Elvis Presley: early hits, 1954-56

1954

That’s All Right (Arthur Crudup) – Reportedly Elvis began “acting the fool” with this song during a break in the July 5, 1954 recording session. Sam Phillips heard it and said that was the sound he was after. So they recorded the song which became the A-side of Presley’s first single.

“That’s All Right was aired on July 8, 1954, by DJ Dewey Phillips on his Red, Hot and Blue show.Listeners to the show began phoning in, eager to find out who the singer was. The interest was such that Phillips played the demo fourteen times.During an interview on the show, Phillips asked Presley what high school he attended—to clarify Presley’s color for listeners who assumed he must be black” – wikipedia

Within a week Sun reportedly had 6,000 advance orders on the record.

Blue Moon of Kentucky (Bill Monroe) – Released as the B-side of That’s All Right, recorded during Sun Session 1, July 5-6, 1954.

According to CMT.com Elvis Presley released 80 singles which made the country charts. Though his first several singles for Sun Records were very popular regionally, none charted nationally except for I Don’t Care if the Sun Don’t Shine (#74 on the Billboard pop chart). The first one listed on country charts is Baby, Let’s Play House.

1955

Baby, Let’s Play House (Arthur Gunter)- This single, recorded February 11, 1955 is the first one for which wikipedia gives a chart position. It reached #5 on Billboard’s country chart. This appears to be a later performance, probably from 1956.

There’s another version (evidently from a different take at the same session) with better picture, audio marred by a hiss, here: Baby, Let’s Play House.

I Forgot to Remember to Forget (Stan Kesler & Charlie Feathers) Recorded July 11, 1955. One aspect of Elvis that is sometimes overlooked is his sense of humor. It shows in both the selection of this song and in his melodramatic delivery. This song was Presley’s first #1 country hit, topping the charts in February 1956 after it was re-released by RCA Victor in December ‘55.

Aside from the legendary Million Dollar Quartet session on December 4, 1956 Elvis did not record again for Sun after August ‘55. Apparently months were spent in negotiations with three major labels before RCA Victor finally signed the 20 year old to a contract on November 20, 1955. On January 10, 1956, Presley made his first recordings for RCA in Nashville.

1956

Heartbreak Hotel (Mae Boren Axton, Thomas Durden, and Elvis Presley) On the record Presley (vocals and rhythm guitar) is supported by Scotty Moore (lead guitar) Bill Black (bass), D.J. Fontana (drums), Floyd Cramer (piano). Recorded January 1956 in Nashville, the song introduced Presley to the American national music consciousness. “Heartbreak Hotel” became the first No.1 pop record by Elvis and was the best selling single of 1956. – adapted from wikipedia

a. February 11, 1956 appearance on CBS-TV’s Stage Show, hosted by the Dorsey brothers. On this occasion Elvis performed Blue Suede Shoes and Heartbreak Hotel. Elvis made six appearances on this program, his earliest national television exposure, from February 4 to March 24, 1956.

b. (Below) I don’t know which show this is from. Elvis performed the song on three of his six appearances on the Dorsey brothers’ Stage Show, then on his first Berle show (see below). He also sang it on his third Ed Sullivan appearance in January 1957. I’ll let you know if I figure out which one this peformance is from.

c. Elvis’ heavy touring schedule was interrupted by two appearances on the Milton Berle Show, April 3 and June 5, 1956. In the video below Elvis makes his initial Berle appearance, during the April 3, 1956 show, from on board the U.S.S. Hancock in San Diego.

I Was the One (Aaron Schroeder, Claude DeMetrius, Hal Blair, Bill Peppers) was the B-side to Heartbreak Hotel, with back vocals by the Jordinaires. This performance is at Tupelo Mississippi on September 26, 1956.

I Want You, I Need You, I Love You (Maurice Mysels and Ira Kosloff)

In April 1956, RCA Victor producer Steve Sholes was looking for a strong single to follow up Elvis Presley’s colossal hit “Heartbreak Hotel”. Due to Elvis’s busy touring schedule, Sholes needed to get him into the studio as soon as possible. Elvis and his band chartered a small prop plane to Nashville for one day of recording between shows.

En route from Amarillo, the plane developed engine trouble and fell through the sky several times. Upon arrival in Nashville on April 14, Elvis and the band were shaken up. Elvis arrived at RCA Studios with no ideas for the recording session and therefore had no choice but to take Sholes’ suggestions, one of which was I Want You, I Need You, I Love You.

