Rudy Pompilli

Rudy Pompilli
Bill Haley and his Comets in 1956. Left to right: Rudy Pompilli, Billy Williamson, Al Rex, Johnny Grande, Ralph Jones, Franny Beecher. Top: Bill Haley.
Background information
Birth name	Rudolph Clement Pompilli
Also known as	Rudy Pell, Rudi
Born	(1924-04-16)April 16, 1924 Chester, Pennsylvania, USA
Died	February 5, 1976(1976-02-05) (aged 51) Pennsylvania
Genres	Rock and roll, jazz
Occupations	Musician
Instruments	Saxophone, clarinet
Years active	1951-1976
Associated acts	Bill Haley & His Comets

Rudolph Clement "Rudy" Pompilli (April 16, 1924 (many sources say 1926) – February 5, 1976), usually credited under the alternate spelling Rudy Pompilli and occasionally as Rudy Pell, was an American musician best known for playing tenor saxophone with Bill Haley and His Comets.

Pompilli was born in Chester, Pennsylvania. Occasional sources spell his first name as "Rudi", although Pompilli himself never used this form.

Pompilli was skilled at playing both saxophone and clarinet, and spent the beginning of his career playing in jazz bands. In 1953 he was with the Ralph Marterie Orchestra. That orchestra coincidentally scored a hit with a cover version of Haley's "Crazy Man, Crazy", though research by Haley historian Chris Gardner found no evidence that Pompilli performed on that recording.

Pompilli was invited to join the Comets in September 1955, after Haley's previous sax player, Joey Ambrose quit along with two other Comets to form The Jodimars. According to Haley, the young horn player had a dislike for rock and roll musicians, but he nonetheless accepted the offer. Ambrose gave Pompilli a crash course in the Haley style of saxophone playing, and he also learned the stage antics pioneered by Ambrose and bass player Marshall Lytle, including playing the sax while lying flat on his back and jumping all over the bass player. (Lytle also left for the Jodimars and was replaced by diminutive Al Rex.)

At Haley's request, the new band member changed the spelling of his last name from "Pompilii" to "Pompilli", as Haley was concerned that the former looked like a typographical error. Pompilli also frequently used the alias "Rudy Pell" and many of his autographs from the 1950s have this name rather than Pompilli.

Within a few months of joining The Comets, Pompilli had become the band's most visible member (aside from Haley himself), becoming the focus of "Rudy's Rock", a show-stopping instrumental co-written by Pompilli and Haley that debuted in the 1956 film Rock Around the Clock. When released as a single, "Rudy's Rock" reached #34 on the Billboard singles chart and #38 on the Cashbox Top Singles list, spending 4 weeks on that chart, and making it the first instrumental record of the rock and roll era to chart. Other acclaimed, but less commercially successful instrumentals followed, most notably "Calling All Comets" which was performed in the band's next film, 1957's Don't Knock the Rock.