gold star for USAHOF

Heartbreak Hotel

Heartbreak Hotel
11 Jan
2016
Not in Hall of Fame
May 5 – June 22, 1956
Elvis Presley
Heartbreak Hotel



Here we go! I don’t know about the rest of you, but this is where the rock & roll ballgame officially changed forever and Elvis Presley’s first number one hit was a song that I strongly considered making where this book started.

Although history tells us that Elvis Presley is not the origin of rock and roll, for many this is the time where rock music first entered their consciousness. As I mentioned, Little Richard and Chuck Berry had already put out recordings of what would be remembered as some of their greatest hits, but there was still a large segment of the youth of America that had no idea who were they were.[1]  

Rock and Roll may have become words that Americans were becoming familiar with, but beyond a handful of artists, most popular music fans in 1955 could not tell you who performed them. What it needed was a star larger than the genre itself, one who looked different than the current rock practitioners and who could become the flag bearer of a new and exciting style of music. They found that in the form of Tupelo, Mississippi’s Elvis Presley.

There is nothing that I can say about Elvis that hasn’t been written before, and as Presley went to number one so many times I have to spread out the Graceland pamphlet information in scattered form, but it needs to be stated that for Rock and Roll to truly cross over in mass to the white American audience, it needed Presley, who would become without question the biggest musical figure in the decade of the 1950’s.

I already mentioned that Elvis was not the first white Rock star, that was Bill Haley, but the leader of the Comets on his best day did not have one percent of Presley’s magnetism. Haley, other than the curl at the front of his hair looked like an accountant, where Presley looked like a rebel and furthermore like a “Rock Star”, even though a lot of people really weren’t sure what one was supposed to look like at the time.

Elvis was one of those rare men where not only did men understood why their girlfriends wanted to sleep with him, they would even forgive her for doing so and wear it as a badge of honor.[2] Presley was not only better looking than any other musician at the time he oozed sex appeal with nothing more than curving his lip.

I can’t illustrate just how different this version of Elvis was from the bloated jumpsuit caricature he became; the one that sadly more people are aware of. That might be why when people currently think of the great rock and roll singers of history, Presley’s name doesn’t come up in conversation often as much as it should. Elvis could convey emotion better than anyone in his time. Be it sorrow, be it angst, be it love, or be it just fun, he sucked you in, and his very early recordings helped define the modern Rockabilly and sound.

Now a common criticism of Elvis is that he completely ripped off the black sound. That isn’t exactly untrue, as there was a lot of R&B influence in his sound and his sexuality on stage had been done by black performers for years, but the fact was this: For Rock and Roll to reach the masses in 1956 America it couldn’t happen with a black man being it’s face. As awful as it is to say, the country wasn’t just wasn’t ready for it.

Rock and Roll may have had a white king, but its new subjects craved more of its sound, and as there weren’t that many white Rock stars yet, a lot of kids sought out the Chuck Berrys and Little Richards of the world. The bottom line is that Elvis was that gateway to give the others exposure and that fact alone makes it next to impossible to quantify his importance in popular music.[3]

As mentioned, I will be talking about Elvis in abundance (as he did go number one a lot), but let’s first take a trip to the Heartbreak Hotel, which you will find down at the end of Lonely Street.

Prior to this song, Presley put out a string of great Rockabilly singles, but none of those songs allowed him to do what he could do with “Heartbreak Hotel”. Granted those early songs have been called by many music critics as some of the best of Presley’s career and instrumental in the arch of Rockabilly, but with “Heartbreak Hotel”, he was able to not just use his underappreciated vocal range but his flex his emotional one; which was what propelled him to super-stardom.

An actual suicide note inspired the song, which was co-written by Mae Boren Axton, where the only line written in the suicide note was “I Walk A Lonely Street” was remembered.[4] Those words alone had a morbid feel and though there was no actual suicide in the song, it was certainly implied by the end result. Presley, who may have done some great fast tempo Rockabilly work previously had “Heartbreak Hotel”, where he displayed Blues filled angst, so much so that you wondered where he channeled his despair, or just where it came from.

