That's Alright (sic)

I believe the track was actually laid down from a booth that offered the public the chance to pay to make a recording, as a gift for his mother (Gladys). This was then heard and the Sun sessions followed. born a poor ginger (strawberry blonde) twin in a wooden shack in Tupelo, he went on to become the most popular human being to walk the earth, including Jesus. But this isn't about Elvis, it's about Rock 'n' roll and that was conceived somewhere in the heart of slavery to be born, blinking, in that bright Memphis Sun. (unless you consider Bill Haley of course).

Hey, Ely - what's wrong with being born a strawberry blonde twin? You have offended me there! Not really a fan of rock n roll in its purest form (though I will happily belt out Suspicious Minds at a karaoke), but I would say that the Elvis song captures the soul of it much better than Haley's plodding, wholesome song - it's supposed to be about rebellion and sex and Haley just makes me think of malted shakes, Letterman jackets and Happy Days...

Strawberry blonde??? I though Elvis had dark hair? But more to the point, I'd always pictured Andrew with dark hair...BLONDE??? Boy, was I ever off the mark. Back to Elvis: Evidently there are a group of folks, in the US and around the world known as the Presleytarians, who believe that Elvis was the second coming of Jesus. I personally think Elvis was better than that, but I suppose a case could be made.

he dyed his hair, if you look at very early pictures and even album photos, he has gingery brown hair that he later made black.

NO!

I know!

This is part of a fact sheet I found in my mailbox this evening, it was sent to me from a Presley website I subscribe to and is run by Graceland Inc. I thought it might be interesting to anyone interested. :-))) >> Sun Recordings - Part 1 of 3 Elvis Presley's Sun Recordings - Part 1 of 3 In the summer of 1953, most likely inspired by a July article in the local paper on the Memphis Recording Service and Sam Phillips's recording of the Prisonaires, a group of prisoners from the state penitentiary, Elvis ventured into 706 Union Avenue and asked to record his voice for the very first time. There he made a two-sided acetate at his own expense and accompanying himself on guitar. The songs he recorded were: MY HAPPINESS This song was written in 1933 by Betty Peterson and Borney Bergantine. It was recorded in 1948 by John and Sandra Steele, whose release went to #3 on the Billboard Singles Chart. Others to record it in 1948 were The Pied Pipers with Paul Weston Orchestra, Ella Fitzgerald, The Song Spinners, and The Marlin Sisters. In 1953 the Mulcays, a harmonica group, released it as an instrumental. In 1959 a version by Connie Francis hit #2 on the Hot 100 Chart. THAT'S WHEN YOUR HEARTACHES BEGIN This song was written in 1940 by William J. Raskin, Billy Hill and Fred Fisher. The Ink Spots recorded it in 1950. In 1951, a recording by Bob Lamb was released. In 1952 Billy Bunn and His Buddies released a version of it. Elvis re-recorded it for RCA on January 13, 1957 at Radio Recorders. This version was the B side to the single "All Shook Up" and it peaked at #58 on the Hot 100 Chart. Elvis stopped in at the Memphis Recording Service from time to time. On January 4, 1954, just four days before his nineteenth birthday, he again paid to record two songs. There were: I'LL NEVER STAND IN YOUR WAY This song was written by Fred Rose and Walter (Hy) Heath in 1953. It was released in November 1954 by Joni James and then just a few days later a version by Ernie Lee was also released. Others who have recorded it also are Ray Charles, Jimmy Dean, Don Gibson and Dottie West. IT WOULDN'T BE THE SAME WITHOUT YOU This one was written by Jimmy Wakely and Fred Rose and recorded by Jimmy Wakely. Willie Nelson and Chris Isaak also have released versions. Six months later in June 1954, Sam Phillips sent for Elvis to come and audition for a recording session. This time he had Scotty Moore and Bill Black of the Starlite Wranglers to back him up Their first attempts to find a sound were on July 5-6, 1954 and the songs they finally got on tape then were: I LOVE YOU BECAUSE This song was written and recorded by Leon Payne in 1949. Payne's version reached #4 on Country Chart. In 1950, Ernest Tubb also reached #4 with his version. Jan Garber, Gene Autry and Eddie Fisher also released versions. Other releases were Patti Page in 1951, Johnny Cash in 1960 and Carl Smith in 1969. It was Al Martino's 1963 version that reach #3 on Hot 100 Chart and #1 on the Easy Listening Chart. THAT'S ALL RIGHT This song was written and recorded by blues singer Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup. Mr. Crudup also wrote two other songs that Elvis would record, "My Baby Left Me" and "So Glad You're Mine". Elvis said in a 1956 interview for the "Charlotte Observer" newspaper in North Carolina, "...I used to hear Arthur Crudup bang his box the way I do now and I said that if I ever got to the place where I could feel all old Arthur felt, I'd be a music man like nobody ever saw." Elvis's first single release was in July 1954 - "That's All Right" with "Blue Moon of Kentucky" as the flip side. RCA re-released it on their label in December 1955 after they bought Elvis's Sun Records contract. Some of the others who have recorded it are Roy "Smiley" Maxedon, Marty Robbins, Billy Swan, Bob Dylan, Ann Wilson, Canned Heat, Grateful Dead, Albert King, Rod Stewart, Waylon Jennings, Sunny Burgess, Jimmie Rogers and Paul McCartney. HARBOR LIGHTS This song was written in 1937 by Jimmy Kennedy and Hugh Williams. That same year there were releases by Frances Langford and by Claude Thornhill and His Orchestra with Jimmy Farrell on vocal. In 1950 Sammy Kaye had a #1 hit with his version. Also trying their hand at it that year were Guy Lombardo, Bing Crosby, Ray Anthony, Ralph Flanagan and Ken Griffin. It set a record for the most performed song on television's "Your Hit Parade" and sold over 1,000,000 copies of the sheet music. The Platters' 1960 version reached #8 on the Hot 100 Chart. Over the years, many others have recorded it, including Billy Ward and The Dominos. BLUE MOON OF KENTUCKY This bluegrass song was written and recorded by Bill Monroe in 1947. Among the others to have recorded it over the years are Patsy Cline, Charlie Feathers, George Jones, Sonny James, Benny Martin, Rick Nelson, Carl Perkins, Jerry Reed, Jeannie C. Riley and Ricky Skaggs. Elvis's "That's All Right"/"Blue Moon of Kentucky" single was released on July 19, 1954. In the August 7, 1954 issue of "The Billboard" Magazine Elvis was reviewed in the column "Review Spotlight on.....TALENT" where it was written: "Presley is a potent new chanter who can sock over a tune for either the country or the r. & b. markets. On this new disk he comes thru with a solid performance on an r. & b.-type tune and then on the flip side does another fine job with a country ditty. A strong new talent." <<

