0:00:28 > 0:00:31# Well, you can burn my house Steal my car
0:00:31 > 0:00:34# Drink my liquor From an old fruit jar
0:00:34 > 0:00:36# Do anything that you want to do
0:00:36 > 0:00:39# But, uh-huh, honey, lay off of my shoes
0:00:39 > 0:00:42# And don't you step on my blue suede shoes
0:00:43 > 0:00:47# Well, you can do anything But lay off of my blue suede shoes
0:00:47 > 0:00:48# Rock it!
0:01:03 > 0:01:06# Well, it's one for the money Two for the show
0:01:06 > 0:01:08# Three to get ready Now go, go, go
0:01:08 > 0:01:12# But don't you step on my blue suede shoes
0:01:13 > 0:01:16# Well, you can do anything But lay off of my blue suede shoes
0:01:18 > 0:01:21# Well, it's blue, blue, blue suede shoes
0:01:21 > 0:01:23# Blue, blue, blue suede shoes... #
0:01:24 > 0:01:28At 20, Elvis was still an unknown to most of America
0:01:28 > 0:01:31when his first album came out on RCA Victor.
0:01:31 > 0:01:32Take 7.
0:01:32 > 0:01:34Hang up that tambourine and go.
0:01:34 > 0:01:37The recording process in those days
0:01:37 > 0:01:41was what we would normally today call a live recording.
0:01:41 > 0:01:44Everybody in one room at one time
0:01:44 > 0:01:47with very limited possibilities of changing anything,
0:01:47 > 0:01:51but everybody was there, there was no chance of doing it over
0:01:51 > 0:01:56by substituting things. If you had to do it over, you recorded the song again.
0:01:56 > 0:02:01So it would be take after take after take until things were right.
0:02:06 > 0:02:07Once again.
0:02:07 > 0:02:09Take 11.
0:02:09 > 0:02:13It was a simple machine, it was mono, so again there was no mixing process.
0:02:13 > 0:02:17The balance of it was the balance that was, you know, when you recorded it.
0:02:21 > 0:02:24I always forget our cue.
0:02:24 > 0:02:25Take 12.
0:02:25 > 0:02:31And basically the studios were very good at setting up the microphones.
0:02:31 > 0:02:36They were experts in those days in having many microphones to capture a sound and create it,
0:02:36 > 0:02:42but the musicians had to perform on the spot and you were only as good as that performance you did.
0:02:42 > 0:02:44There was no way you could do anything other than...
0:02:44 > 0:02:47Maybe you could add two pieces together
0:02:47 > 0:02:53but that was as far as technology allowed you to tamper with the recordings.
0:02:54 > 0:02:57It was all his arrangements, nothing was written out.
0:02:57 > 0:03:00Just whatever we thought about trying to do,
0:03:00 > 0:03:05and if he didn't like it, he'd say, "I don't know, guys, what do you think?"
0:03:05 > 0:03:10And he'd ask and we'd say, "Ah, didn't really do anything. Let's try something else."
0:03:10 > 0:03:12And we'd all start again from scratch.
0:03:12 > 0:03:17INSTRUMENTAL
0:03:19 > 0:03:21Cut, cut! I was learning the verse.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24If you look at the first album there's all different styles in there.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27Pure country, not so pure,
0:03:27 > 0:03:30there's blues material, there's rock material,
0:03:30 > 0:03:32and he's doing it all
0:03:32 > 0:03:34with virtually no effort.
0:03:34 > 0:03:40Elvis would fine-tune as he went along, but what came across in any take
0:03:40 > 0:03:42was the seamless stylistic delivery.
0:03:43 > 0:03:45And that was astonishing.
0:03:45 > 0:03:48And I don't think anybody was really ready for it.
0:03:48 > 0:03:50# Well, it's one for the money Two for the show
0:03:50 > 0:03:53# Three to get ready Now go, cat, go
0:03:53 > 0:03:56# But don't you step on my blue suede shoes... #
0:03:56 > 0:04:01The first album was made up mostly of other people's songs that appealed to him,
0:04:01 > 0:04:03like Carl Perkins' Blue Suede Shoes.
0:04:03 > 0:04:05# ..Well, it's blue, blue, blue suede shoes
0:04:05 > 0:04:08# Blue, blue, blue suede shoes, baby
0:04:08 > 0:04:10# Blue, blue, blue suede shoes
0:04:10 > 0:04:11# Blue, blue... #
0:04:11 > 0:04:15There's no reason to think that Elvis wouldn't want to do any great song that was up there,
0:04:15 > 0:04:18because we know that from his live repertoire at the time,
0:04:18 > 0:04:23and you can say, "Well, is this a successful cover version?" It's, of course, very subjective,
0:04:23 > 0:04:27but it's a far cry from Carl Perkins' version.
0:04:27 > 0:04:29They don't sound alike at all.
0:04:29 > 0:04:33# Well, it's one for the money Two for the show
0:04:33 > 0:04:36# Three to get ready Now go, cat, go
0:04:36 > 0:04:40# But don't you step on my blue suede shoes
0:04:41 > 0:04:45# You can do anything But lay off of my blue suede shoes...
0:04:47 > 0:04:50# Well, you can knock me down Step in my face
0:04:50 > 0:04:53# Slander my name All over the place
0:04:53 > 0:04:55# Well, do anything that you want to do
0:04:55 > 0:04:58# But, uh-huh, honey, lay off of them shoes
0:04:58 > 0:05:02# And don't you step on my blue suede shoes
0:05:03 > 0:05:06# Well, you can do anything But lay off of my blue suede shoes. #
0:05:06 > 0:05:08Let's go!
0:05:11 > 0:05:13So people of my age, it was like, "Did you hear that?"
0:05:13 > 0:05:15You know...
0:05:15 > 0:05:18"Who's this guy, Elvis Presley?"
0:05:19 > 0:05:23You've got to say, yeah, he hit like a bombshell, yeah.
0:05:24 > 0:05:27It was like the world went from black-and-white to Technicolor.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32# ..Even through the valleys too
0:05:33 > 0:05:36# I've been travelling night and day...
0:05:36 > 0:05:40The album was really a collection of songs that Elvis knew from his childhood
0:05:40 > 0:05:45or from just past weeks on the R&B charts where he picked up a lot of his material.
0:05:45 > 0:05:46# ..Your letter
0:05:47 > 0:05:49# Where you said you loved me... #
0:05:49 > 0:05:53After leaving Tupelo, Mississippi as a child, Elvis went to Memphis.
0:05:53 > 0:05:59It was a lucky move for him, since the city was full of musical possibilities
0:05:59 > 0:06:01and music was Elvis's first passion.
0:06:01 > 0:06:05# ..When I read your loving letter
0:06:06 > 0:06:08# Then my heart began to sing... #
0:06:08 > 0:06:13I think Elvis is the kind of person who has a dream that directs him,
0:06:13 > 0:06:15a dream that directs him from within.
0:06:15 > 0:06:19I think the shyness that he exhibited was a genuine shyness,
0:06:19 > 0:06:22but it was also a shyness that he always used to a purpose,
0:06:22 > 0:06:25whether it was a social purpose or sometimes a musical purpose.
0:06:25 > 0:06:27With girls, for example,
0:06:27 > 0:06:30I think he used his shyness to achieve social success.
0:06:30 > 0:06:34He conveyed a sense of mystery, he conveyed a sense of attraction,
0:06:34 > 0:06:36he drew people to him.
