“That's All Right” on Memphis Radio, July 1954

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

“That’s All Right” on Memphis Radio, July 1954 Source: Historic-Memphis.com Dewey Phillips was a longtime disc jockey at WHBQ radio in Memphis, Tennessee. Phillips was known for playing music recorded by both black and white and artists. Shortly after Elvis Presley made his first recording, a single whose A-side was the Rhythm and Blues song “That’s All Right,” Phillips became the first disc jockey in the country to play the song on the radio, in July 1954. The account below is taken from the book The Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley, by Peter Guralnick. The response was instantaneous… He played the record seven times in a row, eleven times, seven times over the course of the rest of the program. In retrospect it doesn’t really matter; it seemed as if all of Memphis was listening as Dewey kept up his nonstop patter, egging his radio audience on, encouraging them to join him in the discovery of a new voice… For Gladys [Presley, Elvis’ mother] the biggest shock was “hearing them say his name over the radio just before they put on that record…” She didn’t have time to think about it for long anyway, because almost immediately the phone rang. It was Dewey for Elvis… He said, “Mrs. Presley, you just get that cotton-picking son of yours down here to the station. I played that record of his, and them birdbrain phones haven’t stopped ringing since.”… Within minutes, Elvis was at the station. “I was scared to death,” Elvis said. “I was shaking all over, I just couldn’t believe it…” “Sit down, I’m gone interview you” were his first words to the frightened nineteen-year-old, Dewey told writer Stanley Booth in 1967. “…I had a couple of records cued up, and while they played we talked. I asked him where he went to high school, and he said, ‘Humes.’ I wanted to get that out, because a lot of people listening had thought he was colored.” .

Copy Link

Recommended publications

The Tin Pan Alley Pop Era (1885-Mid 1950'S)
OVERVIEW: The Foundation of Rock And Roll During the Great Migration more than 100,000 African-American laborers moved from the agricultural South to the urban North bringing with them their music and memories. Also, during the 1920’s the phonograph and the rise of commercial radio began to spread Hillbilly music and the Blues. This gave rise to an appreciating of American vernacular music, both white and black. Ultimately, the homogenizing effect of blending several regional musical styles and cultural practices gave birth to 1950’s rock and roll. The Tin Pan Alley Po ra 15-mid 1950’s) “The Great American Songbook” 1940’s Big Bands 1950’s Polar sic New York: “Tin Pan Alley” 14th St. and 2nd Ave. 1 Tin Pan Alley - New York 15-thogh 1940’s) The msic was distribted throgh sheet msic Proessional songwriters dominated the eriod George Gershwin and ole Porter omosers wrote or o msic Broadway and ilm ventally Tin Pan Alley tradition was relaced by the ock and oll tradition Tin Pan Alle – Ke oints 1. Written b a proessional oten non-peroring song-riters 2. ophisticated arrangeent 3. ncopated rhth accents on unepected, eak beats) 4. lever, ell-crated lrics 5. triving or upper-class sensibilities 6. Priar audience Adults 2 “Roots Music” - K oits 1. Riona ou o music 2. tu usicis 3. ot o tut 4. tou o titio 5. o maistream ican ists 6. o t i co cois “Roots Music” = he Blues D Country music he Blues Country Music 1920’s: Mississippi Delta Blues 1920’s: Cowboy Songs 1930’s: rban Blues 1930’s: Hillbilly Music 1940’s: ump Blues 1940’s: Country Swing
[Show full text]
Whole Text Sampling in the Curatorial Work of Henri Langlois, Dewey Phillips, and Jean-François Lyotard” Barry Mauer
University of Central Florida STARS Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works 3-2014 Rigorous Infidelity: Whole extT Sampling in the Curatorial Work of Henri Langlois, Dewey Phillips, and Jean-François Lyotard Barry J. Mauer University of Central Florida, [email protected] Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/ucfscholar University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Book Chapter is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works by an authorized administrator of STARS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Original Citation Mauer, Barry. "Rigorous Infidelity: Whole extT Sampling in the Curatorial Work of Henri Langlois, Dewey Phillips, and Jean-François Lyotard." Sampling Media, Oxford University Press, Editors: Laurel Westrup, David Laderman, pp.60-72 1 “Rigorous Infidelity: Whole Text Sampling in the Curatorial Work of Henri Langlois, Dewey Phillips, and Jean-François Lyotard” Barry Mauer Introduction John Rajchman’s “Les Immatériaux or How to Construct the History of Exhibitions” asks, “In what ways have exhibitions, more than simple displays and configurations of objects, helped change ideas about art, intersecting at particular junctions with technical innovations, discursive shifts and larger kinds of philosophical investigations, thus forming part of these larger histories?” This essay attempts to answer his question by discussing curating as whole text sampling.1 Sampling, of which whole text sampling is a subset of practices, is the appropriation and recontextualization of texts or textual fragments; it involves choosing an object or text and deploying it for other uses.