Elvis wasn’t used to working during the day. Coupled with his traumatic experience during his overnight flight, the recording session was disastrous. Take after take was ruined for one reason or another. The band was stiff. Elvis, usually a very quick study with a song, couldn’t get the lyrics right. After 17 takes, Sholes decided Elvis and the band weren’t up for recording and sent them home.

After the session, Sholes listened to the takes again. He wasn’t happy with the results of what he considered to be an unprofessional and wasted session. He knew that with Elvis’s busy touring schedule, it could be months before RCA Victor got him back into the studio. Sholes was determined to get something out of the session.

Performing what was a very rare (and generally unsuccessful) procedure for the 1950s, Sholes took parts of two takes he liked (takes 14 and 17) and cut and spliced them together to come up with a take worthy of release. His cuts were so seamless, nobody at RCA Victor could tell it wasn’t from a single take. – copied from musicvf.com, originally from wikipedia

Regarding live performances of I Want You, I Need You, I Love You: Elvis performed this song on his second Milton Berle show appearance on June 5, 1956 and again when he did the Steve Allen show, July 1. If I could find a clip from the Allen show that doesn’t have his toilet paper gift to Elvis, then I would post it. Haven’t found a clip of the Berle performance yet.

Hound Dog (Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller)

a. Milton Berle Show, June 5, 1956

b. The same June 5 appearance as above. This one includes some comedic reparte with Berle following the song.

c. Ed Sullivan Show, October 28, 1956

Don’t Be Cruel (Otis Blackwell)

a. Ed Sullivan Show – September 9, 1956

b. I think this is from the Elvis’ second Sullivan appearance, October 28, 1956.

c. September 26, 1956 – Elvis returned to Tupelo, Mississippi to perform two shows at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show. Elvis was born in Tupelo and lived there until he was 13 when he and his mother moved to Memphis.

He introduces Don’t Be Cruel by saying, “Thank you friends. Here are the Jordanaires to help us do this song that we did on Mr. Ed Sullivan’s show back in 1932.” In fact his first Sullivan appearance had been only 17 days earlier.

d. The third and final Ed Sullivan show appearance on January 6, 1957

For the third and final appearance on January 6, 1957, Presley performed a medley of “Hound Dog,” “Love Me Tender,” and “Heartbreak Hotel,” followed by a full version of “Don’t Be Cruel.” For a second set later in the show he did “Too Much” and “When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again”. For his last set he sang “Peace in the Valley.” According to Sullivan’s co-producer Marlo Lewis, the rumor had it that “Elvis has been hanging a small soft-drink bottle from his groin underneath his pants, and when he wiggles his leg it looks as though his pecker reaches down to his knee!”^[12] Therefore, it was decided to shoot the singer only from the waist up during his performance. Although much has been made of the fact that Elvis was shown only from the waist up, except for the short section of “Hound Dog,” all of the songs on this show were ballads. “Leaving behind the bland clothes he had worn on the first two shows,” Greil Marcus says, Elvis “stepped out in the outlandish costume of a pasha, if not a harem girl. From the make-up over his eyes, the hair falling in his face, the overwhelmingly sexual cast of his mouth, he was playing Rudolph Valentino in The Shiek, with all stops out. That he did so in front of the Jordanaires, who this night appeared as the four squarest-looking men on the planet, made the performance even more potent.”^[13] Sullivan praised Elvis at the end of the show, saying “This is a real decent, fine boy. We’ve never had a pleasanter experience on our show with a big name than we’ve had with you…. You’re thoroughly all right.”^{[14]- from wikipedia, Ed Sullivan}

Love Me Tender (Vera Matson, Elvis Presley)

The song is credited to Elvis Presley and Vera Matson because of the publishing agreement that was reached and for the assignment of to royalties, but the principal writer of the lyrics was Ken Darby (Matson’s husband). The song was published by Elvis Presley Music. He also adapted a Civil War tune, composed by George Poulton, which was in the public domain. When asked why he credited his wife as co-songwriter along with Presley, Darby responded, “Because she didn’t write it either.” Darby also was the principal writer of the other three songs in [the film] Love Me Tender, “Poor Boy”, which reached no. 24 on the Billboard pop singles chart, “Let Me”, and “We’re Gonna Move”. — adapted from wikipedia

This performance was on the first Ed Sullivan Show appearance by Elvis, September 9, 1956.

Love Me (Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller) Record September 1, 1956 with vocal harmony by the Jordanaires.

a. Second Sullivan show, October 28, 1956. At about 1:41 he either momentarily forgets the next word or begins fooling around, singing “I…he…somebody…I would beg and steal…”