0:06:36 > 0:06:38And I think that was true all through his life.
0:06:38 > 0:06:41I think it was true in terms of his music as well.
0:06:41 > 0:06:44So that, in a sense, by being the still centre,
0:06:44 > 0:06:46he drew everyone in to him.
0:06:46 > 0:06:48And I think he did it in a calculating way.
0:06:49 > 0:06:54He was somebody with a very keen intelligence, a ferocious intelligence,
0:06:54 > 0:06:58and an omnivorous love of music of all kinds.
0:06:59 > 0:07:04He had the most innate sense of rhythm and motion
0:07:04 > 0:07:07of anybody I've ever seen. It was totally natural for him.
0:07:07 > 0:07:10You could watch him
0:07:10 > 0:07:12if he walked into a room and sat down,
0:07:12 > 0:07:15his feet would not be on the floor one minute
0:07:15 > 0:07:19till he had something bouncing. He could not be still.
0:07:19 > 0:07:22He just had a rhythm going all the time,
0:07:22 > 0:07:27so it was not surprising at all for me to see him move the way he did when he started playing.
0:07:28 > 0:07:32Of course we were just teenagers when we started dating,
0:07:32 > 0:07:35and had a great relationship for a very long time.
0:07:37 > 0:07:40Sometimes on Sunday night, we would slip out from our church
0:07:40 > 0:07:43and go down to the Black church, a group of us teenagers would,
0:07:43 > 0:07:47just to be there long enough for the music at the Black church,
0:07:47 > 0:07:53because they were, you know, hands clapping and bodies swaying and all this,
0:07:53 > 0:07:55and we would go down there and listen to the music.
0:07:55 > 0:07:59# I'm gonna walk Through the streets
0:07:59 > 0:08:04# Of the sweetest Lord... #
0:08:04 > 0:08:08At that time, the Black music had much more emotion
0:08:08 > 0:08:14and expression to it than some of the pop music did,
0:08:14 > 0:08:18and I believe that was him, that was his feelings towards the music,
0:08:18 > 0:08:20and I feel like that's why he was drawn to it.
0:08:20 > 0:08:23BLUES HARMONICA
0:08:24 > 0:08:30Beale Street was the place where Elvis really encountered an incredible variety of Black music,
0:08:30 > 0:08:32Gospel music, soul music,
0:08:32 > 0:08:34everything that was happening in Memphis at the time
0:08:34 > 0:08:39and music that would greatly influence the first album.
0:08:39 > 0:08:42# Oh, yeah... Everybody
0:08:42 > 0:08:44# I know... Everybody... #
0:08:50 > 0:08:56There was something that was contagious in the air on Beale Street
0:08:56 > 0:09:01when it came to just about everything that everybody did on Beale Street,
0:09:01 > 0:09:03especially Black people.
0:09:03 > 0:09:05Their music...?
0:09:06 > 0:09:08They could make music out of anything.
0:09:08 > 0:09:14Those are the things that interested me and got me into trying to find
0:09:14 > 0:09:20a little place that I could rent and build my own little studio.
0:09:21 > 0:09:2595% of the people that I had been working with had been Black.
0:09:26 > 0:09:29Most of them, of course, no-name people,
0:09:29 > 0:09:32so Elvis fit right in.
0:09:34 > 0:09:37He was born and raised in poverty.
0:09:37 > 0:09:40He was around Black folks an awful lot,
0:09:40 > 0:09:46he was around people that had very little in the way of worldly goods.
0:09:46 > 0:09:50Then, to my surprise, he knew...
0:09:50 > 0:09:52at 18 years old...
0:09:52 > 0:09:59he knew many so many of all kinds of music.
0:09:59 > 0:10:03I found out later as we got further into our association
0:10:03 > 0:10:11that he had an ability to just hear a song on the radio,
0:10:11 > 0:10:14because he was so poor he couldn't buy too many records...
0:10:14 > 0:10:18he would commit it to memory. It was just amazing.
0:10:18 > 0:10:26So Elvis was the perfect one for the "transition" that I wanted to make
0:10:26 > 0:10:30to help the Black person get a broader reception
0:10:30 > 0:10:36and to help the White person to feel that, "Hey! We've got a kinship, especially in the South."
0:10:40 > 0:10:43# Well, my mama she done told me
0:10:43 > 0:10:45# Papa told me too
0:10:46 > 0:10:48# The life you're living, son
0:10:48 > 0:10:50# Now, women be the death of you
0:10:50 > 0:10:52# But that's all right... #
0:10:52 > 0:10:55That's All Right, Mama. Well, hell, I knew that...
0:10:55 > 0:10:58I think it was about five, six, seven years before that,
0:10:58 > 0:11:02Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup had done it as a real blues master.
0:11:04 > 0:11:06Well, here is this cat...
0:11:07 > 0:11:09..18 years old,
0:11:09 > 0:11:15and I said, "Elvis, what in the hell have you been holding out on me all this time?" you know.
0:11:15 > 0:11:20But the next thing you knew I had Scotty and Bill pick up their instruments...
0:11:22 > 0:11:24I went back into the control room
0:11:24 > 0:11:27and it was just a matter of two or three takes.
0:11:27 > 0:11:30# Well, mama she done told me... #
0:11:30 > 0:11:35That was just...it was delivered on a silver platter to me.
0:11:35 > 0:11:37# ..She ain't no good for you... #
0:11:37 > 0:11:42We had an upright slap bass and Scotty playing the amplified guitar
0:11:42 > 0:11:45and Elvis playing an acoustic guitar
0:11:45 > 0:11:48and that was our instrumentation on so many things.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52All I can tell you is I just stole from every guitar player
0:11:52 > 0:11:54that I could over the years...
0:11:56 > 0:11:58..and put it in my databank
0:11:58 > 0:12:01and when I played that's just what come out.
0:12:01 > 0:12:03But I did try to play something
0:12:03 > 0:12:08that I thought would fit the particular song we were working on.
0:12:08 > 0:12:15I guess that they were the first White band that anybody had heard of with a good lead singer
0:12:15 > 0:12:18that was saleable that could actually...
0:12:20 > 0:12:24..play Black, sound like they had the rhythm.
0:12:24 > 0:12:31They had, you know, that fluidity which White music, especially then, didn't have, you know,
0:12:31 > 0:12:35and it was very one, two... metre, metre, metre...
0:12:35 > 0:12:38one, two, three, four...
0:12:38 > 0:12:39whereas...
0:12:40 > 0:12:43..the beautiful thing, I think, about Elvis
0:12:43 > 0:12:46was that he's sort of turned everybody into everybody.
0:12:46 > 0:12:50He doesn't go around going, "Is the guy Black or White?" any more, you know?
0:12:51 > 0:12:54And maybe even, "You can do it!"
0:12:54 > 0:12:56It at least sparked a dream.
0:12:59 > 0:13:01# I'm leaving town tomorrow
0:13:01 > 0:13:03# I'm leaving town for sure
0:13:03 > 0:13:06# Well, then you won't be bothered
0:13:06 > 0:13:08# With me hanging round your door
0:13:08 > 0:13:10# But that's all right... #
0:13:10 > 0:13:15He was doing some of Crudup's songs, sounding a little Blackish...
0:13:16 > 0:13:19And I say, "You know what? This guy's all right."
0:13:19 > 0:13:21And he'd get better and better, better and better,
0:13:21 > 0:13:23better and better, better and better...
