Bill Haley › Similar Artists

Carl Perkins - 75% match to Bill Haley

Carl Lee Perkins, 9 April 1932, Ridgely, Tennessee, USA (his birth certificate misspelled the last name as Perkings), d. 19 January 1998, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. Carl Perkins was one of the most renowned rockabilly artists recording for Sun Records in the 50s and the author of the classic song ‘Blue Suede Shoes’. As a guitarist, he influenced many of the next ge Read more

Billy Lee Riley - 69% match to Bill Haley

5 October 1933, Pocahontas, Arkansas, USA. One of the unsung members of the early Sun Records roster, Billy Lee Riley’s recordings for the label remain among the most uninhibited rock ‘n’ roll sides to be released during the mid- to late 50s.Of Irish-Indian parentage, Riley was raised in rural Arkansas and by the age of 10 was working i Read more

Johnny Burnette - 69% match to Bill Haley

28 March 1934, Memphis, Tennessee, USA, d. 1 August 1964, Clear Lake, California, USA. Having attended the same high school as Elvis Presley, Johnny moved into the rockabilly genre by forming a trio with his brother Dorsey Burnette on string bass and schoolfriend Paul Burlison (b. 4 February 1929, Brownsville, Tennessee, USA, d. 27 September 2003, Horn Lake, Mississippi, US Read more

Gene Vincent - 68% match to Bill Haley

Vincent Eugene Craddock, 11 February 1935, Norfolk, Virginia, USA, d. 12 October 1971, Newhall, California, USA. One of the original bad boys of rock ‘n’ roll, the self-destructive Vincent was involved in a motorcycle crash in July 1955 and his left leg was permanently damaged. Discharged from the US Navy, he began appearing on country music radio and came under th Read more

Buddy Knox - 65% match to Bill Haley

Buddy Wayne Knox, 20 July 1933, Happy, Texas, USA, d. 14 February 1999, Bremerton, Washington, USA. Knox was one of the first ‘pop-abilly’ hit-makers in the 50s. In 1955, while at West Texas State University, he formed the Serenaders with bass player Jimmy Bowen and Don Lanier (guitar), later adding Don Mills (drums) and changing their name to the Rhythm Orchids. T Read more

Chubby Checker - 65% match to Bill Haley

Ernest Evans, 3 October 1941, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Checker’s musical career began in 1959 while working at a local chicken market. His employer introduced the teenager to songwriter Kal Mann, who penned the singer’s debut single, ‘The Class’. He was given his new name by the wife of the legendary disc jockey Dick Clark as a derivation of Fats Read more

Larry Williams - 63% match to Bill Haley

10 May 1935, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, d. 2 January 1980, Los Angeles, California, USA. Williams recorded a handful of raucous rock ‘n’ roll songs for Specialty Records that later influenced, among others, John Lennon. Williams learned to play the piano while in New Orleans, and moved to Oakland, California, with his family while in his teens. There he joined a Read more

Warren Smith - 62% match to Bill Haley

The Big Bopper - 56% match to Bill Haley

Jiles Perry Richardson, 24 October 1930, Sabine Pass, Texas, USA, d. 3 February 1959, USA. After working as a disc jockey in Beaumont, Richardson won a recording contract with Mercury Records, releasing two unsuccessful singles in 1957. The following year, under his radio moniker ‘The Big Bopper’, he recorded the ebullient ‘Chantilly Lace’, a rock ‘n Read more

Carl Mann - 54% match to Bill Haley

24 August 1942, Huntingdon, Tennessee, USA. Mann was a rockabilly artist who recorded his only two chart singles for the Phillips International label, owned by Sam Phillips, proprietor of the legendary Sun Records. Mann was a singer and pianist whose group, the Kool Kats, was based in Jackson, Tennessee, when they recorded their first tracks for the small Jaxon label, owned Read more

Bob Luman - 53% match to Bill Haley

Robert Glynn Luman, 15 April 1937, Blackjack, near Nacogdoches, Texas, USA, d. 27 December 1978, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. Luman’s father, Joe, a school caretaker, bus driver and gifted musician, taught his son country music, but Luman’s first love was baseball, which he played on a semi-professional basis until 1959. He was influenced by seeing Elvis Presley in c Read more

Sonny Burgess - 50% match to Bill Haley

Albert Burgess, 28 May 1931, Newport, Arkansas, USA. As a child Burgess earned the name ‘Sonny’ as a result of his father also being called Albert. Inspired by the Grand Ole Opry show transmitted over WSM’s airwaves, he set about learning to play a catalogue-purchased guitar. He joined his first country band while at high school, eventually moving from the rol Read more

Eddie Cochran - 49% match to Bill Haley

Edward Raymond Cochrane, 3 October 1938, Albert Lea, Minnesota, USA, d. 17 April 1960, Chippenham, Wiltshire, England. Recent information states he was raised in Minnisota, but without sight of the birth certificate, it is still possible he was born in Oklahoma City. Although Cochran’s career was brief, during which time he had only had one major hit in the USA and topp Read more

Bobby Day - 48% match to Bill Haley

Robert Byrd, 1 July 1932, Fort Worth, Texas, USA, d. 27 July 1990. Day moved to Los Angeles in 1947 and shortly afterwards formed the Flames, who recorded under a variety of names on numerous labels throughout the 50s. Oddly, it took until 1957 before they achieved their first and biggest hit as the Hollywood Flames with Day’s song ‘Buzz, Buzz, Buzz’. Simultan Read more

Johnny Carroll - 46% match to Bill Haley

John Lewis Carrell, 23 October 1937, Cleburne, Texas, USA, d. 18 February 1995, Godley, Texas, USA. Carroll was brought up on a farm near Fort Worth, Texas, though farming held no attraction for him. By the age of 10 he was singing country music and Carroll was an early performer of rockabilly. He flew to Nashville in 1956 and recorded ‘Crazy Crazy Lovin’’, &# Read more