Low budget quickie from Sam Katzman that was enormously profitable - I watched this shortly after Rock Rock Rock and it's a lot more polished (it was a Columbia movie) felt older because its lead character is middle aged (or at least looks/feels it).
Someone called Johnny Johnston is a big band manager who is worried the bottom is dropping out of the big band market, but luckily for him he drives through a small town where Bill Hayley and the Comets are playing. He's captivated by the music and dancer Lisa Gaye; he sets about romancing Gaye to get the Comets to sign a deal (she's sexually aggressive with him - going the pash when they go swimming 0 and isn't punished for it, which is a nice change), then there's a dull love triangle plot where Alix Talton as a vixenish booking agent goes against the Comets to stop the Gaye-Johnston romance. Fortunately Talton has a dopey middle aged guy waiting in the wings to take her.
A surprisingly large amount of this is devoted to the plot but there are still plenty of tunes, including the title track, "See You Later Alligator", and "Only You" and "The Great Pretender" from the Platters. Arthur Freed, who was a 50s rock and rock musical film whore, appearing in practically all of them, pops up in this one as himself.
There's a lot of self conscious dialogue about being a square and rock and roll and what the kids like. But the music is good, the execution competent and it is historically fascinating. Billy Haley doesn't have much of a part - he and his band sing several songs but he only has a few lines of dialogue.
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