Elvis Presley famously got his start at Sun Records in Memphis, but headed to Nashville to begin recording there, after RCA bought his contract in 1955. During his first session, he recorded “Heartbreak Hotel,” and over the next two years followed it up with six other chart toppers.
In 1957, RCA opened Studio B, where so many of music’s biggest stars would record, it become known as the Home of 1000 hits. Over the next dozen years or so, Elvis recorded some 240 songs here.
If you tour Studio B today, you’ll hear stories of Elvis and see the spot on the floor he’s said to have designated as the best place to stand when recording vocals.
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Many of Nashville’s greatest session musicians played with Elvis. The singer made it challenging because he preferred to record at night instead of during the day.
“He was nocturnal,” guitarist Jerry Kennedy recalls. “He loved staying up all night. That’s when he did his best work. We would show up at 6pm and not get finished until 5 or 6 o’clock the next morning. Elvis would usually send out for food and bring in a whole box of cheeseburgers around 12 o’clock. Then, we’d take a little break for that, and the rest of the time we’d all be playing and making music.”
Kennedy, who would go on to become a hit record producer and longtime label head at Mercury Records, played with Elvis on “Good Luck Charm,” “Devil in Disguise,” the soundtrack for Kissing Cousins, and others.
“Elvis was classy, professional, and obviously a great talent,” he says. “He was a lot of fun to work with.”
Harmonica great and multi-instrumentalist Charlie McCoy also has terrific memories of working with Elvis in Nashville.
“The first time I got to work with him was on the soundtrack for Harum Scarum,” McCoy recalls. “The movie company had changed the recording dates, and the musicians Elvis used in the past were already booked. The movie company rep told Scotty Moore (Elvis’ guitarist) to cancel the other recording session, because this was Elvis. But Scotty told them that’s not how they did things in Nashville. You don’t cancel one artist to work with another.”
Moore promised to assemble another group of exceptional musicians for the session and McCoy was among them. McCoy admits he and the others weren’t sure what to expect during their first meeting with Elvis since had never worked with this group and had hoped to return to the musicians he’d worked with previously.
“When he walked through the door, the first thing I noticed was he took command of the room. Johnny Cash was like that, too. Elvis immediately walked over to each one of us, shook our hand, and said, ‘Thank you for helping me.”
As an aside, McCoy says in his opinion, Harum Scarum was not necessarily one of Elvis Presley’s best movies. And perhaps Elvis felt that, too.
“In the middle of it, he said to all of us, ‘Hey guys, I know these songs aren’t so great, but let’s do ‘em as good as we can.”
After the Harum Scarum session was complete, those original musicians returned to work with Elvis for future sessions, but McCoy, who could play multiple instruments, was hired by Moore to stay on board as a utility man.
“And because of that,” he says, “I went to LA with Elvis three times and did a whole bunch more sessions. I went out and did Spinout, Speedway, and Paradise Hawaiian Style and became a regular fixture on the Elvis sessions which I was very pleased with because he was absolutely one of the nicest guys I ever worked with.”
McCoy was there for what became known as the “marathon sessions” in 1970. Over the course of five days, Elvis recorded more than thirty songs that would end up on multiple albums.
He has some interesting recollections of time spent with Elvis. One involved the singer’s well-known love for the sport of karate.
“During the marathon sessions, the acoustic guitar player was a guy named Chip Young,” McCoy says. “And we were all standing around one night, and Chip asked Elvis, ‘If someone came at you with a gun, what would you do?’ Because he knew Elvis was a karate expert.”
McCoy remembers Elvis responding with, “I’ll show you,” and then calling bodyguard Red West into the room. West was armed and Young asked him to unload it before Elvis proceeded, which West did.
McCoy describes what happened next.
“So, West comes at Elvis, Elvis makes this karate move, and the gun goes flying across the studio and sticks into the back of Chip’s acoustic guitar. It’s stuck and just hanging there.”
McCoy says Elvis immediately offered to replace the guitar, to which Young replied, “I’ll tell you what, I don’t need another one. I’ll just have the only guitar in the world with a hole made by Elvis.”
McCoy remembers another session where Elvis and the Jordanaires were all standing around and talking during a lull in the action. McCoy heard Elvis say to Gordon Stoker, “Hey, let me ask you a question. Do I sound like those guys that imitate me?”
Elvis was a mega-star and yet, there are many stories of his kindness, consideration, and generosity.
“He is one of only two artists who ever gave me a gold record,” McCoy says. McCoy is a Country Music Hall of Famer who has played on many, many gold records throughout his career. Elvis game him his first, and the Steve Miller Band gave him his second. “Elvis gave it to me for his album The Wonderful World of Christmas.”
McCoy remembers recording that album and thinking it was strange at the time because while it was the middle of summer with temperatures in the 90s outside, inside, there was a Christmas tree all set up in the studio. Elvis wanted to give the session a holiday feel.
McCoy, like so many others who knew and worked with Elvis, was devasted to hear the news of his death on August 16, 1977. Elvis was only 42 years old, a music giant gone far too soon.
“I’ll tell you what,” Mccoy says, “the world will never see an artist of his stature again.”
