This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
And legends is what you're gonna get from me, the legends that formed a legend, as today I'll explore the music that inspired Elvis. During his early years Elvis did more covers of Rhythm & Blues songs than pop or country, and this way he did his great contribution to the popularization of Rhythm 'n Blues, that led to the rise of Rock 'n Roll. But let's not waste time talking, and start with what became Elvis' very first record. He covered a blues from 1946 of a pretty unknown delta blues singer, Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup. I'll play Elvis' version from 1954 later. Here is Arthur Crudup with That's alright.
01 - Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup - That's All Right
Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup with That's Alright, the inspiration for Elvis Presley's first song ever recorded. Now Crudup never rose to fame anywhere like Elvis did. Actually, during his life he lost all of the little money he had to legal battles on the copyrights of his songs that had become blues or rock 'n roll standards - this wasn't the only song of him that Elvis covered. Next to singing Crudup had to get his income from working in the fields and bootlegging - he provided the moonshine to the drinking establishments where he also sang.
Elvis' second single was the Blue Moon of Kentucky, a country waltz, but his third was a great Rhythm & Blues rocker that he covered from Roy Brown, who sang it in 1947. It's called Good Rocking Tonight and this is Roy Brown.
02 - Roy Brown - Good Rockin' Tonight
03 - Kokomo Arnold - Milk Cow Blues
Kokomo Arnold with the Milk Cow Blues and this song is from as long back as 1934. It may well be that Elvis hadn't heard this version but a cover from 1941 by Johnnie Lee Wills and his boys, as his arrangement is closer to this version than Kokomo Arnold's. But anyway Elvis had covered a pretty old blues song with that.
For his next Rhythm & Blues cover Elvis didn't go back that far. It was in 1954 that Arthur Gunter recorded Baby Let's Play House for Excello Records and one year later Elvis covered it in Memphis for Sun Records. And Gunter's may have been a mid-fifties recording, the use of acoustical guitar makes it sound like an old Delta blues. Let's hear it - Baby Let's Play House.
04 - Arthur Gunter - Baby Let's Play House
05 - Little Junior Parker - Mystery Train
Little Junior Parker with the Mystery Train, recorded in 1953 for Sun records, the same label where Elvis began, and a song based on a blues from 1930 that was recorded by an American folk group called Carter Family, the worried man blues, and that itself has its roots in a celtic ballad. As for Junior Parker's version, no-one knows what the word mystery in the title does as it doesn't come up anywhere in the lyrics, but I guess that is what it's a mystery for. Elvis recorded the song in 1955 as the flip of I Forgot to Remember to Forget, also at Sun records.
Next up another song of Arthur Crudup - My baby left me. Elvis recorded it in 1956 as the flip of I Want You, I Need You, I Love You, but Crudup's version was from the late forties. Here is My baby left me.
06 - Arthur Crudup - My Baby Left Me
07 - Big Mama Thornton - Hound Dog
Hound Dog in what I think is its best version ever - Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton who recorded it in 1952 for the Peacock label and it was written by the illustrous songwriter duo Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, two guys from Jewish families who had very well understood that the idiom of the Rhythm & Blues had the potential to cross over to the white audience, and therefore they where a very important factor in the rise of Rock 'n Roll.
Hound Dog immediately got the attention of country singers and in 1953 there were six country covers of it, from Billy Star, Tommy Duncan, Eddie Hazelwood, Jack Turner, Cleve Jackson and Betsy Gay. In 1955 a reworked version with less harsh lyrics was recorded by Freddie Bell and the Bellboys for the Teen label, and while performing in Vegas, it drew the attention of Elvis who also was in town to perform.
Elvis' version was shown on TV on June, 5, 1956 on the Milton Berle show and his energetic, sexual and over the top appearance was the start of the national controversy on him, and on Rock 'n Roll in general, that started sweeping the nation in full swing. Next up a true classic of Rock 'n Roll that was also covered by Elvis, here in it's original version, Little Richard with Tutti Frutti.
08 - Little Richard - Tutti Fruttimp3
09 - Ray Charles - I got a woman
Ray Charles with I Got A Woman, from the end of 1954. The song was based on a gospel of the Southern Tones, It Must Be Jesus. Now Rhythm & Blues being based on gospel sounds wasn't anything new but someway Ray Charles' song got attention and started, or strengthened, a controversy on using such holy music for the blues. Many others say that Ray Charles started soul music with this song, a theory that I doubt very much because, as I said, mixing in gospel elements in Rhythm & Blues was nothing new. Now what has that to do with Elvis - well he did this song in 1956.
