Bassist who rocked around the clock with Bill Haley
MUSICIAN
1-9-1933 - 25-5-2013
Marshall Lytle, whose spirited, percussive bass work was heard on one of rock'n'roll's seminal recordings, Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley and His Comets, has died in New Port Richey, Florida. He was 79.
Lytle was a guitar player working at a radio station in Chester, Pennsylvania, in the early 1950s when Bill Haley, who worked at a different
station, hired him to replace the stand-up bass player in his band. It was an odd choice; Lytle, who was still a teenager, didn't play bass. But as he explained in many interviews, Haley gave him a 30-minute lesson, showing him the slap-bass technique, in which the strings are smacked against the fingerboard. Such playing was a feature of country music, which is what Haley's band, then known as Bill Haley and His Saddlemen, specialised in.
"He got this old bass fiddle out, started slapping it, with a shuffle beat, and showed me the basic three notes you need on a little bass run to get started with, and I gave it a try and I said, 'Hell, I can do that,"' Lytle recalled in a 2011 radio interview.
With the Comets - the name of the band changed in 1952 - Lytle played on the hits Crazy, Man, Crazy and Shake, Rattle and Roll, but their biggest success was Rock Around the Clock. Released in 1954 on the flip side of a song titled Thirteen Women (And Only One Man in Town), it appeared in the film Blackboard Jungle the next year and quickly became a rock'n'roll standard.
Marshall Edward Lytle was born on September 1, 1933, in Old Fort, North Carolina, where his father, John, was a pig butcher before he moved the family to Pennsylvania. He began playing guitar in his teens and never finished high school.
Lytle grew into something of a showman, lifting his bass over his shoulder onstage, tossing it in the air, even seeming to ride it like a horse. After a salary dispute, Lytle and two other Comets split from Haley in 1955 and formed their own group, the Jodimars, which became a popular lounge act in Las Vegas.
He was married and divorced three times. In the 1960s, a booking agent convinced him that the name Marshall Lytle was too connected to his Bill Haley days, so he changed it to Tommy Page. He is survived by his partner, Cathy Smith, nine children and numerous grandchildren.
Haley died in 1981. Lytle reunited with other Comets in 1987 and performed off and on until 2009. With the other Comets, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.
Frequently Asked Questions about this Article…
Marshall Lytle (1 September 1933 – 25 May 2013) was a musician best known as the spirited slap-bass player on Bill Haley and His Comets’ seminal recording "Rock Around the Clock." He played on other early rock'n'roll hits and became known for his energetic stage showmanship.
Lytle replaced the stand-up bass player in Bill Haley's band in the early 1950s. Although he hadn’t previously played bass, Haley gave him a quick lesson in the slap-bass technique and Lytle went on to play on the Comets’ biggest hits.
Marshall Lytle played on several early Comets recordings, including "Rock Around the Clock," "Crazy, Man, Crazy," and "Shake, Rattle and Roll." "Rock Around the Clock" was released in 1954 and later featured in the film Blackboard Jungle.
According to Lytle’s interviews, Bill Haley gave him a roughly 30-minute lesson showing the slap-bass technique — smacking the strings against the fingerboard and using a shuffle beat — and taught him the basic bass run he needed to get started.
After a salary dispute in 1955, Lytle and two other Comets split from Bill Haley and formed their own group called the Jodimars, which later became a popular lounge act in Las Vegas.
Yes. Lytle reunited with other Comets in 1987 and performed off and on until 2009. He and the other Comets were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.
In the 1960s a booking agent advised that the name Marshall Lytle was too closely tied to his Bill Haley days, so he changed his performing name to Tommy Page.
Marshall Edward Lytle was born in Old Fort, North Carolina, and moved with his family to Pennsylvania. He began playing guitar as a teen, never finished high school, was married and divorced three times, and later lived in New Port Richey, Florida, where he died at age 79. He is survived by his partner Cathy Smith, nine children and numerous grandchildren.
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