Ian, the recording was made in Sun studio on Union Ave, some say as a birthday present for his mother. His mothers birthday was actually 3-4 months previous and the legend is widely disbelieved among Presley afficionados. The song was not 'That's Alright Mama' but 'My Happiness' which he accompanied on a lightly strummed guitar. The other side was a version of 'That's When Your Heartaches Begin', a song popular at the time that he learned from The Inkspots. He didn't actually record 'That's Alright Mama' until about a year later when Sam Philips, looking for a new singer was reminded about him by Marion Keisker, who was Sam's partner and studio secretary at the time. The account of events is broadly as the Shirt describes it (I would argue with the word 'idly'). He was NOT ginger in any sense of the word but had light-brown hair which he later dyed. He also had his nose fixed. In his early career (pre-Las Vegas) he used make-up regularly, not the kind that TV personalities use to get the right 'natural' look, but womens stuff, eyeliner and eyeshadow etc. It was quite common for entertainers in the Deep South to do this. Little Richard was another 'pretty boy'. Andrew, 'Suspicious Minds' is NOT rock'n'roll, wash your mouth out.

Haystack, Sam said "pack up" at the end of a second-rate session. Aaron refused to take his axe off. He started distractedly strumming. There were two country pickers in the room. They did a Crudup song between them, whatever it was called. I stongly suspect that it was the song whose title is nearly as ungrammatical as you last post. Whatever, leave aside Ike Turner's "Rocket 88" four years earlier that never made it out of the black (or as we called it then, "negro") scene, this was the moment when the world moved slightly on its axis. I call that "idly". I love you as well George. Shit.

There's an uncanny resemblance both between your post and your name to another regular here, shit. I was merely pointing out that the so called 'birthday' recording, (which the boy paid $4 for) was in fact the first recording he made, almost a year earlier than the session you are referring to. The earlier recording, which is the one Ian is confusing, was made with just Presley in the studio, the later one to which you refer, included Scotty Moore and Bill Black, but then you know that I'm sure. I would agree that 'Rocket 88' is most probably the first rock'n'roll recording but would have been referred to as a 'race record'. Anyway, it's all just hair-splitting and doesn't really matter. Everytime Sam was asked about the session he 'remembered' it slightly differently; he was a master of self-legend construction. Marion Keisker, (who pre-deceased Sam), claimed that on the day Presley dropped by to record 'My Happiness' Sam was out of town and she engineered the disc herself. Sam says she's talking crap and HE made the record. On the basis of that, and having spoken to Scotty Moore personally, I disagree that the genesis of 'That's Alright Mama' was the result of 'idling'. It ain't worth fighting over however, and what with you having a height, weight and age advantage, as well as being more articulate than this po' boy, I defer to you. Gorge

Well, at least I'm relieved about the hair color thing. And george is right: in those days, it was called 'race music,' not 'negro music,' though blacks were called Negroes or Colored People in those days (provided the other 'n' word was not used); for example, the NAACP: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, probably the most influential civil rights organization in the US for decades, and still. When Elvis was first played on air, most listeners thought he was black, based upon the voice. It came as quite a shock to white folks to learn Elvis was white. I was only a little boy at the time, but I have a very clear recollection of those days. One of my first records, if not the first, was Hound Dog. I played that over and over and over on my little plastic record player that could stack about 5 45s before they started slipping. I also clearly recall when he went into the Army and then the white-boy forces in the industry banded together to produce Pat Boone and create cover versions of all the good stuff so the blacks wouldn't have a career. Then there was a longish and largely dead patch until....the Beatles.

