In 18 months, Sun Records released five Elvis singles. The most successful of which was the combination of “I Forgot to Remember to Forget” and “Mystery Train”, the final single, recorded in 1955 and which topped the US Country Chart in February 1956. It was Elvis’s first number one single on a national chart.
By then, Elvis had already been signed by Colonel Tom Parker, a promoter of country package shows, featuring Hank Snow. Colonel Parker had introduced Elvis to his shows, and after seeing Elvis blow away all the established country acts of the day when he took the stage, Parker moved to sign Elvis to an exclusive management contract. Elvis signed the contract with Colonel Parker on August 15, 1955, with his parents’ approval, as he was not yet twenty-one. Vernon was easily persuaded, but Gladys had taken some time to agree, as she did not totally trust the Colonel.
Colonel Parker had his sights set on RCA Victor and helped negotiate a deal with them to pay a record breaking $35,000 to Sun Records. Although Elvis was reluctant to leave Sam, Sun Records did not have the capacity to meet demand for Elvis records or distribute them internationally. Sam would later explain that he had struggled financially for so long that, when the opportunity arose, he set a price he did not think would be accepted, which would allow him to keep Elvis. However, when RCA did accept, Sam was not in a position to refuse. The deal also resulted in a $5,000 bonus for Elvis. Today, the deal would total around $500,000. The contract between RCA, Sun and Elvis was signed on November 20, 1955, with Sam advising Elvis, “Don’t let them tell you what to do, don’t lose your individuality.” Sam Phillips would go on to help launch the careers of Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Roy Orbison. Sam and Elvis remained friends. On a visit to the studio on December 4, 1956, after finding worldwide success with RCA, Elvis met up with Johnny, Carl, and Jerry Lee. The four of them had an impromptu jam session, and Sam turned on the tape machine. The material was released in 1981 as the “Million Dollar Quartet”. More tracks were discovered later, resulting in the release of “The Complete Million Dollar Session” in 1990. The meeting is sometimes referred to as the “Mount Rushmore of Rock ‘n’ Roll”. Sam would attend Elvis’s opening night concert at the International Hotel in 1969.
Elvis first entered RCA Studio B in Nashville on January 10, 1956, two days after his twenty-first birthday. “Heartbreak Hotel” was pre-selected for recording. It was a song written by Mae Boren Axton and Tommy Durden. It was a suicide song inspired by a newspaper article that Durden had read reporting the death of an unidentified man who jumped from a hotel window, leaving a note saying, “I walk a lonely street.”
Elvis recorded the song with his band, which by now included drummer D.J. Fontana alongside Scotty and Bill. RCA session musician and guitar legend Chet Atkins also joined, along with piano player Floyd Cramer.
RCA did have trouble recording the song. They wanted to capture the echo sound that Sun Records was famous for, but with the studio being much larger, it proved difficult, and they were unaware that Sam Phillips had used two tape recorders with a slight time delay to get the echo. The next problem was Elvis’ tendency to move around when singing. The solution, as suggested by Elvis, was to position his microphone in a hallway. The official RCA producer, Steve Sholes, believed Elvis knew what he was doing and left him to do it his way.
“Heartbreak Hotel” was paired with the ballad “I Was the One” and released as a single on January 27, 1956. The single topped the Billboard 100 singles chart for seven weeks, the Country chart for 17 weeks, and reached number 3 on the R&B chart. No previous recording had ever achieved such universal success. The single also introduced Elvis to a worldwide audience, including in the United Kingdom, where it peaked at number 2. British singer Cliff Richard would later say it inspired a generation of future musicians; no one had heard anything like it before.
It was Elvis’s first million-selling single in the US, earning his first gold record and eventually certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Elvis last performed “Heartbreak Hotel” at the Baltimore Civic Centre on May 29, 1977.
