Elvis Aaron Presley (8 January 1935 – 16 August 1977), also known as “The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll”, was an American singer, song producer and actor, who began his music career at Sun Records in the spring of 1954 when Sam Philips recorded Elvis performing several of Elvis’ favourite songs with Scotty Moore (guitar) and Bill Black (bass). One of these covers was a country and western song, “Blue Moon of Kentucky”.

Before Sam Philips sold Elvis’ contract to RCA in 1956 for $35,000 they had recorded six two-sided singles. Each of these recordings featured a country and western song on one side and a rhythm and blues song on the other. One of the reasons Elvis was so popular was because of his ability to merge attributes of what was perceived to be “white” (C&W) and “black” (R&B) music. An example of this is evident in Elvis’ hit song “Heartbreak Hotel” which reached #1 not only ... read more »