Home » Music » Elvis Presley » Elvis: The Early '50s

Elvis: The Early '50s

© June Moore

The early '50s; A wonderful little place in time where young girls ran home from school, rolled up their faded jeans and turned on Dick Clark's American Bandstand. The weekends were spent at the local drive-in-movies or bopping at the high school sock-hops. Our favorite outfit of course, consisted of a poodle skirt, bobby socks and saddle shoes. Any spare time we had we spent at the local malt shop listening to Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly.

All we really knew about Elvis Presley was that we loved his music, and that he sang like "nobody else." Our interest grew when he was reported to be so bad, that when he performed in our home towns, most of us weren't allowed to go because our parents were told he was vulgar. Vulgar or not, all we knew was that we could not get enough of "Elvis the Pelvis." He was unchained, unplugged and undeniably the cutest, guy to ever walk on the face of the earth. The Elvis Presley phenomenon had begun.

Interestingly enough even Elvis had his share of rejections in the beginning. First he was told to "go back to truck driving" after performing at the Grand Ole Opry in 1954 by a producer of the show. Then in 1955 he was rejected by Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. But he wasn't about to give up. He was destined to take the world by storm, and nothing would stand in his way.

In January 1956, he began a series of appearances on Dorsey Brother's Stage Show. On his first appearance he sang "Shake/Rattle and Roll/Flip, Flop and Fly." You can catch this performance on the video Elvis:The Great Performances The Man and His Music.

On February 15, 1956 both "Mystery Train" and the flip side "I Forgot to Remember to Forget" had hit the # 1 billboards country chart.

On April 3, 1956 he performed "Heartbreak Hotel" and "Blue Suede Shoes." on the Aircraft Carrier U.S.S. Hancock in San Diego, California. The video, "The Lost Elvis Found," contains this famous "Milton Berle Show," in its entirety.

In 1956 Wink Martindale interviewed Elvis on his KLAC-TVs Dance Party . Elvis spent the interview leaning against a jukebox, while his hair flopped over his forehead sending new feelings through teen-age America. We just couldn't take our eyes off this gorgeous hunk of a man.

His first movie was released in 1956. Love me Tender would prove to the world that he could do more than just swing his hips and sing. Teenage girls swarmed to theaters and sat through showing after showing after showing. He totally mesmerized us with his boyish good looks as he sang "Love me Tender," "We're Gonna Move," "Let Me" and "Poor Boy," in his pure Elvis: '50's style.

The copyright of the article Elvis: The Early '50s in Elvis Presley is owned by . Permission to republish Elvis: The Early '50s in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.