A big one.
August 16, 1977.
Thirty years ago this coming Thursday. Good Lord. And we'll remember on this week's edition of the Revolution 21 podcast.
From Q magazine, July 2000:18 JULY 1953: It was the best $4 investment anyone ever made. That was how much Elvis Presley paid to invent rock'n'roll.AND, AS ALWAYS, don't forget that The Big Show is only half of the Revolution 21 experience. So go to www.revolution21.org tout de suite!
Elvis Presley: I was drivin' a truck and I was studying to be an electrician too, you see. Well, I went in to Sun Records.
Jack Clement (assistant to Sun Records owner Sam Phillips): Sun was just a place that was a lot more experimental than most. I think that is the main thing that made it happen. It was just the only place them weirdo could go/
Jud Phillips (vice president, Sun Records): He was just a long-haired kid who used to hang around the corner drug store. When Elvis came into our studio, It was little more than a glorified barn, he wanted to cut a private disc for his mother's birthday.
Marion Keisker (secretary, Memphis Recording Service): It was a busy Saturday afternoon. The office was full of people wanting to make personal records. He came in, said he wanted to make a record. I told him he'd have to wait and he said OK. He sat down.
While he was waiting, we had a conversation. He said he was a singer. I said, "What kind of singer are you?" He said, "I sing all kinds." I said,"Who do you sound like?" He said,"I don't sound like nobody."
Jud Phillips: My brother Sam met him and was quite impressed with his performance, although with that long hair and old blue jeans he looked pretty wild.
Sam Phillips (co-owner Memphis Recording Service): I was in the control room. The only two thing I heard Elvis do when he came in was My Happiness and this Ink Spots thing[That's When Your Heartaches Begin].
Elvis Presley: There was a guy there that took down my name and told me he might call me sometime.
Jud Phillips: After he'd sung his song, for which we charge $4 for recording, we said maybe we'd call him over sometime to cut a commercial disc. He didn't seem too enthusiastic, but I think that was because he wasn't at all sure of his own ability.
Sam Phillips: I wrote his name down, how to get hold on him, and put it on the little old spindle upfront as we were going out of the door.
26 JUNE 1954: Sam Phillips rings Presley and invites him to Sun Studio to make a professional recording.
Marion Keisker (secretary, Memphis Recording Service): Almost a year after Elvis recorded My Happiness, Sam got all excited about a new song he'd found, but couldn't find anyone to sing.
Sam Phillips: I'd run across a ballad [Without You] written by a prisoner in the Tennessee state pen and I wanted a crooner.
Marion Keisker: I mentioned Elvis to him again.
Elvis Presley: "You want to make some blues?" he suggested over the phone, knowing I'd always been a sucker for that kind of jive. He mentioned Big Boy Crudup's name, and maybe others too/ All I know is, I hung up and ran 15 blocks to Mr. Phillips' office before he'd gotten off the line.
4 JULY 1954: Presley rehearses at Sun Studios with Scotty Moore and Bill Black.
Marion Keisker: We got Elvis to come in, but he couldn't do the song to satisfy Sam. That might have been the end of it, but something stirred Sam's interest.
Jud Phillips (co-owner, San Records): That session turned out to be a mighty frustrating business. He wasn't happy with any of the songs we suggested. Nothing we tried seemed to fit his style.
Sam Phillips: Elvis toyed around with it. I decided he needed a couple pf good rhythm men back of him so I called Scotty [Moore, guitarist] and told him to get hold of Bill [Black, bassist]. And I said, "Now, I've got a young man and he's different," I told him and Bill to go by and work with Elvis a little. I said, "Now, he's really nervous and timid and extremely polite."
5 JULY 1954: Presley records That's All Right, Mama, at Sun Records.
Scotty Moore (guitarist): It was just an audition. That's the only reason there was just Bill Black and myself in the studio. We just needed enough music to see what Elvis sounded like on tape, 'cause the first recording he did was on acetate. Sam was trying to get a line on his voice. Did he sing this kind of song or tempo better?
We tried four songs. I Love You Because was the first thing we put on tape. We were used to playing with more musicians involved, y'know. Whether it was country, pop or whatever - you had a piano player, a sax, a fiddle and so on. When we lucked in on that, I realized I was putting everything I knew into practically every song, trying to play some rhythm, some lead, fill notes, y'know. The first two or three things were put on tape when we were strictly just doodling, looking for a sound.
Elvis Presley: This song popped into my mind that I had heard years ago, and I started kidding around with it.
Jud Phillips: It was an old rhythm and blues number called That's All Right, Mama, and at once things started going right.
Scotty Moore: We were taking a break and, all of sudden, Elvis started singing this song, jumping around and acting the fool. Then Bill Black picked up his bass and began acting the fool too, and I started playing with them. Sam had the door to the control room open, and stuck his head out and said, "What are you doing?" We said, "We don't know." He said, "Well, back up. Try to find a place to start, and do it again."
So we kinda talked it over and figured out a little bit what we were doin'. We ran it again, and of course Sam is listenin'. 'Bout the third or fourth time through, we just cut it. It was basically a rhythm record. It wasn't any great thing. It wasn't Sam tellin' him what to do. Elvis was joking around, just doing what come naturally, what he felt.
Sam Phillips: I said, "Right then, that's it!" I knew we had it.
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