It was so different from the heavily orchestrated pop hits of the day. Although a lot of effort went into the production, it didn’t feel that way, because it was stripped down in comparison to what was around it on the charts. It felt raw, it felt passionate and whether the establishment believed it or not, it was a sound that was there to stay, though the schmaltzy sounds would put up a fight before it went the way of the dinosaur on the pop charts.

Before we go to the next song, I do have to mention another indirect impact of “Heartbreak Hotel”, which will be one of my rare forays into the world of politics.

In June of 1992, Democratic nominee, Bill Clinton appeared on the late night Arsenio Hall Show in the opening musical montage where he played Heartbreak Hotel on the saxophone while wearing a pair of sunglasses with Hall’s band. Clinton was the guest of Hall’s show, and though Arsenio seems like a bit like a joke now, in 1992, he was a pop culture superstar and an icon of coolness at the time.[5]

Clinton’s sax rendition of Heartbreak Hotel was technically not very good, but that didn’t matter. Nobody remembered what he said on the show, however at that very moment, the man who was trailing Presidential incumbent, George Bush was now the cool candidate and automatically captured the youth vote. It was a genius choice of song, as though the tune was decades old, it worked far better that he tried to belt out something current. That would have been obvious pandering, but by going to a Rock standard that the crowd was familiar with, even if they were not alive when the song was a hit. By proxy, Arsenio Hall endorsed Bill Clinton and gave him his audience; a youth vote that probably gave little thought who they were going to vote for, or even vote at all.

Did the song “Heartbreak Hotel” necessarily get Bill Clinton into the White House? Not exactly, but it was a reflection of what pop culture could do and I will go to my grave (or mausoleum) stating that this swayed the American Election and netted Bill Clinton the United States Presidential race. Thankfully for Bill it was a meter he could perform and a great illustration that the man who wins an American election is the one who you would rather drink a beer with.[6]

Ah, and you thought pop culture and politics didn’t mesh?

Let’s move on.

Other Notable Songs that charted but did not go to number one in this time period: May 5, 1956 – June 22, 1956

5/12/56: Long Tall Sally by Little Richard reached #6 on the Top 100 and number one on the R&B Chart.
5/12/56: Ivory Tower by Otis Williams & His Charms peaked at #11 and went to #5 on the R&B Chart.
5/19/56: Blue Suede Shoes by Carl Perkins made it to #2 on both the Top 100, the R&B Chart but went to number #1 on the Country and Western Chart.
5/19/56: I Want You To Be My Girl by Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers peaked at #13 on the Top 100 and at #3 on the R&B Chart.
6/3/56: Roll Over Beethoven by Chuck Berry went to #29 on the Top 100 and #2 on the R&B Chart.



[1] Tutti Frutti would peak at #17 for Richard, while a later recording by Pat Boone in the year went to #12. Remember that for later.
[2] Current example now is George Clooney. It is not that I want my wife cheating on me, but if she had the opportunity how do I say no? I hope she feels the same about my chances with the 1992 version of Rosie Perez.
[3] This included men like John Lennon, Keith Richards and Robert Plant who have openly talked about how hearing Elvis for the first time changed their life. Basically, Presley was like a gateway drug.  
[4] Though this is a disputed claim. Co-writer, Tommy Durden stated that he had already written the song and asked her for some input. I don’t which is true, but Axton who was called the “Queen Mother of Nashville” and Durden had no cool nickname. Hence, Axton gets the paragraph, and Durden gets the footnote. Yep, I am a sucker for nicknames.
[5] Looking back, Arsenio Hall was never cool, but he did have cool friends, cool guests and was a genuine late night alternative at the time. As for Hall being cool himself, his performance as the host of the MTV Video Awards can tell you exactly how much of a doofus he really was.  
[6] Think about the last forty years of U.S. Presidential Elections and that analogy holds true. Who wanted to share a beer with Walter Mondale?





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