Editing Heartbreak Hotel (section)

==Background and writing==
[[File:Elvis-Presley-Jacksonville-1955.jpg|thumb|Presley stripped to his waist after escaping from a fan riot, during the concerts performed in Jacksonville, Florida, May 12–13, 1955]]
The song was written in 1955, by [[Mae Boren Axton]], a high school teacher with a background in musical promotion, and [[Tommy Durden]], a [[Jacksonville, Florida]]-based singer–songwriter. The lyrics were based on a report supposedly in ''[[The Miami Herald]]'' about a man who had destroyed all his identity papers and jumped to his death from a hotel window, leaving a [[suicide note]] with the single line, "I walk a lonely street".<ref name="Ace">{{cite book|last=Collins|first=Ace|title=Untold Gold: The Stories Behind Elvis's #1 Hits|year=2005|publisher=Souvenir Press Ltd|isbn=978-0-285-63738-2|pages=10–18|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9hQyj7GVG1oC&pg=PA10 }}</ref> Songfacts.com says they were unable to locate the ''Miami Herald'' story. They labeled it an [[urban legend]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Heartbreak Hotel |url=https://www.songfacts.com/facts/elvis-presley/heartbreak-hotel |publisher=www.songfacts.com |access-date=December 12, 2022 }}</ref> In 2016, an article in ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' magazine suggested that the story in reality originated from a report about a painter and criminal, Alvin Krolik, whose marriage had failed and who wrote an unpublished autobiography including the line "This is the story of a person who walked a lonely street." Krolik's story was published in news media, and received further publicity after he was shot and killed in an attempted robbery in [[El Paso, Texas]]. On August 25, 1955, the ''[[El Paso Times]]'' reported Krolik's death under the headline "Story of Person Who Walked Lonely Street".<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Boswell |first=Randy | url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/solving-the-mystery-of-heartbreak-hotel| title=Solving the Mystery of 'Heartbreak Hotel'|magazine=Rolling Stone|date=July 15, 2016|access-date =July 16, 2016 |location=London}}</ref><ref name="Guralnick">{{cite book|last=Guralnick|first=Peter|title=Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley|year=2012|publisher=Back Bay Books|isbn=978-0316332255|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NypSAxK5IrgC}}</ref> Krolik's death was not a suicide, so it could not have inspired the song to Tommy Durden. 

Axton and Durden give different accounts of how the song was written. Durden's account is that he had already written the song and performed it with his band the Swing Billys before he presented it to Axton.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6wk5AQAAIAAJ&pg=PA68 |title=Contemporary Musicians: Profiles of the People in Music|page=68|author=Angela M. Pilchak |publisher=Gale, 2005 |access-date=January 18, 2011 |isbn=9780787680664|date=May 2005}}</ref> Axton's account is that Durden had written only a few lines of the song and asked her to help him finish it.<ref name="Ace"/><ref>{{cite book |title=Country singers as I know 'em |author=Mae Boren Axton |publisher=Sweet Pub. Co.|year= 1973}}</ref> She says that the report of the suicide "stunned" her, and she told Durden, "Everybody in the world has someone who cares. Let's put a Heartbreak Hotel at the end of this lonely street".<ref>{{cite book|last=Guralnick|first=Peter|title=Last Train to Memphis: Rise of Elvis Presley|year=1994|publisher=Little, Brown, and Co.|isbn=978-0-316-33220-0|page=[https://archive.org/details/lasttraintomemph00gura_0/page/238 238]|url=https://archive.org/details/lasttraintomemph00gura_0/page/238}}</ref> They were interrupted by the arrival of [[Glenn Reeves]], a local performer who had previously worked with Axton. The duo asked Reeves to help with the song, but after hearing the title he remarked that it was "the silliest thing I've ever heard", and left them to finish it themselves.<ref name="Goldman170">{{cite book|last=Goldman|first=Albert|title=Elvis|year=1981|publisher=Penguin Books Ltd|isbn=978-0-07-023657-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/elvis00albe/page/170 170–171]|url=https://archive.org/details/elvis00albe/page/170}}</ref> The song was written within an hour,<ref name="victor30">{{cite book|last1=Victor |first1=Adam|title=The Elvis Encyclopedia|year=2008|page=30|publisher=Gerald Duckworth & Co Ltd|isbn=978-0-7156-3816-3}}</ref> and Durden recorded it onto Axton's tape recorder.<ref name="Goldman170"/> Reeves returned, and after hearing the song he was asked to provide a voice demo for Axton in the style of Elvis Presley. Reeves obliged, but once again turned down the offer of a writing credit for his input.<ref name="Goldman170"/>

