That’s All Right

He's there.

He records "That's All Right." It's the beginning of Elvis's career, and it's kind of like a big bang, not the Big Bang, but one big bang in rock 'n' roll history.

Mm-hmm.

And by 1955, Elvis is, is touring throughout the South, South-

Right.

That's okay.

That's all right.

Um, so I, yeah, I mean, I think it was a very important show in his career, and I liked, I like kinda thinking about it but from Gladys and Vernon's perspective of, like, yeah, it's their son in their hometown, um-

First, I have a piece from 13th of June, 1970 in NME, and it's Roy Carr writing a kind of... reappraisal of the early hits of elvis and it's titled is elvis belittling his early hits he writes so with a little help from a friend behold a copy of one of elvis's very earliest albums elvis from 1959 which is on spotify called for lp fans only it found its way onto my turntable to help enliven a rather listless Monday.

As the familiar and nostalgic strains of That's Alright Mama echoed around the office, the memories of an ill-spent youth flooded back.

Little did Sam Phillips...

Elvis, or any of the musicians involved, envisaged that they were in fact laying down a blueprint for a whole new revolution in popular music when they cut this and other early tracks.

Just you and Bill, little bit of backing with you and Bill on guitar and bass, and that ought to be enough." And it was interesting because Bill Black, as, as you read, was able to loosen the low string on his bass and pluck it, as well as playing the notes, so that you actually heard sort of a, a rhythmic drum sound.

And if, if you listen to That's All Right Mama or Blue Moon of Kentucky, you might think you're hearing a drum sound, but it's, it's actually just the loose string from Bill Black's bass.

And Amanda, who owns Bill Black's bass now, his standup bass.

Oh, gosh.

But like you said, they came into the studio.

They weren't necessarily totally impressed upon meeting him at Scotty's house, but then they come into the studio.

It's a long day in the studio, and Elvis starts playing That's All Right Mama.

Yeah.

It was July the 2nd, 1954.

Three days later, Elvis would go into Sun Records to record That's All Right.

But three days earlier, tragedy had struck.

After a performance in Clanton, Alabama, two members of the Blackwood Brothers Quartet, R.W. Blackwood and Bill Lyles, were killed in a plane crash.

That's the person I've been looking for.

That's the star that I've been trying to sign ever since I started this recording studio." And so that very night, Sam and this band helped the kid record his first ever single, which was called That's All Right.

And once that song hit the airwaves, that kid did become a star practically overnight.

He catapulted into music fame that few ever achieve.

And so that's when things changed for Elvis.

1954, I think That's All Right Mama came out.

1955, he was touring the South of America doing a lot of shows like the Louisiana Hayride, which was a radio show and also a live show that people would go along to, a bit like the Grand Ole Opry.

And, yeah, he'd just play all these different dance halls and things throughout the South of the U.S. And then he had other hits, of course, and then the movie started coming in 1957.