ELVIS - "THAT'S ALL RIGHT, MAMA"

The Blue Moon Boys: Scotty Moore, Elvis Presley and Bill Black

On July 5, 1954, Elvis records “That’s All Right” in Sun Studios of Sam Phillips

On June 3, 1953, it arrived for Elvis, as he himself said, “the day of liberation”: his graduation. He had finished his secondary education. And he received his first car as a gift: a green 1942 Lincoln model. Its price: fifty dollars!

While working at the Marl company, he made the decision to record an album at the Memphis Recording Service, a recording studio where anyone could do it for only four dollars.

Elvis specifically chose this place because it was owned by Sam Phillips, known in Memphis as a talent scout. He had started recording black artists like Little Junior Parker, B.B. King and Rufus Thomas, but by the summer of ’53, he had released his first Country record: “Silver Bells” by the Ripley Cotton Choppers.

For many years, the story that Presley walked into the Memphis Recording Service to give his mother a record for her birthday, was published ad nauseam.

Elvis never said this; he merely alluded to the record being a gift for his mother. That first record was recorded sometime between June and October of 1953.

Gladys, had a birthday on April 25.

If we accept the Elvis story, it’s still weird. The Presleys didn’t have a record player.

Presumably his real interest lay elsewhere. Those four dollars saved were the investment capital to achieve his goal: to be heard by Sam Phillips.

Great must have been her disappointment when she opened the door and saw that Sam Phillips was not in the recording studio. In charge, on that hot southern afternoon, was his secretary: MARION KEISKER.

Until 1953, the North American music market was divided (segregated) into four: Pop, Country & Western, Rhythm’n’Blues and Gospel. All of this began to unravel the afternoon Elvis Presley walked in to record his first album.

He paid four dollars to Marion Keisker, who was in charge of the Sun studio. when Marion heard the result “her hair stood up”.

There was what Sam was looking for: “…a white with the feeling of a black.”
Marion recorded the recording on tape and showed it to her boss, who did not acknowledge receipt.

Not that day, nor the following February 4th when Elvis recorded his 2nd acetate: “I’ll Never Stand In Your Way” with “It Wouldn’t Be Without You“.
A year and a half passed before Phillips finally, tired of his secretary’s reminders, decided to give it a try.

On July 5, 1954, Elvis records “That’s All Right“, and spontaneously transforms an old black Blues into something totally new: the four musical trends that Elvis had heard up to that moment were embodied in that record.
Rock’n’Roll was born.