Which act won the first Grammy for Best Rock and Roll Recording?

Bill Haley & His Comets won the first Grammy Award for Best Rock and Roll Recording for “Rock Around the Clock.”

The award was presented at the inaugural Grammy ceremony in 1959. “Rock Around the Clock” had been recorded in 1954 and became one of the defining early rock-and-roll hits after its use in the 1955 film Blackboard Jungle. The recording helped bring the style to a broad teenage audience.

Bill Haley’s version was written by Max C. Freedman and James E. Myers, although the song had been recorded by other performers before Haley’s hit. The Grammy recognized the commercially influential recording by Haley and his band, not the songwriters as a separate composition category.

The category’s name changed over time as the Recording Academy reorganized genre awards. Modern rock Grammy categories differ from the original 1959 title, so this inaugural award is best understood as an early institutional recognition of rock and roll rather than the direct ancestor of every current rock category.