Punk Rock Unit 3

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Introduction

Before Elvis, there was nothing.

John Lennon

There is no one in the history of popular music and few in all of American myth or

reality whose presence is so absolute, monumental, and overwhelming as that of

Elvis Presley. In the 1950s, he loomed over popular music like a colossus, a figure of

such size and authority that he made those around him appear insignificant by the

sheer magnitude of his success and celebrity. He made history, changed history, and, in

the process, became a part of history. He was a legend in his own lifetime and grewfamous beyond the experience of any performer who came before him. Before the 1950s

ended, he had changed the direction of popular music forever and made rock and roll

the dominant form of musical expression in America. He became the Once and Future

King of Rock and Roll and his claim to that throne, though challenged, has never been

repudiated.

Attempting to understand Elvis Presley, his music, or the enormity of his stardom is a

daunting task, far more difficult and troublesome than with any other performer of thepast or present. His career spanned over twenty years and produced more important

landmarks and turning points in rock and roll history than anyone else. To complicate

matters even further, he continues to be popular and live on despite or perhaps in

denial of the fact that he died in 1977. His records continue to sell, his movies are

still watched, and his image continues to peer out at us from the covers of super-market

tabloids, book jackets, and our television screens as though he were a living and

breathing presence in our time rather than a figure from the past. It is as though death

was merely another event in the ongoing progress of his fame and one of no greater orlesser importance than any other. Of course, this robs us of the ability to gain much

objective distance or detachment to understand or even grasp the substance of the

man and his accomplishments.


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For the most part, the reasons for his success, his unparalleled fame, and the enormity

of his impact on our culture remain hidden and unrevealed. As to the man himself, he

was and is, ultimately, a mystery. Someplace behind the myth and the legend there is

probably a truth, but it is unlikely that it will ever be revealed to usor understood if it

were. As Nick Tosches noted inCountry(1977):

In an age bereft of magic, Elvis was one of the last great mysteries, the secret of which

lay unrevealed even to himself. That he failed, fatally, to understand that mystery gives

anyone else little hope of doing so. After all, the truest mysteries are those without

explanations.

About all that can be said of Elvis Presley with complete certainty is that he was not like

anyone else and that no American life had ever been quite like his.

His legacy, of course, is his music and, in times to come, it is the music that will

continue to matter. Long after the memory of his fame, celebrity, and stardom finally

vanishes, the songs will remain. But in the 1950s, Elvis was the principal symbol of

change in a time when change was all-important. He was the first of the great rock and

roll superstars, a herald of things to come, and the central figure in the musical

revolution that brought rock and roll into the popular mainstream. He was and is

the King of Rock and Roll and his place and importance in the cultural history of thetwentieth century can never be overstated or exaggerated.

Tupelo, Mississippi

Gladys, Elvis, and Vernon Presley

Michael Ochs Archives/

Getty Images


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Elvis Aaron Presley was born in East Tupelo, Mississippi on January 8, 1935. He came

into the world poor and cut-off from most of the benefits of life in America but not from

the hopes and dreams that shape the American consciousness. Gladys Love Presley, his

mother, was one of eight children born to a poor Mississippi sharecropper and his

invalid wife. Vernon Presley, his father, came from a similar background and is usually

described as a failed Mississippi sharecropper. In the social and economic hierarchy

of the South, this meant that the Presley family lived in near-equal status to that of the

Pennimans of Macon, Georgia, who gave the world Little Richard, and the Turners of

Clarksdale, Mississippi, whose son, Ike, made what many believe was the first rock and

roll record in 1951.

The Presleys, of course, were different from the Pennimans and the Turners in that they

were white and the Pennimans and Turners were black. But, despite the perceived

advantage that this distinction in color would seem to have provided the Presleys, in

matters of day-to-day living, there was very little that separated these families from one

another. They all worked hard, persevered in the face of constant misfortune, found

strength in god and the church, and never surrendered their hopes to despair. But, for

all of them, poverty was the central reality of their lives and they just couldnt seem to

escape from its grasp.

In certain ways, white poverty like the Presleys was more difficult and debilitating than

black poverty. For one thing, poverty in the African American community was a fact of

life, something common to all black Southerners and not a reflection of ones personal

worth or merit. To be black in the South meant being poor and deprived of any

opportunity to alter or improve ones condition; it came as an expectation and an

inescapable reality of Southern life. But white poverty was different. It was viewed as a

mark of personal failure or fault, as if poverty could only be arrived at by a lack of

ambition or a conscious decision to embrace it. For the Presleys, poverty was something

that could never be understood or accepted as a simple fact of life. It was always a

hardship endured with the added burdens of guilt, doubt, and self-reproach.

The Presleys were religious people and it was the church that provided them with their

greatest measure of strength and hope. They were members of the First Assembly of

God, a Pentecostal Church. Colloquially, Pentecostals were known as Holy Rollers


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because their services were frequently characterized by spontaneous displays of

physical expression including jumping up-and-down, writhing on the floor, shaking

side-to-side, and other manifestations of ecstatic possession. Their services were also

rooted in song and the church brought music into the life of the Presley family. It was

the church that introduced Elvis to music and gospel would be the music that he loved

most throughout his life. When I was four or five, Elvis remembered, all I looked

forward to was Sundays, when we all could go to church. This was all the singing

training that I ever had.

In 1946, Elvis mother bought the boy a cheap guitar for his eleventh birthday at the

Tupelo Hardware Store. Elvis wanted a bicycle but they couldnt afford it. A year

before, he had won fifth place in a song contest at the Mississippi/Alabama State Fair

singingOld Shepand his mother thought music might be something to keep the boy

occupied and out of trouble until better times finally came.

Of course, there was no rock and roll when Gladys Presley bought Elvis that guitar and

as expansive as her dreams for her son may have been, it is doubtful that she foresaw

music as a career for the boy, let alone something that would bring him wealth and

fame. One day he would change the course of popular music in America because his

mother bought him that guitar, but when he was eleven, it was just a gift for a poor boy

whose family couldnt afford a bicycle.

Memphis, Tennessee
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We were broke, man, broke, and we left Tupelo overnightwe just

headed for Memphis. Things had to be better.

Elvis Presley on his familys move from Tupelo to Memphis

In 1948, when Elvis was thirteen, the Presley family moved to Memphis, Tennessee.

Although Memphis was only seventy miles north of Tupelo, it was an utterly new and

different world from the one that Elvis had come from. Tupelo was a small rural

farming community with a population of barely 8,000, while Memphis was a major

Southern city with over a quarter of a million residents. There was work and

opportunity in post-war Memphis and the move was made in hopes of improving thefamilys economic situation.

However, things didnt get much better for the Presleys in Memphis. Vernon found only

marginal jobs and the family moved into public housing the projects provided

by the Memphis Housing Authority. They became country people in the city, strangers

Vernon, Elvis, and Gladys Presley

Getty Images


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in an unfamiliar world that was not their own, and continued to live in want and

dependence.

