Don’t Knock the Rock was a 1956 rock and roll film starring Alan Dale as a rock star who returns to his hometown to rest up for the summer only to find that rock and roll has been banned there by disapproving adults. With the help of disc jockey Alan Freed and film headliners Bill Haley and His Comets, they set out to prove that the music isn’t as bad as adults think.
Co-starring in the film were Little Richard, The Treniers, and Dave Appell and the Applejacks. The Treniers were an energetic R&B combo who recorded what are regarded as several of the first rock and roll recordings, including the first version of “Rock-A-Beatin’ Boogie”, which Haley wrote and later claimed inspired Alan Freed to coin the term “rock and roll”. The Applejacks were the house band for the famed Cameo-Parkway Records. Applejacks guitarist Dave Appell produced, arranged, and co-wrote many Cameo-Parkway hits during the early 1960s including “Let’s Twist Again,” “Wild One,” “Bristol Stomp,” “Mashed Potato Time” and “South Street.”
The film was an immediate follow-up to the earlier Rock Around the Clock, which had also starred Haley and Freed. Although Haley and the Comets were the top-billed stars of this film, their role in it was relatively minor and the film failed to duplicate the box office success of its predecessor. Today it is mostly remembered for introducing Little Richard to a mass audience.
The title of the film comes from one of Haley’s hit records of 1956. The Haley recording is played over the opening credits, but in the film it is Alan Dale who actually performs the number.
In one scene a young couple dances to Haley’s “Hook Line and Sinker”.
Don’t Knock the Rock is often listed in reference books as being a 1957 release, due to it receiving its US premiere in mid-December 1956.
Songs performed in the movie
- “Don’t Knock the Rock” – Bill Haley and His Comets
- “I Cry More” – Alan Dale
- “You’re Just Right” – Dale
- “Hot Dog Buddy Buddy” – Haley
- “Goofin’ Around” – Haley
- “Hook, Line And Sinker” – Haley
- “Applejack” – Dave Appell and the Applejacks
- “Your Love Is My Love” – Dale
- “Calling All Comets” – Haley
- “Out Of The Bushes” – The Treniers
- “Rip It Up” – Bill Haley and His Comets
- “Rocking On Saturday Night” – Treniers
- “Gonna Run” – Dale
- “Long Tall Sally” – Little Richard
- “Tutti-Frutti” – Richard
- “Country Dance” – Appell
- “Don’t Knock the Rock” – Dale