Wednesday, March 27 2024

Today was an Elvis day. After a relaxing start we drove to Graceland to see the flashy, successful version of Elvis. Graceland is too much like a theme park for my taste but is a must visit for someone in Memphis for the first time. Rita and I had visited before and felt no need to tour Graceland Mansion (which was an extra charge) and, although a newbie in Memphis, Christian was much more interested in the music so we skipped that. The closest we came was this view from across Elvis Presley Boulevard.

Many exhibits are available at Graceland, including Elvis’ planes and cars.

A large exhibit showed performers who have indicated how Elvis influenced them as artists. As one might expect, dozens of top performers were present, including these three.

After Graceland we moved on to Sun Studios, the place where Elvis recorded his early records and known as the Birthplace of Rock ‘n Roll.

Sun Studios was busy but we were lucky to get the last three tickets for the next tour. The 40 minute guided tour was the highlight of the museum experiences for me. It included an exhibit displaying the early equipment used by Sam Phillips to record artists such as Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison and told the story of how Sun Records became the incubator for musical talent in Memphis.

This is the studio that first played an Elvis song on the radio. On July 8, 1954 Sam Phillips was wrapping up a session searching for a new lead singer for two of his artists but the musicians struck up a jam session and, that evening, “That’s All Right” was recorded. Sam was so excited he quickly pressed a record and took it over to Dewey Phillips who was the top radio presenter in Memphis at the time. Dewey played it 16 times that night, receiving over 50 phone calls and telegrams demanding more spins, and that was the start of the world wide phenomenon. The broken records on the floor are those that Dewey Phillips disliked and used to smash over his microphone while on air. I’m guessing this was not the origin of the term “smash hit”.

Next we were taken to the actual studio where all of the magic happened. This was truly inspiring as the studio is the original, the floor and sound tiles are those installed by Sam Phillips himself and our guide described several important recording sessions pointing out who was standing where.

Elvis only recorded with Sun Records for about 6 months before Phillips sold his contract to RCA Records. This allowed Elvis to get national distribution and Sam to invest in developing other talent. However, on December 4, 1954 some of their artists, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash were there for a session while Elvis was there for a photo shoot. They jammed for about three hours. Sam Phillips surreptitiously recorded the session and, once the publishing rights were sorted out, the 17 tracks they sang were released as an album titled “The Million Dollar Quartet”. The piano in the photo was the one they gathered around that day.

We are heading back to BB Kings Blues Club tonight as a different band is playing and we know the food and service will be good.