CHAPTER 17 | ROCK AND ROLL 429
Phillips knew immediately that something important had happened in Elvis’s
fi rst recording session. In 1959 he told a Memphis reporter that in the early 1950s
“you could sell a half million copies of a rhythm and blues record” but no more,
because the appeal to white youngsters was limited. “They liked the music, but
they weren’t sure whether they ought to like it or not. So I got to thinking how
many records you could sell if you could fi nd white performers who could play
and sing in this same exciting, alive way.” In Elvis Presley, Phillips found what
he had been looking for: a white singer who discovered in a black performing
style a catalyst for an exciting, charismatic style all his own. Presley’s “That’s All
Right” was the fi rst in a string of 1950s covers: rerecordings by white artists of
songs originally recorded by black artists. Whether aping the original or altering
it more creatively, cover records generally had greater appeal to white audiences,
and therefore sold more copies, than the originals.
Considering the obscurity in which his career began, Presley rose to fame
with amazing speed. The arena open to a singer of his background was that of
country music, so after his fi rst Sun recording was released, he began touring the
South with a troupe headlined by country star Hank Snow. Radio appearances
on the Grand Ole Opry and the Louisiana Hayride were also sandwiched in. The role
of professional performer encouraged the shy young man to shed some of his
natural inhibitions, unleashing a magnetic, sexually charged onstage presence
that worked young audiences into a state of frenzy. But if Presley’s showmanship
seemed to spring from raw talent and an innate grasp of audience psychology,
he also showed an interest in self-improvement. His fi rst manager recalled a day
in 1955 when he dropped by the Presley house and found the singer “with a stack
of records—Ray Charles and Big Joe Turner and Big Mama Thornton and Arthur
‘Big Boy’ Crudup—that he studied with all the avidity that other kids focused on
their college exams.” Presley soon left Sam Phillips’s Sun Records for a major
label, RCA Victor, and found a new manager. Billboard’s comment on the move
recognizes Elvis’s challenge to the industry’s marketing structure: “[Although]
Sun has sold Presley primarily as a c.&w. [country and western] artist, Victor
plans to push his platters [records] in all three fi elds—pop, r.&b., and c.&w.”
Another factor in Presley’s rise to fame was his presence on national television.
In Januar y 1956 he made the fi rst of several appearances on Stage Show, a CBS vari-
ety program featuring the swing musicians Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey and their
big band. Elvis raced onto the stage and swung into a performance of Joe Turner’s
“Shake, Rattle, and Roll,” complete with acrobatic gyrations and bursting with the
sheer joy of performing. By the time he made his last appearance on Stage Show
in March, he was riding a wave that carried him to Holly wood for a screen test.
Records, radio, television, and press coverage had made a national star of a young
man who, less than two years earlier, had discovered his musical persona in a
recording studio in Memphis. At twenty-one, Presley was the hottest act in show
business, though what kind of an act was still open to debate.RACE, GENRE, AND ROCK AND ROLL
Elvis Presley rose to stardom on the tide of a cultural phenomenon so strong that
the music would probably have happened without him. His main achievement
was the huge audience of teenagers that he captured for rock and roll almost
overnight.cover recordsElvis on stageElvis on television172028_17_412-439_r3_sd.indd 429 23/01/13 10:58 AM