever since." These notes fail to account for his early band, known as the Four Aces of Western Swing. During the 1940s Haley was considered one of the top cowboy yodelers in America as "Silver Yodeling Bill Haley".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hillbilly-music.com/artists/story/index.php?id=13813 |title=Bill Haley and the Saddlemen |publisher=Hillbilly-Music.com |date=February 9, 1981 |access-date=November 4, 2011}}</ref> One source states that Haley started his career as "The Rambling Yodeler" in a country band, The Saddlemen.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kallen |first=Stuart |date=9 May 2012 |title=The History of American Pop |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zohmDwAAQBAJ&q=Crazy+Man%2C+Crazy+bill+haley+million&pg=PA33 |publisher=Greenhaven Publishing LLC |page=33 |isbn=978-1420506723}}</ref>

The sleeve notes conclude: "For six years Bill Haley was a musical director of Radio Station [[WPWA]] in [[Chester, Pennsylvania|Chester]], Pennsylvania, and led his own band all through this period. It was then known as Bill Haley's Saddlemen, indicating their definite leaning toward the tough Western style. They continued playing in clubs as well as over the radio around [[Philadelphia]], and in 1951 made their first recordings on Ed Wilson's Keystone Records in Philadelphia."  The group subsequently signed with [[Dave Miller (producer)|Dave Miller's]] [[Holiday Records]] and, on June 14, 1951, the Saddlemen recorded a cover of the [[Jackie Brenston|Delta Cats]] "[[Rocket 88]]".