When RCA Victor purchased Elvis Presley’s recording contract from Sam Phillips and Sun Records for $40,000 in 1955, many believed the new form of music called rock ‘n’ roll was a passing fad. This “flash in the pan” from Memphis, Tennessee, was beginning to cause a sensation everywhere he performed, but the majority of adults saw this new style of music as a short-lived phenomenon.
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As Presley and The Blue Moon Boys were making noise throughout the South, it was hard to imagine their mix of hillbilly country and rhythm and blues breaking through to a nationwide audience. Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, and Steve Sholes, head of RCA’s country division, felt differently. Parker famously told Presley, “Son, right now you’ve got a million dollars worth of talent. A year from now, you’ll have a million dollars.” He wasn’t wrong. Let’s take a look at the story behind “Heartbreak Hotel” by Elvis Presley.
Origin
Tommy Durden, who played steel guitar in the Florida band Smilin’ Jack Herring and Swingbillys; Mae Boren Axton, a publicist for singer Hank Snow, who was also managed by Colonel Tom Parker; and disc jockey Glenn Reeves were also involved with the writing of “Heartbreak Hotel. Reeves recorded a demo of the song in Presley’s style, but ultimately refused writing credit as he didn’t believe anything would come out of the tune. Presley agreed to record the song if the writers would share a piece of the credit. The record label credited the song to Axton-Durden-Presley.
Well, since my baby left me
Well, I found a new place to dwell
Well, it’s down at the end of Lonely Street
At Heartbreak Hotel
Where I’ll be, I’ll be so lonely, baby
Well, I’m so lonely
I’ll be so lonely, I could die
Inspiration
When the song was originally released, RCA promoted the idea that Durden was inspired by a story in a Miami newspaper about a man who jumped to his death from a hotel window, leaving a suicide note that simply said, “I walk a lonely street.” Further investigation shows no such news story. In 2016, Rolling Stone magazine reported the story of painter/criminal Alvin Krolik, who wrote an unpublished autobiography including the line, “This is the story of a person who walked a lonely street.” He was shot and killed in a failed robbery attempt near El Paso, Texas. The August 25, 1955 edition of the El Paso Times covered the story with the headline, “Story Of Person Who Walked Lonely Street.”
Although it’s always crowded
You still can find some room
For broken-hearted lovers
To cry there in their gloom
Be so, they’ll be so lonely, baby
They get so lonely
They’re so lonely they could die
Their First Session in Nashville
On January 10, 1956, Presley entered the RCA Victor studio in Nashville and recorded “I Got a Woman” and “Heartbreak Hotel.” The young kids from Memphis were in a different world. Pianist Floyd Cramer and guitarist Chet Atkins joined guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black. In 2006, Moore told the BBC’s Spencer Leigh, “It was a larger studio than Sun’s and more regimented. They called everything by a tape number. We would sit around at Sun, eat hamburgers, and then somebody would say, ‘Let’s try something.’”
Now, the bellhop’s tears keep flowin’
And the desk clerk’s dressed in black
Well, they’ve been so long on Lonely Street
Well, they’ll never, they’ll never look back
And they get so, they get so lonely, baby
Well, they are so lonely
They’re so lonely they could die
A Far Reach
RCA released “Heartbreak Hotel” on January 27, 1956. Six weeks later, it reached the charts. On May 5, the song reached the No. 1 slot on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed there for seven weeks. Presley had arrived. He was no longer just a regional sensation. Not only was he exposing his music to American teenagers, but he was influencing future rockers around the world.
In The Beatles Anthology, John Lennon shared his memory of discovering the song: “When I first heard ‘Heartbreak Hotel,’ I could hardly make out what was being said. It was just the experience of hearing it and having my hair stand on end. We’d never heard American voices singing like that. They always sang like Sinatra or enunciated very well. Suddenly, there’s this hillbilly hiccuping on tape echo and all this bluesy stuff going on. And we didn’t know what the hell Presley was singing about, or Little Richard, or Chuck Berry. It took us a long time to work out what was going on. To us, it just sounded like a noise that was great.”
In 2005, Paul McCartney told The Sunday Times: “It’s so full of mystery, and it’s never lost that for me. The echo is just stunning. When The Beatles were recording, we’d often ask [producer] George Martin for ‘the Elvis echo.’”
Well, now, if your baby leaves you
And you got a tale to tell
Well, just take a walk down Lonely Street
To Heartbreak Hotel
Where you will be, you will be lonely, baby
Well, you will be lonely
You’ll be so lonely, you could die
“Something so Stark”
Keith Richards wrote in his 2010 autobiography Life: “That was the first rock and roll I heard. It was a totally different way of delivering a song, a totally different sound, stripped down, no bulls–t, no violins and ladies’ choruses and schmaltz, totally different. It was bare right to the roots that you had a feeling were there but hadn’t yet heard. I’ve got to take my hat off to Elvis. The silence is your canvas, that’s your frame, that’s what you work on; don’t try and deafen it out. That’s what ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ did to me. It was the first time I’d heard something so stark.”
Although it’s always crowded
But you still can find some room
For broken hearted lovers
To cry there in their gloom
Where they get so, they get so lonely, baby
Well, they’re so lonely
They’ll be so lonely they could die
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Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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