This is one of those songs that makes me wonder how different my life might have been had I heard it when I was a kid.  I mostly knew Bill Haley and His Comets from the Happy Days theme song “Rock Around the Clock” (read my blog about it here), but my Mom didn’t have any of their records so I didn’t know many of their other songs. 

I wasn’t familiar with “Birth of the Boogie” until a few years ago when I was writing my thesis about rock and roll and race in the music’s first two decades.  I was immediately fascinated by it, not only because of its ridiculously catchy beat but because it clearly states that this music has roots in Africa.  That’s pretty bold for 1955 America.  Racist white folks hated this music from the first beat they heard because they knew it was…