Sun Session July 5th 1954

[Dan]

Hi,

Hoping some fans far more knowledgeable than me might be able to shed some light on one aspect of the That's Alright Mama Sun session that puzzles me.
I was listening to a recent episode of TCBCast and the hosts were discussing the recording of I Love You Because at the same session that produced That's Alright Mama.
Unless I'm mistaken the story I've always heard and read is that Elvis went to that session basically as a tryout for Sam Phillips, and that he spent hours going through pretty much every ballad, country song, and pop tune he could think of, but none of them impressed Sam. Then, as the story goes, almost by accident Elvis began fooling around with That's Alright Mama, which caught Sam's attention, and Sam then instructed Elvis, Scotty and Bill to lay down a track of that song.
But if Sam didn't care for anything Elvis had been doing up to that point, and if he was only looking for something unique like That's Alright Mama, then why did Sam go to the bother of recording the slow ballads I Love You Because and Harbor Lights at the same session? Is there more to the established story than we've ever been told? And if so, it begs the question, what other tracks might Sam have recorded Elvis trying out at the same session?
Was that entire session documented in any way? Could it be possible there are other unheard songs that were recorded that night that might turn up somewhere one day? Probably just wishful thinking on my part. But just hoping someone who knows more on the subject could throw some light on why Sam would go to the trouble of recording I Love You Because and Harbor Lights, when that type of music was clearly not what he was looking for from Elvis. And considering he still recorded those tracks anyway, could he have recorded others, and if so, what happened to those probable recordings?

[HillbillyCat]

Hi Dan and welcome to the forum! Without going too far afield, I think the first place to start would be Keith Flynn's Elvis page on this session: https://keithflynn.com/recording-sessions/540705.html

[Dan]

Hillbilly Cat, many thanks for the reply and link, I'll definitely check that out. Much appreciated

[Yin Yang]

Probably these songs were recorded so Elvis (and the band) could hear what they sounded like.
Then when Elvis did "That's all right" Sam decided to make an official recording and test it out with Dewey Phillips and perhaps other local DJ's.
WIth the positive public reaction Sam decided to release it as a record, so he needed a B-side and had Elvis record "Blue moon of Kentucky" in various styles and released the uptempo version.
When Elvis' contract was sold to RCA-Victor and the tapes were demanded, he gave some tapes he could instantly trace and only Sam knows if there are any that remained in the vaults and unreleased. And thrown out or re-used later.

[cadillac-elvis]

The Sun sessions are indeed interesting and probably alot of what is remembered there are conflated memories
and so forth to deal with so, much of what we know might just be speculation.

Remember Sam called Elvis the week before to try out the song, "without you", and Sam wasn't impressed, so
he said, "well, what can you do", so Elvis proceeded to sing every song that came to mind.

I've read that Sam had introduced Elvis to Scotty and Bill for a few months prior, and I tend to believe that story rather than
the story of , him introducing them and they do a session a week later.

So, when the july 5th session was planned, obviously That's all right was not planned and Elvis started just playing around with
it in between ballads. Sam said in response to the question of why he let Elvis sings ballads when that was not what he
was interesed in recording, his reply was, "I didnt' have the heart to stop him".

Of what they tried out, more than likely on June 27th, are many titles that have appeared in books probably going by
Sam's or Scotty's memeries. Some say that amounts to 30 to 40 songs. More than likely he didn't record them, but even if
he did, Sam admitted he recorded over what he didn't like to save tape.
"Tiger man" was probably recorded over and that was from the "Good rockin" tonight" session more than likely.

I still think there is hope that one day someone will come forward with more tapes of those early Sun sessions.