July 5, 1954: Elvis Presley's 1st Recording Session

July 5, 1954: Elvis Presley makes his 1st professional recording, a cover of "That's All Right" by Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup.

At the time, Elvis was a 19-year-old kid with a high school education, driving a truck for Crown Electric Company of Memphis, Tennessee, where he and his family, previously from Tupelo, Mississippi, had lived since he was 13.

He wanted to be a singer. He admired gospel singers, both white and black. He admired rural singers, both white men singing "country and western music" and black men singing "the blues." He admired pop singers, in particular Dean Martin, one of the biggest stars in America in 1954.

Elvis wasn't especially ambitious -- not yet, anyway. He just wanted to make enough money to get himself and his parents, Vernon and Gladys, out of poverty. He had been born in what was known as a "shotgun shack," and now they were living in what we in the Northeast would charitably call "garden apartments," but, though all-white, as Tennessee was very much racially segregated, it was definitely a ghetto.

So Elvis did have an ambition, if not an especially big one. What he needed was someone to recognize his talent.

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In 1950, Sam Phillips opened the Memphis Recording Service, at 706 Union Avenue. It was a studio, not a company producing records. In 1951, he produced "Rocket 88," credited to Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats. This was an all-black band playing what was then being called "race music," but would soon be called "rhythm and blues," or "R&B." (In contrast, people began calling "Country and Western" music "C&W.")

In fact, the band was actually Ike Turner and His Kings of Rhythm, for whom Brenston was the lead singer. Yes, that Ike Turner, the one who later discovered, trained, renamed, married and abused Tina.

There is dispute as to what was "the first rock and roll record." "Rocket 88" is a frequently-named contender, and it was soon recorded by a white band, The Saddlemen, and became a minor hit. The leader and lead singer of The Saddlemen was Bill Haley, who named his next band The Comets, and helped move the music that Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed had named "rock and roll" forward tremendously.

The Brenston version of "Rocket 88" made Phillips enough money to found a record label for his studio, Sun Records. Some of the biggest names in Memphis, already a great music city, black and white alike, came to him to record. Sam didn't care: The only color he cared about was green. Money.

Sam was ambitious. He said, "If I can find me a white boy who can sing like a black man, I could make a billion dollars." He really did say, "billion," with a B. To put that in perspective: With inflation factored in, $1 billion in 1954 would be worth about $10.9 billion in 2022. We're not quite talking Bill Gates money, but we are talking money that, to that point, very few Americans had reached. The Rockefellers. The Fords. The Mellons. Maybe a few other families.

And Sam was careful in his terminology. Not because he was tired of hearing grown men called "boy" because they were black (although that may also have been true), but because he thought it would be easier to sell records made by a white teenager who had the voice and feeling -- it would later be called "soul" -- of a mature black man.

So Sam had an especially big ambition. What he needed was someone to fulfill it.

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This is not 1954. Most of you have heard of Elvis Presley. Some of you, but far fewer, have heard of Sam Phillips. That is unfortunate, given the jumpstart Sam gave to rock and roll. Even fewer of you have heard of Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup. And that is a tragedy.

Crudup was born in Mississippi in 1905. By 1939, he was barely getting by as a street singer, when he was discovered. Over the 1940s, he had a few hits with his blues songs. One, recorded in 1946, was "That’s All Right." This song became popular in the South, with both black bluesmen and white country singers. In 1954, it became the 1st song professionally recorded by Elvis. Elvis later recorded another of Crudup' songs at Sun Records, "My Baby Left Me."

By the time Elvis started recording, Crudup had stopped, because he wasn’t getting his royalties: "I realized I was making everybody rich, and here I was, poor.” He died in 1974, at 68, having won a case in court, but getting very little of what he was now legally owed. Today, when he is remembered at all, it is for writing Elvis’ first song.

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On July 18, 1953, Elvis went to the Memphis Recording Service, because he wanted to hear how he sounded. This was the equivalent of making an audition tape. He paid $3.98, about $43.57 in today's money. About half a day's pay. This allowed him to record a two-sided record.

One side was "My Happiness." Written in 1933, it didn't become a hit until 1948, when Ella Fitzgerald recorded it. It became a hit again in 1958, for Connie Francis.

