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Sun Studios session, evening of July 5, 1954

As they were about to give up and go home, Presley took his guitar and launched into a 1946 blues number, Arthur Crudup’s “That’s All Right”. Moore recalled, “All of a sudden, Elvis just started singing this song, jumping around and acting the fool, and then Bill picked up his bass, and he started acting the fool, too, and I started playing with them. Sam, I think, had the door to the control booth open, he stuck his head out and said, ‘What are you doing?’ And we said, ‘We don’t know.’ ‘Well, back up,’ he said, ‘try to find a place to start, and do it again.'” Phillips quickly began taping; this was the sound he had been
looking for.

Elvis and the Blue Moon Boys, Louisiana Hayride, Cristi Dragomir, Carol Golemon, 1956

Elvis and the Blue Moon Boys, Joy Drive-In Theatre, Minden, L.A., July 15, 1955

Elvis, Black and Moore then formed the Blue Moon Boys. Scotty Moore became the manager of the band. Beginning in July 1954, the Blue Moon Boys toured and recorded throughout the American South and, as Presley’s popularity rose, they toured the United States and made appearances in various Presley television shows and motion pictures. D.J. Fontana joined the group during a Louisiana Hayride tour in 1955.

Elvis and the Blue Moon Boys, Louisiana Hayride, Cristi Dragomir, Carol Golemon, 1956

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Elvis Presley’s version of “Mystery Train” released on August 20, 1955 produced by Sam Phillips at Sun Studios. Scotty Moore used a country lead break, and toward the end of the record is an echo of the 1946 “Sixteen Tons” by Merle Travis also borrowed the guitar riff from Junior Parker’s “Love My Baby” (1953), played by Pat Hare.

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“Heartbreak Hotel” was written by Tommy Durden and Mae Boren Axton.

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A newspaper article about the suicide of a lonely man who jumped from a hotel window inspired the lyrics. Axton presented the song to Presley in November 1955 at a country music convention in Nashville. Presley agreed to record it, and did so on January 10, 1956, in a session with his band, The Blue Moon Boys, the guitarist Chet Atkins, and the pianist Floyd Cramer.

David English – Elvis Presley during Jailhouse-Rock sessions at Radio Recorders, May 1957

In January 1956 Presley signed a $40,000 contract with RCA Records,  recording for the first time on
January 10, 1956, Mae Axton’s “Heartbreak Hotel”.

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”The teamwork of  Scotty Moore and other musicians turns the 1957 single and movie title song “Jailhouse Rock” into an “enduring smash for at least three reasons: the great walking bass, Scotty Moore’s invention of power chording, and D.J. Fontana’s drumming, which is halfway between strip joint rhumba and the perfect New
Orleans shuffle.”

Elvis Presley during Jailhouse-Rock sessions at Radio Recorders, April 30.1957

Scotty Moore reunited with Fontana and Presley for the NBC television special known as the ’68 Comeback Special. This special was the last time these musicians would play with Presley—minus Bill Black, who had died in 1965 of a brain tumor, and for Moore it was the last time he ever saw him.