Prior to Sun 209, my vote for a crossover Sun artist would be Harmonica Frank Floyd and his July 1954 release:George Smith wrote:drjohncarpenter wrote:One rumour I have yet to confirm is the possibility that Elvis ran down some of the blues he loved, along with the pop and country numbers we all know about, at the formal audition for Sam Phillips on the afternoon of June 26, 1954. This would include "That's All Right."
The notion makes sense, as the ballad Sam played for him, "Without You," was clearly sung by an African-American. And when Elvis could not nail down a good recording the teenager allegedly played a little bit of everything to show the producer he was worthy of a second look. Why would the blues be left out? Elvis knew the Sun output to date, and it was heavy on blues in the past year, with records by Little Milton, James Cotton, Billy 'the Kid' Emerson, Doctor Ross, Little Junior's Blue Flames, Rufus Thomas, Jr and the Prisonaires.
And, if true, it would have been just like Sam to keep quiet during the Monday evening "rehearsal on tape" that he set up with Elvis, Scotty Moore and Bill Black. Phillips was looking for chemistry, for the moment, and it had to happen without any meddling.
All valid points, John, thank you.
The question of what Elvis actually played for Sam is a crucial one. I'd generally assumed that Elvis did indeed play pretty much everything he knew in his audition: pop, country, blues, Gospel, black, white. But this doesn't seem to join up with Sam's reaction to hearing the Crudup number on the Monday night.
You're quite right about Elvis knowing the Sun catalogue, I'm sure about that. I don't know my Sun history as well as I should (or as well as Elvis did, for that matter) but I presume that the RnB material was all sung by black artists and the hillbilly material was all sung by white artists. Is there a Sun precedent for an artist stepping over the fence in either direction?
Elvis was an odd-looking flashy-dressing white country boy with a guitar: why would anyone assume he knew / liked / sang the blues?
I don't have many answers but I have lots of questions.
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Harmonica Frank, "Rockin' Chair Daddy," (Sun 205, July 1, 1954)