[Show full text]
Introducing Elvis Presley
Chapter 1 Introducing Elvis Presley In This Chapter ▶ Outlining Elvis’s place in American history ▶ Summarizing Elvis’s life ▶ Tracking Elvis’s popularity from beginning to end n the one hand, Elvis Presley needs no introduction, because his name Oand face are recognized around the world as the ultimate celebrity. Imitators re-create his act; late-night comedians joke about him; cable chan- nels rerun his movies; and merchandisers exploit his image on everything from T-shirts to lamps. On the other hand, the reasons for his fame have become lost in the trappings of celebrity, especially for younger generations born after his death on August 16, 1977. For the original fans, who have remained loyal for over 50 years, Elvis earned his reputation as the King of Rock ’n’ Roll; for others, discovering why he deserved his fame and a place in American cultural history may be a revelation. In this chapter, I introduce you to Elvis Presley through the high points of his life and career, including his post-death popularity. This chapter sets up an extensive exploration of Elvis Presley — the cultural icon — that details the events of his life, explains the significance of his music, and contemplates his meaning to American pop culture. COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL Identifying a Cultural Icon Almost everyone knows that Elvis Presley was a famous singer, but many people don’t fully understand what he contributed to popular music to earn his widespread fame. Elvis combined different types of music to form a style called rockabilly, which became one of the key sounds in rock ’n’ roll.
[Show full text]
Memphis, the Musical" Is Loosely Based on Dewey Phillips' Life and Career
CURRICULUM GUIDE TA / TEACHING ARTIST’S TIPS A Guide to Using This Guide The following is a brief list of to-do’s and suggestions to help you get the most out of the Memphis the Musical guide and foster a fun and successful workshop. • The study guide is deliberately over-packed with material. Ideally, you should try to cover as much material as you can. But use your judgment with regard to time. You don’t have to cover everything listed in a particular lesson. If need be, shorten some steps, skip others. • In general, make the “discussion” section of your lesson as succinct as possible. Seven (7) minutes tops should be plenty of time to generate enough conversation to move smoothly into the next part of your lesson. The discussion portion of the lesson is there to spark ideas and possible insights, not dominate the workshop day. • Please use the “Inspire Change” Teacher Information form on pg. 1 to pre-plan with the classroom teacher for your visit. • In addition to filling out your Teacher Information form, be sure to discuss with your classroom teacher in advance what sort of lesson they’d like to do. ELA? Social Studies? Theater? A 15-minute phone conversation should suffice. What would they like to be the focus of your lesson? What kinds of activities work best with their particular class? Do their students work well in groups? Pairs? Or individually? Getting this information beforehand will help immensely with your planning. • Also, please discuss in advance with your classroom teacher a possible culminating project.
