New book about THE BILL HALEY STORY

Peter Benjaminson has done it again and written a great book on a great singer. Bill Haley was born in Highland Park, Michigan [[within the city of Detroit).

Here are the particulars on it.

Author Peter Benjaminson has written four books about Motown and its artists: The Story of Motown; The Lost Supreme: The Life of Dreamgirl Florence Ballard; Mary Wells: The Tumultuous Life of Motown's First Superstar; and Super Freak: The Life of Rick James. Now Peter has teamed up with Bill Haley Jr. to write Crazy Man, Crazy: The Bill Haley Story, the first complete biography to uncover the mystery of the world's original rock n roll superstar.

Omnibus Press released the U.K. edition of the book in April and Backbeat Books will release the American edition at the end of May.

Although Haley was never employed by the Motown Record Company, he was born in Highland Park, MI, a city literally surrounded by Detroit, and was a Highland Park resident until his family moved to southeastern Pennsylvania when Bill was seven. Before Bill left, however, a Detroit doctor mistakenly blinded him in his left eye while removing a mastoid behind his left ear.

Bill overcame this handicap to become the man who brought rock 'n' roll into the mainstream. His song “Crazy Man, Crazy” was the first rock 'n' roll song to break the Billboard Top 20 in 1953, and was followed by "Rock Around the Clock ” the first song of its kind to hit #1. His success made him an idol not only in the US but throughout the world, from Canada to the U.K., Europe, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, the Fiji Islands, and beyond. Bill worked closely with numerous African-American singing stars. Yet he is often overlooked in the story of rock 'n' roll, overshadowed by others who followed him, from sex symbol Elvis Presley to wild man Jerry Lee Lewis and forever-young Buddy Holly.

Bill Jr. and Peter explore every aspect of Haley's career, including his unlikely transition from a yodeling Hillbilly entertainer and disc jockey to a chart-topping performer, as well as the racism, rebellion and delinquency that surrounded his rise. Crazy Man, Crazy details Bill's precipitous fall from the top of the charts, his abandonment of two ex-wives and six surviving children, his move to Mexico, his rise to the top of the Mexican charts, and his prolonged descent into alcoholism, ending with his death at the age of 55. This is the definitive account of the original King of Rock n Roll.