ELVIS AT THE BEGINNING THE STORY
Elvis Presley was already well advanced on his meteoric rise to fame when he reported to RCA ’ s makeshift studio in Nashville on January 10 , 1956 , in a building that it shared with the Methodist TV , Radio and Film Commission . The room was big and high-ceilinged , with an arched roof that created a tendency , in the words of RCA ’ s Nashville coordinator , guitarist Chet Atkins , for bass notes to “ roll around for a long time .” The record company ’ s well-liked Specialty Singles Division head Steve Sholes (“ Specialty Singles ” included country and western , gospel , and rhythm and blues ), who had been instrumental in purchasing Elvis ’ contract from Sun Records in Memphis a month and a half earlier , had flown in from New York to supervise the session . Elvis would be working with his usual trio , Scotty Moore on guitar , Bill Black on bass and , for the first time in the studio , drummer D . J . Fontana , whom he had met and started playing with on the Louisiana Hayride , Shreveport , Louisiana ’ s answer to the Grand Ole Opry . Chet Atkins had hired piano player Floyd Cramer , who had recently moved to Nashville from Shreveport , where he , too , had accompanied Elvis frequently on the Hayride , and Atkins , a guitar virtuoso , would be adding a rhythm-guitar part himself . In addition , at Elvis ’ request , Sholes had arranged to have a group of back-up singers brought in , Gordon Stoker , leader of the Jordanaires , the quartet Elvis had specifically requested , and Ben and Brock Speer of the Speer Family gospel quartet , whom RCA had recently signed .
It should have been a celebratory moment , but Steve Sholes was visibly ill-at-ease . He had gone out on a limb in advocating for the purchase of Elvis ’ contract for what amounted to $ 40,000 ,
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