ELVIS

Elvis’ Early Years

and Musical Beginnings

1935-57

“Elvis was named after his father, Vernon Elvis Presley, and Mr. Presley’s good friend Aaron Kennedy. “Aron” was the spelling the Presleys chose, apparently to make it similar to Garon”, the middle name of Elvis’ twin. Toward the end of his life, Elvis sought to change the spelling of his middle name to the traditional and biblical “Aaron”.
In the process he learned that official state records had inexplicably listed it as “Aaron” anyway, and not “Aron” as on his original birth records. “Aaron” is the spelling his family chose for his tombstone, and it’s the spelling his estate has designated as the"official" spelling when the middle name is used to-day.
In a two-room house in Tupelo, Mississippi at 4:35 AM on Thursday, January 8, 1935, Elvis Aaron Presley was born, the second boy in a set of identical twins. The first, Jessie Garon, was stillborn. Elvis would be the only child of Gladys Lov Smith Presley and Vernon Elvis Presley. The Presleys and their relatives were a close-knit, hardworking family that attended the first Assembly of God Church where young Elvis loved to sing gospel. He also grew up listening to the black blues men in the neighborhood and to country music on the radio.
Early on, Elvis displayed notable singing talent. In the fall of 1945, ten-year-old Elvis entered the youth talent contest at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair & Dairy Show held in Tupelo. He sang “Old Shep” and won the second place prize of $5.00 and free admission to all the fair’s rides. Months later, Elvis received his first guitar, an inexpensive model purchased by his mother at the Tupelo Hardware Store. The Presley family lived in several different houses in Tupelo over the years, and Vernon and Gladys worked from job to job, trying to achieve a better standard of living. In late 1948, they packed all their belongings into a trunk and strapped it onto the top of their car, and moved a couple of hours’ drive north to Memphis, Tennessee where they hoped opporunities would be greater.

Through much of Elvis’ school years, he and his parents lived in public housing in the poor neighborhoods of north Memphis. Elvis attended Humes High School and worked odd jobs to help support his family. The teenage Elvis bought his clothes on Beale Street and absorbed the black rhythm & blues and gospel music he heard there. He also enjoyed attending all-night gospel sings downtown.
He continued to sing and play guitar, wore his hair long (by that day’s standards) and slick, with sideburns. During his senior year at Humes High School, Elvis won the annual school talent show, performing “Keep Them Cold Icy fingers off of Me” and receiving more applause than any other contestant.
After graduation on June 3, 1953, Elvis went to work at the Parker Machinists shop.
That summer, Elvis nurtured his hopes of a singing career when he stopped by Sun Records producer Sam Phillips’ Memphis Recording Service.
Phillips wasn’t in, but his assistant Marion Keisker helped Elvis cut a $4.00 demo acetate record of “My Happiness” and :That’s When Your Heartaches Begin”. Elvis reportedly gave this record to his mother as an extra, belated birthday present (her birthday was April 25). Elvis then began driving a delivery truck for Crown Electric Company and attended electrician’s school at night.
In January 1954, Elvis reportedly made another $4.00 acetate record at Sun. This time producer Sam Phillips was in, and seemed mildly interested in Elvis’ raw talent. That summer Phillips was looking for a singer to record “Without You”, and Marion Keisker remembered Elvis and suggested to Sam Phillips that he give him a chance at it. Elvis did not perform the tune to Phillips’ satisfaction.
But, after Elvis teamed up with local musicians Scotty Moore on lead guitar and Bill Black on bass, everything clicked on July 5, 1954, when the guys broke into a sped-up version of Arthur Crudup's blues song "That's All Right"

This shot from a 1955 Florida performance is classic early Elvis. It was used on the cover of his first album, “Elvis Presley”.

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