In Memphis, most of Elvis schoolmates remember him as being shy, distant, and

something of a loner. He was poorer than most and held a lot of odd jobs to help with

the familys finances, which gave him less of a social life than most of his peers. He was

not popular, had few friends, and, frequently, was teased and made the butt of jokes.

But he was not without his dreams and in Memphis they were given a material shape,

something that could be seen and experiencedalthough indirectly, at a distance, and

still as an outsider.

By the time he entered his junior year at Humes High School, Elvis had begun to affect a

style that set him further apart from his classmates, yet brought him attention and

notice for the first time. He wore loud flashy clothes that he bought at Lansky Brothers,

a store on Beale Street, whose patrons were mostly black. His hair was long, slicked

back, and he began to grow sideburns in emulation of his teenage heroes James Dean

and Marlon Brando. He was what was then called a hillbilly cat, a Southern

pejorative describing a kind of red-necked hipster or, more disparagingly, a white boy

who flirted with stepping over the line that separated black from white.

But what made him most different was his love for musicand the kind of music thathe loved. He listened to white gospel groups like The Statesmen and The Blackwood

Brothers Quartet, country artists like Hank Snow and Eddie Arnold, pop singers like

Teresa Brewer and Perry Como, and, of course, black blues and gospel singers. He sang

in church and even managed to gain some level of popularity after singing in the annual

high school talent show during his senior year. I wasnt popular in school. I wasnt

dating anybodyAnd then they entered me in this talent show, and I came out and did

my [first number],Till I Waltz Again With You,by Teresa BrewerIt was amazing how

popular I became after that. Unfortunately, Elvis would graduate from high school less

than two months after that performance.

The First Recordings


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What kind of singer are you?

I sing all kinds.

Well, who do you sound like?

I dont sound like nobody

Marion Keiskers questions and Elvis Presleys answers

at his first visit to The Memphis Recording Service in 1953

In the summer of 1953, when he was eighteen, Elvis walked into the studios of The

Memphis Recording Service, a subsidiary of Sam Phillips Sun Records, to make his first

recording. In addition to making professional recordings on the Sun label, Phillips

made cheap acetates as a means of bringing in a little extra revenue. For anyone who

would pay $3 for one side or $4 for two, The Memphis Recording Service would provide

a studio and cut a record. Elvis told Marion Keisker, Phillips associate, that he wantedto make a record for his mothers birthday. However, Gladys Presleys birthday was

actually in April, so this was probably a pretext to mask his shyness in desiring to do

something so self-conscious as to make a recording of his own voice. She asked him,

What kind of singer are you? I sing all kinds, was his reply. Well, who do you

sound like? she asked. I dont sound like nobody.

Sunrise

Courtesy ofSony Music Entertainment


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And he didnt sound like nobody. Even on those first two sides,My

HappinessandThats Where Your Heartaches Begin,there was something unique and

special in the quality of his voice. It was a pleasant voice with the expected sound of the

country and gospel roots that Elvis had come from but there was something else there,

a plaintive indefinable quality that you could hear in the blues but seldom encountered

in any white singer of his time. She wrote Good ballad singer. Hold next to his

misspelled name on the office copy of the record.

My Happiness (1953)Elvis Presley

Thats When Your Heartaches Begin (1953)Elvis Presley

Thats All Right

Ten months after Elvis first came to the Memphis Recording Service, Marion Keisker

remembered the shy uncomfortable boy who didnt sound like nobody and suggested

that Phillips audition him to make a demo recording of a song called Without You

that Sun had recently acquired. Elvis had returned to the Memphis Recording Service

on January 4, 1954 and cut two additional sides, Ill Never Stand In Your Way and It

The King of Rock and Roll:

The Complete 50s Masters

Elvis Presley

Courtesy of

Sony Music Entertainment
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Wouldnt Be The Same Without You, but neither managed to show much improvement

over the two songs recorded during the previous summer. Still, Marion Keisker thought

that there was something worth pursuing and she convinced Sam Phillips to give Elvis

an audition. She called on June 26th and asked if Elvis could be there by three. Elvis

would later joke, I was there by the time she hung up.

The audition failed but Phillips, who had recorded such blues legends as Howlin Wolf

and Little Junior Parker, liked the boy and also heard something in his voice that was

special and worth pursuing. Phillips later said, I have one real gift and that gift is to

look another person in the eye and be able to tell if he has anything to contribute, and if

he does, I have the additional gift of being able to free him from whatever is restraining

him. At the audition for Without You, Sam Phillips spent time talking to the boy and

asked him to try other songs in hopes that he could free him and open him up to the

potential was little more than a suspicion on Phillips part.

Years later, Marion Keisker would only remember how shy and awkward Elvis was at

the audition. Phillips remembered Elvis as far more than shy or simply uncomfortable

at their first meeting. He tried not to show it but he felt so inferior. He reminded me of

a black man in that way. His insecurity was so markedly like that of a black person.

Elvis was probably, innately, the most introverted person that ever came into that

studio.

Phillips was now taken with the idea of trying to find whatever it was that he suspected

Elvis had bottled up inside of him. He teamed Elvis with Scotty Moore, a twenty-one

year old guitar player who, like Elvis, had listened to everything from country to blues,

and Bill Black, an upright bass player who had played with Moore in clubs. The three of

them met on Saturday July 4, 1954 at Scotty Moores house and worked through a wide

variety of material Marty Robbins, Billy Eckstine, Hank Snow, and anything and

everything else they could think of trying to find a groove and tap into something

that would be worth recording. They didnt know it at the time but they were searching

for something that had never been heard before something far more than different

and something that would change the very nature of popular music in America.


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The next evening, July 5, 1954, they went to the studio at Sun Records and worked at

actually trying to record with Sam Phillips acting as producer and engineer. Again,

they had very little luck and were becoming increasingly frustrated. Between takes,

Elvis began to singThats All Right,an Arthur Big Boy Crudup blues song, and

Moore and Black joined in. They were just fooling around and had no idea that they

had just taken the first step towards a musical revolution. What are you doing? asked

Phillips from the control room. Scotty Moore replied, We dont know. In what may

have been the most important decision ever made in popular music, Phillips said, Well,

back up, try to find a place to start, and do it again.

Two hours later, the first Elvis Presley recording for Sun Records,Thats All Right,was

finished and on Thursday evening Dewey Phillips of WHBQ played it on his radio

show. The phones started ringing almost immediately.

