Thank you for that introduction and welcome to Rock and Roll Flashback! Fasten your seatbelts and prepare to flash back with me to the year 1956. I'm Jumpin' John, and together we will reminisce about the year 1956 and the launch of the career of the man known as the King of Rock and Roll: Elvis Presley!
There is not much that I can add to what has already been said and written about the legendary entertainer Elvis Presley. Instead, I will focus on the events of that fateful year 1956, when Elvis was catapulted to national success, fame, and fortune!
But first, who was Elvis Aron Presley? Born in 1935 to very humble beginnings in Tupelo, Mississippi, Elvis Presley grew up to become one of the biggest names in rock ’n’ roll and one of the most popular and influential artists of the 20th century. Elvis was deeply devoted to his parents. Having a strong faith in God, gospel music became an important influence for him. On July 18th, 1953 Elvis cut his first demo record in Memphis, Tennessee at the future home of Sun Studio. Sam Phillips, the record label owner, decided to take the young performer under his wing. Presley soon began touring and recording, and in 1954 his first single, “That’s All Right”, was released. In 1955, Elvis Presley began to develop a following, with fans being drawn to his unusual musical style, provocative gyrating hips, and good looks.
What are some factors that helped 1956 become a breakout year for Elvis?
Elvis' success was more than just him being in the right place at the right time. Presley’s popularity stemmed in part from his revolutionary music. His style combined a variety of influences, including country music and blues, to help form what would become known as rock and roll. Black artists had for years been producing upbeat tunes, blending a mixture of boogie woogie, jump blues, swing, and jazz accompanied by a heavy, insistent beat. The record industry had been referring to this music as "race music" and "race records" to categorize practically all types of African-American music. Race records were the first examples of popular music recorded by and marketed to black Americans. Reflecting the segregated status of American society and culture, race records were separate catalogs of African-American music. Prior to the 1940s, African Americans were scarcely represented on radio, and live performances were largely limited to segregated venues. Around the mid 1940's the pejorative term "race music" gradually evolved into the term "rhythm & blues" or R&B.
Elvis Presley was not the sole inventor of the genre "rock and roll". As my podcast partner Bill Price mentioned back in Episode #2 of Rock and Roll Flashback Podcasts, the exact origin of rock and roll is difficult to pin down. However, music in the mid 1950's was, at that time, still heavily segregated. Black artists, who wrote and recorded original songs, were unable to penetrate the national pop charts. Furthermore, music producers pushed white talents like Presley to the forefront, enabling Elvis to become a major catalyst of the rock and roll movement. Several of Elvis' popular songs in 1956 were cover versions of some of those songs that black artists had previously written and performed.
Another contributing factor to Presley’s success was his public persona. Elvis' flamboyant personality, combined with his good looks and abundant charisma, attracted hordes of people to his concerts and television specials. His massive stage presence was amplified by his elaborate outfits and scandalous dance moves, which grabbed the attention of fans around the world.
The impact of Presley’s career went beyond his lifetime. His presence and popularity made him the first rock star, the embodiment of an ideal others would chase for years to come. His music inspired thousands of other artists and opened doors for rock musicians of the future, regardless of their sound.
Additionally, Elvis's success was certainly indebted to his steady backing band, the Blue Moon Boys, to the early tutelage of Sun Studio's owner Sam Philips, and to the astute management of Colonel Tom Parker.
So by 1956, Elvis was determined to prove himself as a force to be reckoned with. The year 1956 became proof that the 21 year old phenomenon known as Elvis Presley would accomplish more in one year than many artists do in a lifetime. With his humble personality, energetic stage presence, and good looks Elvis filled an entertainment void in the US. He would quickly became a national heartthrob. Wherever he went, the size of his following was massive. Presley’s appearances on television became the most widely viewed of their time, and his concerts broke audience size records at venues across North America. Elvis made black rhythm and blues songs palatable and acceptable to an enthusiastic white audience, appealing to young and old alike. My mother-in-law, Helen, who was 9 years older than Elvis, was a big fan of "The King". However, Helen, unlike many of his younger female fans, reportedly never swooned at the sight of Elvis!