[Show full text]
Close Encounters with Nature
HARDINGWINTER 2016 CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH NATURE What’s Inside WINTER 2016 | VOLUME 24 | NUMBER 1 14 Departments 8 2 VIEWPOINT 12 SPORTS Highlights of the fall semester in tweets Introducing the new tennis and men’s soccer coaches 26 3 YOUR WORDS Readers share their one piece of advice to Features students in their freshman year at Harding. 4 ONE MOMENT President McLarty gets in on the action 30 CONNECTIONS ON THE COVER 14 18 26 during Midnight Madness. Experiencing the feel of 31 | PROFILE Iceland soon after getting CLUB WEEK UP CLOSE INVIGORATING ICELAND START TO FINISH Mitch Breitweiser, 2000 Experience club week with fresh- International Programs administra- For athletic trainers, game day off the plane, England 32 | PROFILE men Lexi Hoagland and Harding tor and photographer Ashel Parsons begins hours before the actual game international program Hannah Alexander Carpenter, 2003 participants walked up Humphries as they relay their shares dramatic images of her and isn’t over until long after the a glacier and through an impressions of the week. journey to Iceland with students scoreboard is turned off. PHOTO BY HANNAH OWENS HANNAH BY PHOTO 6 AROUND CAMPUS ice tunnel. in the Harding University England PHOTO BY ASHEL PARSONS Amy Cox named Educator of the Year and program this past fall. other happenings around the University 36 END NOTE Harding’s connection to Elvis PHOTOS BY JEFF MONTGOMERY JEFF BY PHOTOS Viewpoint Your Words The fall in tweets HARDING What would be your one piece of advice to WINTER 2016 | VOLUME 24 | NUMBER 1 By BRUCE D.
[Show full text]
The Music of the Colorblind: How Integrated Music Was
THE MUSIC OF THE COLORBLIND: HOW INTEGRATED MUSIC WAS CREATED IN A REGION OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SEGREGATION by Damon A. Brooks A Thesis/Project Presented to The Faculty of Humboldt State University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Social Science In Teaching American History May, 2005 THE MUSIC OF THE COLORBLIND: HOW INTEGRATED MUSIC WAS CREATED IN A REGION OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SEGREGATION by Damon A. Brooks Approved by the Master’s Thesis Committee: Delores McBroome, Committee Chair Date Rod Sievers, Committee Member Date Gayle Olson, Committee Member Date Delores McBroome, Graduate Coordinator Date MASS – Teaching American History Donna E. Schafer, Dean for Research and Graduate Studies Date ABSTRACT The Music of the Colorblind: How Integrated Music was Created in a Region of Political and Social Segregation Damon A. Brooks The importance of Memphis, Tennessee in the history of popular American music cannot be overstated. If Memphis had produced just the Sun recordings of Elvis Presley in the fifties alone, its status as a city rich in musical tradition would be secure. But there is so much more music that came from Memphis: Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Howlin’ Wolf, Roy Orbison, Booker T. and the M.G.s, Otis Redding, Rufus and Carla Thomas, Isaac Hayes, Albert King, Sam and Dave, and Al Green to list just a few. Memphis helped shape almost all subsequent rock and roll. The synthesis of black and white musical styles that occurred there in the fifties was unique. The Stax recordings of sixties soul music and seventies funk continued Memphis’ history of mixing black and white music together.
[Show full text]
The Only Common Thread: Race, Youth, and the Everyday Rebellion of Rock and Roll, Cleveland, Ohio, 1952-1966
THE ONLY COMMON THREAD: RACE, YOUTH, AND THE EVERYDAY REBELLION OF ROCK AND ROLL, CLEVELAND, OHIO, 1952-1966 DANA ARITONOVICH Bachelor of Arts in Communications Lake Erie College May, 2006 submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree MASTER OF ARTS IN HISTORY at the CLEVELAND STATE UNIVERSITY May, 2010 This thesis has been approved for the Department of HISTORY and the College of Graduate Studies by _____________________________________________ Thesis Chairperson, Dr. Karen Sotiropoulos ___________________________ Department & Date _____________________________________________ Dr. David Goldberg ___________________________ Department & Date _____________________________________________ Dr. Thomas Humphrey ___________________________ Department & Date THE ONLY COMMON THREAD: RACE, YOUTH, AND THE EVERYDAY REBELLION OF ROCK AND ROLL, CLEVELAND, OHIO, 1952-1966 DANA ARITONOVICH ABSTRACT This thesis is a social and cultural history of young people, race relations, and rock and roll music in Cleveland between 1952 and 1966. It explores how the combination of de facto segregation and rock and roll shaped attitudes about race for those coming of age after the Second World War. Population changes during the Second Great Migration helped bring the sound of southern black music to northern cities like Cleveland, and provided fertile ground for rock and roll to flourish, and for racial prejudice to be confronted. Critics blamed the music for violence, juvenile delinquency, and sexual depravity, among other social problems. In reality, the music facilitated racial understanding, and gave black and white artists an outlet through which they could express their hopes and frustrations about their lives and communities. Through the years, the music provided a window into the lives of “the other” that young Americans in a segregated environment might not otherwise experience.
