Francis
Eugene Beecher (September
29, 1921 – February 24, 2014) was the lead guitarist for Bill Haley & His Comets from
1954 to 1962, and is best remembered for his innovative guitar solos combining
elements of country music and jazz.
He composed the classics "Blue Comet Blues", "Goofin' Around",
"Week End", "The Catwalk", and "Shaky" when he
was the lead guitarist for Bill Haley and the Comets. He continued to perform
with surviving members of the Comets into 2006. In 2012, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted
Beecher as a member of the Comets by a special committee, aimed at correcting
the previous mistake of not inducting the Comets with Bill Haley. By the time
Beecher became associated with Bill Haley, he had already had a lengthy career
as a guitarist, having performed and recorded with the Benny Goodman Orchestra, which he joined in 1948, at a time
Goodman was experimenting with music in the bebop idiom.
He also worked with other big bands, with singer and former Goodman
"bop band" pianist Buddy Greco and the Sharps, as well as with
several country western groups. He played
guitar on the 1947 single by Buddy Greco "Baby I'm True to You" backed
with "How Many Times", released as Musicraft 569, and the 1948 single
"Lillette" backed with "A Stranger in Town", as Musicraft
588. His guitar work influenced young musicians playing the same venues in
the Philadelphia/Reading area where
the Comets were based, among them the guitarist and future legendary comic-book writer-artist Jim Steranko. Beecher first worked with the Comets
in fall 1954 as a session musician,
replacing the recently deceased guitarist Danny Cedrone. Beecher's first work with Haley was the single
"Dim, Dim the Lights". Beecher
had to be instructed to make his guitar solos less jazzy. "They wanted to
play a more basic style than I was used to, more country really, they called it
rockabilly." At
the time Beecher began working for Haley's group, Haley did not employ a
full-time lead guitarist who would also play on live shows and TV appearances
(such duties were usually handled by Haley himself or steel guitarist Billy Williamson).
In August 1955, Beecher appeared for the first time on national TV with the
Comets performing "Rock Around the Clock",
and soon afterward was promoted to a full-time member of the band, appearing
with the group in the films Rock Around the Clock (1956)
and Don't Knock the Rock (1956),
as well as several other film appearances: in Germany in 1958, Hier bin
ich - hier bleib' ich (Here I Am, Here I Stay) (1959) and
in Mexico in the early 1960s, such as Jóvenes y
rebeldes (1961) and Besito a Papa (1961). Beecher had
the ability to send his voice into a high pitch (making it sound like that of a
small child). This gimmick was used for the opening of the hit Haley single's
"See You Later Alligator",
"(You Hit the Wrong Note) Billy Goat" and "Rip It Up".
According to Swenson, Beecher would also occasionally perform the voice during
live shows, with Haley or Williamson humorously introducing him as a baritone. In 1959, Williamson and Beecher recorded a duet,
"ABC Rock", in which Beecher sang two entire verses in his little-kid
voice. In 1958, Beecher and the other Comets
recorded under the name The Kingsmen, releasing several 45 singles for East West Records.
The single "Week End", released as East West 115 and backed with
"Better Believe It", reached number 35 on the Billboard pop singles
chart in November 1958. The follow-up single was "The Cat Walk"
backed by "Conga Rock", released as East West 120. Beecher left the Comets in 1960 in order to
work with a spin-off group called the Merri-Men which released a 45 single on
Apt Records, "Big Daddy"/"St. Louis Blues"; he returned to
the group in 1961 only to leave again in 1962. A few months later, he agreed to
sit in with the band for a live album recording session for Roulette Records (the album was entitled Twisting
Knights at the Roundtable). After Haley's death in 1981, Beecher toured
with a short-lived Comets reunion group. Finally, starting in 1987, the
surviving members of the 1954-55 Comets reunited and proceeded to tour the
world and make new recordings for the next two decades. Beecher performed with
this group until July 2006, after which the group announced he had retired;
although it was announced that the 85-year-old guitarist would tour Europe with
the Comets in early 2007, this did not occur. Franny Beecher's
compositions included "Blue Comet Blues", "Goofin' Around",
"Shaky", "Tampico Twist", "The Beak Speaks",
"Hot to Trot", "Beecher Boogie Woogie", "Whistlin' and
Walkin' Twist", "The Catwalk", and "Week End", which
was a chart hit with The Kingsmen, reaching no.35, co-written with Rudy
Pompilli and Billy Williamson. "Week End" was recorded and released
as a single by rock guitarist Link Wray in September, 1963 as Swan S-4154. Sid Phillips
and His Band released "Week End" as a 45 single in the UK in 1958 on
His Master's Voice. Red Price released "Week End" as a single in the
UK on Pye Records in 1958. With the Comets,
Franny Beecher played a black 1956 Gibson Les Paul Custom which
was given to him by the Gibson Guitar Company, then based in Kalamazoo,
Michigan. Gibson also gave Bill Haley a blonde 1956 Super 400 and a black 1956
Gibson L-7. The Les Paul Custom featured a pair of black single coil P-90
pickups, one of which was a bar magnet P-90. Earlier, he had played a Gibson
L-5 acoustic with a cutaway body and a DeArmond pickup,
as noted in Sound and Glory, page 100. He played an Epiphone
Emperor when he was a member of the Benny Goodman band in 1948 and 1949, which
he also played on the Ed Sullivan Show during a performance of "Rock
Around the Clock". In the Mexican film Juventide y rebeldes (1961),
he is playing either a Gibson ES-345 or ES-355 Stereo. His other guitars
included a blonde 1959 ES-350T, which in his later years he no longer owned. He
played a cherry sunburst Gibson ES-137
Classic in concerts and while touring. In October 2007, Beecher
performed as a special guest of the Rib House Band at the Bridgeport Rib House
in Bridgeport, Pennsylvania.[