Justyn - the relevant word was 'born' - I did have a mop of curly strawberry blonde hair as a child; it is more mouse now. George, I cheerfully yield to your greater rock and roll knowledge; I just really like Suspicious Minds, is all. And an obscure Elvis song called Guitarman, that we always without fail stick on the jukebox, much much better than Little Less Conversation, but in that same ripe for rediscovery vein.

Suspicious Minds is a great song.... I remember once driving along a hot sunny road, no other traffic, windows wide open, singing it at the top of mz voice when it came on the radio... Lovely.

Well Missi, I take your points about the rercordings but I dispute the hair colour. when I worked at the Elvis Exhibition we had many documents (including his birth certificate) and there was a letter (if memory serves) from a relative talking about Gladys's 'redheaded boy'. I believe that there was a touch of the ginger about his hair which can be seen, as I have said earlier, in early colour photos (of which there are very few) and publicity pics. lets also not forget the unpublished songs he wrote when still at school: "showertime blues" "more than just a red neck" "Shake, freckle and roll" "ginger ghetto" the clues are all there!

'Because I love zou too much babz!'

Hey, I wasn't knocking 'Suspicious Minds', I like the song too, was just saying it ain't 'rock'n'roll. It's pop music, and I hesitate to say I actually have a LOT of it. I have no idea which 'Elvis Exhibition' it is to which you refer Ian, but I can assure you that Presley's birth certificate is part of the permanent display at Graceland. I have visited the place twice and seen all the original docs apertaining to his birth and early life. I have met and chatted to men and women that went to school with him in Tupelo, I also have 38 books about every aspect of his being, including all the respected authoritative ones by the likes of Guralnick and Brown & Broeske. I have also read the autobiography of June Juanico, his early fifties girlfriend. Not one of these accounts says he had red or sandy hair but they all DO say it was light-brown. It's not uncommon for 'exhibitions' to use reproductions and it's also worth noting that early colour photos from the late 30's and early forties were hardly state of the art photography. Most colour pics exposed to prolonged sunlight will eventually display a reddish hue. It isn't really THAT important I suppose, but it's rare that I get the chance to discuss something on this forum that I actually know anything about. *sits expectantly waiting for the site sage to finish his intellectual discussion with John, honour us all with his presence to tell me I know nothing and that Presley was actually a glove puppet that he saw being produced in a science lab somewhere*

Hey Missi. The Exhibition I refer to was set up by the head of the British Elvis fan club (also the last man to be seen alive with Elvis in video) one Todd Slaughter. It was the only one of it's kind officially sanctioned by the Graceland estate. I was their Spieler. We had seventeen limos arrive at the opening with the legal team from Graceland and had to hire (on a daily basis) Securicor to guard the items. we did have the original birth certificate for that season as well as the bible from his desk and many of his stage outfits including the infamous 'pizza' jumpsuit and the blue diamond encrusted suit worn on the 'Blue Hawaii' tour. All signed and sent direct from Graceland. We sold official 'TCB' merchandise and had regular checks from those in charge in the States. On August 16th we had an enormous bouquet sent from Graceland (obviously made in England) . We had previously unseen footage of a Precilla interview played on a monitor which I had to wipe the spit off some days and the boss's 'Partners' kept a sawn off shotgun in the safe. Ouir most regular visitor was Freddie Starr who came about twenty times ion the season I worked there. The letter I refer to describing him as a redhead was also there amongst his 'early years' section. Now all of this could have been a big con and I may have been taken in along with everyone else. There's always that chance. (I'd love to know if it was so don't think you're bursting any bubbles here it was just one season to me) I suggest you contact Mr. Slaughter and ask him. You're obviously more of an expert on Elvis than I and I'd gladly bow to your knowledge (Jesus that reads sarcastically, It's actually sincere). I'm just putting forward what I think I know.

I heard that! Oh! and i love this subject to, so I'm pleased that you do no so much about it. I'm learning stuff about sounds i love..

Yes, I am aware of Todd Slaughter, he's been around for years. I wasn't trying to burst any bubbles Ian, I'm always interested in any information I'm not aware of. With regard to Slaughter, I know he's been a Presley fan for many years but he isn't regarded as the most reliable authority on the man. Come to that neither am I, but Guralnick is very highly regarded on both sides of the Atlantic.