Tag: That’s All Right

This is the song that started it all for Elvis. After trying many songs on the same night and not coming up with much, Scotty Moore, Bill Black, and Elvis Presley started to play this song and Sam Phillips knew he had recorded something different. Sam didn’t know what to think of the song…or how to classify it. That ni

On June 7, 1954, WHBQ Radio in Memphis became the first station to play this song when their disc jockey Dewey Phillips aired it on his Red, Hot and Blue show the day after Elvis recorded it.

Phillips was a pioneering DJ who played a mix of black and white music that attracted a large and diverse following. Elvis recorded “Blue Moon of Kentucky” the next night and it was the B side to this single.

The song didn’t chart nationally in 1954 but it was re-released in 2004 and peaked at #3 in the UK Charts. Scotty Moore’s solo in this record is fantastic. It’s simple but very effective.

From Songfacts

This was Elvis’ first single, and it came out of his first recording session. Elvis was a 19-year-old truck driver when he came to Sun Records in Memphis to record a song as a gift for his mother. Sun was owned by Sam Phillips, who his assistant, Marion Keiser, knew was looking for a “white man who sounds like a black man.” She alerted her boss to Elvis, and Phillips arranged some sessions with some local session players: bassist Bill Black and guitarist Scotty Moore.

The trio tried a few different songs in various styles, finally hitting the mark when they informally started playing Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup’s obscure 1946 blues song “That’s All Right,” in a fast, innovative style. Phillips liked what he heard and had them record the song this way. This uptempo Blues variation led some music historians to consider it the first rock song.

Presley told Rolling Stone magazine, “I said if I ever got to the place where I could feel all old Arthur felt, I’d be a music man like nobody ever saw.”

This song was only the second time Elvis and lead guitarist Scotty Moore played together. It was also the first song Elvis played in concert: On July 30, 1954, Elvis opened for Slim Whitman in Memphis’ and performed “That’s All Right, Mama,” “Blue Moon Of Kentucky,” and “I’ll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin’).” >>

According to Scotty Moore, this session wasn’t so smooth. He says Elvis started jumping around, “acting the fool,” which drew the ire of Sam Phillips, who owned the label and recording studio. Phillips made them start over, and it was this second take that was the keeper.

I slipped in the Beatles version in…

That’s Alright Mama

Well, that’s all right, mama
That’s all right for you
That’s all right mama, just anyway you do
Well, that’s all right, that’s all right
That’s all right now mama, anyway you do

Mama she done told me
Papa done told me too
‘Son, that gal your foolin’ with
She ain’t no good for you
But, that’s all right, that’s all right
That’s all right now mama, anyway you do

I’m leaving town, baby
I’m leaving town for sure
Well, then you won’t be bothered with
Me hanging ’round your door
Well, that’s all right, that’s all right
That’s all right now mama, anyway you do