0:13:23 > 0:13:28But he was always a good-looking guy, very handsome, very handsome then...
0:13:28 > 0:13:32I knew that even if he couldn't sing the girls would be crazy about him.
0:13:33 > 0:13:36# ..Dee-dee-dee, I need your loving
0:13:37 > 0:13:38# That's all right
0:13:38 > 0:13:42# That's all right now, Mama
0:13:42 > 0:13:46# Anyway you do. #
0:13:47 > 0:13:51Elvis brings a melodic sense, a kind of swinging country sense
0:13:51 > 0:13:54to a song whose blues roots he never betrays
0:13:54 > 0:13:56which, I think, stands
0:13:56 > 0:14:01as a kind of homage in a way to a singer he enormously admired, Arthur Crudup,
0:14:01 > 0:14:05but it's an entirely different song. Same with Mystery Train
0:14:05 > 0:14:09where Little Junior Parker's Mystery Train is a masterpiece,
0:14:09 > 0:14:12but Elvis takes quite a different approach to it.
0:14:12 > 0:14:17And you can say you like this one or that one, you know, but they're different is the point.
0:14:17 > 0:14:23And Elvis has used each as a vehicle to express something that he feels within him.
0:14:25 > 0:14:28# ..Sixteen coaches long
0:14:30 > 0:14:33# Well, that long black train
0:14:33 > 0:14:36# Got my baby and gone
0:14:39 > 0:14:43# Train, train
0:14:43 > 0:14:46# Coming round, round the bend... #
0:14:46 > 0:14:49The classic sound of the Sun sides that Elvis made
0:14:49 > 0:14:55really relies upon the feeling that you get, no matter how many times you listen to them,
0:14:55 > 0:14:57that they're unrehearsed, they're spontaneous,
0:14:57 > 0:15:01they're just springing right out of...right from the soul.
0:15:01 > 0:15:04Hell, that's different! That's a pop song in the bag.
0:15:05 > 0:15:06I don't really want to do Carl Perkins!
0:15:07 > 0:15:13At the same time I think that if you pay any attention to the way in which the sessions go,
0:15:13 > 0:15:16the sessions are these kind of concentric circles
0:15:16 > 0:15:21where Elvis and the musicians wander around and wander around
0:15:21 > 0:15:27and basically the whole idea is for Elvis to get to that point where he's free.
0:15:27 > 0:15:31He'll be homing in on something that he can't really define...
0:15:31 > 0:15:36and yet when he gets it the feeling is what defines it.
0:15:36 > 0:15:38It has nothing to do with the technical perfection.
0:15:38 > 0:15:40I mean, you'll hear clinkers in songs right up through every...
0:15:40 > 0:15:44you know, through all of his classic sides,
0:15:44 > 0:15:46but he knew when he had that feeling,
0:15:46 > 0:15:50and the feeling was that feeling of loose spontaneity.
0:15:50 > 0:15:53# ..Train, train
0:15:54 > 0:15:57# Coming down, down the line
0:16:00 > 0:16:03# Train, train
0:16:04 > 0:16:08# Coming down, down the line... #
0:16:11 > 0:16:15Don't let anybody misconstrue this. I ran the show
0:16:15 > 0:16:20but it was run in such a way that they became a part of it.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23I knew what I had to have, I knew what I had to do,
0:16:23 > 0:16:28and don't think I wouldn't take the time out to go and move a mike a little bit to make it sound better,
0:16:28 > 0:16:30innovate any way I could,
0:16:30 > 0:16:33and if it never came off, that's OK.
0:16:33 > 0:16:37He treated Elvis's voice like an instrument.
0:16:37 > 0:16:41If you think back in the late '40s and early '50s,
0:16:41 > 0:16:44everything you heard, country, pop, whatever,
0:16:44 > 0:16:47the voice was ten miles out in front of the music
0:16:47 > 0:16:54and he pulled Elvis's voice back, where still you could understand the words and everything,
0:16:54 > 0:16:57but just above Bill and myself.
0:16:57 > 0:17:00# ..Well, it took my baby
0:17:00 > 0:17:03# But it never will again
0:17:03 > 0:17:05# No, not again... #
0:17:07 > 0:17:13The studio had to be a place where we knew that nothing is perfection,
0:17:13 > 0:17:17and the worst thing we could hunt for is perfection.
0:17:17 > 0:17:20In other words, just the structure of the notes and this sort of thing.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23We had to have enough belief in each other
0:17:23 > 0:17:30to say, "Hey, we're going to make mistakes and that just might be the thing that's different about it."
0:17:30 > 0:17:31What happened?
0:17:32 > 0:17:37Try it one more time now, and, Scotty, don't make it too damn complicated in the middle.
0:17:37 > 0:17:40Elvis, don't get to close to that mike.
0:17:42 > 0:17:48Mystery Train and Baby, Let's Play House in many ways I think are two sides of the same coin.
0:17:48 > 0:17:51# Ooh, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby... #
0:17:51 > 0:17:56What each of them has to offer is a sense of almost irrepressible joyousness
0:17:56 > 0:18:00and the feeling that they must have been created on the spot.
0:18:01 > 0:18:03# ..Well, now you may go to college
0:18:03 > 0:18:05# You may go to school
0:18:05 > 0:18:08# You may have a pink Cadillac
0:18:08 > 0:18:09# But don't you be nobody's fool
0:18:09 > 0:18:11# Now, baby, come back, baby gone
0:18:11 > 0:18:13# Come back, baby gone
0:18:13 > 0:18:16# Come back, baby, I wanna play house with you... #
0:18:17 > 0:18:22Baby, Let's Play House with that kind of burbling hiccup that runs through it
0:18:22 > 0:18:25is probably one of the most influential songs
0:18:25 > 0:18:28in terms of that early rockabilly sound of any song that was ever recorded.
0:18:28 > 0:18:31# Ooh, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby
0:18:31 > 0:18:35# Ooh, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby
0:18:35 > 0:18:38# Baby, baby, baby
0:18:38 > 0:18:41# Come back, baby, I wanna play house with you
0:18:42 > 0:18:45# Well, you may go to college
0:18:45 > 0:18:47# You may go to school
0:18:47 > 0:18:49# You may have a pink Cadillac
0:18:49 > 0:18:51# But don't you be nobody's fool
0:18:51 > 0:18:53# Now, baby, come back... #
0:18:53 > 0:18:56Elvis, when he played his guitar, standing up,
0:18:56 > 0:18:59he'd just come up on the balls of his feet,
0:18:59 > 0:19:04and with the big britches back then, the big pants legs,
0:19:04 > 0:19:07when you do that and play, well, things start shaking.
0:19:07 > 0:19:11And that's what the little girls started...
0:19:11 > 0:19:13they thought he was doing it on purpose.
0:19:13 > 0:19:17In fact, when he came off stage, he said, "What did I do? What's going on?"
0:19:17 > 0:19:20And we all started laughing.
0:19:20 > 0:19:25We said, "Well, when you started shaking your legs, they started screaming."
0:19:25 > 0:19:29He said, "Well, I wasn't doing it on purpose," which was true.
0:19:30 > 0:19:32But...he was a fast learner.
0:19:32 > 0:19:34# ..Baby, come back, baby gone
0:19:34 > 0:19:37# Baby, come back, baby gone... #
0:19:38 > 0:19:42It was almost like, not mass hypnosis,
0:19:42 > 0:19:45but it was what those people were waiting on,
0:19:45 > 0:19:49they were looking for something they could associate with musically.