I will now review some of the frenetic Elvis Presley highlights, in chronological order, from the incredible year that was - 1956:
•January 10th: The song “Heartbreak Hotel” was recorded in Nashville at Elvis’ first recording session for RCA. In addition to his regular backing band, the Blue Moon Boys, the great guitarist Chet Atkins, Louisiana Hayride pianist Floyd Cramer, and three background singers were also recruited by RCA to play on this session.
•January 27th: “Heartbreak Hotel” was released as a single.
•January 28th: Elvis burst upon the American scene in his first national television appearance on CBS' Dorsey Brothers Stage Show, and he continued to appear on the show 5 more times through February and March.
•February 22nd: “Heartbreak Hotel” entered the Billboard pop chart at #68, and the Country & Western chart at #9.
•March 3rd: Elvis purchased his first home at 1034 Audubon Drive in Memphis, Tennessee. On March 20th his parents, Vernon and Gladys, moved into the house. The next year Elvis would purchase Graceland.
•March 23rd: RCA Victor released Presley's self-titled debut album.
•March 26th: Colonel Tom Parker got Elvis a screen test with Paramount producer Hal Wallis.
•April 3rd: Elvis made the first of two appearances on the Milton Berle Show.
•April 19th: In the Waco News-Tribune reporter Bea Ramirez called Elvis Presley [and I quote] "the 21-year-old king of the nation’s rock ’n’ roll set” [end quote].
•April 21st: “Heartbreak Hotel” topped the Billboard Top 100 for seven weeks. The single topped the Cashbox's Pop singles chart for 6 weeks and the Country & Western chart for 17 weeks. It also reached #3 on the R&B chart, becoming Presley's first million-seller, and one of the best-selling singles of 1956. "Heartbreak Hotel" amazingly reached the top 5 of Country & Western, Pop, and Rhythm 'n' Blues charts simultaneously. It was eventually certified double platinum by the RIAA. In 1995, "Heartbreak Hotel" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and in 2004 Rolling Stone magazine named it one of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time". That year it was also included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll".
[That was an excerpt from Elvis Presley's recording of “Heartbreak Hotel”, which was written by Mae Boren Axton and Tommy Durden.] After signing with RCA on November 21st, 1955, Presley accepted Axton's offer of a third of the royalties if he made “Heartbreak Hotel” his first single on his new label. So Elvis Presley was credited as one of the song writers.
•April 23rd: Elvis Presley began a two-week residency at the New Frontier Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.
•April 25th: Elvis finalized a contract with Paramount Pictures for one picture with the studio options for six more.
•May 4th: Robert Johnson in the Memphis Press-Scimitar referred to Elvis as [and I quote] “the fledgling king of rock ’n’ roll” [end quote].
•May 5th: The 12 song Elvis Presley album became the first rock and roll album to hit #1 on the Billboard chart, a position it held for 10 weeks. Elvis covered three popular songs on his chart topping debut album. Here are short sound bites from those three tunes:
[That was an excerpt from Elvis Presley's cover of Carl Perkins' “Blue Suede Shoes”.]
[That was an excerpt from Elvis Presley's cover of Ray Charles' "I Got A Woman".]
[That was an excerpt from Elvis Presley's cover of Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti".]
•May 13th: Elvis began a tour of the Midwest, covering fifteen cities in as many days. His busy touring schedule had carried over from 1955 into 1956. He crisscrossed the country countless times, performing everywhere from baseball parks to large auditoriums. He played small communities and big cities alike.
•June 5th: Presley's second Milton Berle Show appearance took place at NBC's Hollywood studio, amid another hectic tour. Milton Berle persuaded Presley to leave his guitar backstage. During the performance, Presley abruptly halted an up-tempo rendition of "Hound Dog" and launched into a slow, grinding version accentuated with exaggerated body movements. His gyrations created a storm of controversy, and the pejorative nickname of "Elvis the Pelvis" was born.
•July 1st: The Steve Allen Show. The Milton Berle shows drew such high ratings that Presley was booked for an appearance on NBC's The Steve Allen Show in New York. Presley sang "Hound Dog" for less than a minute to a basset hound. The dog was wearing a top hat and bowtie. Presley would later say that The Steve Allen Show was the most ridiculous performance of his career.
•July 2nd: Presley recorded the songs "Hound Dog", "Any Way You Want Me", and "Don't Be Cruel".
•July 13th: RCA Victor released a two sided single, pairing "Don't Be Cruel" with "Hound Dog". The 2 sided single would eventually rule the top of the charts for eleven weeks—a mark that would not be surpassed for thirty-six years.