We'll stay in 1956 when Elvis released a song Trying to Get To You on his first album. He had recorded it in 1955 twice, first with Sam Phillips for Sun records but that version wasn't released until 1999, way after his death, and a second recording for his new label, RCA. The song was a cover of a 1954 Rhythm & Blues vocal group the Eagles. So let's hear that one now.
10 - Eagles - Tryin' To Get To You
11 - Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters - Money Honey
Money Honey, that was Clyde McPhatter and his Drifters, from 1953 and Elvis recorded it in 1956 for his first album. Next up is Big Joe Turner with Shake Rattle and Roll that nowadays is considered a rock 'n roll classic. It wasn't Elvis who brought it to the top of the charts, that was Bill Haley. Elvis' recorded it twice, one for Sun in 1955 that went unreleased until the nineties and one for RCA in 1956, and that one never hit the charts. Here is the original of Big Joe Turner.
12 - Big Joe Turner - Shake, Rattle & Roll
13 - Lloyd Price - Lawdy Miss Clawdy
Lawdy Miss Clawdy was Lloyd Price's big hit of 1952 that hit number one on the Rhythm & Blues chart for seven weeks. Elvis recorded it in 1956, and he released just before his smash hit Love me tender. After that came another cover, Love me, that wasn't released as a single to avoid confusion with Love Me Tender but it came out on an EP and an album. It was based on a Leiber and Stoller ballad that was first recorded by Willy & Ruth in 1954 on Spark 105 that one you're gonna hear now.
14 - Willy & Ruth - Love Me
15 - Smiley Lewis - One Night
Smiley Lewis with One night of sin from 1956 and that was the example for One night with you that Elvis recorded in '58. Elvis had altered the lyrics somewhat to make it more acceptable for the general audience and the song went number 4 on the pop list and number 1 in the British hitparade.
One year earlier Elvis had recorded an album for Christmas and that contained a great gospel that had it's origin in 1937 when it was sung by Mahalia Jackson. There had been numerous covers of it and especially one from 1951 had been a big hit on the Country charts, that was for Red Foley and the Sunshine Boys. I will play you a version of the great Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Here is Peace in the Valley.
16 - Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Peace In The Valley
(background Elvis - Peace In The Valley) and that's how Elvis' version sounded in 1958. Peace in the Valley and Elvis was backed up by the Jordanaires, a white gospel quartet that had a history going back as far as the early forties.
Now of course a special that shows the early Rhythm & Blues influences of Elvis cannot go with a song of the King of Rock 'n Roll himself. So we go back to 1954 when a truck driver stepped into the studio of Sun Records in Memphis, TN to record his first song. Label owner Sam Phillips had got the idea that if he could record a white guy singing Rhythm & Blues with a real African American feeling, he could make millions of dollars. And he proved to be right, as that was the key ingredient of Rock 'n Roll.
And so that shy truck driver tried some songs in that first session that didn't work at all, and finally he took his guitar and started to sing That's allright, an old blues from 1946, and when the band joined in Sam Phillips knew that that was what he'd been looking for. The rest, as they say, is history. A true legend, the King of Rock 'n Roll was born. And it's with pride that I play here Elvis' first record, That's all right, here, on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman.
17 - Elvis Presley - thats all right mama
Elvis Presley - the King of Rock 'n Roll, who was one of the major artists that brought the Rhythm & Blues to a greater audience and started Rock 'n Roll. Now Elvis was a true fusioner - he could do country songs as easy as Rhythm & Blues and they didn't sound very different. But that's no wonder as country music has its roots in the blues as much as any other popular music style has.
And that's something that we tend to forget. All, and I dare say all with no exception, all post-war popular music styles have been shaped by the development of African American music since the start of the twentieth century. And if it hadn't been for the jazz and the blues, if that new African-American style hadn't come up in the dawn of the 20th century and finally reached the ears of the big audience, we'd still been doing with the European styles of classical music, and we'd probably still been dancing the menuet.
We tend to forget the history of the music that we hear every day. And I hope that every listener comes to realize the importance of the music played here. That's the reason for the existence of this program. And I hope you like to hear that blend of music and history, and if so, or if not, please let me know and e-mail me at rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. You can find me on the web too, just do a Google search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and it will pop up first. Time's up for now, so byebye, and have a great day. No, have a rocking day. See you next time when I play more of that great Rhythm & Blues on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman.