That’s All Right Mama

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History gives credit to Sam Phillips, the owner and operator of Sun Records based in Memphis, Tennessee with having discovered Elvis Presley. However others had a hand in this also. There was his business partner who noticed that there was something special about Elvis, two session men who recognized talent and the writer of the song “That’s All Right Mama”. This song was written by Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup and Elvis recorded it on July 5, 1954. The story begins when a young truck driver walked into the Sun Records offices and the Memphis Recording Service on a Saturday in the summer of 1953. He paid them $3.98 in order to make a recording as a birthday present for his mom. At this time Sam Philips recorded Elvis singing “My Happiness” and “That’s When Heartaches Begin”. At this time he recognized Elvis as a good ballad singer. It was Philips partner Kreisler who thought it was worth following up on this singer. Then in July of 1954 Phillips asked two of his favorite session musicians, guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black to go and meet with Elvis and then get back to him. They spoke and jammed with Elvis for a bit and came back to report that to them it didn’t seem that the singer was interested. However they did agree that the guy had a fantastic voice. So they decided to schedule a recording session with Elvis on July 5. Finally success came when Elvis recorded “That’s All Right Mama” which was a well-known blues number. He recorded it with a different style and feel. They released this to Memphis radio station WHBQ two days after the recording. This song became an instant regional hit and as they say the rest is history. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/elvis-presley-records-quotthats-all-right-mamaquot