Thats All Right (1954)Elvis Presley

The men who madeThats All Right,in the summer of 1954 must have had some sense

that their recording was different and unconventional, but there is no evidence that they

thought it special or important beyond whatever personal significance it may have

carried for each of them. But it was special and, in time, people would see it as one of

the most important events in the history of popular music. As Dave Marsh observedinElvis(1982):

Every rock writer returns to Thats All Right, as though to the Rosetta Stone. It is not

the greatest record Presley ever made, and it certainly is not the bluesiest. But it has

something else: a beautiful, flowing sense of freedom and release, Elvis keening voice

playing off the guitars, Scottys hungry guitar choogling along neatly until it comes to

the break, where it simply struts, definitive, mathematical, a precise statement of

everything these young men are all about. Is it art? Is it history? Is it revolution? Noone can know, not anymore, unless they were to hear it before theyd heard any other

music Elvis made or any of the rock n rollers who followed him. Is it magic, a

distillation of innocence or just maybe a miracle, a band of cracker boys entering a state

of cosmic grace?
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It was, of course, art, history, and revolution all rolled into one. It was an

unselfconscious attempt on the part of Elvis, Scotty Moore, and Bill Black to fuse all of

the music that they had ever heard into a new style that would fit not only Elvis talents

but their own tastes, interests, sensibilities, and feelings. They clearly saw and heard

things differently than their parents, but, beforeThats All Right,there was no single

expression that gave voice to the whole range of experience and feeling that they carried

with them. For them, it was like opening a door and entering a room filled with pieces

of the past re-arranged in such a way that it seemed wholly new and fresh but still

familiar and knownas though upon entering they knew that they had been there

before. In a very short period of time, they would open that door to an entire generation

and in so doing would change the course of popular music in America.

The Early Sun Recordings

Sam Phillips signed Elvis to a formal contract with Sun Records on July 26, 1954 and

focused all of his energies on making Elvis Presley recordings into hits. Although Elvis

would only be at Sun for sixteen months, Phillips would release five singles, record

thirteen additional sides that would be released later by RCA, and worked through

Elvis at Sun

Courtesy of



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dozens of additional songs that may have been recorded but were lost in an inventory

clean out at RCA in 1959.

The recording sessions at Sun were all similar to that first session that producedThats

All Right.Elvis, Bill, and Scotty would work through a number of different songs in a

very loose and unstructured way. Songs were rehearsed and explored during the

session rather than prepared in advance. As a result, many of the Sun sessions lasted

for hours and often went on until the early hours of the morning.

This was not the way most recordings were made in the 1950s. Studio time was costly

and most producers held artists to strict schedules and demanded that material be

rehearsed, set, and worked out before bringing it into the studio. But Phillips believed

that his job was to open up an area of freedom within the artist himself, to help him to

express what he believed his message to be. As a consequence, sessions at Sun

proceeded whenever, however, and in whatever manner best served the artist.

Phillips also believed that by allowing an artist to follow his creative instincts in the

studio, there was a feeling of excitement and energy that could be generated and

actually heard on the final recording. Phillips experience with blues artists had taught

him that the emotion and raw intensity that a singer could impart to a song was often

more important than a crisp, but studied, rendering brought out by too much rehearsaland preparation. Elvis thrived under Phillips tutelage and, perhaps for the first time in

his life, had found a place where he belonged and felt really alive.

Despite the energy and excitement produced byThats All Right,the known sides

produced during Elvis sixteen months at Sun did not focus solely on the country

infused blues that characterized that first groundbreaking recording. At the session that

producedThats All Right,Elvis, Scotty, and Bill also cutHarbor Lights,a straight pop

tune;I Love You Because,a country ballad that had been a hit for Leon Payne in 1949and again for Ernest Tubb in 1950; andBlue Moon of Kentucky,an up-tempo version of

Bill Monroes bluegrass classic. OnlyBlue Moon of Kentucky,would be released by Sun

as the country song that backedThats All Right.

Blue Moon of Kentucky (1954)Elvis Presley
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Phillips recording strategy was evident in all five of the Elvis Presley records released

by Sun: record an R&B song backed by a more mainstream recording that was at least

country in flavor. Four of those mainstream sides were pure country Blue Moon of

Kentucky,Youre A Heartbreaker,Im Left, Youre Right, Shes Gone,andI Forgot To

Remember To Forget.The fifth mainstream recording,I Dont Care If The Sun Dont

Shine,was actually written for the 1949 Disney version ofCinderella, but wasnt used in

the film. AlthoughI Dont Care If The Sun Dont Shinewas not a country song per se,

Elvis version adopted an approach that made it sound like a country song.

While the country sides were an obvious hedge against the more risky R&B recordings,

each had an element of innovation and approach that set them apart from other country

tunes of the time. Where the influence of country on the R&B recordings may have

been more obvious, there was an influence from rhythm and blues that found its way

into all of Elvis country recordings released by Sun. Tempos tended to be faster than on

most country records made in 1954 and 55 and there was an obvious emphasis placed

on rhythm in all of those recordings. Some of the innovations, like the change inBlue

Moon of Kentuckyfrom 3/4 waltz time to 4/4 time, were striking and truly inventive.

Others were less conspicuous, but all of the Elvis Presley country sides released by Sun

bore the stamp of a new artist with new ideas about country music.

However, it was the R&B sides that Elvis made at Sun that broke new ground. Elvis

second R&B recording at Sun was a contemporary hit by Wynonie Harris of Roy

BrownsGood Rockin Tonight,which was recorded in September 1954, followed

byMilkcow Blues Boogiein November or December, andBaby, Lets Play Housein

February 1955.

Good Rockin Tonight (1954)Elvis Presley

Baby, Lets Play House (1954)Elvis Presley

If anything was apparent in the R&B recordings that Elvis made in his first seven

months at Sun, it was that he grew in both confidence and ability with each session.

AlthoughThats All Rightmay have been the breakthrough recording, by the time he

cutBaby, Lets Play Housein February 1955 the ideas explored in the first record were

beginning to coalesce into a distinctive and assured new style. InBaby, Lets Play
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HouseElvis was able to deliver a line like Id rather see you dead, little girl, than to be

with another man with an authority that was only hinted at inThats All Right.Scotty

Moore and Bill Black had also become a solid backing unit and Moores solos had found

a drive and insistence that would become the model for most rock and roll guitarists in

the 1950s. And the balance and tension between the black and country elements

that Elvis, Scotty, and Bill were able to produce by early 1955 finally captured the sound

that Sam Phillips had long imagined would bring African American music into the

popular mainstream. However, the task of convincing the popular mainstream to accept

a white country band playing rhythm and blues would to prove to be a far more difficult

task than actually making the recordings.

The Marketing of Elvis

Once Thats All Right went into release, Sam Phillips went about the business of

promoting his new artist to radio stations and distributors throughout the South.

However,Thats All Right,Good Rockin Tonight,Baby, Lets Play House,and other

"The Elvis Presley Show"

Hatch Show Print

The Country Music Hall of Fame
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early Sun recordings didnt catapult Elvis to immediate stardom. They got him some

notice and attention, especially around Memphis, but they didnt open-up America to

Elvis and the wave of change that was about to break upon the countrys consciousness.

For one thing, the songs were so different and new that distributors and radio stations

really didnt know what to do with them. Although most white radio stations in the

South were far more comfortable playing Elvis country sides than his rhythm and blues

songs, his country songs were still influenced by R&B and altogether different from the

recordings of Hank Snow and Eddy Arnold that set the standard for country music in

the mid-1950s. And although Elvis country recordings were different and interesting,

they werent going to start a musical revolutionor be anything more than a set of

respectable first recordings by a young and inexperienced artist.