0:19:49 > 0:19:51And that was Elvis.
0:19:52 > 0:19:54When they put Elvis on, they couldn't get him off.
0:19:54 > 0:19:58Any act that followed Elvis, they couldn't get the attention of the audience,
0:19:58 > 0:20:02whereas before they'd had a good response.
0:20:02 > 0:20:05And it was that way just about everywhere he went,
0:20:05 > 0:20:10package shows or wherever, they always put him on last to close the show.
0:20:11 > 0:20:16For the crowd, the people in the crowd, the younger people and the older people too,
0:20:16 > 0:20:21seemed to get wrapped up in this emotion of his performance,
0:20:21 > 0:20:24not so much, I don't think, of his shaking and wiggling,
0:20:24 > 0:20:27as the way he put the emphasis on the songs,
0:20:27 > 0:20:30as I say, the emphasis on the right syllable,
0:20:30 > 0:20:33but we don't know what it was. He was the phenomenon.
0:20:33 > 0:20:38Because these kids they really didn't have anything to associate their music with.
0:20:38 > 0:20:43We in World War II, with that music of the big bands and all, we had.
0:20:43 > 0:20:48But the generation that was coming up in the '50s after the war,
0:20:48 > 0:20:53they had nothing really to attach themselves to.
0:20:53 > 0:20:56So they went for this rock'n'roll and rhythm and blues
0:20:56 > 0:21:00on radio, records, personal appearances
0:21:00 > 0:21:02and particularly on television.
0:21:02 > 0:21:05# ..Come back, baby, I wanna play house with you... #
0:21:05 > 0:21:07Go on!
0:21:07 > 0:21:09Yeah, let's go! Go!
0:21:20 > 0:21:25And Sam Phillips used to say himself that if he could find a White boy
0:21:25 > 0:21:31that could sing like the Blacks, with that music and all, he'd have something.
0:21:31 > 0:21:32And he did.
0:21:32 > 0:21:37Though only five of the original Sun recordings actually made it on to the album,
0:21:37 > 0:21:44Sam Phillips' guidance had a lasting influence on the way Elvis made records for years and years.
0:21:44 > 0:21:45# ..Tutti frutti, oh, Rudy
0:21:45 > 0:21:47# Tutti frutti, oh, Rudy
0:21:47 > 0:21:49# Tutti frutti, oh, Rudy
0:21:49 > 0:21:52# Tutti frutti, oh, Rudy
0:21:52 > 0:21:54# Tutti frutti, oh, Rudy
0:21:54 > 0:21:56# Wop-bob-a-loom-a-blop-bam-boom
0:21:56 > 0:21:58# I got a gal named Daisy
0:21:58 > 0:22:00# She almost drives me crazy
0:22:00 > 0:22:02# I got a gal named Daisy
0:22:02 > 0:22:04# She almost drives me crazy
0:22:04 > 0:22:06# She knows how to love me, yes, indeed
0:22:06 > 0:22:08# Boy, you don't know what she do to me
0:22:08 > 0:22:10# Tutti frutti, oh, Rudy
0:22:10 > 0:22:11# Tutti frutti, oh, Rudy
0:22:11 > 0:22:14# Tutti frutti, oh, Rudy
0:22:14 > 0:22:16# Tutti frutti, oh, Rudy
0:22:16 > 0:22:18# Tutti frutti, oh, Rudy
0:22:18 > 0:22:20# Wop-bob-a-loom-a-blop-bam-boom. #
0:22:20 > 0:22:24CHEERING AND SCREAMING
0:22:26 > 0:22:30Watching those crowds and the women going crazy over Elvis
0:22:30 > 0:22:32was an ex-carnie who called himself Colonel Parker.
0:22:33 > 0:22:39Parker had experience in music management, and what he saw here he had never seen before,
0:22:39 > 0:22:42and he decided that he wanted to be part of that future.
0:22:45 > 0:22:48I introduced Elvis to Tom Parker.
0:22:49 > 0:22:54Elvis asked me later that evening about Tom Parker, and I told him, I said,
0:22:54 > 0:22:59"Elvis, that fellow over there will make you a million dollars in a year,
0:22:59 > 0:23:01"but he will get at least half of it."
0:23:02 > 0:23:04Which he did.
0:23:04 > 0:23:11What the Colonel saw as necessary was to gain a greater degree of exposure
0:23:11 > 0:23:14than Sun Records was able to offer.
0:23:14 > 0:23:19Promotion money, advertising money, things that simply weren't available when Elvis was at Sun.
0:23:19 > 0:23:23And I think the Colonel really bamboozled RCA in many ways.
0:23:23 > 0:23:28He gave the impression that there were many suitors for Elvis's hand,
0:23:28 > 0:23:33but the Colonel's intention all along, I think, was simply to drive RCA's price up
0:23:33 > 0:23:35and to end up at RCA.
0:23:35 > 0:23:40The percentage of people employed by RCA Records at the time
0:23:40 > 0:23:45who had any kind of a broad perspective on music were in the minority.
0:23:45 > 0:23:47Many of them detested rock music.
0:23:47 > 0:23:51Joe Carlton who was head of pop A&R at Victor
0:23:51 > 0:23:56disliked it so that he went on record predicting
0:23:56 > 0:23:58that the trend would last a year or maybe two.
0:23:58 > 0:24:02"Well, let's say between one and two years and it'll all be out of here,
0:24:02 > 0:24:09"and we'll get back to adult music, right? We'll get back to Perry Como singing Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo, right?"
0:24:09 > 0:24:12So he was signed by RCA Records
0:24:12 > 0:24:18and I do know that the selection of material has a sort of stroke of genius about it.
0:24:20 > 0:24:25RCA's well-respected producer Steve Sholes paid the 40,000 for Elvis's contract
0:24:25 > 0:24:30and decided to take him down to Nashville to record his first single for the label
0:24:30 > 0:24:34and, hopefully, a handful of songs also for the first album.
0:24:40 > 0:24:42# Well, since my baby left me... #
0:24:42 > 0:24:45If you compare what was on the charts
0:24:45 > 0:24:50with this record, this is a very unusual new record.
0:24:50 > 0:24:53The lyrics are very gloomy, suicidal...
0:24:54 > 0:24:59The instrumentation is very bare, it's almost grim, the whole projection here...
0:24:59 > 0:25:02and nobody outside Elvis himself, I believe,
0:25:02 > 0:25:07would ever have thought that this would be the right record to make.
0:25:07 > 0:25:10Steve Sholes may have had to have the faith
0:25:10 > 0:25:14since Elvis came prepared to do this particular song, he'd picked it himself,
0:25:14 > 0:25:18and Sholes would have to trust that Elvis knew what he was doing.
0:25:19 > 0:25:22Sam Phillips wouldn't have picked it. Sam said that,
0:25:22 > 0:25:30and I think what we see here is an instinct for creating music
0:25:30 > 0:25:32that Elvis had...
0:25:32 > 0:25:37that was far advanced from anybody else's at the time.
0:25:37 > 0:25:41This has nothing to do with what we otherwise call rock'n'roll music,
0:25:41 > 0:25:43this is not Hound Dog, this is not Tutti Frutti,
0:25:43 > 0:25:50this is a completely different image that Elvis found in this.
