more than anyone had ever paid for a popular recording artist , and there was widespread skepticism of the wisdom of his acquisition . ( As the trade magazine Billboard put it , the prevailing industry view at this point was : “ Anyone who buys [ Elvis Presley ] will get stuck .”) In addition , Sholes had found it virtually impossible to communicate with the just-turnedtwenty-one-year-old singer , sending him demo versions of ten different songs that he thought would be suited to Elvis ’ style ( they weren ’ t – “ Shiver and Shake ” and “ Wham Bam Ziggety Zam ” seemed particularly unsuited ) and not even getting the courtesy of a reply . Nor was he reassured when Elvis showed up at the studio for the two o ’ clock session wearing pink pants with a blue stripe and , without any reference to the songs Sholes had sent him , launched into an exuberant version of “ I Got a Woman ,” a number-one r & b hit for Ray Charles the previous year , which Elvis had featured in his live performance ever since the day it came out . Even more to Sholes ’ consternation , Elvis flung himself into the performance almost as if it were a live show , getting off mic sometimes as a result and playing to an audience that wasn ’ t there . Chet Atkins , a phlegmatic man who did not profess to be a big fan of the new music , was so taken by the unusualness of the performance that he called his wife and told her to come down to the studio right away . “ I told her she ’ d never see anything like this again , it was just so damn exciting .”
Sholes , for his part , was more perplexed than excited . RCA had not signed this new talent to do r & b covers , however uninhibited . The company ’ s whole idea , frequently expressed to his manager , Colonel Tom Parker , in meetings and correspondence , was to break him in the much more lucrative pop field with pop and novelty songs , presumably like “ Wham Bam Ziggety Zam ,” that the general ( and here you can read “ older ” and “ white ”) public might be more drawn to . And it couldn ’ t have helped his
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