The rhythm and blues songs were even more problematic. No matter how rockin or

bluesy the sound of Elvis, Scotty, and Bill may have been, they were still white country

boys and their instrumentation and style of playing was country and inconsistent

with the expectations of a black audience accustomed to the sound of Wynonie Harris

and Louis Jordan. Although the sound of country music would be an important

component in the development of rhythm and blues in the mid-1950s, it wouldnt find a

clear expression until Chuck Berry would exploit it in songs likeMaybelleneover a

year later. In 1954 and 1955, the radio stations and record stores that served the African

American audience were no more accepting of the idea of a white rhythm and blues

artist than their country counterparts would have been of a black country singer.

Elvis in Concert


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The modest sale of records and the routine accomplishments on radio were only a small

part of Elvis early professional career and not trustworthy indicators of what was

beginning to happen. In his concert appearances, he was experiencing and

encouraging responses in his audience that frequently rivaled and occasionally

overshadowed those of the artists who held top billing on the engagements that he

played. Carl Perkins, who would recordBlue Suede Shoesat Sun in late 1955, saw Elvis

play a high school auditorium two months afterThats All Rightwas released and was

struck by his uniqueness, This boy had everything. He had the looks, the moves, themanager, and the talent. And he didnt look like Mr. Ed like a lot of the rest of us did.

In the way he looked, way he talked, way he acted he really was different.

By early 1955, Elvis was already being mobbed by teenage girls. Their enthusiasm for

his overt sexuality and the forbidden music that he sang quickly escalated to near

Elvis Presley in Concert

Olympia Theater

Miami, Florida 1956

Charles Trainor/Time & Life Pictures

Getty Images
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hysteria and gave his concerts a draw and energy that belied the relatively insignificant

sale of his records. Teenaged audiences found him to be not only exciting but a means,

or perhaps an excuse, to release their own pent-up fantasies and desires into his music.

Girls fainted, screamed, tore at his clothes, and drove themselves into a state of frenzy

wherever he performed. He was, for them, an opportunity to break from the

conservative blandness of their parents music and indulge in the experience of music

that was more physical and exciting without taking that almost impossible step of

actually embracing black rhythm and blues. Without knowing it, these teenagers were

inexorably moving away from Tin Pan Alley and mainstream country towards Ruth

Brown and Big Joe Turnerbut ever so slowly and cautiously. Elvis made that

movement much easier because he was young, white, and had already taken that step.

And, of course, there was the way that he moved.

The idea of a man bumping and gyrating his hips when he sang was truly revolutionary

in 1956. Elvis always maintained that the way he moved was simply a natural and

uncontrollable consequence of the music that he sang. He told television interviewer

Hy Gardner, if you like it, and you feel it, you cant help but move to it. Thats what

happens to me. I have to move around. I cant stand still. Ive tried it, and I cant do it.

Of course, with Elvis, it went far beyond just being moved by the music. His moving

around was a calculated and self-conscious part of his stage persona. Even the most

naive and innocent viewer could see that he was well aware of what he was doing,

toying with sex and his audiences fantasies about both him and themselves like a cat

playing with a mouse. By the summer of 1955, the moves were planned,

choreographed, and executed with a kind of knowing grin that belied any sense of their

being merely spontaneous. Which is not to say that they werent natural. They were as

true to his being as the songs that he sang, but to believe that he moved that way by

accident rather than design was to miss the point.

During the first six months of 1955, Elvis, Scotty, and Bill toured constantly. They

traveled throughout the South and ventured as far north as Cleveland. They played six

and sometimes seven days a week. In show after show and town after town, the size of

their audiences kept getting larger and largerand most of that growth in audience was

made up of teenage girls. At a concert in May in Jacksonville, Florida, Elvis finished his


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set with the casual remark, Girls, Ill see you all backstage and hundreds rushed the

stage. By the time Elvis had found shelter in the locker room of the Gator Bowl, his

clothes were in tatters and they had even taken his shoes.

Enter the Colonel

None of Elvis appeal and potential was lost on Col. Thomas A. Parker who arranged

the bookings for Jamboree Attractions, the company that handled Elvis first major tour

in 1955. Parker was a Southern huckster who had been everything from a carnival

barker to the promoter/manager of such respected country stars as Eddy Arnold and

Hank Snow. The Colonel smelled success and profits when he first saw the effect that

Elvis had on an audience and quickly moved in to become the then twenty-year-old

singers personal manager. Sam Phillips, who held Elvis recording contract, saw his

discovery as a star at Sun but was struggling to promote Elvis beyond regional success.

The Colonel had a much broader view of his new clients commercial potential. Movies,

television, and a major recording contract were just the beginning of the plans that the

Colonel had in mind and, despite his cornball delivery and good ol boy style, he was

clever and shrewd enough to actually make it all happen. Parker told Harry Kalcheim

Col. Thomas A. Parker

Time Life Pictures/

Getty Images


19/50

at the William Morris Agency that he believed Elvis could succeed on stage, screen, and

in recorded music if exploited properly.

Although Sam Phillips, the innovative record producer, may have wanted to keep Elvis

at Sun, Sam Phillips the businessman, understood that his tiny label had neither the

capital nor the promotional machinery to break his artist to a national audience. Finally,

after months of pressure from Parker, Phillips agreed to allow the Colonel to pursue the

sale of Elvis recording contract to a major label. Phillips set a figure of $20,000 as a

minimum for negotiations and Parker immediately set the wheels in motion to make

Elvis Presley a national star.

A story has circulated for decades that shortly before Elvis came to Sun, Sam Phillips

remarked to Marion Keisker, If I could find a white man with the Negro sound and

feel, I could make a million dollars. Whether the story is true or not and Phillips

always denied that he had made the comment Sam Phillips seems to have lacked the

gamblers instincts to promote Elvis exclusively as a white rhythm and blues singer and

risk everything on songs that had that Negro sound and feel. For everyGood Rockin

TonightandBaby, Lets Play Houseat Sun, there were those relatively safe country and

western sides likeBlue Moon of KentuckyandI Dont Care If The Sun Dont

Shinerecorded to pitch Elvis to the traditional mainstream country market.

Col. Parker was far more of a gambler than Sam Phillips. In later years, it was rumored

that the Colonel lost millions at the gaming tables in Las Vegas and that his business

decisions were often directed by his need to cover his debts to mobsters and the Mafia.

In the beginning of his relationship with Elvis, Parker was willing to take extraordinary

risks and bet everything on the possibility that his young client from Memphis might be

the golden opportunity of his career. Parker dropped all of his other clients and focused

all of his efforts to secure a contract for Elvis with a major label and promote him

through appearances on television and in motion pictures.

Although Sam Phillips may have been a true visionary who understood Elvis unique

talents and could bring them out in the studio, he was not mercenary or brazen enough

to exploit those talents narrowly and to their greatest advantage. Only Col. Parker had a

clear vision of just how big Elvis could be and what it would take to make that vision a
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reality. To Parker, exploitation was the essence of promoting talent and he seemed to

understand from the beginning that the only thing wrong with Sam Phillips dream was

that the payoff could actually be bigger larger than a million dollars.