0:25:50 > 0:25:53And now a little song that I have on record, on RCA Victor,
0:25:53 > 0:25:57entitled Heartbreak Hotel.
0:26:00 > 0:26:03# Well, since my baby left me
0:26:03 > 0:26:06# Well, I've found a new place to dwell
0:26:06 > 0:26:09# Well, it's down at the end of Lonely Street
0:26:09 > 0:26:11# At Heartbreak Hotel
0:26:11 > 0:26:14# Where I'll be so lonely, baby
0:26:14 > 0:26:17# Well, I'm so lonely
0:26:17 > 0:26:20# I'll be so lonely I could die... #
0:26:20 > 0:26:24They basically tried to create a sound that was similar to Sam Phillips'
0:26:24 > 0:26:26and they got as far away as you could possibly get.
0:26:27 > 0:26:33They tried to create their own echo by working with the effect of a hallway
0:26:33 > 0:26:36and recording the echo sound from there,
0:26:36 > 0:26:45not knowing that Sam actually used tape echo, delay, by running the signal through another machine
0:26:45 > 0:26:51and into the recorder head. You know, they hadn't figured out what it was that he did.
0:26:51 > 0:26:54They tried their best to get a weird sound,
0:26:54 > 0:27:00and I think most people would actually agree that it was quite an arresting sound, Heartbreak Hotel,
0:27:00 > 0:27:03it didn't sound like anything that anybody had heard before.
0:27:03 > 0:27:04# ..I've found a new place to dwell... #
0:27:04 > 0:27:10Sholes came back from Nashville with his new recording, much-anticipated recording,
0:27:10 > 0:27:16to play to these people in New York who were his rivals, in principle, his superiors,
0:27:16 > 0:27:19everybody watching him for the kind of money he'd spent,
0:27:19 > 0:27:22and he was basically met with the comment,
0:27:22 > 0:27:27"Well, this doesn't sound anywhere like how the Sun records sound.
0:27:27 > 0:27:32"You better go back and re-record him. You better fix this, that and the other."
0:27:32 > 0:27:36And it was almost like there was an element of triumph in these observations,
0:27:36 > 0:27:40that, basically, this was the proof that everything had gone wrong.
0:27:40 > 0:27:44The knives were out for Steve Sholes when he came back from Nashville
0:27:44 > 0:27:48with Heartbreak Hotel, and many people within the RCA building,
0:27:48 > 0:27:53many people would have been happy to have seen Steve Sholes fall flat on his face.
0:27:53 > 0:27:57So when the opportunity came to be a little threatening to him,
0:27:57 > 0:28:01"Look at all of our money that you've spent!"
0:28:01 > 0:28:04they didn't hesitate.
0:28:04 > 0:28:11They were kind of laying back to see where this whole structure of signing Elvis would collapse...
0:28:13 > 0:28:16..the first bad song, the first single...
0:28:16 > 0:28:20So Steve's reaction to all of this was to become a little defensive,
0:28:20 > 0:28:24but you could walk into Steve's office, and it happened a couple of times,
0:28:24 > 0:28:26especially during the Elvis work-up,
0:28:26 > 0:28:29where he would be sitting like this
0:28:29 > 0:28:34with his chin down on his desk and his hands over the back of his head,
0:28:34 > 0:28:39and you would look in and say, "Steve? Is everything OK?"
0:28:40 > 0:28:42Not a word...and so forth.
0:28:42 > 0:28:46He was working through some kind of real depressions,
0:28:46 > 0:28:51some terrible awareness of what the downside of this could be.
0:28:51 > 0:28:56Had Heartbreak Hotel just died, Steve Sholes would have been in a lot of trouble,
0:28:56 > 0:28:59but that isn't what happened. It was a sensation.
0:28:59 > 0:29:00The other thing that you can see,
0:29:00 > 0:29:03and this is probably of far greater significance
0:29:03 > 0:29:05than merely the commercial impact,
0:29:05 > 0:29:07is the impact it has on Elvis himself.
0:29:07 > 0:29:11You watch him on the first show, it's a very crude performance,
0:29:11 > 0:29:16it's an unbelievably galvanising performance but it's not all that sophisticated.
0:29:16 > 0:29:19# ..Well, the bellhop's tears keep flowing
0:29:19 > 0:29:21# The desk clerk's dressed in black
0:29:22 > 0:29:24# They've been so long on Lonely Street
0:29:24 > 0:29:26# They ain't ever gonna look back
0:29:26 > 0:29:30# You make me so, you make me so lonely, baby... #
0:29:30 > 0:29:36By the time of the second TV show, you can actually see the confidence growing in Elvis.
0:29:36 > 0:29:38# Well, since my baby left me
0:29:38 > 0:29:41# Well, I've found a new place to dwell
0:29:41 > 0:29:45# Well, it's down at the end of Lonely Street
0:29:45 > 0:29:47# At Heartbreak Hotel
0:29:47 > 0:29:51# Where I'll be so lonely, baby
0:29:51 > 0:29:53# Well, I'm so lonely
0:29:53 > 0:29:57# I'll be so lonely I could die... #
0:30:01 > 0:30:05By the fifth show, you see an almost total transformation.
0:30:05 > 0:30:12All of the movements, everything, have been altered in some way, not necessarily refined,
0:30:12 > 0:30:13but improved.
0:30:17 > 0:30:19# ..Well, now, if your baby leaves you
0:30:19 > 0:30:21# And you've got a tale to tell
0:30:21 > 0:30:24# Just take a walk down Lonely Street
0:30:24 > 0:30:27# To Heartbreak Hotel
0:30:27 > 0:30:29# Where you will be, you'll be so lonely
0:30:29 > 0:30:32# Where'll you'll be lonely
0:30:32 > 0:30:37# You'll be so lonely you could die
0:30:37 > 0:30:39# Well! #
0:30:40 > 0:30:44Different from today, the hit single was not on the album.
0:30:45 > 0:30:50So you went out and sold an album that didn't have the most popular track on it,
0:30:50 > 0:30:53because the singles outsold the albums.
0:30:53 > 0:30:56The story of Elvis Presley's first album
0:30:56 > 0:31:01was that it was a phenomenal success, it was the label's biggest pop success ever,
0:31:01 > 0:31:04by selling 300,000 albums.
0:31:04 > 0:31:07Yeah, but Heartbreak Hotel sold two million singles.
0:31:09 > 0:31:13I told Elvis one thing, I said, "Elvis, don't let them change you,"
0:31:13 > 0:31:19and I told Steve, I said, "Steve, I really would let Elvis do what he wants to do,"
0:31:19 > 0:31:22but I don't know how it was influenced, but...
0:31:22 > 0:31:24they added...
0:31:24 > 0:31:29a piano player before you knew it and then they added the Jordanaires,
0:31:29 > 0:31:36who, you know, good group, but we needed to keep away from sounding like anybody else.
0:31:36 > 0:31:38# I've been travelling over mountains... #
0:31:38 > 0:31:40The other thing was repertoire.
0:31:40 > 0:31:46Steve Sholes really had no idea of where Elvis was coming from,
0:31:46 > 0:31:51and he sent Elvis a list of songs right around Christmas time in '55
0:31:51 > 0:31:55in preparation for their first session in Nashville a couple of weeks later,
0:31:55 > 0:32:00and it's clear if you look at the list of songs he sent and the later list that he sent,
0:32:00 > 0:32:04that he really had no idea of what Elvis' potential was,
0:32:04 > 0:32:08of the range of his interests or of the kind of material that would be suitable.
