4 Chapter 3 Sun Studios

Chapter 3 Sun Studios Elvis went to Sun Studios with his beat-up guitar. The song he chose to sing, "My Happiness," had been popular a few years earlier. It was a soft ballad that his mother loved. A nice woman named Marion Keisker ran Sun Records with Mr. Phillips. From behind her desk, she asked Elvis what kind of music he sang. "I sing all kinds," he told her. "Who do you sound like?" she asked. "I don't sound like nobody," Elvis told her.

Elvis recorded "My Happiness." Mrs. Keisker printed his name out and pasted it onto the record. Elvis left. But he came back. In fact, Elvis kept on visiting Sun. Mr. Phillips was always too busy to talk with him. Mrs. Keisker, though, loved to chat with the handsome boy who had the voice of an angel. Elvis had graduated high school by this time. Like a lot of people he knew, he didn't plan on going to college. Instead, he got a job at a machine shop. And he sang. Elvis kept going to all-night gospel sing alongs. He listened to the radio so he could learn how to play more songs. One night, Elvis heard about a band looking for a singer. This could be his big break! He

got a special hair-cut and wore a pink shirt for the tryout. Elvis sang only two songs. A friend of his watched. Afterward, he told Elvis, "You're never going to make it as a singer." If only he knew. One day in the summer of 1954, Mrs. Keisker called Elvis. Mr. Phillips had a song that might be right for Elvis. Could Elvis get down to the studio that afternoon? Of course he could! But it turned out that Mr. Phillips didn't like how Elvis sang the song. He asked Elvis if he knew any others. Sure, he did. Elvis sang every song he knew. Then he sang parts of songs he knew. Mr. Phillips stopped recording and just sat in the recording booth, listening. He knew this kid didn't have experience. He knew Elvis needed training. But Mr. Phillips also knew that Elvis had something very special. Mr. Phillips told a local guitar player about Elvis. His name was Scotty Moore, and he wanted to hear Elvis. But when he called, Elvis wasn't home. That didn't stop Gladys. She rushed to the movie theater where Elvis was, to tell him the news.

A few days later, Elvis went over to Scotty's house. Scotty thought the boy looked a little crazy. Elvis was wearing pink pants, white shoes, and a black shirt. And his hair was greased up in a style called a "ducktail." Scotty introduced Elvis to his friend Bill, who played bass guitar. A regular guitar has six strings. A bass has only four and makes a deeper sound. Again, Elvis played every song he knew. Most of the songs were slow ballads. Neither Scotty nor Bill

was impressed. But they agreed to go into the studio with Elvis the next night. At Sun Studios, with the other two musicians, Elvis sang "I Love You Because" every which way. Sometimes he let his voice go high, sometimes low. Sometimes he whistled during it, sometimes he didn't. Unfortunately, Mr. Phillips wasn't happy with any of these recordings. He told everybody to take a break. The two guitar players got sodas. But Elvis kept fiddling with his guitar. All of a sudden, he started playing an old blues song. It was called "That's All Right [Mama]." As he sang, Elvis started dancing and jumping around the room. The guitarists heard Elvis and liked what he was doing. They put down their sodas and started to play along. At last, Mr. Phillips was hearing something he liked. When everybody in the studio listened to the recording, they were amazed. It was loud and electric and different. Mr. Phillips called the local radio station and asked the disc jockey to put on the record. When "That's All Right [Mama]" played the next night, Gladys and Vernon were standing close to the radio so they could really listen to their son. Others

must have really listened, too, because more than one hundred people called the radio station to play that song again.