The Later Recordings at Sun

AfterBaby, Lets Play Housewas recorded in February of 1955, Elvis would only return

to the Sun Studios three more times. In March, he cutIm Left, Youre Right, Shes

Goneand in July he recordedI Forgot To Remember To Forget,Mystery

Train,andTrying To Get To You.All were released as Sun singles exceptTrying To Get

To You,which would be later released by RCA on his first LP. In November,When It

Rains, It Really Pourswas recorded as a possible B-side forTrying To Get To Youbut

negotiations for the sale of Elvis recording contract were already underway and the

planned sixth Sun single was never released.When It Rains, It Really Pourswould not

be released until 1983, almost thirty years after it was recorded.

In all of the songs recorded in March, July, and November of 1955 at Sun, there is a

remarkable sense of control and polish in Phillips production and Elvis, Scotty, and

Bills performances were well in advance of their earlier efforts.Thats All Right,for all

The Sun Sessions

Elvis Presley

Courtesy of

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of its virtues, was still a rough and obviously early attempt to fuse a variety of

influences into a new style, but songs likeMystery Trainand the unreleasedWhen It

Rains, It Really Pourswere fully realized blends of blues and country into something

distinctive and new.

Mystery Train (1955)Elvis Presley

One of the myths of Elvis early recordings, not unlike the myth associated with his

movements as a performer, is that they were somehow spontaneous and produced

purely by instinct rather than conscious effort. That may have been true withThats All

Right,but it was certainly not the case with his later Sun recordings. The songs were

developed over long sessions that left room for hours of experimentation and making

very deliberate choices as to how to best shape and focus a song. What is mostremarkable about the level of control and conscious direction that these songs were

taking is that there was no model for them to follow; this was something completely

new and they were creating it as they went along. In essence, Sam, Elvis, Scotty, and Bill

had now found their footing in this new music and not only knew what they were

doing, but how to do it.

Marion Keisker, who was not a producer or performer, may have understood things

with perhaps greater clarity than anyone else in those early days. About the new musicthat was being created in the tiny Sun studio and the many influences that were playing

a part in the creation of that music she said, It was like a giant wedding ceremony,

where feuding clans had been brought together by marriage. By 1955, the marriage

was beginning to produce rather striking results.

The First RCA Recordings
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During 1955, the Colonel began to lay the groundwork for the emergence of Elvis as a

national star. He shopped his client to the major New York labels and engineered a

bidding war between RCA, Columbia, and Atlantic for Elvis recording contract. In the

end, RCA won out and Elvis contract was sold by Sun for $35,000 with a $5000 royalty

paid to the singer. This was the largest sum ever paid for a relative unknown by a major

label and significantly more than had ever been paid for a country singer, even an

established star.

For Sam Phillips, the sale to RCA was a tremendous deal even though it appears to have

been one of the greatest blunders in music history in light of what happened. The sale

figure was significantly higher than the $20,000 minimum that Phillips had set as a

negotiating point and more than Sun, without any national distribution of its own,

could have ever gleaned by selling Elvis records through major distribution companies.

The sale brought Sun out of debt and Phillips invested a substantial portion of his

money in the new Holiday Inn motel corporation that was forming in Memphisand

probably made more from that investment than he would have ever realized from the

sale of Elvis Presley records on the Sun label. But whatever the wisdom of Phillips sale,

Col. Parker had completed the first step in the creation of what he was already calling

Americas newest musical sensation.

Elvis Presley

Courtesy ofSony Music Entertainment


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On November 22, 1955, RCA Victor signed Elvis Presley and within days began to

promoteI Forgot To Remember To Forget/Mystery Trainas the first release on the new

label. As part of the arrangement made with Sam Phillips, RCA had acquired all of the

recordings made at Sun and immediately began to re-release the five Sun singles on the

RCA label. All five Sun singles were re-released in December of 1955. By mid-

December, the promotional power of RCA revived interest in the single and it began to

move up in the country charts. By February of 1956,I Forgot To Remember To Forgethit

number one on the Billboard Country Chart giving Elvis his first national Number One

record.

RCA had been represented in the negotiations for Elvis contract by Steve Sholes, the

Director for Artists and Repertoire of the labels Country Music Division. Initially,

Sholes had been drawn to Elvis because of his success, limited though it may have been,

in the country music market in the South. However, as Col. Parker plied his negotiating

skills, Sholes began to be intrigued by the potential for the young singer to move into

the pop charts with his rhythm & blues songs. In part, this accounted for RCAs

decision to sign a relative unknown for such a large sum of money. However, it also put

Sholes reputation and standing at the label on the line because if Elvis failed, it would

be a very costly mistake. As a consequence, Sholes personally took charge of the

production of Elvis early recordings for RCA with the help of Chet Atkins, the chief of

the labels Nashville recording operations. Rarely has a young artist with so little

experience been accorded the luxury of working with such an experienced and

accomplished production team as Elvis had from the beginning at RCA. And rarely has

a production team of such stature found itself in territory as unfamiliar and perplexing

as that encountered by Sholes and Atkins in those early Presley sessions.

Steve Sholes and Chet Atkins were seasoned veterans in Nashville, but their

background was in country music and neither had any experience with rhythm and

blues. Furthermore, the whole idea of rock and roll music was not only new and

unfamiliar to them, but also a bit disagreeable and at odds with their musical tastes.

Sholes and Atkins were not teenagers and, although they recognized Elvis talent, they

were at something of a loss when it came to understanding what it was that he did, why

teenagers seemed to like it, or how they might help him do it better. Sam Phillips, likely
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because of his long experience in recording blues and R&B artists, was able to bring out

those qualities in Elvis that made his songs come alive in the studio, but the production

team at RCA simply had no idea how to realize the true potential of their newest

acquisition.

The result of all of this was that Elvis was allowed an unusual amount of freedom and

latitude in the studio for a young and inexperienced artist. Since he had a clearer sense

of what he was trying to accomplish than either Sholes or Atkins, they let him take the

lead and guide and shape his own recordings from the very beginning. Bones Howe,

who engineered most of the Presley sessions for RCA in the late 1960s and 70s, noted in

Jerry HopkinsElvis: A Biography(1971):

Elvis produced his own records. He came to the session, picked the songs, and if

something in the arrangement was changed, he was the one to change it. Everything

was worked out spontaneously. Nothing was really rehearsed. Many of the important

decisions normally made previous to a recording session were made during the

session. What it was was a look into the future. Today everybody makes records this

way. Back then Elvis was the only one. He was the forerunner of everything thats

record production these days.

Elvis first recording session with RCA was held in Nashville on January 10th and 11thof 1956. Steve Sholes supervised the session and Chet Atkins guided the recording

operation, but for all intents and purposes, Elvis served as his own producer. Drummer

D. J. Fontana joined Scotty Moore and Bill Black for the first time, forming the core of

the band that would back Elvis on all of his studio recordings for RCA in the 1950s. On

the first day, they recorded Mae Boren AxtonsHeartbreak Hotel,Ray Charles rhythm

and blues classicI Got A Woman,and the DriftersMoney Honey.These songs were

already a part of Elvis live act and he had a very clear idea of what he wanted to do

with them.

