On this day, July 5, 1954, Elvis recorded "That's All Right Mama" at Sun Records in Memphis.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

No, not Elvis Costello.

He recorded "Blue Moon of Kentucky" two days later.

The editors at Wikipedia seem undecided on whether the song is "That's All Right" or "That's All Right Mama."

That's All Right



B-side: "Blue Moon of Kentucky"
Released: July 19, 1954
Recorded: July 5, 1954

"That's All Right Mama" is a song written and originally performed by blues singer Arthur Crudup and recorded in 1946. It "stands as a convincing front-runner for rock ‘n’ roll’s ground zero", according to one source. It is best known as the debut single recorded and released by Elvis Presley. Presley's version was recorded on July 5, 1954, and released on July 19, 1954, with "Blue Moon of Kentucky" as the B-side. It was ranked number 113 on the 2010 Rolling Stone magazine list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

{snip}

Blue Moon of Kentucky

Elvis Presley version

"Blue Moon of Kentucky"
Single by Elvis Presley
A-side: "That's All Right"
Released: July 19, 1954
Recorded: July 7, 1954

The search for another song to release along with "That's All Right" at Sun Records in July 1954 led to "Blue Moon of Kentucky" via Bill Black. Presley's version turned "it from a waltz to a bluesy rocker".

According to Scotty Moore:

We all of us knew we needed something...and things seemed hopeless after a while. Bill is the one who came up with "Blue Moon of Kentucky"...We're taking a little break and he starts beating on the bass and singing "Blue Moon of Kentucky", mocking Bill Monroe, singing the high falsetto voice. Elvis joins in with him, starts playing and singing along with him.

— The Blue Moon Boys - The Story of Elvis Presley's Band,

Presley, Moore, and Black, with the encouragement of Sam Phillips, transformed Monroe's slow waltz, in 3
4 time, into an upbeat, blues-flavored tune in 4/4 time.

After an early rendition of the song, Sun Records owner Sam Phillips exclaimed, "BOY, that's fine, that's fine. That's a POP song now!." As with all of the Presley records issued by Sun, the artists were listed and stylized as "ELVIS PRESLEY SCOTTY and BILL".

The same night that Dewey Phillips first played the flip side of this first release of Presley's music on WHBQ, "That's All Right", Sleepy Eye John at WHHM loosed "Blue Moon of Kentucky". Bob Neal of WMPS played the record, too. The pop jockeys, entranced by something new, began slipping "That's All Right" and "Blue Moon of Kentucky" in among the easy-listening pop of Teresa Brewer, Nat Cole, Tony Bennett, and others.

With Presley's version of Monroe's song consistently rated higher, both sides began to chart across the Southern United States. Billboard has the song listed only in Memphis, and as number six with "That's All Right" at number 7 on October 9 in the C&W Territorial Best Sellers. By October 23, "Blue Moon" was in the top 10 in Memphis, Nashville, and New Orleans, with "That's All Right" absent from the listings.

Fellow Sun Records artist Charlie Feathers has often claimed that he came up with the arrangement of the song used by Presley. While others sources claimed that it was Presley who arranged the song. Monroe, at first, did not care for Presley's version until "powerful checks" (in sizeable amounts) began rolling in for Monroe's writing credit.

{snip}

[kentuck]

1. First modern rock and roll record, in my opinion

[thucythucy]

2. I love every note of the Sun Sessions, but

this came years earlier:

[kentuck]

4. Elvis got his inspiration from black musicians at the time...but

they were played on very few radio stations and were not widely heard. Elvis made the music legitimate and widespread.

[thucythucy]

5. Yes indeed.

This was part of a deliberate strategy by Sam Phillips--owner and head of Sun Records--to bring black music to white audiences.

"Last Train to Memphis"--the first volume of Peter Guralnick's excellent two volume biography of Elvis--includes a really good recounting of the music scene in Memphis and the Delta in the 40s and 50s, and the various influences on Presley as he was growing up surrounded by all that music: gospel, rhythm and blues, country and western, mainstream ballads and popular hits. The man (really a boy at the time) soaked it all up and melded it into his own unique style.

It includes the story of Elvis's first time in the office of Sun Records. Phillips' assistant, Marion Keisker, asked him "Who do you sound like?" and Elvis famously answered, "I don't sound like nobody."

[thucythucy]

6. There were of course other white musicians incorporating black innovations into their own music.

Check out the guitar solo in this hit by the Ames Brothers. It's about as close to rock and roll electric guitar as you could get in 1950.

None of them of course had Presley's impact, not to mention sheer talent.

[thucythucy]

3. My favorite Sun session:

"Hold it fellas, that don't MOVE me"... "Aw Let's Milk it!!!"