Axton approached the popular singing duo [[the Wilburn Brothers]], and offered them the chance to record "Heartbreak Hotel". However, Doyle and Teddy Wilburn declined, describing the song as "strange and almost morbid". Axton, however, agreed to a publishing deal with [[Buddy Killen]], a young Nashville bass player working as a [[song plugger]] for a new publishing company called [[Tree Publishing]].<ref name="AMHoF">{{cite web|title=Buddy Killen: 1985 Inductee|url=https://www.alamhof.org/buddy-killen|website=Alabama Musician's Hall of Fame|date=1985|access-date=October 21, 2024}}</ref><ref name="Ace"/> With a publishing deal in place, Axton arranged through Presley's manager [[Colonel Tom Parker]] to present the song to Presley at the annual Country Music Disc Jockey Convention in [[Nashville, Tennessee]],<ref name="Day53">{{cite book|last1=Guralnick|first1=Peter|last2=Jorgensen|first2=Ernst|title=Elvis Day by Day|year=1999|publisher=Ballantine Books Inc.|isbn=978-0-345-42089-3|page=53}}</ref> where he was to be named the most promising male [[Country music|country]] star of 1955.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Victor |first1=Adam|title=The Elvis Encyclopedia|year=2008|page=98|publisher=Gerald Duckworth & Co Ltd|isbn=978-0-7156-3816-3}}</ref> Axton had been hired earlier in the year to publicise the [[Hank Snow]] Jamboree concerts at the [[Gator Bowl Stadium]] in [[Jacksonville, Florida]], which included Presley in the line up.<ref>{{cite web|title=Tour Ref: 1955|url=http://www.elvisconcerts.com/earlyconcerts/dboutput.php?search_month=search_month&search_day=search_day&search_year=search_year&search_city=search_city&search_state=FL&search_jacket=search_jacket&search_shirt=search_shirt&search_trousers=search_trousers&search_song=search_song&search_pics=search_pics|publisher=www.elvisconcerts.com|access-date=December 18, 2010}}</ref> During one concert Axton observed the reaction of the audience to Presley's performance, in which a crowd of screaming fans chased him back to his dressing room and ripped his clothes off to take as souvenirs. Axton followed Presley's career closely after this incident,<ref name="Breoske">{{cite book|last1=Brown |first1=Peter H. |last2=Broeske |first2=Pat H. |title=Down at the End of Lonely Street: Life and Death of Elvis Presley|year=1997|publisher=William Heinemann Ltd|isbn=978-0-434-00428-7}} pp.&nbsp;55–56</ref> and met him at a July 28 concert in Jacksonville, this time interviewing him for the local media.<ref name="victor30"/> According to author [[Albert Goldman]], Axton made writing Presley's first big hit one of her ambitions.<ref name="Goldman170"/>

Rumors had been circulating in the press for several weeks that Presley, who had begun his career at [[Sun Records]], was ready to move to [[RCA Records|RCA Victor]] to help launch him nationally. Axton played the demo to him in his room at the Andrew Jackson Hotel on November 10, 1955.<ref name="Day53"/> Upon hearing the demo, Presley exclaimed "Hot dog, Mae, play that again!", and listened to it ten times, memorizing the song.<ref name=Obituary>{{cite news |last=Leigh |first=Spencer | url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-mae-boren-axton-1267292.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220509/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-mae-boren-axton-1267292.html |archive-date=May 9, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live| title=Obituary: Mae Boren Axton|work=[[The Independent]]|date=April 15, 1997|access-date =December 5, 2010 |location=London}}</ref> After signing with RCA on November 21, 1955, Presley accepted Axton's offer of a third of the royalties if he made the song his first single on his new label.<ref name=Obituary/><ref>{{cite book|last1=Guralnick|first1=Peter|last2=Jorgensen|first2=Ernst|title=Elvis Day by Day|page=54|year=1999|publisher=Ballantine Books Inc.|isbn=978-0-345-42089-3}}</ref> Presley performed the song for the first time in [[Swifton, Arkansas]], on December 9, 1955, and declared to the audience that it would be his first hit.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Guralnick|first1=Peter|last2=Jorgensen|first2=Ernst|title=Elvis Day by Day|page=56|year=1999|publisher=Ballantine Books Inc.|isbn=978-0-345-42089-3}}</ref>