Heartbreak Hotel (1956)Elvis Presley

These sessions were long and driven by Elvis insistence to work and re-work each song

until he was pleased with it. It was a normal industry practice to record four songs,
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enough for two singles, during a three-hour studio session. Elvis first session went nine

hours and produced only five songsand only one,Heartbreak Hotelhad the potential

to be an A-side release. This would prove to be common practice at all subsequent Elvis

Presley recording sessions. Even with mediocre material, Elvis would pursue his sense

of a song until he captured it. He was a perfectionist in the studio and proved to be

more than capable of shaping his own material, even in his first session.

The perfectionist demands that Elvis placed on himself and the musicians and

vocalists who backed him continued through the recording sessions at RCA that

followed in 1956. In July, Elvis returned to New York to recordHound Dog,Dont Be

Cruel,andAny Way You Want Me (Thats How I Will Be).Hound Dog,which Elvis

had been performing on the road for months, took an unprecedented thirty-one

takes.Dont Be Cruel,a new song by Otis Blackwell that Steve Sholes brought to the

session, took more than twenty-four takes until Elvis was satisfied. In all, it took six

hours to record the three songs.

Dont Be Cruel (1956)Elvis Presley

Although the time and effort put into recording Elvis Presley songs was unusual and

expensive by industry standards in 1956, the results quickly proved to be worth the

investment.Heartbreak Hotelhit Number One on the 10th of March and held thatposition for eight weeks.I Want You, I Need You, I Love Youalso hit Number One

andDont Be Cruel/Hound Dog,Elvis first double-sided rock and roll single, would

become the largest selling record of his career. It was a two-sided hit with both songs

listed as capturing the Number One position.Dont Be Cruel/Hound Dogheld the

Number One position for eleven weeks until another Elvis Presley song,Love Me

Tender,finally pushed it out of the Number One slot. Eventually,Dont Be

Cruel/Hound Dogwould sell over four million copies and be the only single released

before 1985s We Are The World to achieve quadruple-platinum status.

In 1956, Elvis placed eleven songs into the Top 40, four of which went to Number One.

He held the Number One position for twenty-five weeks and by the years end

accounted for almost two-thirds of RCAs total popular record sales. His first

album,Elvis Presley, was released in March, went to Number One, and became the first
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long-playing record in history to sell over a million copies. His second album,Elvis,

released in October, also went to Number One and repeated the feat of selling more

than one million copies. Put simply, no artist in history had so dominated the popular

music charts as Elvis Presley did in 1956.

Television

At the same time that Elvis was getting started at RCA, Col. Parker began to plan for a

media blitz to coincide with the release of his first recordings on the new label. What

the Colonel understood was that Elvis was far more than just another singer of music

for teenagers and, more important, that he was a phenomenon of sight as much as

sound. Parker had carefully noted that his clients looks, defiant stance, and sexiness

had been crucial to his success with audiences and grasped that he had to be seen to be

believed.

In December of 1955, less than two weeks after Elvis joined RCA, Col. Parker signed a

contract for four appearances (with an option to add two more) onStage Show, a

Saturday night variety show hosted by the famous bandleaders, Tommy and Jimmy

Elvis on CBS

September 9, 1956 CBS Photo Archive/

Getty Images


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Dorsey.Stage Showwas produced by Jackie Gleason as a lead-in to his own show,The

Honeymooners. The Elvis Presley television appearances, slated to begin in late January

and run for the following four weeks, were viewed by the Colonel as an important part

of his strategy to introduce Elvis to the eyes and ears of America. However for Jackie

Gleason and theStage Showstaff, this was a routine booking of no greater or lesser

importance than any other. In December of 1955, Elvis was just another unknown new

artist who sought some exposure on television to get his career started and promote his

recordings.

However, after his first appearance, it would be clear that Elvis was not just another

unknown new artist and that his television appearances would be anything but

routine.

The Dorsey BrothersStage Show

The Dorsey Brothers Stage Show

February 4, 1956

Michael Ochs Archives/

Getty Images


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On January 28, 1956, Elvis Presley appeared on the Dorsey BrothersStage Showfor the

first time. He was introduced by Cleveland disc jockey Bill Randall, who noted without

the slightest trace of conviction that this virtually unknown ex-truck driver from

Memphis, Tennessee was about to make television history. But thats precisely what

happened.

Although Elvis first television appearance was not seen by a particularly large audience

neither Elvis norStage Showhad much of a following at that point it did start a

buzz in the press and the entertainment industry. Despite the fact that he was

obviously nervous and awkward in his first outing on national television, he struck a

nerve and elicited an immediate and favorable response from both the studio and

the viewing audiences. His choice of songs, Big Joe TurnersShake, Rattle And

Rollsegued into TurnersFlip, Flop And Flyand Ray CharlesI Got A Woman,was

unusual and even daring for television but, again, had registered positively. And, of

course, the way he sang and moved got people talking about the hillbilly

performer who sings like a Negro.

Shake, Rattle And Roll (1956)Elvis Presley

On his secondStage Showappearance, Elvis sang Little RichardsTutti Fruttiand

Arthur GuntersBaby, Lets Play House,two songs that he had recorded at Sun in 1955.Although Elvis first RCA recording,Heartbreak Hotel,had shipped two weeks earlier

on January 27, he had yet to sing it on television. It seems that there was reluctance on

the part of CBS to let Elvis singHeartbreak Hotelbecause it was morbid and

depressing.

On his thirdStage Showappearance, Elvis finally sangHeartbreak Hotel(along

withBlue Suede Shoes) and things began to change. Sales of the single improved and it

was decided to promote the record more aggressively on his remaining televisionappearances. The following week, he sang the B-side,I Was The One,onStage

Showand two weeks laterHeartbreak Hotel/I Was The Oneentered the pop charts at

#68. On March 24, Elvis made his last appearance onStage Showand again

sangHeartbreak Hotel.Two days later, the song broke into the Top Ten.
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The following months confirmed to RCA and Col. Parker that television was a device of

extraordinary power for promoting and marketing Elvis Presley records. He had

sungHeartbreak Hotelon three of his six appearances on the Dorsey BrothersStage

Showand again on his April 3 appearance onThe Milton Berle Show. By mid-April it had

sold over one million copies, then on April 28 it hit Number One on the pop charts,

where it would remain for the next eight weeks. By the end of May, it would also top

the country and jukebox charts and hold the Number Five position on the R&B charts.

One week afterHeartbreak Hotelwent to Number One, his first album,Elvis Presley,

captured the Number One spot on the album charts.Elvis Presleywould stay at Number

One for ten weeks and remain in the charts for an unprecedented forty-eight weeks.

Television, it seemed, was all that Col. Parker had hoped it would beand more.

