The lyrics were based on a newspaper article about the suicide of a lonely man who jumped from a hotel window. Though the duo is responsible for penning the song, Elvis’s name would appear on the finished record as a third writer. Orrin Keepnews, one of the most respected producers in jazz history, played an integral role in the birth of modern jazz. Her inspiration in 1955 came from a news item about a recent suicide. "Heartbreak Hotel" was Elvis Presley's first hit -- and it was a strange one. Axton made a demo with a musician named Glenn Reeves, who played it the way he thought Elvis would. Then the schoolteacher sweetened the offer: She would give Elvis a writing credit if he agreed to make "Heartbreak Hotel" his first single with RCA. Axton's next step was to convince Elvis to record it. All the major labels wanted him, but RCA won the rights by buying out his Sun contract for an incredible $40,000. On January 10, 1956, two days after his 21st birthday, Elvis recorded his first five sides for the RCA label at RCA Studio B in Nashville. With their setting in mind, they worked on painting a picture of this languishing lodging. Still, I would like to point out to you that Mae parted from this life April 9, 1997 at the age of 82. If you come at the King, you best not miss. The gloomy song was markedly different from anything Elvis had done previously at Sun Records. At the time Elvis had done well, especially in the south, but hadn’t broken out nationally. I don’t think so. Mae's own son, Hoyt, would go on to a career as a country music singer. Young and old songwriters, musicians, actors, performers and entertainment professionals adored Mama Mae as well. Axton's old promoter buddy, Tom Parker, had recently signed on as Presley's adviser, so he arranged for Axton to meet Presley at the annual Country Music Disc Jockey Convention in Nashville. "This Place Hotel" (originally named "Heartbreak Hotel") is a song by the Jacksons released in 1980 and written and composed by Michael. Heartbreak Hotel was recorded at McGavock Street Studios. I better go back and record it again.”. This earned Elvis his first Gold record, given for sales of over one million singles. When Mae first met Elvis, she felt he had everything he needed to become a star except a hit song. At 41, she wasn't exactly young herself, but she understood young people, and she understood popular music. The song has a tempoof 98 beats per minute, making it notably slower than many of the other disco-based songs on the album. “On January 10, 1956, two days after his 21st birthday, Elvis recorded his first five sides for the RCA label at RCA Studio B in Nashville.” "Heartbreak Hotel" was Elvis Presley's first #1 hit, closely followed by many others, including "Hound Dog." Released in January 1956, it introduced a string of chart-toppers that sent the hip-shaking performer into the pop music stratosphere. By entering your email address you agree to receive emails from Shmoop and verify that you are over the age of 13. Record producer Bob Ezrin talks about his work on such seminal records as Alice Cooper’s Billion Dollar Babies, Pink Floyd’s The Wall and Lou Reed’s Berlin. It was released on January 27, 1956. She died in 1982. She came to Hamilton, MT and met in my office. During 1955, Elvis had gone from being a Memphis kid with a local reputation to a full-blown national phenomenon. (Photo by Don Cravens/The LIFE Images Collection via Getty Images/Getty Images). Nor are musicians the only ones who recognize the song's ongoing appeal to young people. Thank you again for the positive article! In other words, Axton was a teacher with some serious connections. Other executives at RCA weren’t sold on Elvis. For some perspective, that was enough money to buy about 20 new cars. This most troubling line would be massaged on the final recording, but even with the safer version, how would parents respond to a song about people "so lonely they could die"? Elvis is long dead (although Keith Richards still, somewhat miraculously, survives). If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it. Now allow us a tangent to describe just a little more of the crazy music mojo that hovered over Mae Boren Axton and the Jacksonville, Florida, school system. Heartbreak Hotel. Over the years, Skinner earned a reputation as a stickler for discipline, notably taking it upon himself to enforce the school's no-long-hair policy during the rebellious 1960s. "Heartbreak Hotel" is a song recorded by American singer Elvis Presley. They threatened that if Sholes couldn’t recoup the investment within a year, he’d be out of a job. While his brothers did not sing background vocals, they were credited with playing percussion on the album while brother Tito contributed a guitar solo. It’s common knowledge that the Colonel often insisted that his boy get cowriting credit in exchange for cutting a song. When presidential candidate Bill Clinton appeared on the Arsenio Hall Show in 1992 to woo the youth vote, he honked through a version of "Heartbreak Hotel" on his sax. “You need a million-seller and I’m going to write it for you,” she promised. All sides should be presented not just third party statements that have never been judicially proven. I’ve been researching the origin of this great song for the