•August 4th: “Hound Dog” was the first of the two sides to hit Billboard’s Top 100 chart when it entered at #24.
[That was an excerpt from Elvis Presley's cover of Willie Mae Thornton's “Hound Dog”.]
•August 11th: "Hound Dog" moved up the chart to #11, with “Don’t Be Cruel” first charting the same week at #28. Throughout the months of August and September, Billboard would flip back and forth between the two songs as to which was the A-side and which was the B-side.
•August 13th: Colonel Tom Parker negotiated a movie contract for Elvis Presley with 20th Century Fox. Elvis would receive $100,000 along with co-star billing for his first film, Love Me Tender. The contract also gave Fox the option for two additional films.
•August 22nd: Elvis began filming his parts for his first film, Love Me Tender.
•August 24th: Elvis recorded the song "Love Me Tender" at 20th Century Fox Studios in Los Angeles.
•September 1st through September 3rd: Recording sessions for Presley's second album took place at Radio Recorders in Hollywood, California.
•September 9th: The Ed Sullivan Show. Steve Allen's show with Presley had, for the first time, beaten The Ed Sullivan Show in the ratings. Ed Sullivan booked Presley for three appearances for an unprecedented $50,000. Elvis would perform two of the shows in 1956. His first Ed Sullivan Show appearance was seen by approximately 60 million viewers—at that time a record 82.6% of the television audience. The camera showed Presley from head-to-toe. Though the camerawork was relatively discreet during his debut, with leg-concealing close-ups when he danced, the studio audience reacted with screams. Presley's performance of his forthcoming single, the ballad "Love Me Tender", prompted a record-shattering advance order of over a million copies, making it a gold record before it was even released! More than any other single event, it has been said that this first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show made Elvis Presley a national celebrity.
•September 14th: The single "Love Me Tender" is released. It debuted at #2 on the "Best Sellers in Stores" pop singles chart, the first time a single made its first appearance at the #2 position. The song hit #1 on the Billboard charts the week ending November 3, 1956, remaining in the position for 5 weeks and reached #11 on the charts in the UK. "Love Me Tender" also reached #3 for three weeks on the R&B chart. Elvis' version was ranked #437 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
[That was an excerpt from Elvis Presley's recording of "Love Me Tender", recorded for the movie of the same name.]
•September 15th: “Don’t Be Cruel” jumped over “Hound Dog” and took over the #1 chart spot, where it remained for seven consecutive weeks.
[That was an excerpt from Elvis Presley's cover of Otis Blackwell's “Don’t Be Cruel”.]
•September 26th: Elvis returned to his hometown, Tupelo, Mississippi, to perform at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show, where he had first performed when he was 10 years old. Due to his audiences becoming increasingly more frenzied, 50 National Guardsmen were added to the police detail for security at that Mississippi event.
•October 6th: “Hound Dog” moved up to #2 on the chart, giving Elvis an amazing chart record of having the two sides of the same single release in the top two spots of Billboard's chart.
•October 8th: The movie Love Me Tender wrapped up production.
•October 19th: RCA Victor released Elvis's second album, entitled Elvis. The LP spent four weeks at #1 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart that year, making Presley the first recording artist to have two albums go straight to #1 in the same year. The album would spend 5 weeks at #1 in total. It was certified Gold on February 17, 1960, and Platinum on August 10, 2011, by the RIAA.
•October 24th: Elvis, along with his girlfriend June Juanico and his parents, saw a rough cut of the film Love Me Tender. That same day, Variety magazine declared Elvis [and I quote] “a millionaire in 1 year” [end quote].
•October 28th: Elvis returned for his second performance on the The Ed Sullivan Show. Elvis Presley certainly had his share of haters, and after that Sullivan appearance, crowds in Nashville and St. Louis burned him in effigy.
•October 31st: Variety reported that “Don’t Be Cruel” had already topped 3,000,000 in sales and was still going strong at more than 50,000 per week.
