Music Throughout the Ages

Elvis Presley

No one defines music of the fifties like Elvis Presley; his name is synonymous with Rock and Roll. His sound has been copied, music imitated and image immortalized by people all over the world. People just can’t seem to get enough of Elvis. Before all of this ‘greatness’ was bestowed upon him, his beginning was quite humble and ordinary.

A Shy Boy

Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935–August 16, 1977), middle name sometimes written Aron) was an American singer, musician and actor. Presley was born in a two-room house, built by his father Vernon, in East Tupelo, Mississippi. He was an identical twin—his brother was stillborn and given the name Jesse Garon. Growing up as an only child he was, everyone agreed, unusually close to his mother Gladys. In 1946, for his eleventh birthday, Presley received his first guitar. He had wanted a bicycle or rifle for his birthday, but his parents could only afford a guitar. Over the following year, Vernon’s brother, Vester, would give Elvis basic guitar lessons.

In September 1948 the family moved to Memphis, Tennessee, allegedly because Vernon—in addition to needing work—had to escape the law for transporting bootleg liquor. In 1949, they lived at Lauderdale Courts, a public housing development in one of Memphis‘ poorer sections. Presley practiced playing guitar in the laundry room and also played in a five-piece band with other tenants. Another resident, Johnny Burnette, recalled, “Wherever Elvis went he’d have his guitar slung across his back.”

Initial influences came through his family’s attendance at the Assembly of God, a Pentecostal Holiness church. Rolling Stone wrote: “Gospel pervaded Elvis’ character and was a defining and enduring influence all of his days.” During breaks at recording sessions or after concerts, Presley often joined in private with others for informal gospel music sessions.

Memphis had a strong tradition of blues music and Presley went to blues as well as hillbilly venues. Many of his future recordings were inspired by local African American composers and recording artists, including Arthur Crudup, Rufus Thomas and B.B. King. King says that he “knew Elvis before he was popular. He used to come around and be around us a lot … on Beale Street.”

Presley was an untrained musician who played entirely by ear. ‘I don’t read music,’ he confessed, ‘but I know what I like.’ … Because he was not a songwriter, Presley would rarely have material prepared for recording sessions.. When later, as a young singer, he “ventured into the recording studio he was heavily influenced by the songs he had heard.

Early Studio Recordings

On July 18, 1953, Presley went to Sun Records’ Memphis Recording Service to record “My Happiness” with “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin”, supposedly a present for his mother. On January 4, 1954, he cut a second acetate. Sun Records boss Sam Phillips was on the lookout for someone who could deliver a blend of black blues and boogie-woogie music; he thought it would be very popular among white people the jukebox and radio.

During a recording break, Presley began “acting the fool” first with Arthur Crudup’s “That’s All Right (Mama)”. Phillips got them all to restart and began taping. This was the sound he had been looking for. “That’s All Right” was aired on July 8, 1954, by DJ Dewey Phillips. Listeners to the show began jamming the phone lines, eager to find out who the singer was. Requests for the song were so high, that Phillips ended up playing it fourteen times during the one show. During an interview on the show, Phillips asked Presley what high school he went to (a polite way of letting the audience know what color Presley was). After its release, both sides of “That’s All Right”/”Blue Moon of Kentucky” began to chart across the South.

Elvis on the Move

Moore and Black began playing regularly with Presley. They gave a few performances in July 1954 to promote the Sun single at the Bon Air, a rowdy music club where the band was not well-received. On July 30 the trio, billed as The Blue Moon Boys, made their first paid appearance at the Overton Park Shell, with Slim Whitman headlining. A nervous Presley’s legs were said to have shaken uncontrollably during this show: his wide-legged pants emphasized his leg movements, apparently causing females in the audience to go “crazy”. Scotty Moore claims it was just the natural way he moved and had nothing to do with “nerves.” Presley consciously incorporated similar movements into future shows.

Roy Orbison saw Presley for the first time in Odessa, Texas: ‘His energy was incredible, his instinct was just amazing… I just didn’t know what to make of it. There was just no reference point in the culture to compare it.’ Sam Phillips said Presley “put every ounce of emotion … into every song, almost as if he was incapable of holding back.”

Presley was even seen as a “definite danger to the security of the United States.” His actions and motions were called “a strip-tease with clothes on” or “sexual self-gratification on stage.” They were compared with “masturbation or riding a microphone.” Some saw the singer as a sexual pervert, and psychologists feared that teenaged girls and boys could easily be “aroused to sexual indulgence and perversion by certain types of motions and hysteria—the type that was exhibited at the Presley show.”

Presley movies were nevertheless very popular, and he “became a film genre of his own.” His Blue Hawaii even “boosted the new state’s tourism. Some of his most enduring and popular songs came from those kind of movies,” like “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” “Return to Sender” and “Viva Las Vegas.” His 1960s films and soundtracks grossed some $280 million.

On December 1st, 1968, the New York Times wrote: “Three times a year Elvis Presley has gone to the sound stages of Hollywood to make multimillion-dollar feature-length films, with holiday titles like “Blue Hawaii,” “Fun in Acapulco.” “Viva Las Vegas.” “Tickle Me’ “Easy Come, Easy Go,” “Live a Little, Love a Little,” and the latest in the series, “Chataqua” [released as Charro!]. For each film Elvis receives a million dollar in wages and 50 per cent of the profits. The money doesn’t stop there, however, every film yields an LP sound-track record which may sell as many as two-million copies.”

Presley began his career as one of the first performers of rockabilly, an uptempo fusion of country and rhythm and blues with a strong back beat. His novel versions of existing songs, mixing “black” and “white” sounds, made him popular—and controversial—as did his uninhibited stage and television performances. He recorded songs in the rock and roll genre, with tracks like “Hound Dog” and “Jailhouse Rock” later embodying the style. Presley had a versatile voice and had unusually wide success encompassing other genres, including gospel, blues, ballads and pop. To date, he has been inducted into four music halls of fame. He is one of the best-selling and most influential artists in the history of popular music.