
Episode 38: “Heartbreak Hotel” by Elvis Presley
A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs
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The Life and Times of Elvis Presley
Elvis's fourth set of sessions for RCA was fairly disastrous, and ended up with nothing that was usable. Elvis had been so busy promoting Heartbreak Hotel that he hadn't had any chance to prepare material. They spent the whole session working on that single track, and didn't manage to get a usable take recorded at all. But it reached number one on the country chart, and number three on the pop charts. It was hardly Heartbreak Hotel levels of success, but it was ok. I left over from the album sessions, it was, like Elvis's first single, a cover version of an Arthur Crudup song,. This one also gave DJ Fontana his first chance to
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