Editing Elvis Presley (section)

==== Sam Phillips and Sun records ====
{{See also|List of songs recorded by Elvis Presley on the Sun label}}
[[File:PresleyPromo1954PhotoOnly.jpg|alt=Elvis in a tuxedo|thumb|left|Presley in a [[Sun Records]] promotional photograph, 1954|upright=1.0]]
In August 1953, Presley checked into [[Sun Studio|Memphis Recording Service]], the company run by [[Sam Phillips]] before he started [[Sun Records]]. He aimed to pay for studio time to record a two-sided [[acetate disc]]: "[[My Happiness (popular song)|My Happiness]]" and "[[That's When Your Heartaches Begin]]". He later claimed that he intended the record as a birthday gift for his mother, or that he was merely interested in what he "sounded like". Biographer [[Peter Guralnick]] argued that Presley chose Sun in the hope of being discovered.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=62–64}} In January 1954, Presley cut a second acetate at Sun—"I'll Never Stand in Your Way" and "It Wouldn't Be the Same Without You"—but again nothing came of it.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|p=65}} Not long after, he failed an [[audition]] for a local vocal quartet, the Songfellows,{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|p=77}} and another for the band of [[Eddie Bond]].{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|p=83}}
{{Listen|type=speech|filename=That's All Right.ogg|title="That's All Right" |description=Presley transformed not only the sound but the emotion of the song, turning what had been written as a "lament for a lost love into a satisfied declaration of independence."{{sfn|Marcus|1982|p=174}}}}
Phillips, meanwhile, was always on the lookout for someone who could bring to a broader audience the sound of the black musicians on whom Sun focused.{{sfn|Miller|2000|p=72}} In June, he acquired a demo recording by [[Jimmy Sweeney]] of a ballad, "Without You", that he thought might suit Presley. The teenaged singer came by the studio but was unable to do it justice. Despite this, Phillips asked Presley to sing other numbers and was sufficiently affected by what he heard to invite two local musicians, guitarist [[Scotty Moore|Winfield "Scotty" Moore]] and [[double bass|upright bass]] player [[Bill Black]], to work with Presley for a recording session.{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|pp=10–11}} The session, held the evening of July 5, proved entirely unfruitful until late in the night. As they were about to abort and go home, Presley launched into a 1946 blues number, Arthur Crudup's "[[That's All Right]]". Moore recalled, "All of a sudden, Elvis just started singing this song, jumping around and acting the fool, and then Bill picked up his bass, and he started acting the fool, too, and I started playing with them." Phillips quickly began taping; this was the sound he had been looking for.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=94–97}} Three days later, popular Memphis disc jockey [[Dewey Phillips]]    played "That's All Right" on his ''Red, Hot, and Blue'' show.{{sfn|Ponce de Leon|2007|p=43}} Listener interest was such that Phillips played the record repeatedly during the remaining two hours of his show. Interviewing Presley on-air, Phillips asked him what high school he attended to clarify his color for the many callers who had assumed that he was black.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=100–101}} During the next few days, the trio recorded a [[Bluegrass music|bluegrass]] song, [[Bill Monroe]]'s "[[Blue Moon of Kentucky]]", again in a distinctive style and employing a [[jury rigging|jury-rigged]] [[Delay (audio effect)|echo effect]] that Sam Phillips dubbed "slapback". A single was pressed with "That's All Right" on the A-side and "Blue Moon of Kentucky" on the reverse.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=102–104}}