The Gathering Storm

While television was certainly the primary factor in advancing Elvis early career, it also

fed a growing sense of public uneasiness about the songs that he sang, the way that he

performed them, and the effect that rock and roll music was having on Americas

youth. Unlike the controversy that accompanied Bill Haleys(Were Gonna) Rock Around

The Clockthe year before, the storm that was slowly gathering around Elvis went far

beyond questions of good taste and rock and rolls possible influence on juvenile

delinquency. Where Haley had presented a very white version of black rhythm and

Rev. Robert Gray denoucing Elvis Presley

Jacksonville, Florida

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blues, Elvis had managed to capture the essential style and substance of the blues

tradition in both his recordings and performances. Peter Guralnick, in his liner notes

forThe Sun Sessions, noted that Elvis was always a naturally assimilative musician,

with an acute sense of style. The black rhythm-and-blues style, he has had in hand

and throat and body from the very first, along with the heavy breathing, urgent

exuberant vocalism and verbal articulation that goes along with it.

But the problem was not that Elvis could sing rhythm and blues better or more

authentically than other white singers, the problem was that he forcefully and

unapologetically brought this kind of music into millions of American households at a

time when racial separation was a central fact of life in America. In the process, he was

challenging some of the most entrenched and established conventions of American

society and many began to see him as more of a propagandist than an entertainer.

Although half of the songs that he had recorded were country tunes, all of the songs

performed on television were blues, rock and roll, or ballads done in a blues style. He

had taken songs by Joe Turner, Little Richard, Ray Charles, Clyde McPhatter and the

Drifters, and other black artists, performed them without concession or regret, and left

millions of teenagers begging for more. Initially, these songs that Elvis performed on

television may have seemed exotic and eccentric, but by April they had become

disquieting and even threatening. It was as if his insistence on performing rhythm and

blues songs were part of a conscious scheme to bring African American music into

mainstream white culturewhich, of course, is exactly what it was.

Questions began to be raised about the propriety of Elvis performances and the effect

that they were having on public morals. Criticism about his suggestive and

insinuating movements followed each and every performance. Parents groups began

to complain about the effect that he had on teenagers who went wild at his

performances and seemed to abandon any sense of moral restraint in their behavior.

His critics also began to express their concern about the broad social implications of a

performer who chose to cross so many lines racial, sexual, and moral and do so

with such willful disregard for their importance. After all, those lines maintained the

status quo and kept order in post-war America.


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But the faint rumblings of discord that began after Elvis appearances onStage

Showwere just the beginning. Before the summer of 1956 had even arrived, Elvis would

find himself in the midst of a storm of outrage and protest unlike anything that he or

any other popular artist had ever encountered.

The Milton Berle Show

After the success of the six appearances on the Dorsey BrothersStage Show, Col. Parker

signed Elvis for two engagements onThe Milton Berle Show. Although Milton Berle,

Mr. Television, was not the star that he had been in the early 1950s, his show was still

popular and had a substantial viewing audience that was much larger than that of the

Dorsey Brothers. In his first appearance onThe Milton Berle Show, Elvis sangHeartbreak

Hotel,andBlue Suede Shoesfrom the deck of theU.S.S Hancockin San Diego. As had

happened onStage Show, the ratings went up, record sales soared, audiences were

thrilled, and critics continued to be baffled by his appeal and the speed at which his star

had risen.

The Milton Berle ShowJune 5, 1956

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On June 5, one month later, Elvis returned toThe Milton Berle Showand sangHound

Dogfor the first time on television.Hound Dogwas to be his next single for RCA,

slated to be recorded and released in July. It was written by Jerry Leiber and Mike

Stoller and had been a rhythm and blues hit for Willie Mae Big Mama Thornton three

years earlier. Elvis had actually heard the song for the first time in Las Vegas where it

was performed as a novelty number by a lounge act, Freddie Bell and the Bellboys.

Hound Dog (1956)Elvis Presley

When Elvis performedHound DogonThe Milton Berle Showon June 5, 1956, he

attacked it with his characteristic gyrations and flailing arms. But midway through the

performance, he slowed the tempo and executed a most deliberate bump and grind,

clearly mimicking a striptease dancer. To say that he drew attention to thoseinsinuating movements would be an extraordinary understatement. Although

intended as something closer to self-parody than an assault on the publics morals,

Elvis performance ofHound Dogwould finally fan the smoldering flames of

controversy into a firestorm of protest.

The Storm Breaks

Screaming Fans Outside of an

Elvis Presley Concert in 1956

Charles Trainor/Time & Life Pictures

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While the performance ofHound DogonThe Milton Berle Showhad been clearly and

intentionally designed as a kind of joke built on the controversy that had arisen around

his performance style, the effect proved to be humorous only in part. The studio

audience was stunned but clearly thrilled by the audacity of the moment. Their

applause and excitement attested to the fact that they understood the innocence of the

joke but their nervous laughter also revealed a measure of shock and disbelief in their

endorsement. The response of the critics was another story.

Ben Gross inThe New York Daily Newsreacted to the bump and groin antics of Elvis

Presley by noting that he (Elvis) gave an exhibition that was suggestive and vulgar,

tinged with the kind of animalism that should be confined to dives and bordellos.

Gross also found Elvis to be appalling musically and was amazed that Berle and

NBC-TV should have permitted this affront. Jack OBrien inThe New York Journal-

Americanfound The sight of young (21) Mr. Presley caterwauling his unintelligible

lyrics in an inadequate voice, during a display of primitive physical movement difficult

to describe in terms suitable for a family newspaper to have caused the most heated

reaction since the stone-age days of TV. Jack Gould inThe New York Timesnoted that

Elvis might possibly be classified as an entertainer. Or, perhaps quite as easily, as an

assignment for a sociologist. Hedda Hopper of the Hearst Syndicate simply found the

performance lewd and obscene.

The controversy rose to the level of a national debate within a matter of days.

Politicians, religious leaders, parents groups, television and radio personalities,

educators, editorial writers, and just about every other social commentator in America

entered the fray to decry the evil of rock and roll music and condemn its most public

practitioner. Elvis was now a corrupter of youth, a destroyer of moral values, and the

reigning symbol of all that was wrong in American society.

However, as public outrage mounted, record sales skyrocketed. Col. Parker was now

faced with the dilemma of trying to balance the negative public reaction to Elvis

performance ofHound Dogagainst the publicity value of a national controversy that

was actually boosting record sales. In many ways, the balancing act that would

proceed for the next few weeks would be a crucial determiner of Elvis future and the

future of rock and roll in the cultural mainstream. To have outrage overcome or
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overshadow Elvis astounding success on television, radio, and in record stores would

have slowed the momentum that Col. Parker believed was now essential to taking his

client to the very top of the entertainment business. But to tamper with those qualities

that had propelled Elvis to such early success was to risk robbing him of his power and

appeal as a performer. RCA informed Col. Parker that the negative press Elvis had

received was of little consequence because of his great talent and the Colonels keen

business sense but for the first time things were not proceeding according to plan.

Elvis career and the future of rock and roll were being decided by events over which

neither the Colonel nor his client had any real control.

