20/07/2022
It wasn't the start of Rock and Roll by any means, but it was the start of "Big Time" Rock and Roll…
On July 18, 1953, an eighteen-year-old truck driver went to the Memphis Recording Service at 706 Union Avenue to record a novelty 45 for his mother's birthday.
The young truck driver was Elvis Presley. He made two recordings, "My Happiness" and "That's When Your Heartaches Begin," saying they were a birthday present for his Mother. Elvis later admitted that he made the records to see "what I sounded like," as his mother's birthday was actually in April.
It cost Elvis $3.98 to do the recordings. Marion Keisker, the studio owner Sam Phillips assistant, liked what she heard and took down Presley's information and notes that he is a "good ballad singer."
As she recalled years later: "I said, 'What kind of singer are you?' He said, 'I sing all kinds.' I said, 'Who do you sound like?' He said, 'I don't sound like nobody.'"
And so it began, 69 years ago today.
This really is an important date in the overall scheme of this stuff.
