July 19, 2024: ElvisStudying: First and Last

[July 19thwas a doubly significantday for Elvis Presley: on July 19, 1954, his debut single wasreleased; and on July 19, 1977, what would be his final album dropped. So thisweek I’ll AmericanStudy a handful of layers to the Elvis mythos, leading up toa special post on cultural representations of Presley!]

On how we canunderstand the profound changes Elvis underwent, and why they’re not the wholestory.

It’sobviously coincidental but still quite striking that July 19th soclearly marks both the beginning and the end of Elvis Presley’s recording career.By July 1954 the 19-year-old Presley had been unsuccessfully trying to releaserecords with Sam Phillips’ MemphisRecording Service (the predecessor to his hugely influential Sun Recordslabel) for about six months; but when his version of Arthur Crudup’s 1946 bluessong “That’s All Right” drew the attention of local radio DJ DeweyPhillips (no relation to Sam), Presley was finally able to put out a singleon July 19th, with the slightly retitled “That’s Alright (Mama)”on the A-side and Presley’scover of Bill Monroe’s “Blue Moon of Kentucky” onthe B-side. And in July 1977, Presley put out his final album, MoodyBlue, a compilation of live tracks and various recordings from hisfinal studio sessions in February and October 1976 (including the hit title track which hadbeen first recorded at Graceland in February 1976); less than a month after thealbum’s release Presleywould pass away at the tragically young age of 42, and the album would go onto be certified Gold and then Platinum by September.

It takesnothing away from the genuine tragedy of that very early passing to note justhow much had changed for Elvis between these two July 19ths just over twodecades apart. When Dewey Phillips interviewedPresley in July 1954, he had to ask him what high school he attended inorder to communicate to the radio audience that this young artist whom they obviouslycould not see and knew less than nothing about was white; when Elvis died in July1977, he was arguably one of themost recognizable as well as one of the most famous people in the world. Thatfame had begun to develop relatively quickly—Presley bought hisfirst home in Memphis in 1956, but fans began to congregate outside it soconsistently that the neighbors became annoyed and he purchased the more isolatedand difficult to access Graceland mansion less than a year later. His fame onlygrew from there, and would remain an inescapable presence until the literallast hours of his life, as illustrated by afamous paparazzi photo taken upon Presley’s return to Graceland aftermidnight on the day he died, August 16th, 1977. (And of course hisfame endured long after his passing, as reflected by the persistentrumors of Elvis sightings across the subsequent decades.)

Yetdespite those unquestionable and in some ways unfathomable changes between 1954and 1977, I believe these two July 19th releases can also remind usof some unchanging aspects of Presley’s career in music (which, as Tuesday’spost on his films illustrates, was not his only career, but was by far his mostinfluential one). While he apparently contributed some ideas to the productionof a few songs here and there (getting the occasional andcontroversial collaboration credits as a result), Presley nevertruly wrote a song, meaning that all of his releases were at leastperformances of others’ songs if not outright covers (as was the case with bothhis first single and a number of songs from his last album). To be clear, thatdoesn’t necessarily mean he “stole” others’ music (as recentnarratives have sometimes put it)—as I’ve writtenmultiple times in this space, covers were a ubiquitous if not indeed definingpresence in the earlydecades of rock ‘n roll. But it does mean that Elvis was always first andforemost a performer, gaining popularity and success and fame for his iconicsuch performances and all the layers of identity that they embodied (literallyand otherwise), rather than for his own creative output. Indeed, he maywell have been the 20th century’s mostsuccessful performer, a title for which he was at least competitive fromhis first release to his last.

Specialpost this weekend,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Other takes on Elvis?