The other side was "That's When Your Heartaches Begin." Written in 1937, it became a hit in 1941, when it was recorded by the all-black vocal group The Ink Spots. After becoming famous, Elvis would record a much more professional version, which in 1957 became the B-side to "All Shook Up."

So Elvis recorded these 2 songs. Nothing happened: Sam didn't notice either recording. On January 4, 1954, Elvis went back to Sun, and recorded a 2nd acetate: Hy Heath's "I'll Never Stand in Your Way" and Fred Rose's "It Wouldn't Be the Same Without You." Still, nothing happened. At some point, Elvis made another recording, a 1918 song by Nora Bayes titled "Without You." (Not to be confused with "It Wouldn't Be the Same Without You," or with the later Harry Nilsson song titled "Without You.")

On May 26, Sam heard that record, and bought it for a quarter -- with inflation, probably the best $2.72 anybody's ever spent. But the name of the singer wasn't on it. He took it back to Sun, and played it for his assistant, Marion Keisker. She recognized the voice as "the young truck driver." They checked their records (books, not platters), and found Elvis. Marion called him, and said Sam wanted him to come down.

On the 4th of July, Sam took Elvis to the home of Winfield Scott "Scotty" Moore, a local guitarist, and, backed by Moore and standup bass fiddle player Bill Black, auditioned him. Neither Scotty nor Bill was especially impressed with Elvis, but they agreed to meet at the Sun studio the next day, to see what they could do.

The first song they tried was "I Love You Because," written in 1949 by country singer Leon Payne, and a hit for pop singer Eddie Fisher in 1952. They weren't impressed. They tried a few other country songs, but nothing worked. So they took a break.

Elvis and Bill stayed in the room, while Sam and Scotty went into another room to smoke and talk. Bored, Bill started playing around with his bass. Elvis started mimicking it on his guitar. Apparently, it reminded him of "That's All Right," because that's what he started singing. Sam heard it: Here was a white kid singing a black man's song, and it felt real, not faked. A tribute, not a mockery.

Sam had found his white boy. Scotty went back in, and a proper recording of the song was made. They also recorded "Blue Moon of Kentucky" by Bill Monroe, the fiddler (violinist) who invented bluegrass music.

Three days later, Sam took the record to Dewey Phillips (no relation), a disc jockey at WHBQ in Memphis. (It was at 560 on the AM dial. It's now an all-sports station.) Dewey played it. Within a week, Sun had 6,000 advance orders for "That's All Right." It was released on July 19.

Elvis started playing live dates with Scotty and Bill, each of them getting 25 percent of his earnings. Sun would release 5 double-sided singles for Elvis in 1954 and 1955, and his touring from Florida to Texas, especially on the live radio broadcast Louisiana Hayride out of Shreveport, made him one of the biggest draws in the South. He was billed as "The Memphis Flash." People listening to his records and his radio shows couldn't see him jiggling around onstage, but they loved his voice and his personality.

But by November 1955, Sam needed money. He wasn't making the billion dollars. So he sold Elvis' contract to RCA Victor Records for $40,000 -- about $436,000 in today's money. On January 10, 1956, in Nashville, Tennessee, Elvis, Scotty, Bill, additional guitarist Chet Atkins, drummer D.J. Fontana, and pianist Floyd Cramer recorded Elvis' 1st RCA single, "Heartbreak Hotel." It was released nationally 17 days later. When Billboard magazine released its April 21 issue, it listed "Heartbreak Hotel" as the Number 1 song in the country.

Sam no longer had Elvis, and he didn't have the billion dollars. What he did have was the $40,000, enough to record some new performers he wanted to try. These included Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash.

Sam never did make his billion dollars, but he made a few million. He actually made more money investing in a new company that had been started in Memphis: The Holiday Inn hotel chain. He was the 1st non-performer inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, happily capitalized off his connection to Elvis, and lived until 2003. He was 80 years old.

Marion Keisker left Memphis in 1957, and enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. She became an information officer, and rose to the rank of Captain. Discharged in 1969, she joined the National Organization for Women. She died in 1989, at 72.

Elvis continued to sing "That's All Right" in his concerts up until his death in 1977. Bill Black died of cancer in 1965. Chet Atkins lived until 2001. Scotty Moore and D.J. Fontana joined Elvis for his 1968 NBC "Comeback Special." Moore lived until 2016, Fontana until 2018.

