June 1954

[Graeme]

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June 5th 1954, Saturday

Often ignored, though not always over-looked, is a proposed recording session where Elvis once again went into Memphis Recording Service and paid (the price had gone up a little) to record another acetate.
It's ignored as there is doubt over the documents authenticity. Its provenance seemingly lacking.
If it happened it re-focused Elvis' abilities in front of Sam. I'm sure if it did happen that was Elvis' only intention.
The final "if" is that if true, it seems to have worked. Before the end of the month he was showing Sam what he could do.

June 17th 1954, Thursday

Paycheck from Crown Electric

June 26th 1954, Saturday

The career of Elvis Presley could have ended before it began. The abortive attempt to record "Without you" on June 26 would have killed any interest from many a record company. However, Sam Philips maintained an open mind, guitarist Scotty Moore kept asking Sam for opportunities, and fledgling singer Elvis never lost sight of his dream.

Elvis Presley came into the studio on Saturday, 26 June 1954. He was 19 years old; a good-looking boy with acne on his neck, long sideburns, and long, greasy hair combed in a ducktail that he had to keep patting down. But what struck Sam most was his quality of genuine humility – humility mixed with intense determination. He was, innately, Sam thought, one of the most introverted people who had ever come into the studio, but for that reason one of the bravest, too. He reminded Sam of many of the great early blues singers who had come into his studio, "his insecurity was so markedly like that of a black person".
They worked on the number all afternoon, with Elvis accompanying himself inexpertly on his own beat-up little guitar. When it became obvious that for whatever reason the boy was not going to get it right – maybe "Without You" wasn't the right song for him, maybe he was just intimidated by the damn studio – Sam had him run down just about every song he knew. He didn't need much of an invitation, and he didn't finish every song, but what Sam sensed was a breadth of knowledge, a passion for the music that didn't come along every day.
"I guess I must have sat there at least three hours," Elvis told Memphis Press- Scimitar reporter Bob Johnson in 1956. "I sang everything I knew – pop stuff, spirituals, just a few words of [anything] I remembered." Sam watched intently through the glass of the control room window – he was no longer taping, and in almost every respect this session had to be accounted a dismal failure, but still there was something. . .
Every so often the boy looked up at him, as if for approval: was he doing all right? Sam just nodded and spoke in that smooth, reassuring voice. "You're doing just fine. Now just relax. Let me hear something that really means something to you now." Soothing, crooning, his gaze locked into the boy's through the plate-glass window he had built so that his eyes would be level with the performer's when he was sitting at the control room console. He didn't really know if they were getting anywhere or not, it was just so damned hard to tell, especially when you were dealing with someone who was obviously unaccustomed to performing in public.
Then again, it was only from just such a person – pure, unspoiled, as raw, as untutored as anyone who had ever set foot in this studio – that he felt he could get the results he was looking for. He knew this boy, he knew where he came from, he could intuit all the things they had in common in background and sensibility . What you could never tell was whether it would ever add up to anything. He sent the boy on his way, exhausted

June 30th 1954, Wednesday
Two members of the Blackwood Brothers and a friend of the group died today when their plane crashed. The news devastated Elvis.

2 DIE IN FIERY PLANE CRASH.

Clanton, Ala. (AP) - Two members of a well known southern singing group and the son of a local banker died last night in a fiery plane crash that brought Chilton County's annual Peach Festival to a tragic end.
The death of R. W. BLACKWOOD, 32, and BILL LYES, 33, both of Memphis, broke up a vocal quartet known through the Mid-South as the Blackwood Brothers. Also killed was 18-year-old JOHN OGBURN, son of Clanton banker J. Archie Ogburn, who founded the gala festival.
The two singers were among several groups scheduled to take part later last night in events climaxing the five-day celebration. The deaths brought the show to a premature close.
The twin-engine plane hit a bump on the runway at the small municipal field, spectators said, and flopped over and exploded in flames. Intense heat kept rescuers from recovering the bodies immediately.