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Elvis Presley · S2 E6
The Louisiana Hayride
The Grand Ole Opry says no. The Louisiana Hayride says yes. Elvis plays 50 Saturday nights in a row
October 2, 1954. Elvis Presley steps onto the stage of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, the most prestigious venue in country music, and the audience barely claps.
"Shake, Rattle and Roll / Flip, Flop and Fly" (Elvis Presley, Dorsey Brothers' Stage Show, CBS, 1956). The raw, wild energy that started at the Louisiana Hayride, brought to national television. This is what audiences in Shreveport saw every Saturday night: a performer who didn't just sing a song but physically attacked it.
Nashville Says No
The Grand Ole Opry books Elvis for one night based on the buzz around 'That's All Right,' but the Nashville audience doesn't know what to make of him. He's too loud, too wild, too different from the polished country acts they're used to. The Opry's talent coordinator, Jim Denny, reportedly tells Elvis he'd be better off going back to driving a truck. Two weeks later, Elvis walks onto the stage of the Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport, and the screaming starts before he even opens his mouth.
Sources
Guralnick, Peter. "Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley." Little, Brown, 1994.
Municipal Auditorium, Shreveport
705 Elvis Presley Avenue (formerly Crockett Street), Shreveport, Louisiana, home of the Louisiana Hayride from 1948 to 1960. Elvis first performed here on October 16, 1954, and kept coming back nearly every Saturday night for the next year.
Shake, Rattle and Roll, Elvis Presley (1956)
Big Joe Turner recorded the original as a jump blues in 1954, and Bill Haley cleaned it up for white radio. Elvis splits the difference: dirtier than Haley, faster than Turner, and delivered with a physical intensity that made TV cameramen nervous. The vocal is practically shouted, and Scotty Moore's guitar tears across the mix like it's trying to escape. This is the Hayride energy captured on camera: pure chaos that somehow holds together.
Sources
Jorgensen, Ernst. "Elvis Presley: A Life in Music." St. Martin's Press, 1998.
Guralnick, Peter. "Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley." Little, Brown, 1994.
TAP TO REVEAL: Where was the phrase 'Elvis has left the building' first spoken?
I Don't Care if the Sun Don't Shine, Elvis Presley (1954)
The B-side of Elvis's second Sun release (Sun 210), originally a pop number recorded by Dean Martin and Patti Page. Elvis turns it into a loose, swinging rocker that sounds like a kid who just found out he gets to perform on the radio every Saturday night. The playful energy here is pure Hayride: young, reckless, and having the time of his life.
I Don't Care if the Sun Don't Shine, Elvis Presley (1954)
"I don't care if the sun don't shine, I get my lovin' in the evenin' time." Read the lyrics while you listen. Dean Martin crooned this as a smooth pop ballad, and Elvis turned it into a house party. The transformation tells you everything about what was happening at the Louisiana Hayride: old songs, new energy, audiences losing their minds.
What nickname did the Louisiana Hayride earn for its track record of launching music careers?
The Louisiana Hayride: The File
Every major record label in America is calling Sam Phillips, and Phillips knows he can't hold on to Elvis forever. Next: the last Sun session, and a song called 'Mystery Train' that sounds like everything Elvis has learned distilled into two minutes.
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