His First Commercial Record Revolutionized The American Experience

For the first nineteen years of his life - he was born 1935 - Elvis Presley was raised with the sound of gospel music on the radio, at church, and in performance. He also heard gospel, jazz, and blues music on "race records," recordings by African Americans for African Americans. By the 1940s the racial division in music had narrowed to the point that such recordings were defined as rhythm and blues in order to appeal to a wider market. Pressley would owe much of his fame to this emerging sound as is apparent in this recording by Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Released in 1944, many music historians consider Tharpe's Strange Things Happening Every Day to be the first rock and roll record.

Presley in a promotional still from the film, Jailhouse Rock, 1957

Elvis Presley released his first commercial single record on this day in 1954. On the 60th anniversary of the release, Michael Hann, writing in The Guardian, had this to say about the event:

The yellow label didn't exactly signify an earthquake. Above the cut-out centre of the 7in single ran the word Sun, a drop shadow beneath it. Behind the text lay rays of sunshine, and around the perimeter of the label were staves of music. The bottom half of the label contained the important information: the song title, That's All Right; the writer, Arthur Crudup; and the artist, Elvis Presley, with Scotty and Bill credited in smaller lettering. And at the very bottom, proudly, in yellow text reversed out of black, was the place of origin: Memphis, Tennessee.

Nevertheless, that disc, which arrived in Tennessee record shops 60 years ago, on Monday 19 July, 1954, did cause an earthquake. It was the first commercial release by Elvis Presley, the first tremors of a sensation that would soon transform popular culture and create the modern cult of celebrity. "You'd had teenage music before," says the pop historian Jon Savage, "but Elvis was the first to make music as if it was by teenagers, rather than for teenagers. And he was still a teenager when he made that record. After that, the industry realised they had to make music teenagers liked."

 

Read the rest of the article at this link. And below you can listen to the early sounds of that new music called Rock and Roll.

 

A little primitive...has a catchy beat...guy has a good voice. I've heard this music for years but he may have some potential.



Sources

Photo:
wikipedia,com, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc., photo, Library of Congress

Text:
thegaurdian.com