Rockabilly

===Elvis Presley===
[[File:Elvis Presley promoting Jailhouse Rock.jpg|thumb|upright=0.95|alt=A black and white photograph of Elvis Presley standing between two sets of bars|[[Elvis Presley]] in a promotion shot for ''[[Jailhouse Rock (film)|Jailhouse Rock]]'' in 1957]]

{{Listen
|filename=Thatsallright.ogg
|title=Elvis Presley - "That's All Right" (1954)
|description=[[Elvis Presley]]'s "[[That's All Right]]" (1954), an early rockabilly song. It was a cover of [[Arthur Crudup]]'s 1947 [[blues]] song of the same name.
|pos=right
}}[[Elvis Presley]]'s first recordings took place at Sun Records, a small independent label run by record producer Sam Phillips in Memphis, Tennessee.<ref name="pc7" /> For several years, Phillips had been recording and releasing performances by blues and country musicians in the area. He also ran a service allowing anyone to come in off the street and for a modest fee, record themselves on a two-song vanity record. One young man who came to record himself as a surprise for his mother, he claimed, was Elvis Presley.<ref>''Newsweek'' August 18, 1997 "Good Rockin' page 54</ref>

Presley made enough of an impression that Phillips deputized guitarist [[Scotty Moore]], who then enlisted bassist [[Bill Black]], both from the Starlight Wranglers, a local western swing band, to work with the young man.<ref name="Good Rockin page 55">''Newsweek'' August 18, 1997 "Good Rockin' page 55</ref> The trio rehearsed dozens of songs, from traditional country to gospel.<ref>{{cite magazine|date=March 31, 2003|title=The King Finds His Voice|magazine=Time|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1004513,00.html|url-status=dead|access-date=May 22, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012181253/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1004513,00.html|archive-date=October 12, 2007}}</ref> During a break on July 5, 1954, Elvis started playing "[[That's All Right Mama]]", a 1946 blues song by Arthur Crudup, and Moore and Black joined in. After several takes, Phillips had a satisfactory recording. "That's All Right" was released on July 19, 1954.<ref name="Good Rockin page 55" /><ref>elvis.com</ref>

Presley's version of "That's All Right Mama" melded country, a [[genre]] associated with European-American culture, and rhythm & blues, a genre associated with [[African-American culture]]. The resulting track was denied airplay on both country radio stations and R&B stations for being "too black" and "too white", respectively. Country deejays told Phillips they would be "run out of town" for playing it.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}} When the song was finally played by one rogue deejay, Dewey Phillips,<ref name="pc7">{{Gilliland |url=https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc19754/m1/ |title=Show 7 - The All American Boy: Enter Elvis and the rock-a-billies. [Part 1] |show=7}}</ref> Presley's recording created so much excitement it was described as having waged war on segregated radio stations.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

All of Presley's early singles featured a blues song on one side and a country song on the other, both sung in the same genre-blending style.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bsnpubs.com |title=Both Sides Now Publications' Home Page |publisher=Bsnpubs.com |access-date=May 22, 2014}}</ref> Presley's Sun recordings feature his vocals and rhythm guitar, Bill Black's percussive slapped bass, and Scotty Moore on an amplified guitar. [[Slapping (music)|Slap bass]] had been a staple of both [[western swing]] and [[Hillbilly music|hillbilly boogie]] since the 1940s. Scotty Moore described his playing style as an amalgamation of techniques he had picked up from other guitarists over the years.<ref name="ReferenceA">Elvis Presley Classic Albums DVD by Eagle Eye Media EE19007 NTSC Peter Guralnick</ref> Presley's unique musical style rocketed him into the spotlight, and drew masses of followers.<ref>Helen McNamara, June 9, 1956, Issue Saturday Night Magazine</ref>

Nobody was sure what to call Presley's music, so Elvis was described as "The Hillbilly Cat" and "King of Western Bop". Over the next year, Elvis would record four more singles for Sun. Rockabilly recorded by artists prior to Presley can be described as being in the long-standing country style of Rockabilly. Presley's recordings are described by some as quintessential rockabilly for their true union of country and R&B, which can be described as the true realization of the Rockabilly genre. In addition to the fusion of distinct genres, Presley's recordings contain some traditional as well as new traits: "nervously up tempo" (as [[Peter Guralnick]] describes it), with slap bass, fancy guitar picking, much echo, shouts of encouragement, and vocals full of histrionics such as hiccups, stutters, and swoops from falsetto to bass and back again.<ref>Miller, Jim (editor). ''The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll'' (1976). New York: Rolling Stone Press/Random House. {{ISBN|0-394-40327-4}}. ("Rockabilly," chapter written by Guralnick, Peter. pp. 64–67)</ref><ref>''Sun Records: An Oral History'' by John Floyd 1998 Avon Books p. 29</ref>

In 1955, Elvis asked [[D.J. Fontana]], the drummer for the [[Louisiana Hayride]], to join him for future dates.<ref>''Newsweek'' August 18, 1997 "Good Rockin' page 57</ref> By that time, many rockabilly bands were incorporating drums, which distinguished the sound from country music, where they were then uncommon. In the 1956 sessions shortly after Presley's move from Sun Records to RCA Victor, Presley was backed by a band that included Moore, Black, Fontana, and pianist [[Floyd Cramer]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rockhall.com/inductees/floyd-cramer|title=Floyd Cramer|website=Rock & Roll Hall of Fame|access-date=January 8, 2018}}</ref> In 1956, Elvis also acquired vocal backup via the [[The Jordanaires|Jordanaires]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jordanaires.net/Elvis/tribute.htm|title=Elvis tribute|website=Jordanaires.net|access-date=May 22, 2014}}</ref>