[Show full text]
Sam Phillips, Elvis, & Rock N' Roll: a Cultural Revolution
Sam Phillips, Elvis, & Rock N’ Roll: A Cultural Revolution Clifford Eugene (“Trey”) Mayberry Mars Hill College Faculty Mentor: John Gripentrog Mars Hill College ABSTRACT In the 1940’s, major record companies in the North failed to capitalize on a growing interest in Rhythm and Blues with musicians such as Fats Domino, Bill Haley, Chuck Berry, and Little Richard. A young man from rural Alabama, however, sensed what the major labels could not. Although Sam Phillips could not wholly articulate what that “something” was, he nonetheless saw potential in a cross-pollination of blues and country music. Phillips thus set out to create a new genre of music tailored to America’s booming postwar teenage population. Lacking capital and the newest tech- nological recording devices, Phillips relied instead on unique cultural experiences and a fire in his heart, fueled by early childhood encounters with the blues. Not only was Phillips one of the major creators of Rock ‘n’ Roll, but his success in tapping the new teenage consumer through Elvis Presley contributed to jump-starting a cultural revolution. ohn Lennon once said: “Before Elvis with their search in the North, a young Jthere was nothing, after Elvis nothing man in the South believed he knew what was the same.” While Lennon may have that “something” was. Although at first he been right, major record companies in the could not define or articulate this musical North, like RCA, Columbia, and Decca, element, Sam Phillips knew that the an- had been hard at work attempting to create swer, however amorphous, would come to “something.” The problem was that they him in time.
[Show full text]
Elvis and Race in 1950S America
ELVIS AND RACE IN 1950S AMERICA OVERVIEW ESSENTIAL QUESTION How did Elvis Presley’s early career reflect race relations and racial tensions in mid- 1950s America? OVERVIEW At the end of World War II, the United States sat poised on the brink of a Civil Rights movement that would challenge the nation’s inherent racial inequality and push for the integration of the races throughout American society. The second-class status of African Americans was a fact of life throughout the country, but particularly palpable in the Jim Crow South, where segregation prevented African Americans from voting, attending certain schools, sitting alongside whites on public transportation and even drinking from the same water fountains as whites. On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, declaring that state-sponsored segregation in America’s public schools was inherently unconstitutional. Though the decision marked a critical turning point in race relations, it would be many years before its promise of dismantling the machinery of segregation and ensuring full enfranchisement of minorities would begin to bear fruit. Two months after the Brown ruling, 19-year-old Elvis Presley released his first single on Sun Records. The first side was a cover of “That’s All Right,” a 1940s Rhythm and Blues song written and originally recorded by African-American Bluesman Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup. The “B” side of the single was a cover of “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” a 1946 tune written and popularized by Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe. The single showed that black and white music could live side by side on a 45 RPM slice of vinyl in 1954, even if the men who wrote the songs often could not in public life.
[Show full text]
Chapter Three the World's Most Perfectly Formed
CHAPTER THREE THE WORLD’S MOST PERFECTLY FORMED MIDGET WRESTLER The link between the expanse of the delta and the twelve-inch pieces of black vinyl that recorded the region’s sound is peanuts. Beale Street would have drawn Howlin’ Wolf from the country, smelling like a mule and covered in mud. Wolf might have established himself as a performer in the clubs and enjoyed a career, in Memphis or Chicago, thrilling audiences with his powerful persona. But getting that power onto vinyl, and getting the vinyl to places where people could hear it and buy it, was the direct result of what easy listening, big band fan Buster Williams learned as a young man selling peanuts. In 1949, the same year Dewey Phillips went on the air, Williams estab- lished Plastic Products, Inc., an independent, non-affiliated record pressing plant. Just two weeks earlier, a plant on Long Island, New York, became the first independent. Williams was the second, but in Memphis he was far from the controlling influence of the major labels on either coast. His empire already included jukeboxes (Williams Distributors) and record distribution (Music Sales). The Quonset hut called Plastic Products completed the system that would lay the physical groundwork for the growth of rock and roll. “What it boils down to,” says the soft-spoken Leon “Mack” McLemore, who, as manager of the record distributorship, was at the nucleus of Williams’s web, “is that Buster knew that through Music Sales putting the records out on our jukeboxes, we could sell enough to get our money back for pressing costs.
