Elvis Presley's Sun recordings

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Elvis Presley's time with Sun is a clear unit: Elvis starts, shyly, singing and discovers his talents, both in the studio and on stage. The recordings are supervised by Sam Phillips, a very professional producer before this word was coined. The location is Memphis, a true melting pot of all sorts of music: both black music (blues, rhythm & blues, gospel) and white music (country & western, hillbilly). The recordings do clearly reflect these influences.

As of 2002, Elvis Presley's SUN recordings are inducted in the US Congress's National Recording Registry. [1]

Contents 1 History 1.1 Recordings 2 The 23 titles 2.1 My Happiness (private) 2.2 That's When Your Heartaches Begin (private) 2.3 I'll Never Stand In Your Way (Demo) 2.4 It Wouldn't Be The Same Without You (Demo) 2.5 I Love You Because 2.6 That's All Right 2.7 Harbor Lights 2.8 Blue Moon of Kentucky 2.9 Blue Moon 2.10 Tomorrow Night 2.11 I'll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin') 2.12 Satisfied 2.13 I Don't Care If The Sun Don't Shine 2.14 Just Because 2.15 Good Rockin' Tonight 2.16 Milkcow Blues Boogie 2.17 You're a Heartbreaker 2.18 Baby Let's Play House 2.19 I Got a Woman 2.20 Trying To Get To You 2.21 I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone 2.22 I Forgot To Remember To Forget 2.23 Mystery Train 2.24 When It Rains It Really Pours 2.25 The Million Dollar Quartet (session recordings) 3 Releases 3.1 Sun Singles 3.2 Album Elvis Presley (1956) 3.3 The Sun Sessions (1976) 3.4 The Complete Sun Sessions [sic] (1987) 3.5 The Million Dollar Quartet (1989) 3.6 The King of Rock & Roll, The Complete '50s Masters (1992) 3.7 Sunrise (1999) 3.8 Elvis at Sun (2004) 4 See also 5 External link

[edit] History

[edit] Recordings

Elvis started singing a single just for the fun in the summer of 1953. Starting a year later, from July 5, 1954, he recorded 20 titles to be published, 18 of them have survived and two tapes are lost. And a year after he left for RCA, he revisited the same studio to have a spontaneous session with Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis to sing whatever they'd like. This meeting has been recorded, and is dubbed The Million Dollar Quartet.

After Elvis signed with RCA, in November, 1955, his musical environment changed drastically. He started recording in Nashville, in a completely different musical atmosphere. From January of 1956, until he was drafted, in March of 1958, a series of different producers were at hand, but he was actually conducting those sessions himself. He also had a new manager (Colonel Tom Parker) and, with the exception of songs he had to sing in his first four movies (songs constructed, not written, for him), he continued to definitively be on top of every session, choosing himself every song he recorded. The existing Sun-tapes moved contractually with him to RCA.

Many of Elvis' 1956 RCA recordings stand the test of time, and remain as revolutionary, sound wise, as anything he recorded at SUN. In that year alone, his renditions of wild rockers like "My Baby Left Me", "Lawdy Miss Clawdy", "Shake Rattle and Roll", "Blue Suede Shoes", "Reddy Teddy", "Rip It Up", "So Glad You're Mine", "Long Tall Sally", "Tutti Frutti" and "Hound Dog", as well as "One-Sided Love Affair", "I Got a Woman" and "Money Honey", showed exactly the same vigour, and inventiveness, as well as his penchant for mixing up R&B, C&W to produce rockabilly, as had been the case during his time at SUN. The main titles he recorded with Sun Records stayed a staple of his live repertoire throughout 1956 and well into 1957.

[edit] The 23 titles

These are the 23 titles, in order of their recording date. A take means a second (or higher) version; the best take would be used to create a mastertape to be published.

[edit] My Happiness (private)

Peterson - Bergantine
Recorded: July 18, 1953 (private)

[edit] That's When Your Heartaches Begin (private)

Raskin - Brown - Fisher
Recorded: July 18, 1953 (private)

[edit] I'll Never Stand In Your Way (Demo)

Hy Heath
Recorded: January 4, 1954

[edit] It Wouldn't Be The Same Without You (Demo)

Fred Rose
Recorded: January 4, 1954

[edit] I Love You Because

L. Payne. Original probably: Leon Payne (1949, Capitol); Eddie Fisher (1950, RCA Victor)
Recorded: July 5-6, 1954 (session 1)

[edit] That's All Right

A. Crudup. Original Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup (1947, RCA Victor). Crudup's original title is: "That's All Right (Mama)"; on the Sun label, and many later releases, '(Mama)' is omitted: "That's All Right".
Recorded: July 5-6, 1954 (session 1)

Elvis's recording of "That's All Right (Mama)" can be considered to be the beginning of rock and roll, but there are more first rock and roll records.

