Elvis Presley’s Birthday — 8 January

Elvis Aron Presley was born January 8, 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi. His identical twin brother was delivered 35 minutes before him, stillborn. In high school, Presley received a C in music. When his music teacher told him he had no aptitude for singing, he brought in his guitar and sang recent hit, “Keep Them Cold Icy Fingers Off Me”. A classmate later recalled that the teacher agreed that Elvis was right when he said that she didn’t appreciate his kind of singing.

In August 1953, Presley paid for a few minutes of studio time to record a two-sided acetate as a gift for his mother, with slight hopes of being discovered. In 1954, Presley cut a second acetate, but nothing came of it. Not long after, he failed an audition for a local vocal quartet and professional band, both telling him he had no future in singing.

Sam Phillips, Sun Records producer who had taken an interest when Elvis recorded his first acetate, was looking for a white man who could bring black music to a broader audience. He brought Elvis in to record Jimmy Sweeney’s ballad “Without You”, but he was unable to do it justice. Phillips asked Presley to sing as many numbers as he knew and was affected enough to invite two musicians to work something up for a session. In a moment of unwinding and messing around, Presley took his guitar and started to play a blues song while jumping and dancing. Bassist, Bill Black and guitarist Winfield “Scotty” Moore, started dancing and playing with him. Phillips, who was starting to leave, stuck his head back in and asked,

“What are you doing?” “We don’t know!”  “Well back up… and do it again.” Phillips began taping their session. This was the sound he was looking for.