{"id":4118,"date":"2014-02-27T10:06:57","date_gmt":"2014-02-27T10:06:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/skylight.gr\/administrator_wordpress\/index.php\/2014\/02\/27\/franny-beecher-92-rock-guitarist-for-the-comets-dies\/"},"modified":"2014-02-27T10:06:57","modified_gmt":"2014-02-27T10:06:57","slug":"franny-beecher-92-rock-guitarist-for-the-comets-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/2014\/02\/27\/franny-beecher-92-rock-guitarist-for-the-comets-dies\/","title":{"rendered":"Franny Beecher, 92, Rock Guitarist for the Comets, Dies"},"content":{"rendered":"


Franny Beecher, who joined Bill Haley and His Comets as lead guitarist after the group had helped kick off the rock \u2019n\u2019 roll era with the hit \u201cRock Around the Clock\u201d in the 1950s, died on Monday in a nursing home near Philadelphia. He was 92. His daughter, Pauline Grinstead, confirmed his death. <\/p>\n

The Comets, whose hits also included \u201cSee You Later, Alligator,\u201d are credited by some music historians with recording the first rock \u2019n\u2019 roll song, in 1953, with \u201cCrazy Man, Crazy,\u201d the group\u2019s biography<\/a> on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame website says.<\/p>\n

The Philadelphia session guitarist Danny Cedrone, who died in 1954, played on the original recording of \u201cRock Around the Clock.\u201d Mr. Beecher, his replacement, played when the band performed the song for the first time on national television, in 1955, and also for films, notably \u201cBlackboard Jungle\u201d in 1955.<\/p>\n

\u201cRock Around the Clock\u201d became a hit again nearly 20 years after its release when it was included on the 1973 soundtrack of \u201cAmerican Graffiti.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Comets broke up in 1962, but in the 1980s Mr. Beecher and some of the original members reunited and toured in the United States and internationally.<\/p>\n

Francis Beecher was born on Sept. 29, 1921, in Norristown, Pa. He started playing guitar in front of crowds when he was 17 and continued until he was 90; before the Comets, he performed with Buddy Greco and Benny Goodman, Ms. Grinstead said.<\/p>\n

In addition to Ms. Grinstead, Mr. Beecher\u2019s survivors include two sons and six grandchildren.<\/p>\n

Source: NY Times<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Franny Beecher, who joined Bill Haley and His Comets as lead guitarist after the group…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4118\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}