0:32:08 > 0:32:11Elvis had an idea and he only did one song, I think, from each list.
0:32:13 > 0:32:16When he walked in the studio and he chose a song,
0:32:16 > 0:32:20he knew exactly what he wanted to hear, and he had all the input in the world.
0:32:20 > 0:32:22Steve would sit back
0:32:22 > 0:32:25and doze off about midnight, you know, and watch the clock.
0:32:25 > 0:32:27That's why I used to call them all clock watchers,
0:32:27 > 0:32:29cos Elvis produced them all.
0:32:29 > 0:32:33You didn't have fancy equalisers and things back then.
0:32:33 > 0:32:37If you wanted more highs, you backed the microphone off a little bit.
0:32:37 > 0:32:40If you wanted a little more bass, you moved it in closer.
0:32:40 > 0:32:42A lot of times we'd make mistakes in those records
0:32:42 > 0:32:46and somebody would say, "We'll do that again,"
0:32:46 > 0:32:51and he'd say, "No, no, no, it feels good, and I did a good job, I'm singing pretty good.
0:32:51 > 0:32:56"Leave it alone," he said. "Why go over it again? You're going to kill it."
0:32:56 > 0:32:58# Wop-bob-a-loom-a-blop-bam-boom... #
0:32:58 > 0:33:00While Elvis was in charge in the studio,
0:33:00 > 0:33:03Colonel Parker took charge of promoting and marketing his new signing
0:33:03 > 0:33:07in ways that nobody had even thought about for popular music.
0:33:07 > 0:33:10# Wop-bob-a-loom-a-blop-bam-boom... #
0:33:10 > 0:33:13The Colonel was ready to sell anything at the shows.
0:33:13 > 0:33:16I mean, you could buy Elvis this, that and the other at shows.
0:33:16 > 0:33:19There would be Elvis pictures, there would be Elvis buttons,
0:33:19 > 0:33:21there would a lot of Elvis stuff in there,
0:33:21 > 0:33:25that he soon again developed into a merchandise operation.
0:33:25 > 0:33:27# ..Tutti frutti, oh, Rudy Tutti frutti... #
0:33:27 > 0:33:32I think the extent to which the Elvis product could be exploited
0:33:32 > 0:33:38is indicative of the kind of consumerism and the prosperity that had taken hold.
0:33:38 > 0:33:45So, you know, to that extent, I think that Elvis was a beneficiary, if you want to look at it that way,
0:33:45 > 0:33:51of this sense of mass production and consumerism.
0:33:51 > 0:33:54INTRO TO "Money Honey"
0:33:58 > 0:34:02# You know, the landlord rang my front door bell
0:34:03 > 0:34:06# I let it ring for a long, long spell
0:34:06 > 0:34:10# I went to the window I peeped through the blind
0:34:10 > 0:34:13# And asked him to tell me what was on his mind
0:34:14 > 0:34:15# Money, honey
0:34:17 > 0:34:19# Money, honey
0:34:20 > 0:34:22# Money, honey
0:34:22 > 0:34:25# If you want to get along with me
0:34:28 > 0:34:32# Well, I said, tell me, baby, what's wrong with you
0:34:32 > 0:34:36# From this day on our romance is through... #
0:34:36 > 0:34:40The imaging of Elvis, I think, was handled very well
0:34:40 > 0:34:46in that the Colonel had photos taken of Elvis at a show in Tampa, Florida the summer before,
0:34:46 > 0:34:52where the photographer actually captured some of the lively performance,
0:34:52 > 0:34:54the different, the unusual element,
0:34:54 > 0:35:01and that image of Elvis with a guitar and looking completely different from anything you'd ever seen,
0:35:01 > 0:35:04a black-and-white photo and then purple-and-green lettering, Elvis Presley.
0:35:04 > 0:35:08No title for that album, it was just Elvis Presley.
0:35:08 > 0:35:11It was again a good image, it was about image-making,
0:35:11 > 0:35:14and the Colonel fully understood how to do that.
0:35:14 > 0:35:20Elvis, for some reason, I don't know what the reason was, but he never questioned the Colonel.
0:35:20 > 0:35:25"You take care of the business and I'll take care of the singing and the performing."
0:35:25 > 0:35:26And that's the way they kept it.
0:35:26 > 0:35:30The Colonel would come into the studio sometimes and never open his mouth.
0:35:30 > 0:35:34He didn't say, "Elvis, now, we're not going to do this..."
0:35:35 > 0:35:37Whatever Elvis wanted to do, that's what he did.
0:35:37 > 0:35:45I think what happened with Elvis, what he must have loved about that first RCA session
0:35:45 > 0:35:49was that he finally had a chance to make ballads
0:35:49 > 0:35:52that might have a chance of being released.
0:35:52 > 0:35:54When Elvis started recording,
0:35:54 > 0:35:57his aim was to be a ballad singer.
0:35:57 > 0:36:01That was how he saw himself and it was really just the accident of desperation
0:36:01 > 0:36:06that led him away from singing predominantly ballads.
0:36:06 > 0:36:08# ..And my love
0:36:08 > 0:36:12# As perfect as could be... #
0:36:12 > 0:36:14It's a little cliched
0:36:14 > 0:36:18in the way it's built with the doo-wop backing vocals,
0:36:18 > 0:36:20but it gives him the opportunity to do tricks like...
0:36:20 > 0:36:23# ..That it was all for me... # ..What he's doing here.
0:36:23 > 0:36:27ELVIS' VOICE RISES SHARPLY He must have loved doing that little bit.
0:36:27 > 0:36:30And, you know, he stole all those vocal tricks from all the heroes,
0:36:30 > 0:36:33and since the heroes came from so many different areas,
0:36:33 > 0:36:39it was a funny mixture of all these little mannerisms or vocal tricks, whatever you want to call them.
0:36:39 > 0:36:41# ..Could be
0:36:42 > 0:36:45# She lived, she loved
0:36:45 > 0:36:48# She laughed, she cried
0:36:48 > 0:36:53# And it was all for me
0:36:53 > 0:36:57# I-I-I'll never know
0:36:58 > 0:37:00# Who taught her to lie
0:37:00 > 0:37:04# Now that it's over and done... #
0:37:04 > 0:37:06I Was The One is terrific.
0:37:06 > 0:37:08I think it's a sort of typical country ballad
0:37:08 > 0:37:13that Elvis invests with all of the stylistic traits,
0:37:13 > 0:37:18because there's this almost over the top emotionalism,
0:37:18 > 0:37:20and the peculiarities of pronunciation.
0:37:20 > 0:37:23And sometimes you listen to some of these Elvis sessions,
0:37:23 > 0:37:27and I think it's a mistake to say, "Oh, that's his Memphis-Mississippi accent."
0:37:27 > 0:37:30I think in many cases he simply likes the sound,
0:37:30 > 0:37:33and you might listen to it 100 times and not know what he's said,
0:37:33 > 0:37:38but, you know, he gets across a feeling,
0:37:38 > 0:37:44and I think you hear that very strongly in a song like I Was The One.
0:37:44 > 0:37:46The only thing I like about the record
0:37:46 > 0:37:48is right in the middle of it
0:37:48 > 0:37:52it changes to what we call a country shuffle.
0:37:52 > 0:37:54HE PLAYS ALONG WITH THE SONG
0:37:54 > 0:37:56Instead of...