[edit] Harbor Lights

H. Williams - J. Kennedy. Original: possibly Harry Owens and His Royal Hawaiians
Recorded: July 5-6, 1954 (session 1)

[edit] Blue Moon of Kentucky

Bill Monroe
Original: Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys (1947, Columbia)
Recorded: July, 5-6, 1954 (session 1)

[edit] Blue Moon

R. Rodgers - L. Hart.
Original: Connee Boswell (Capital, 1934)
Recorded: August 19, 1954 (session 2)

[edit] Tomorrow Night

S. Coslow - W. Grosz. Original: Lonnie Johnson (1948, King)
Recorded: September 1954 (session 3)

[edit] I'll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin')

J. Wakely. Original: Jimmy Wakely (1943, Decca)
Recorded: September 10, 1954 (session 3)

[edit] Satisfied

Recorded: September 1954 (session 3) (tape lost)

[edit] I Don't Care If The Sun Don't Shine

M. David. Original probably Patti Page (1950, Mercury)
Recorded: September 10, 1954 (session 3)

[edit] Just Because

B. Shelton - J. Shelton - S. Robin. Original: The Shelton Brothers (1942, Decca)
Recorded: September 10, 1954 (session 3)

[edit] Good Rockin' Tonight

R. Brown. Original Roy Brown (1947, DeLuxe); also Wynonie "Mr. Blues" Harris (1948, King)
Recorded: September 11, 1954 (session 3)

[edit] Milkcow Blues Boogie

K. Arnold. Original probably Kokomo Arnold (1935, Decca)
Other releases: Johnny Lee Wills (1941, Decca); Moon Mullican (1946, King); Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys als "Brain Cloudy Blues", (1946, Columbia)
Recorded: December 8, 1954 (session 4)

[edit] You're a Heartbreaker

J. Sallee
Recorded: December 8, 1954 (session 4)

[edit] Baby Let's Play House

A. Gunter. Original: Arthur Gunter (1954, Excello)
Recorded: February 11, 1955 (session 5)

[edit] I Got a Woman

Ray Charles
Recorded: February 5, 1955 (session 5) (tape lost)

[edit] Trying To Get To You

McCoy - Singleton. Original: The Eagles (1954, Mercury)
Recorded: February 11, 1955 (session 5, not published) and July 11, 1955 (session 7, published)

[edit] I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone

S. Kesler - W. Taylor. Original: Stan Kesler & Bill Taylor
Recorded: March 10, 1955 (session 6)

[edit] I Forgot To Remember To Forget

S. Kesler - C. Feathers. Original: Stan Kesler & Charlie Feathers
Recorded: July 11, 1955 (session 7)

[edit] Mystery Train

H. Parker - S. Phillips. Original: Little Junior's Blue Flames (1953, Sun)
Recorded: July 11, 1955 (session 7)

[edit] When It Rains It Really Pours

W. Emerson. Original: Billy "the Kid" Emerson (1955, Sun)
Recorded: August or October 1955 (session 8)

[edit] The Million Dollar Quartet (session recordings)

On December 4, 1956, a year after Elvis had left Sun for RCA, he revisited Sun Studio. The afternoon became a jam session with Carl Perkins (then already famous for his Blue Suede Shoes), Jerry Lee Lewis (relatively unknown at the time), and Johnny Cash (reportedly not heard on the tapes, while later he claimed to be included). The taping was largely unintended by the quartet; they were just singing the songs they had in mind. About 40 titles are recorded, most of them incomplete. Elvis is caught telling about a singer he saw in Las Vegas (probably Jackie Wilson), doing his version of Don't Be Cruel, and they're enjoying Brown Eyed Handsome Man from Chuck Berry.
Recorded: December 4, 1956.

[edit] Releases

Most of the tapes, including the private single, the Million Dollar Quartet and alternate takes have been released.

