Elvis Presley, The #2 Artist of the Rock Era, Part Three

 (Continued from Part Two)

Elvis's live shows increasingly drew hysterical reactions from female fans.  Presley released the album Elvis on October 19 and it too went to #1 and sold over one million copies.  

Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller wrote this next song for the project, which was a solid #2 overall and #7 R&B.

  Presley would turn to Leiber and Stoller time and time again in the years to come. Elvis sang "Love Me" on The Ed Sullivan Show on October 28.

 

The album also included "Old Shep", the song that Elvis first sang when he was 10 years old for the Mississippi-Alabama talent show but recorded for the first time for this album. Red Foley and Arthur Williams wrote this tearjerker, which is about a dog that Foley owned.


Presley appeared in the movie Love Me Tender, released on November 21.

(From left to right:  Lewis, Perkins, Elvis and Cash)

On December 4, Presley visited Sun Records where Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis were recording and those three along with Johnny Cash had a impromptu jam session. Phillips of course did not own the rights to Presley's material, but he still recorded the event on tape. The recording, dubbed the "Million Dollar Quartet" recordings, were not officially released until 25 years later.

By the end of the year, sales of Presley merchandise topped $22 million and Billboard announced that Presley had placed more entries in the Top 100 for the year than any artist in history. Elvis accounted for over 50% of RCA's singles sales.

Presley appeared for the final time on The Ed Sullivan Show on January 6, 1957 and was filmed from the waist up. Two days later, Elvis received word from the Memphis draft board that he was classified 1-A and would likely be drafted before the year was up.

Presley first heard this song as he was getting ready for a recording session at RCA in New York City in July. Steve Sholes gave Elvis a stack of demo records for him to listen to. The only one in that stack that Elvis really liked was "Anyway You Want It", which he recorded during the famous July 2 session that also produced "Hound Dog" and "Don't Be Cruel".


 

Elvis, however, did select four other demos from the stack and took those home with him to Memphis as potential songs for his upcoming September session. "Too Much" was one of those four demos.

During a break in filming Love Me Tender, Presley recorded 13 songs at Radio Recorders Studio in Hollywood on September 1-3. Two of those would be on Elvis's next 45, and the rest would be on his new album. "Too Much" was chosen as the next single release, and it also landed at #1 for three weeks and has sold over two million singles.

Elvis did his usual great job of singing the vocals, but it is Scotty Moore's guitar that makes the song special.  Moore said how the solo came about in the 1971 radio documentary, The Elvis Presley Story:

            I don’t remember now exactly what I had 

            nailed down for the solo instrumental part. It 

            was in an odd key … well, for most guitar

            players, I would say. When my instrumental

            part came, I absolutely just got lost. I didn’t 

            know where I was at. But from the experience

            we had already gained in these months

            behind us, in playing on stage, you go ahead,

            you just keep on going, and this is what I did. 

            And this was the take that was released.”

 

This song was the other track recorded on that day that made the flip side of the 45.  Written by Stan Kesler, Sun Studio steel guitarist and bassist, here is "Playing For Keeps".

On March 19, 1957, one of the first things he did with his money was Elvis purchased the 18-room Graceland (nine miles South of Memphis) for $102,500 for he and his parents.  Destitute their entire lives, the Presleys moved into a mansion.

 

Elvis grew up listening to Gospel music and, even when he became famous, he made it a regular habit to record a Gospel album.  Presley released the Gospel EP Peace in the Valley, which peaked at #3.  Mahalia Jackson sang the title song originally, and Elvis added his touch to it here.

 

Elvis released the single "All Shook Up", a #1 classic in the U.S., the United Kingdom and Canada.  It was Presley's first #1 in the U.K. (#1 for seven weeks), within three weeks it rocketed to the top of the chart for eight weeks in the United States, and it is not only a Double Platinum single, but The #32 Song of the Rock Era*.

"That's When The Heartaches Begin" was one of two songs Elvis recorded at Sun Studios for a birthday gift for his mother released in 1953.  Presley re-recorded it as the B-side to "All Shook Up". 

Kal Mann wrote the lyrics to this next song, another huge hit.  Mann teamed with Bernie Lowe to produce many hits of the 50's, including "Butterfly" by Charlie Gracie, Chubby Checker's "Limbo Rock" and Bobby Rydell's "Wild One".  Allegedly, Mann and Lowe wrote this especially for Elvis because of his supposed fondness for stuffed animals.  But Presley debunked that rumor in a 1957 press conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada:

           It got started from a rumor.  It was an article

           that came out that I collected stuffed animals,

           and I was swamped with 'em.  Actually, I

           mean naturally I keep 'em because the 

           people give 'em to me, but I never even

           thought of collecting stuffed animals in my

           life...I have 'em all over the walls and in the

           basement and in the chairs, and everywhere

           else.

"(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear" was a strong follow-up, peaking at #1 on all major U.S. charts and also gliding to #1 in Canada.

Presley recorded the soundtrack to Loving You, his second movie, January 15-18 at Paramount Pictures Scoring Stage and on January 12, 13, 19 and February 23-24 at Radio Recorders in Hollywood.  Film producer Hal Wallis liked "Teddy Bear" (above) so much that he insisted it be in the movie.  

 

The "Loving You" Soundtrack was released in July and became Presley's third consecutive #1 album (#1 for 10 weeks) and went Gold.  The title song, another Leiber/Stoller tune, was the flip to "Teddy Bear" and climbed to #20.

"Mean Woman Blues", also from the movie, was released in July of 1957 and got a lot of play in jukeboxes across the country.

Presley's early success was mind-blowing, and we have a lot more of his greats coming up in Part Four, exclusively on Inside The Rock Era!