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July 5, 1954 was a Monday. This was a big day in rock and roll for another reason. The man believed to be the coiner of the very phrase "rock and roll," disc jockey Alan Freed, had left Cleveland, and, on this night, played his 1st show in New York, on 1010 AM, WINS. From this day onward, thanks in large part to Alan Freed, Sam Phillips and Elvis Presley, the world would never be the same.

Alan Freed

It was the off-season for the NFL, the NBA and the NHL. But a lot of Major League Baseball games were played. Apparently, it wasn't enough that the day before was the 4th of July: Because it was now a common thing to give people the day off on July 5 when the 4th fell on a Saturday, the 5th also saw some doubleheaders. In fact, every matchup on this day was a twinbill:

* The New York Yankees swept the Philadelphia Athletics at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. The Yankees won the opener 7-4. Harry Byrd, ironically a former A's pitcher, was the winning pitcher. Joe Collins and Mickey Mantle hit back-to-back home runs in the top of the 8th inning.

The Yankees won the nightcap 11-2. Confusingly, the Yankees used pitchers named Tom Morgan (for 6 1/3rd innings) and Tom Gorman. Known as the Plowboy, Morgan had his best season in 1954, going 11-5 with a save. He helped the Yankees win 3 World Series. Irv Noren went 3-for-4 in this game, with 2 homers and 5 RBIs.

After the season, the Mack family sold the A's, and they were moved to Kansas City.

* The New York Giants swept the Philadelphia Phillies at the Polo Grounds. The Giants won the 1st game 10-0. Johnny Antonelli pitched a 3-hit shutout. Davey Williams and Dusty Rhodes hit home runs.

The Jints won the 2nd game 4-3. Ruben Gomez was shaky, and Leo Durocher took him out in the 2nd inning. Hoyt Wilhelm, the knuckleballer who eventually became the 1st relief pitcher elected to the Hall of Fame, ended up as the winning pitcher. Rhodes homered again, and another homer was hit by Willie Mays, who ended up as the biggest reason the Giants went on to win the World Series.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers swept the Pittsburgh Pirates at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. The Brooks won the opener 8-6. Russ Meyer, "the Mad Monk," was a shaky starter. Ben Wade was even worse, but ended up as the winning pitcher. Vern Law, eventually to be a Cy Young Award winner for the Bucs, was knocked out of the box in the 1st inning. The game wasn't won until the top of the 9th inning, when Walt "Moose" Moryn and Edwin "Duke" Snider hit back-to-back home runs.

Dem Bums won the nightcap 7-2. Billy Loes went the distance, with 11 strikeouts against only 1 walk. Jim "Junior" Gilliam hit a home run. Jackie Robinson drove in a run with a sacrifice fly.

* There was a split at Griffith Stadium in Washington. The Boston Red Sox won the 1st game 14-0. Willard Nixon pitched a 6-hit shutout. Jackie Jensen and Ted Lepcio hit home runs. The Washington Senators won the 2nd game 7-1. Ted Williams got 2 hits in the 1st game, but none in the 2nd game.

* There was a split at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. (It was renamed Tiger Stadium in 1961.) The Cleveland Indians won the 1st game 13-6. The Detroit Tigers won the 2nd game 1-0. Cleveland's Don Mossi and Detroit's George Zuverink both went the distance, 11 innings, ending when Mossi was taken deep by Harvey Kuenn.

* The Cincinnati Reds swept the Chicago Cubs at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. The Reds won the 1st game 6-5. Randy Jackson hit 2 home runs for the Cubs, but Ted Kluszewski had 3 hits including a home run. The game went 10 innings, and an RBI single by Bobby Adams won it. Cincy won the 2nd game 8-7.

* The Chicago White Sox swept the Baltimore Orioles at Comiskey Park in Chicago. The Pale Hose won the 1st game 3-0, as Billy Pierce pitched a 4-hit shutout. The O's pitcher also went the distance. His name was Don Larsen. The ChiSox won the 2nd game 2-1.

* And the Milwaukee Braves swept the St. Louis Cardinals at the original Busch Stadium in St. Louis. (It had been named Sportsman's Park until the year before.) The Braves won the opener 8-6, and the nightcap 10-4. Eddie Mathews hit 2 home runs in the 1st game. Between the 2 games, the Braves' rookie left fielder, Hank Aaron, went 3-for-10 with 2 RBIs, but no home runs.