ELVIS PRESLEY- The 100 Most Essential Songs (#3). Continues: tomorrow.  

Caffè Lattè presents:

THE 100 MOST ESSENTIAL SONGS BY

ELVIS

Elvis Aaron Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi in 1935. His family relocated to Memphis, where the teenager absorbed the blues, gospel and country music. Young Elvis cut records for personal use and came to the attention of Sun Records. Sam Phillips recognized potential in the youth: a white singer with a ‘black’ sound. From these humble origins, Elvis influenced countless other white rockers and achieved sales that were unprecedented.

 

These 100 songs corroborate that Presley is the “King of Rock ‘n’ Roll”…

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Hear the songs on the special Spotify playlist regularly updated as the countdown continues:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6KLsvwG7sBR45Xzq2WUWMD?si=1b8724d6f6744b89&pt=7a4da6b5756f5effebbb68199f80442e

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HEARTBREAK HOTEL

It’s important to remember that rock ‘n’ roll was still dismissed by many as a fad that would soon peter out in the mid-1950s. Bill Halley & His Comets’ “Rock Around The Clock” is seen as a watershed record that announced the dawn of the Rock Era by becoming the first rock ‘n’ roll disc to reach #1 in America. The next significant milestone took place on April 21, 1956. Elvis had already developed a following in the South. He had switched from Sun Records to a major label with additional clout: RCA. His first release for the company was “Heartbreak Hotel”. Recorded in Nashville on January 10 and 11, 1956, the session featured Scotty Moore on guitar, Bill Black on bass and D.J. Fontana on drums. Also conbtributing to the recording were guitarist Chet Atkins, pianist Floyd Cramer and some members of his backing singers The Jordanaires.

The song was inspired by a newspaper article about a man who committed suicide leaving behind a note with the words: “I walk a lonely street”. Mae Brown Aston co-wrote the hit with Tommy Durden. Preslety was credited too, but was not involved in the song's creation. The single spent 8 weeks topping the US chart starting in late April and peaked at #2 in Britain. Billboard listed it as the #1 single of 1956. It was the first of numerous chart-topping singles for Elvis.