Lecture 4: Elvis Presley performs “That’s All Right” and “Blue Moon of Kentucky” live on the popular variety show Louisiana Hayride on October 16, 1954. Elvis first recorded the songs on the Sun label on the July 5, 1954 recording sessions. Originally written by African-American bluesman Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup (and recorded by Crudup in 1946), Elvis’s version of “That’s All Right” was released July 19, 1954, and immediately sold tens of thousands copies. Word of mouth among teenagers was that Elvis was a singer like nobody else. The single also enjoyed lots of airplay on Dewey Phillips’ (no relation to Sam) R&B show on the Memphis radio station WHBQ. It was one of the early hits that helped catapult him to the heights of fame, lifting him from a popular regional act to something much bigger.