Personally, Elvis was deeply hurt by the attacks because he felt that he had done

nothing wrong. As he noted in an interview two weeks after the appearance onThe

Milton Berle Show, colored folks been singing it and playing it just like Im doin now,

man, for more years than I know. They played it like that in the shanties and their juke

joints, and nobody paid it no mind til I goosed it up. I got it from them. Down in

Tupelo, Mississippi, I used to hear old Arthur Crudup bang his box the way I do now,

and I said if I ever got to the place where I could feel all old Arthur felt, Id be a music

man like nobody ever saw. One thing was sure: Elvis was indeed a music man like

nobody ever saw. The question now was whether he could survive the controversy

and still remain true to himself and his music.

A booking had already been set forThe Steve Allen Showin July and Allen publicly

announced, There has been a demand that I cancel him from our show. As of now he

is booked for July 1, but I have not come to a final decision on his appearance. If he does

appear, you can rest assured that I will not allow him to do anything that will offend

anyone. Col. Parker and Allen decided that Elvis should once again performHound

Dogbut this time in a manner designed to quell public fears and reassure them that

Elvis was neither a threat nor a menace to public morals.

The Steve Allen Show
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Elvis appeared onThe Steve Allen Showdressed in white tie and tails. The idea was to

present him in a comedic contrast that played a low-culture entertainer off against high-

culture trappings. Obviously, the idea was also to humble Elvis before a national

audience. But Elvis, though embarrassed and nervous for the first time since his initial

appearance on national television, did as he was told and tried to make the best of an

uncomfortable situation. He opened withI Want You, I Need You, I Love Youand

managed to actually invest the song with some feeling although it was impossible to

hide his obvious humiliation. As soon as the song was over, a basset hound waswheeled onstage and Steve Allen announced that Elvis was now going to singHound

Dog.

When the song ended there was little response from the studio audience, at least in

comparison to what usually followed an Elvis Presley performance. It seemed as if

everyone shared in the singers embarrassment and took as little pleasure in the joke as

Elvis. But something had been accomplished by the ill-conceived idea of having Elvis

performHound Dogin tails to an actual hound.

Elvis, perhaps for the first time in all of his television appearances, seemed terribly

human and vulnerable instead of brash and rebellious. The fact that he handled the

situation so professionally and with such grace left an indelible impression on the

audience. Rather than a defiant and insolent miscreant, the audience caught a glimpse

The Steve Allen Show

July 1, 1956

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of a shy, respectful, and humble young man who was willing to endure an entire

evening of public humiliation because that was what was asked of him. He had shown

respect, deference, and courtesy in a situation that would have pushed most people to

anger and exasperation. In contrast, Steve Allen appeared to be something of a bully

who had consciously and cruelly attempted to humiliate Elvis on national television.

Allen had promised at the beginning of the show that the audience was going to see a

different side of your (Elvis) personality tonight and they hadalthough not the side

that Allen had intended.

Elvis not only survivedThe Steve Allen Show, he came out of it stronger with his career

firmly back on track. The controversy that surrounded him did not go away; in fact, it

would last throughout his career and continue for many years after his death. But

afterThe Steve Allen Show, things were different. Many would find it increasingly

difficult to dislike Elvis as a person even though they continued to dislike his music and

the way that he performed it. Those who continued to rail against him now appeared to

be mean-spirited and intolerant in contrast to the young man who seemed so warm

and sincere on television. His charm and vulnerability brought him sympathy in the

face of the attacks directed at him and his fans rallied around him as though devotion to

Elvis and the defense of rock and roll were matters of extreme importance and

consequence.

The Ed Sullivan Show


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Ed Sullivan took special note of what had happened onThe Steve Allen Show. Sullivan

was one of the most powerful and influential figures in show business in 1956. He

hosted the most popular variety show on television and wrote the entertainmentcolumn forThe New York Daily News, the largest newspaper in the city. His opinion

carried substantial weight in the press and gaining a slot on his television show brought

performers before the largest audience in America. In short, Ed Sullivan was able to

make or break a performer and Presley had become of particular importance and

interest to him.

Sullivan was conservative, cautious, and scrupulous in his support or rejection of talent

for his show. He felt that he had a moral obligation to present performers who would

be both welcome and unthreatening to the millions of Americans that his show reached

every Sunday night. Consequently, after Elvis appearance onThe Milton Berle Show, he

made it known that Elvis Presley would never appear on his show as a kind of promise

to his audience that he would not allow their sensibilities to be challenged or upset by a

Ed Sullivan

Photograph by

Maurice Carnes LaClaire

Courtesy of

The Library of Congress


38/50

young upstart with new and radical ideas. But what had happened onThe Steve Allen

Showcaused Sullivan to seriously rethink what he had said.

For one thing, although the controversy that surrounded Elvis continued, there was a

perceptible softening of public opinion towards the young man as an individual and

that needed to be taken into consideration. It was one thing to block an artist that was

universally disliked but quite another thing to prevent an artist from reaching an

audience that genuinely was interested in seeing him. But of far greater importance to

Sullivan was the fact thatThe Steve Allen Showaired opposite his show on Sunday nights

and for the first and only time, Allen had beaten Sullivan in the ratings on the

night of Elvis appearance. Not only had Allen bested Sullivan, he had done it by a near

two-to-one margin.

Two days after Elvis appearance onThe Steve Allen Show, Sullivan would say that he still

had no interest in booking the singer but he was already in negotiations with Col.

Parker to do just the opposite. Eight days later, the deal was struck and Sullivan

announced that Elvis Presley would make three appearances onThe Ed Sullivan Showin

the fall and winter. Elvis was to be paid $50,000 for the three shows, compared to the

$1250 that he received for eachStage Showappearance just a few months earlier.

Further, it was agreed that Elvis would retain complete control over the choice of

material that he would sing and the musical production of his songs. In June, Ed

Sullivan had stood up to the rising tide of Elvis Presley and, one month later, was swept

away by the sheer force it.

While Ed Sullivans agreement to book Elvis Presley on his television show may appear

to be a matter of only minor importance, it was actually one of the major turning points

in Elvis career and, consequently, in the history of American popular music. To begin

with, it was less of an agreement than a complete surrender to Elvis, rock and roll, and

the change in American culture that now appeared to be unstoppable. Elvis would be

showcased on American televisions premier entertainment program not as a

curiosity, a novelty, or a passing fad but as an accepted and recognized star of the

first magnitude.


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Like most major moments in popular musics history, the acceptance of Elvis Presley

into the fold of mainstream culture had little to do with art, artistry, or enlightenment

on anyones part. It was a business decision that was based almost exclusively on the

market. Elvis and rock and roll had become too big a force in the market to ignore or

resist, and as a result Ed Sullivan had capitulated to the realities of dollars and cents. It

was also a quintessentially American moment and one that had its mythic properties:

the poor country boy had triumphed over the rich city sophisticates, the carnival

huckster had outmaneuvered and outsmarted the supposedly clever industry, and the

money had fallen out on the side of the common folk. Battles about rock and roll music

would continue to be fought for many years but the war was effectively overand rock

and roll had won.

The First Appearance onThe Ed Sullivan

Show

The winds of change had shifted and popular music was now set on a radically new and

different course. Rock and roll would, in the coming months, come to dominate

popular music and

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