0:37:59 > 0:38:02So it would change tempos there a little bit.
0:38:02 > 0:38:05And I thought that was pretty... That was his idea.
0:38:05 > 0:38:08"We need a little shuffle, we need something to boost it up a bit."
0:38:10 > 0:38:15Steve Sholes was not used to Elvis's way of recording and the freedom Elvis had had with Sam Phillips,
0:38:15 > 0:38:20so he was somewhat surprised that it took him two days to get the five songs recorded
0:38:20 > 0:38:22that any other artist would normally record in three hours.
0:38:22 > 0:38:27This in spite of the fact that several of the songs had been rehearsed live
0:38:27 > 0:38:29on many, many gigs across the country.
0:38:29 > 0:38:32# ..Who learned the lesson... #
0:38:32 > 0:38:35We had to be friendly, we had four guys and one car, you know.
0:38:35 > 0:38:39No, basically, everybody got along, you know.
0:38:39 > 0:38:43You'd have your squabbles from time to time.
0:38:43 > 0:38:46In one of them, Bill said, "I'm going to knock your head off!"
0:38:46 > 0:38:49Scotty said, "I'll knock your head off!" "I'll whip both of you!"
0:38:49 > 0:38:53You know, this is back and forth, and then it's "Stop the car! Stop the car!"
0:38:53 > 0:38:59And then they'd jump out and, "Well, I'm going to hit you!" you know, as kids would play.
0:38:59 > 0:39:01Nobody ever hit anybody.
0:39:01 > 0:39:05And I'd look out the window and say, "Guys, hurry up and hit somebody so we can go!
0:39:05 > 0:39:10"We've got 500 miles to go. If you're going to fight, fight and let's get on with it."
0:39:10 > 0:39:14And they'd laugh and get back in the car and there'd be another 500 miles, you know.
0:39:14 > 0:39:16We had designated drivers.
0:39:16 > 0:39:20Scotty would start, maybe, or Bill, and we finally decided...
0:39:20 > 0:39:24we used to try to drive as long as we could till we couldn't see the road any more,
0:39:24 > 0:39:29but that got a little bit dangerous, so we said, "Well, we'll all drive three hours or four hours,"
0:39:29 > 0:39:32wake up the next guy. So we took turns.
0:39:32 > 0:39:36Elvis was a good driver if you led him in the right direction.
0:39:36 > 0:39:37Elvis was a...
0:39:37 > 0:39:42You had to beat him over the head with a club to get him up
0:39:42 > 0:39:49in the morning, to get started, if we had to go to a radio station or something like that...
0:39:49 > 0:39:50always late...
0:39:50 > 0:39:59I mean, we were doing anywhere from 200 to 300 or 400 miles jumps every day.
0:39:59 > 0:40:02A lot of times we'd just barely get there in time,
0:40:02 > 0:40:06and whatever we had on that's what we went on stage with.
0:40:06 > 0:40:08# Wop-bob-a-loom-a-blop-bam-boom... #
0:40:08 > 0:40:11They rubbed shoulders with a lot of other stars on the road,
0:40:11 > 0:40:15they met up with Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash was even playing with them,
0:40:15 > 0:40:18they met Buddy Holly in Lubbock...
0:40:18 > 0:40:22obviously, they played with Carl Perkins and ran into people like the Everly Brothers, Pat Boone
0:40:22 > 0:40:24and Bill Haley.
0:40:24 > 0:40:26# ..Tutti frutti, oh, Rudy Tutti frutti... #
0:40:26 > 0:40:29But it was Elvis who provoked the most excitement and hostility.
0:40:29 > 0:40:34Fans adored him, but journalists and broadcasters had begun criticising what they called
0:40:34 > 0:40:37"the caterwauling voice and nonsense lyrics".
0:40:37 > 0:40:41His performances, they suggested, should be confined to dives and brothels.
0:40:41 > 0:40:44They just didn't want him played.
0:40:44 > 0:40:45I guess because of his impact
0:40:45 > 0:40:47and because of his dominance
0:40:47 > 0:40:50and his trend in changing the format of music
0:40:50 > 0:40:52and the style of music.
0:40:52 > 0:40:56Elvis came to our station. I have a picture of us that night.
0:40:56 > 0:41:00And I told Elvis, I said, "Elvis, buddy, I hate it,
0:41:00 > 0:41:05"but my show, five hours a night, on a 50,000-watt clear channel,
0:41:05 > 0:41:07"they won't let me play your records."
0:41:07 > 0:41:09And I'll never forget what he said,
0:41:09 > 0:41:13he said, "Tom, is it that they won't let you play them or is it you don't want to play them?"
0:41:13 > 0:41:17And I said, "Elvis, what are you talking about, boy, as much as we've worked together?"
0:41:17 > 0:41:21And he kind of laughed and walked off, but that's a fact.
0:41:21 > 0:41:23And I can understand that back then
0:41:23 > 0:41:27because he was absolutely revolutionising and dominating
0:41:27 > 0:41:30personal appearances, formats and everything.
0:41:30 > 0:41:34Hi, I have Elvis Presley on the phone. Hello?
0:41:35 > 0:41:37- Hello, Elvis? Just one moment. - Hello, Elvis?- Hello.
0:41:37 > 0:41:41Do you think you've learned anything from the criticism levelled at you?
0:41:41 > 0:41:43- No, I haven't.- You haven't?
0:41:43 > 0:41:45Because I don't feel that I'm doing anything wrong.
0:41:45 > 0:41:48By your personal appearances you create a sort of mass hysteria
0:41:48 > 0:41:50amongst your audiences of teenagers.
0:41:50 > 0:41:55Is your shaking and quaking in the nature of an involuntary response to this hysteria?
0:41:55 > 0:41:59Uh...yeah... Well, I'm aware of everything I do at all times,
0:41:59 > 0:42:01but it's just the way I feel.
0:42:01 > 0:42:06Do you think your rocking and rolling had had an evil influence on teenagers or it just an outlet?
0:42:06 > 0:42:10I don't see that any type of music would have any bad influence on people.
0:42:10 > 0:42:12- I mean, it's only music.- Mm-hm.
0:42:12 > 0:42:14I can't figure that out.
0:42:14 > 0:42:18I mean, a lot of the papers are saying rock'n'roll is a big influence on juvenile delinquency.
0:42:18 > 0:42:22- I don't think it is. - What about the rumour that you once shot your mother?
0:42:25 > 0:42:27Well, I think that one takes the cake!
0:42:28 > 0:42:32There was just, you know, a whole world opening up for him,
0:42:32 > 0:42:35and the thing that is most remarkable about Elvis' early career
0:42:35 > 0:42:38is that there was never a moment of faltering.
0:42:38 > 0:42:42It just kept opening up. It just kept growing.
0:42:43 > 0:42:47Elvis and band arrived in New York in January 1956
0:42:47 > 0:42:51to record the second session their album at RCA Victor.
0:42:52 > 0:42:54LAUGHTER
0:42:54 > 0:42:56Same lyrics?
0:42:56 > 0:42:58Here's Elvis questioning the lyrics.
0:42:58 > 0:43:03There's a debate on the lyrics. We cannot of course know exactly who's debating what in here,
0:43:03 > 0:43:07but there's like two verses that are interesting in this.
0:43:07 > 0:43:12This is a cover version of an R'n'B song that Elvis has been doing live,
0:43:12 > 0:43:15mixing it with other songs and stuff.
