Posted on 06/05/2005 5:47:50 AM PDT by kellynla
On this day in 1956, Elvis introduces his new single, "Hound Dog," on The Milton Berle Show. Elvis scandalized the audience with his suggestive hip gyrations. In the media frenzy that followed, other show hosts, including Ed Sullivan, denounced his performance. Sullivan swore he would never invite Presley on his own show, but that autumn he booked Elvis for three shows.
Presley had been recording since 1954. While working at a Memphis electrical shop, the 18-year-old Presley dropped by a Memphis recording studio on a lunch break and paid $4 to record two songs for his mother's birthday. The office assistant at Sun Records, where he made the recording, was so impressed that she brought the record to studio executive Sam Phillips, who signed him in 1954. His first recording, "That's All Right," hit No. 4 on the country-western charts in Memphis.
Elvis soon began performing regularly on radio programs and made his television debut on a Memphis show in March 1955. That September, he had his first No. 1 country record--a rendition of Junior Parker's "Mystery Train." RCA purchased Presley's contract, and he made his first RCA recordings in Nashville in 1956, including "I Got a Woman," "Heartbreak Hotel," and "I Was the One." On January 28, 1956, television audiences met Presley on the variety program Stage Show. He appeared on several more programs before filming his first movie, Love Me Tender (1956), which took just three days to earn back its $1 million cost. All of Presley's singles that year went gold. Elvis' controversial dancing, with his trademark hip gyrations, upset parents but delighted teenage girls. During an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956, cameras showed him only from the waist up.
(Excerpt) Read more at historychannel.com ...
Well, that hair sure could've used a good dose of shampoo.
Nine years after his death [on August 16, 1977], he was one of the first 10 people inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. During his life, he had scored 94 gold singles and more than 40 gold LPs.
And in other news...
On this day in 1993 Conway Twitty dies
Singer Conway Twitty dies of an aneurysm at age 59, as he is returning to Nashville after a performance in Branson, Missouri. Twitty passed up a chance to become a professional baseball player with the Philadelphia Phillies and instead became a musician, pioneering the country rock genre. During more than 30 years of performing, Twitty scored 35 No. 1 singles on the country charts, more than any other solo artist.
I had friends that lived across the street from him. I am not so sure that the neighborhood was thrilled to have him.
He was the king of rock-n-roll, an icon to millions, loved by all, and they buried him in the back yard just like a hamster.
Question:
I cannot remember Jack Webb's line in The DI that alludes to Elvis.
Have tried to find a screenplay transcript of The DI on the 'Net--to no avail...
Something about (paraphrased) "...and we all know who has long sideburns and plays a guita, don't we?..."
That line, I think, tends to indicate the prevailing attitude of the times (1956-57), with the obvious exception of the younger (then) 17-18 year old Marine boots. Elvis was the epitome of the new younger generation and all that was going wrong w/America, etc.
If only we really knew then....
I did the same thing to my dogs (after they died, of course).
"(after they died, of course)."
Not before? LOL
As historically significant as The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show in '64 ...If it weren't for Elvis , Little Richard , Chet Atkins , Fats Domino ...The Beatles would not have become The Beatles ...
BTW ...on June 5, 1956 , I was four days away from becoming 4 years old !
well I was only 7 years old at the time, Gunny.
So I didn't quite have a pulse on the prevailing social opinion. LOL
But I do remember that the teenagers in Memphis loved him but the parents HATED him. LOL
and George Klein played his music on WHBQ every fifteen minutes(they were classmates at Humes High) and I'm sure Klein was on the Colonel's payroll. :-]
Precisely my point.
Well, in case I forget on June 9 -- HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JUNIOR! (I was born in 1950.)
FYI, now you're 4 days away from being older than dirt ! ;^)
Greatest Vocalist of the Pop/Rock era...IMO of course.
Anyone who thinks of 70s Elvis as 'fat Elvis' should check out the concert film "Elvis: That's the Way it Is"
That is Elvis in his prime.
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