•November 3rd: Jim Lowe’s “The Green Door” finally toppled “Don’t Be Cruel” from the top spot in the charts. That same week, “Hound Dog,” which had been kept out of the #1 spot by its own flip side, dropped down to #12 after an 11-week run in the top 10. The two back-to-back Presley recordings (“Don’t Be Cruel” & “Hound Dog”) would spend an incredible 10 weeks together in the chart’s top 10. Both recordings remained in Top 100 for many more weeks. Overall, “Hound Dog” spent 28 weeks on the Top 100 (second only in Presley chart history to “All Shook Up’s” 30 weeks), while “Don’t Be Cruel” lasted 27 weeks.
[To learn more about Jim Lowe's "The Green Door", please check out Rock and Roll Flashback Podcasts Episode #83]
•November 15th: Elvis' first motion picture, Love Me Tender, held its movie premier.
•November 21st: The movie Love Me Tender, was released nationwide. The film grossed $540,000 in its first week of release, claiming the #2 spot at the box office and earning back the money it cost the studio to produce it. Within weeks Love Me Tender had recouped the costs of the negatives and, despite being released in November, was the 23rd highest-grossing film of the year 1956.
•December 4th: That night Elvis stopped by Sun Studios in Memphis in the middle of a Carl Perkins recording session. Elvis ended up jamming with Carl and Sun’s newest artist, Jerry Lee Lewis. Johnny Cash was there, too. Though Sam Phillips no longer had the right to release any Presley material, he made sure that the session was captured on tape. The results would eventually become known as the "Million Dollar Quartet" recordings.
[We here at Rock and Roll Flashback Podcasts highly recommend the informative book by Stephen Miller entitled "The Million Dollar Quartet"]
•December 15th: Elvis had his final Louisiana Hayride performance.
•December 31st: The year ended with a front-page story in The Wall Street Journal reporting that Elvis Presley merchandise had brought in $22 million on top of his record sales. Also
Billboard declared that in 1956 Elvis had placed more songs in the top 100 than any other artist since records were first charted. In his first full year at RCA Victor, then the record industry's largest company, Elvis Presley had amazingly accounted for over 50% of the label's singles sales!
I would be remiss if I didn't mention two other famous songs that Elvis Presley recorded in 1956. Here are short sound bites from both of them:
[That was Elvis Presley's cover of Big Joe Turner's "Shake, Rattle, and Roll".]
[That was Elvis Presley's cover of Lloyd Price's "Lawdy, Miss Clawdy".]
Perhaps the most amazing thing about the rise in popularity of Elvis Presley in 1956 is that even young 6 year old Jackie (aka Jumpin' John) McDermott was aware of Elvis and his songs. In 1956 my family was living in Penn Hills, just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. My parents were not fans of Elvis Presley, and would not have watched television variety shows. In 1956 I had no transistor radio and the family radio was totally controlled by my parents, who did not listen to rock and roll. In 1956 I only had two 45 rpm records: "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" and "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer". Perhaps I heard Elvis singing on a radio at a neighbor's house. Perhaps either my neighborhood friends or my first grade school mates were singing these songs, and I learned them from them. At any rate, I was somehow aware of Elvis singing “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Don’t Be Cruel”, and “Blue Suede Shoes.” In fact, I actually knew all the words to Elvis' version of “Hound Dog”.
Years later, after having sold about 500 million records worldwide, Elvis Presley was one of the best-selling music artists of all time. 149 of his songs appeared on Billboard’s Hot 100 pop chart, and 18 of them went to #1. According to Billboard, Elvis Presley had 79 cumulative weeks with songs at #1. As an album artist, Presley is credited by Billboard with the record for the most albums charting in the Billboard 200: 129 LP's. He also holds the record for most cumulative weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200 Album chart for a male solo artists: 67 weeks. As of 2023, the RIAA credits Presley with 146.5 million certified album sales in the US. He holds the records for most gold albums at 101 and most platinum albums at 57. 25 of his albums were multi-platinum in sales. In 1986 Elvis Presley was posthumously inducted in the first class of inductees into Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Thank you for listening to another episode of Rock and Roll Flashback Podcasts! In this episode I discussed how 21-year-old Elvis Presley took the nation by storm in the year 1956. Of course, 1956 was just the beginning, as Elvis’ career continued to skyrocket throughout the world. Elvis Presley, who came from humble beginnings and grew up to become one of the biggest names in rock and roll, was truly “The King” of the genre. Even since his death in 1977, Presley has remained one of the world’s most popular music icons. I'm Jumpin' John McDermott, and…until next time…Rock On!