past four years and in 2016 I intend to publish my findings in “Walk A Lonely Street: Elvis Presley, Country Music & The True Story of Heartbreak Hotel”. A Rare Look Into A Different Side Of America's Most Bel... Groovy Photos Captured More Than Expected, 60 Vintage Photos That Will Make You Smile, Rare Photos Remind Us Of Our Nostalgic Past. Amazingly, a few out of touch places gave “Heartbreak Hotel” poor reviews, especially in the UK. Pepper’s Album Cover: Faces in the Crowd, The Story Behind “Mardi Gras Mambo” and “Iko Iko”, The Emotional Truth of Jonatha Brooke’s ‘My Mother Has 4 Noses’, Martin Luther King: Oh, You Beautiful Fool. “Heartbreak Hotel” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1995. "I'd never heard it before, or anything like it. Well, it's down at the end of lonely street, Well they've been so long on lonely street, “Get Smart” – A Lovable But Incompetent Hero. Mae’s own accounts of her early relationships with Tommy Durden and Elvis Presley can be read in her book, “Country Singers As I Know Em” a book that can be found in the Hendersonville, TN, Nashville, TN or Ada, OK libraries. ", In his earlier songs, Elvis had made teenage girls swoon with an invitation to "meet me in a hurry behind the barn." Their aim was to create a romantically charged funeral. In a 1982 interview, Durden said, “That song paid my rent for over 20 years.”. She boldly told Elvis “You need a million-seller and I’m going to write it for you.”. (Source) Bringing it all full circle, Lynyrd Skynyrd recorded a version of "Heartbreak Hotel" for their Endangered Species album in 1994. On April 3, he did the song on the Milton Berle Show. His biggest hit came in 1973 with "Boney Fingers," but he achieved even greater success as a songwriter, penning songs for Three Dog Night, Steppenwolf, and Ringo Starr. That’s where the famous lines, “broken-hearted lovers cry away their gloom” and “the desk clerk’s dressed in black” comes from. We like to think Elvis—or should we say Elvys?—would be proud. The echoey atmosphere punctuated by Fontana’s rim shots and Moore’s tinny guitar lent a despair to the track that perfectly matched Elvis’s heart-rending vocal. Here’s the story of “Heartbreak Hotel.”. The song may not have been what the record executives pictured, but it had the makings of a hit. ", Axton and her songwriting partner Tommy Durden decided that the lonely street deserved a hotel, and within an hour, they had written their classic. Axton took a demo of the song to Elvis while he was on the road. Durden brought the article to his friend and cowriter Mae Boren Axton. Released in January 1956, it introduced a string of chart-toppers that sent the hip-shaking performer into the pop music stratosphere. RCA told producer Steve Sholes to record something more upbeat. The label had expected more of the high-energy, hip-grinding rockabilly music that Presley had recorded at Sun—songs like "That's All Right" and "Good Rockin' Tonight." I knew her personally all of my life. Thank you for this enjoyable article. People in Heartbreak Hotel often overthink a lot, antisocial, or have a lack of emotion for the people they care about. It reminded him a little of Roy Brown’s “Hard Luck Blues.” He quickly added the song to his live repertoire, changing one line of the lyric, from “they pray to die” to “they could die.”. In the end, then, Axton's and Presley's instincts proved more sound than those of the RCA executives. The song has enjoyed a long life, infiltrating pop culture as the title of a best-selling novel, a major motion picture, an actual hotel (in Memphis of course), the name of several restaurants around the country and a journalist expression (when Lisa Marie Presley and Nicolas Cage split, CNN said “It seems to be heartbreak hotel for the couple”). "Heartbreak Hotel" also claimed the top spot on the country charts and reached #5 on the R&B charts. It was almost as if I'd been waiting for it to happen. Kellar Ellsworth was born and raised in Hawaii. I better go back and record it again.”. Producer Steve Sholes recalled, “They all told me it didn’t sound like anything, it didn’t sound like his other records, and I’d better not release it. At the time, Axton worked as a public relations secretary for Elvis’ manager, Colonel Tom Parker. She had been my mother’s English teacher, a family friend and when I was a young woman, my mentor. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. He wishes he could have grown up in the free love era! Weekly appearances on the Louisiana Hayride had turned Elvis into music's most promising young star (he hadn't made it to the Grand Ole Opry—they said he didn't have the stuff). JavaScript seems to be disabled in your browser. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. Elvis was going to buy his parents a house in Florida? I worked as her personal assistant for many years typing manuscripts about her life, song copy and fielding calls from celebrities that were huge fans of hers. I even had many conversations with Colonel Tom Parker himself, not about the King, but about the woman whom he adored, about what he was planning to buy Mae for Christmas, when could she visit Vegas and numerous random other things he wanted to share with us.

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