It's January thirtieth, and on this day in 1956… Elvis Presley walked into RCA’s New York studio at 155 East 24th Street for his first official recording session with the label that had just signed him. With the pressure high and RCA executives skeptical about whether “Heartbreak Hotel” would succeed, producer Steve Sholes made a strategic call. He had Elvis cut a cover of Carl Perkins’s “Blue Suede Shoes” as insurance—though he promised Sun Records he wouldn’t release it as a single to protect Perkins’s version.
Backed by his regular band and joined by pianist Shorty Long—on break from a Broadway musical—Elvis recorded four songs between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. That studio session not only marked a key moment in his leap to a national audience, but also planted the seeds for one of his most iconic tunes.