0:43:15 > 0:43:17Now he's trying to make a real recording of it.
0:43:17 > 0:43:22I think there was a provocation in there that Elvis was not unaware of.
0:43:22 > 0:43:26I don't that he... He didn't overplay it,
0:43:26 > 0:43:30but he was well aware that it was daring on the first TV show.
0:43:30 > 0:43:34Here's a new young guy on a regular TV show that the whole family is watching,
0:43:34 > 0:43:36singing Flip, Flop And Fly,
0:43:36 > 0:43:40with a line in there saying "I've got so many women, I don't know which way to jump".
0:43:40 > 0:43:43A few people must have been doing this with the coffee cup!
0:43:43 > 0:43:46# I'm like a Mississippi bullfrog sitting on a hollow stump
0:43:47 > 0:43:51# I'm like a Mississippi bullfrog sitting on a hollow stump
0:43:52 > 0:43:55# I've got so many women, I don't know which way to jump
0:43:55 > 0:43:58# Well, I said flip, flop and fly
0:43:58 > 0:44:00# I don't care if I die... #
0:44:01 > 0:44:07So as the session progresses, they get the arrangements together,
0:44:07 > 0:44:09there's the piano solo, there's the guitar solo,
0:44:09 > 0:44:14after the guitar solo there are two verses that are worth paying attention to.
0:44:14 > 0:44:16Here's the first one.
0:44:16 > 0:44:20# ..I'm like a one-eyed cat peepin' in the seafood store
0:44:21 > 0:44:24# I'm like a one-eyed cat peepin' in the seafood store
0:44:26 > 0:44:29# Well, I can look at you till you ain't no child no more... #
0:44:29 > 0:44:31This verse is in the finished recording.
0:44:31 > 0:44:33# You wear those dresses Sun comes shinin' through... #
0:44:33 > 0:44:35This was taken out.
0:44:35 > 0:44:38# ..You wear those dresses Sun comes shinin' through
0:44:39 > 0:44:42# I can't believe my eyes All that mess belongs to you... #
0:44:43 > 0:44:48So the point here is they take the one out about the sun comes shining through the dress...
0:44:48 > 0:44:53and its kind of rough line about "All this mess belongs to you," about this woman,
0:44:53 > 0:44:58but the whole idea of "the one-eyed cat peepin' through the seafood store" as a sexual image,
0:44:58 > 0:45:01apparently, you know, got all the way through.
0:45:05 > 0:45:10RCA were still uncertain about what was acceptable for a White boy singing Black lyrics
0:45:10 > 0:45:13on a major label and on national television.
0:45:14 > 0:45:17# ..Get out of that kitchen and rattle those pots and pans
0:45:17 > 0:45:21# Well, I want my breakfast because I'm a hungry man... #
0:45:21 > 0:45:25I think the impact of the television show can't be overstated.
0:45:25 > 0:45:33It carried out exactly what the Colonel had articulated and had envisioned.
0:45:33 > 0:45:37It put Elvis on a national stage where up to then he had been a regional star
0:45:37 > 0:45:44and a tremendous regional sensation, but it put him in front of more people in one night
0:45:44 > 0:45:46than he had seen in his entire career.
0:45:46 > 0:45:50And it created a sense not just of Elvis's identity,
0:45:50 > 0:45:58but of the newness, the strangeness, the uniqueness, the jumping-off point that this music represented.
0:45:58 > 0:46:00SCREAMING
0:46:02 > 0:46:05# ..I'm like a one-eyed cat peepin' in the seafood store
0:46:06 > 0:46:09# I'm like a one-eyed cat peepin' in the seafood store
0:46:10 > 0:46:14# Well, I can look at you till you ain't no child no more... #
0:46:14 > 0:46:16Me and Scotty and Bill are standing in the background,
0:46:16 > 0:46:21and Elvis said, "Can you guys say shake, rattle and roll?" "Yeah, we can do that!"
0:46:21 > 0:46:23So that's what we did.
0:46:23 > 0:46:27If you hear the shake, rattle... it's me and Scotty and Bill.
0:46:27 > 0:46:29That was the first and last time he ever let us sing!
0:46:29 > 0:46:31Can't blame him for that!
0:46:32 > 0:46:35# ..Well, I said shake, rattle and roll
0:46:35 > 0:46:37# I said shake, rattle and roll
0:46:37 > 0:46:39# I said shake, rattle and roll
0:46:39 > 0:46:41# I said shake, rattle and roll
0:46:41 > 0:46:44# Well, you won't do right to save your doggone soul... #
0:46:56 > 0:47:00Those eight rock'n'roll cuts they cut in New York, they fit together.
0:47:00 > 0:47:03They're a style.
0:47:03 > 0:47:06It's a tough style, it's a fast style, it's an aggressive style,
0:47:06 > 0:47:08but it's also an exciting style.
0:47:08 > 0:47:12It's almost like he came to the big city, it's a city sound,
0:47:12 > 0:47:15it's a little bit brutal actually.
0:47:15 > 0:47:18It's like 12 different Elvises on one album
0:47:18 > 0:47:25showing each step of the development into suddenly the biggest star in America.
0:47:32 > 0:47:35# Well, it's one for the money Two for the show
0:47:35 > 0:47:37# Three to get ready Now go, go, go
0:47:37 > 0:47:41# But don't you step on my blue suede shoes
0:47:42 > 0:47:47# Well, you can do anything But lay off of my blue suede shoes
0:47:48 > 0:47:50# Well, it's blue, blue, blue suede shoes
0:47:50 > 0:47:53# Blue, blue, blue suede shoes
0:47:53 > 0:47:56# Blue, blue, blue suede shoes, baby
0:47:56 > 0:47:58# Blue, blue, blue suede shoes
0:47:58 > 0:48:02# Well, you can do anything But lay off of my blue suede shoes. #
0:48:09 > 0:48:11Hi, this is Elvis Presley.
0:48:11 > 0:48:14I guess the first thing people want to know is why I can't stand still when I'm singing.
0:48:14 > 0:48:19Some people tap their feet, some people snap their fingers and some people just sway back and forth.
0:48:20 > 0:48:22I just started doing them all together, I guess.
0:48:23 > 0:48:25Singing rhythm and blues really knocks it out.
0:48:26 > 0:48:29I watch my audience and listen to them
0:48:29 > 0:48:33and I know that we're all getting something out of our system and none of us knows what it is.
0:48:34 > 0:48:37The important thing is that we're getting rid of it and nobody's getting hurt.
0:48:39 > 0:48:42I suppose you know I've got a lot of cars.
0:48:42 > 0:48:47People have written about it in the papers and a lot of them write and ask me why.
0:48:48 > 0:48:54When I was driving a truck, every time a big shiny car drove by it started me sort of daydreaming.
0:48:54 > 0:48:59I always felt that someday, somehow, something would happen to change everything for me,
0:48:59 > 0:49:01and I'd daydream about how it would be.
0:49:01 > 0:49:06Maybe some day I'm going to have a home and family of my own and I'm not going to budge from it.
0:49:06 > 0:49:11I was an only child, but maybe my kids won't be.
0:49:12 > 0:49:16Well, thanks for letting me talk to you and sort of get things off of my chest.
0:49:16 > 0:49:20I sure appreciate you listening to my RCA Victor records
0:49:20 > 0:49:24and I'd like to thank all the disc jockeys for playing them. Bye-bye.