Heya!
Thanks for tuning in to day 2 of Elvis Week! Herc has written you an awesome post for Music Monday and it is all about The King's First Seven Singles.
He first hit the scene 57 years ago. Can you believe that? I so wish I was around then. I would love to take my DeLorean back to the early days and see him perform live, before 1960 once. Who took my flux capacitor?
Please leave some love in the comments for Herc's awesome work, please!
Elvis’s First 7 Singles
[part of ongoing series 7 Song Playlists]
(b/w means “backed with” and indicates the single’s B-Side as the A-side is usually promoted as the “hit”)
(The first five singles were on Sam Phillips’ Sun Records and consequently re-released once he signed with RCA on 11/21/55)
7/19/54 “That’s All Right” b/w “Blue Moon Of Kentucky”
This is where it all began, everything fell into place and a star was born. Elvis had recorded a few songs before this but this would be the first released single and although it failed to chart nationally, it was HUGE in the music melting pot known as Memphis.
9/25/54 “Good Rockin’ Tonight” b/w
“I Don’t Care If The Sun Don’t Shine”
A more perfect second single could not have been recorded and released. Of course, he “stole” this song from the original artist, just like a lot of his early stuff. Nothing was being written expressly for the man who would be The King yet so he sang what he liked. And from the sound of it, he liked the crap out of this one.
12/28/54 “Milkcow Blues Boogie” b/w “You’re A Heartbreaker”
Originally written as a straight up blues song in the early Thirties, several covers before Elvis turned it into a rockabilly raver, and he honed it into a jittery showcase for his swivelling hips and trembling lips.
4/10/55 “Baby Let’s Play House” b/w
“I’m Left, You’re Right, She’s Gone”
A bubbling, hiccuping somewhat threatening plea to his baby to come back and “play house”, this was E.P.’s first nationally charting single, cracking the Top Ten on the Country and Western Charts.
8/6/55 “I Forgot To Remember To Forget” b/w
“Mystery Train”
Arguably, this is Elvis’s first strictly country-sounding song and it shot all the way to the top of the C&W charts becoming the first of many, many Number One records he would achieve. It’s worth noting that the B-side, “Mystery Train” has become one of Elvis’s most acclaimed songs, covered by hundreds of artists.
1/27/56 “Heartbreak Hotel” b/w “I Was The One”
Co-written by a high school teacher and inspired by a suicide note left by a jumper that simply read “ I walk a lonely road”, this was the dam-buster, the song that put Elvis in the worldwide spotlight that he would enjoy endure even after his untimely demise. It wasn’t an immediate smash - until he performed it on television a few weeks after its release. His first Pop #1, his first million-selling single and his first single to make the Rhythm & Blues charts.
5/12/56 “I Want You, I Need You, I Love You” b/w
“My Baby Left Me”
Similar sentiment to “Baby Let’s Play House”, this one is delivered in a more tender less demanding way, with begging and pleading. Terribly romantic, Presley uses his voice to great effect and the nation swooned.
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