[edit] Sun Singles

Ten songs, making five singles, have been released on the Sun-label:

• Sun 209 July 19, 1954: That's All Right / Blue Moon of Kentucky
• Sun 210 September 25, 1954: Good Rockin' Tonight / I Don't Care If The Sun Don't Shine
• Sun 215 December 28, 1954: Milkcow Blues Boogie / You're A Heartbreaker
• Sun 217 April 10, 1955: Baby Let's Play House / I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone
• Sun 223 August 6, 1955: I Forgot To Remember To Forget / Mystery Train

After signing with RCA, the same songs, in the same combination, were re-released by RCA. (December 1955). The songs were available on 78 and 45 rpm, which explains the two ordering-numbers 20/47:

• RCA 20/47-6375: Sun 223
• RCA 20/47-6380: Sun 209
• RCA 20/47-6381: Sun 210
• RCA 20/47-6382: Sun 215
• RCA 20/47-6383: Sun 217

[edit] Album Elvis Presley (1956)

On January 27, 1956, the first RCA single, "Heartbreak Hotel" b/w "I Was the One" was released, giving Elvis a nationwide breakthrough. His reputation as a performer on stage was already growing in the same dimensions.

On March 23, 1956. the first album, Elvis Presley was released (RCA 1254). At that moment "Heartbreak Hotel" was climbing the lists, but albums were seen as less important than singles. "Heartbreak Hotel" is not on this album. RCA, however, put five unreleased Sun recordings on this album:

• "I Love You Because"
• "Just Because"
• "Trying to Get to You"
• "I'll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin')"
• "Blue Moon"

[edit] The Sun Sessions (1976)

On March 22, 1976, the album The Sun Sessions was released, with fifteen out of the nineteen available Sun titles:

• "That's All Right"
• "Blue Moon of Kentucky"
• "I Don't Care if the Sun Don't Shine"
• "Good Rockin Tonight"
• "Milkcow Blues Boogie"
• "You're a Heartbreaker"
• "I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone"
• "Baby Let's Play House"
• "Mystery Train"
• "I Forgot to Remember to Forget"
• "I'll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin')"
• "Trying to Get to You"
• "I Love You Because"
• "Just Because"
• "I Love You Because" (second version)

Missing:

• "Harbor Lights"
• "Tomorrow Night"
• "When It Rains It Really Pours"
• "Satisfied"
• "I Got a Woman"
• "It Wouldn't Be the Same Without You"
• "I'll Never Stand in Your Way"
• "My Happiness"

[edit] The Complete Sun Sessions [sic] (1987)

Although the title suggests more, only 17 out of the 20 songs are here. The album does contain several takes from "I Love You Because", and "I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone".
Missing:

• The private recordings
• "Satisfied"
• "It Wouldn't Be the Same Without You"
• "I'll Never Stand in Your Way"
• "My Happiness"

[edit] The Million Dollar Quartet (1989)

The recordings have been released in 1989 as a CD, titled, Elvis Presley - The Million Dollar Quartet (RCA CD # 2023-2-R),

[edit] The King of Rock & Roll, The Complete '50s Masters (1992)

Nearly every song Elvis recorded at Sun is present here (although "That's When Your Heartaches Begin" is hidden on CD number 5; the rest is on CD 1).
Missing: "Satisfied" (apparently lost forever), all but one track from the Million Dollar Quartet session, as well as "It Wouldn't be the Same Without You" and "I'll Never Stand in Your Way." The latter two songs appear on yet another (and as complete as possible) Sun sessions CD titled "Sunrise."

[edit] Sunrise (1999)

Another delving in the Sun Records vaults is the most complete collection of Elvis' recordings from that time. All the masters, some demos and alternate recordings, and a few early live-recorded tracks.

[edit] Elvis at Sun (2004)

The current (as of mid-2006) version the Sun recordings. Contains the five singles ("That's All Right"/"Blue Moon of Kentucky";"Good Rockin' Tonight"/"I Don't Care If the Sun Don't Shine";"Milkcow Blues Boogie"/"You're a Heartbreaker;"Baby Let's Play House"/"I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone";"I Forgot to Remember to Forget"/"Mystery Train") plus "Harbor Lights," "I Love You Because" (alternate take 2), "Tomorrow Night," "I'll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin')," "Just Because," "I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone" (slow version), "Trying to Get to You" and "When It Rains It Really Pours."
Missing:

• Private recordings and demos:
  • "My Happiness"
  • "That's When Your Heartaches Begin"
  • "I'll Never Stand in Your Way"
  • "It Wouldn't Be the Same Without You"
• "I Love You Because" (first version) (available on Elvis Presley)
• The lost "Satisfied"
• "I Got a Woman" (Re-recording available on Elvis Presley)

[edit] See also

Million Dollar Quartet

[edit] External link

• As of 2002, Elvis Presley's SUN recordings are inducted in the US Congress's National Recording Registry: http://www.loc.gov/rr/record/nrpb/nrpb-masterlist.html (no. 102)