[Show full text]
DJ Chapter by Ken Barnes “All Right, Moondog, Get in There, Kid
DJ Chapter By Ken Barnes “All right, Moondog, get in there, kid. Howl it out, buddy … Hello, everybody, how are you all tonight? This is Alan Freed, the old King of the Moondoggers, and it’s time again for another of your favorite Rock and Roll sessions – blues and rhythm records for all the gang in the Moondog Kingdom, from the Midwest to the East Coast.” – 1952, WJW/Cleveland The birth of Rock and Roll on the radio came at the right time in the right place with the right stuff. A unique convergence of cultural and technological trends spawned a revolution of style and substance. Among the key factors: --The post-World War II economic boom that created the modern teenager: kids with leisure time and cash to indulge their interests, an impressionable and highly desirable audience for media and advertisers alike. --The most potent threat yet to AM radio’s cultural dominance – television, which mushroomed from 10,000 sets in 1946 to 27 million in 1952 – necessitating new ways of presenting programming on the radio. --The introduction of a superior and convenient configuration for consuming music: RCA’s 45-rpm single, which, beginning in 1949, displaced fragile and bulky 78-rpm discs and sparked a fierce battle for commercial supremacy with CBS’ contemporaneous 33-rpm long-play album. --The rise of independent record labels catering to minority audiences that preferred rhythm & blues (R&B), jazz or country (then called hillbilly) music to the pop and dance-band stylings that had prevailed since the ‘30s. --The cross-fertilization of country musicians steeped in the blues and blues and R&B singers influenced by country, which -- with a dose of melodramatic pop balladeering and a healthy dollop of street-corner doo-wop vocalizing -- produced the ungainly and all-conquering hybrid Rock and Roll.
[Show full text]
The Golden Age of Rock 'N' Roll
The Golden Age of Rock ’n’ Roll Week 4, March 12, 2018 1956 (part 1): Elvis! Assignment: Glenn C. Altschuler, All Shook Up: How Rock 'n' Roll Changed America, p. 24-34. http://ruml.com/goldenage/pdfs/AlschulerAllShookUpPresley.pdf A profile of Elvis. Peter Guralnick, “Elvis, Scotty, and Bill” from Last Train to Memphis, the first of a two-volume biography of Elvis. http://ruml.com/goldenage/pdfs/GuralnickElvisScotty.pdf David Hepworth, Uncommon People: the Rise and Fall of the Rock Stars, p. 13-16 http://ruml.com/goldenage/pdfs/HepworthUncommonElvis.pdf Profile of Elvis. Listen to: Heartbreak Hotel, Elvis Presley, Feb 1956 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9BLw4W5KU8 Prof Covach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MYAuE-2GfE First RCA release Blue Suede Shoes, Carl Perkins, Feb 1956 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2f_eSZgp88 On the Perry Como Show (not lip-synched): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRNyvO4QouY Page !1 Compare: Elvis Presley, Mar 1956 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYMfsUgbhN4 Lip-synching for screen test: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bm5HKlQ6nGM Long Tall Sally, Little Richard, Mar 1956 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFFgbc5Vcbw The music was a fast uptempo number with Little Richard's hammering, boogie piano. Richard plays staccato eighth notes while Palmer plays a fast shuffle. The shuffle was the most common rhythm and blues beat; Richard added the eighth notes, much less common in that time, although now standard for rock music. Together this created an ambiguity in the ride rhythm—known to musicians as "playing in the crack" that came to characterize New Orleans rock and roll.
[Show full text]