ROCK'N'ROLL RECOLLECTIONS: Stories from the Rockabilly Days by Stu Frederick
November 2006
THE LEGEND GOES LIKE THIS...
Dateline, Memphis, July 5, 1954: Sam Phillips, proprietor of Memphis Recording Studio and Sun Records Company, is recording a session with two seasoned local musicians and a young singer fresh out of high school. He had hired Scotty Moore on guitar and Bill Black on double bass to accompany 19-year old Elvis Presley. The phone rang and Sam went to take the call. While he was out of the studio, Bill Black and Elvis began to fool around with a blues tune called "That's All Right Mama", written in the late 1940s by Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup. Bill began thumping and slapping his big fiddle. Elvis was inspired to sing in a mannered, exaggerated style, dancing with his guitar while he strummed it.
Sam dashed back into the studio and asked them what they had been doing. "Just playin' the fool, Sam!" was Bill's reply. "Well, I'm gonna turn on the tape machine and I want you to do it again!" was the gist of what Sam said in return. From his office (as legend has it) Sam had finally heard the sound he had been looking for. It was the birth of a meteoric career and, some say, the birth of rockabilly!
AN OVERNIGHT SUCCESS? Well, like I say, it's a good story. The outline of it is just fine. At the time of this session, however, Sam had been working with Elvis for nearly seven months. And Elvis had been recording at Sun for the entire previous year. I think it delivers a good message to say that Sam believed in Elvis and stuck with him. He even got him the best backup men in Memphis, who were, at first, hesitant to work with this greenhorn singer! But both players liked what they heard, and so Elvis, Scotty, and Bill became "The Blue Moon Boys, a band on the Sun record label, with Scotty as their manager.
ELVIS, SCOTTY, & BILL The Blue Moon Boys
Besides "That's All Right Mama", that July session also yielded the songs "I Love You Because" and the astounding take on Bill Munroe's bluegrass classic, "Blue Moon of Kentucky" with it's prominent echo sound. Now THAT song had as much to do with establishing the rockabilly style as any song I can think of!
AS FOR THE BIRTH OF ROCKABILLY... There was a lot going on right around then. On the east coast, Bill Haley had already recorded "Rocket 88"* and "Rock This Joint" by 1952, when Elvis was still in high school. MEANWHILE, down the road in Jackson, Tennessee, Carl Perkins** and his brothers had been tearing up the juke joints with driving, rhythmic guitars and slapping bass since 1947 (when Carl was 15!)!
But, as Carl Perkins himself always said, Elvis had the looks while "everybody else looked like Mr. Ed!" Whatever you make of Elvis and his career, there were big changes ahead for the entire world, beginning on July 5th, 1954.
EXTRA FACTS: Sam Phillips had already produced now classic recordings by bluesmen Howling Wolf (Chester Burnett) and B.B. King. Frustrated by the resistance of the white market to black artists, even great ones, Sam's quest began to find a white singer who could deliver the "feel" of the great African-American bluesmen. He had sensed early on that Elvis had that potential.
Sam Phillips' studio had many local and country hits with Elvis, but did not have the clout needed to break into the national charts. With financial troubles looming, Sam sold his contract with Elvis to RCA records for $35,000 in November of 1955. The deal was brokered by Colonel Tom Parker, who was not his manager at the time, but soon would be. Elvis' first recording with RCA in January, 1956 was "Heartbreak Hotel." With it's release that spring, it became Presley's first of many top national hits and scores of gold records in a legendary career.
* "Rocket 88" was originally recorded by Ike Turner and friends at Sun Records!
** Carl Perkins would record "Blue Suede Shoes" at Sun Records in December, 1955, just after Elvis left for RCA.
