Heartbreak Hotel
"Heartbreak Hotel" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by Elvis Presley | ||||
B-side | "I Was the One" | |||
Released | January 27, 1956 | |||
Recorded | January 10, 1956 | |||
Studio | RCA Victor, Nashville | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 2:08 | |||
RCA Victor | ||||
Songwriter(s) | ||||
Producer(s) | ||||
Elvis Presley singles chronology | ||||
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Official audio | ||||
"Heartbreak Hotel" (audio) on YouTube |
"Heartbreak Hotel" is a song recorded by American singer
The single topped the Billboard Top 100 for seven weeks, Cashbox's Pop singles chart for six weeks, and the Country and Western chart for seventeen weeks as well as reaching No. 3 on the R&B chart, becoming Presley's first million-seller, and one of the best-selling singles of 1956. "Heartbreak Hotel" achieved unheard of feats as it reached the top 5 of Country and Western, Pop, and Rhythm 'n' Blues charts simultaneously.[2] It was eventually certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Presley had first performed "Heartbreak Hotel" during a live show in December 1955 during a tour of the Louisiana Hayride; it gained popularity after his appearance on Stage Show in March 1956. It became a staple of Presley's repertoire in live appearances, last performed by him on May 29, 1977, at the Civic Center in Baltimore.
In 1995, "Heartbreak Hotel" was inducted into the
Background and writing
The song was written in 1955, by
Axton and Durden give different accounts of how the song was written. Durden's account is that he had already written the song and performed it with his band the Swing Billys before he presented it to Axton.[7] Axton's account is that Durden had written only a few lines of the song and asked her to help him finish it.[3][8] She says that the report of the suicide "stunned" her, and she told Durden, "Everybody in the world has someone who cares. Let's put a Heartbreak Hotel at the end of this lonely street".[9] They were interrupted by the arrival of Glenn Reeves, a local performer who had previously worked with Axton. The duo asked Reeves to help with the song, but after hearing the title he remarked that it was "the silliest thing I've ever heard", and left them to finish it themselves.[10] The song was written within an hour,[11] and Durden recorded it onto Axton's tape recorder.[10] Reeves returned, and after hearing the song he was asked to provide a voice demo for Axton in the style of Elvis Presley. Reeves obliged, but once again turned down the offer of a writing credit for his input.[10]
Axton approached the popular singing duo
Rumors had been circulating in the press for several weeks that Presley, who had begun his career at Sun Records, was ready to move to RCA Victor to help launch him nationally. Axton played the demo to him in his room at the Andrew Jackson Hotel on November 10, 1955.[12] Upon hearing the demo, Presley exclaimed "Hot dog, Mae, play that again!", and listened to it ten times, memorizing the song.[16] After signing with RCA on November 21, 1955, Presley accepted Axton's offer of a third of the royalties if he made the song his first single on his new label.[16][17] Presley performed the song for the first time in Swifton, Arkansas, on December 9, 1955, and declared to the audience that it would be his first hit.[18]
Recording
"Heartbreak Hotel" was the second song Presley recorded at
Almost immediately Sholes discovered a problem while recording Presley. RCA Victor had always insisted their performers stay still as they sang so the microphone would pick up the vocals; even the slightest tilt of the head would result in missing sound. Sholes had told Presley to stand on a painted X on the floor, telling him "Whatever you do, don't move". During the recording of "I Got a Woman", Sholes noticed that Presley's voice and guitar were not always being picked up by the microphone. Presley explained to Sholes that he had to "jump around to sing it right. It's something that just happens—just a part of the way I sing". Sholes arranged for the whole studio to be re-miked so that Presley's voice and guitar could be picked up from anywhere in the studio, and recording continued.[22]
It’s so full of mystery, and it’s never lost that for me. The echo is just stunning. When the Beatles were recording, we’d often ask George Martin for "the Elvis echo".
– Paul McCartney, 2005[23]
As well as
In an interview, Durden conceded that he did not recognize his song after Presley had made the changes to it in the studio, including the tempo, phrasing, lyrics, and overall sound.[27] In subsequent recordings, these major modifications to the existing material became a normal procedure for Presley who took over the role of producer, although Sholes was still credited. Phillips said Sholes "was not a producer. Steve was just at every session."[28]
Release and reception
"Heartbreak Hotel" was released as a single on January 27, 1956, with
Presley made his national television debut on January 28, appearing on CBS' Stage Show, starring Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey. As Stage Show's ratings had been slipping, producer Jack Philbin agreed to have Presley on because he was relatively cheap at $1,250 (about $14,116 in 2023); after looking at a photograph of the singer, Philbin exclaimed, "He's a guitar-playing Marlon Brando!"[29] Despite the single having been released only a day before to coincide with Presley's national television debut, the Dorsey brothers did not allow Presley to perform it on their show because it didn't work well in rehearsals.[30] For his second appearance, on February 4, Presley was again aware that he could not perform "Heartbreak Hotel". However, at his third appearance on Stage Show a week later, Sholes pressured CBS to give consent.[31] Subsequently, Presley and his band performed "Heartbreak Hotel" with borrowed instruments (their own were being driven to Florida in preparation for a tour) with the backing of the Dorsey Brothers' orchestra.[32]
On February 22, the song entered the Billboard pop chart at number 68, and the Country and Western chart at number nine. Within two months, "Heartbreak Hotel" reached number one on both charts.
The song also became Presley's first charting single in the United Kingdom. It made its debut on the
Personnel
- Elvis Presley – lead vocals, acoustic guitar
- Scotty Moore – electric guitar
- Chet Atkins – acoustic guitar
- Bill Black – double bass
- D. J. Fontana – drums
- Floyd Cramer – piano
- Bob Farris – engineer
Legacy
Presley performed the song during most of his live shows between 1956 and 1977,
In a 1975 interview,
When I first heard "Heartbreak Hotel", I could hardly make out what was being said. It was just the experience of hearing it and having my hair stand on end. We'd never heard American voices singing like that. They always sang like Sinatra or enunciate very well. Suddenly, there's this hillbilly hiccuping on tape echo and all this bluesy stuff going on. And we didn't know what Elvis was singing about ... It took us a long time to work what was going on. To us, it just sounded as a noise that was great[43]
George Harrison described "Heartbreak Hotel" as a "rock n roll epiphany" when in 1956, at age 13, he overheard it while riding his bike at a neighbor's house. Some have said that "Heartbreak Hotel" turned that well-mannered schoolboy into a guitar-crazed truant who would audition for John Lennon's Quarrymen the following year.[44]
Then, "Since my baby left me"—it was just the sound ... That was the first rock and roll I heard. It was a totally different way of delivering a song, a totally different sound, stripped down, no bullshit, no violins and ladies' choruses and schmaltz, totally different. It was bare right to the roots that you had a feeling were there but hadn't yet heard. I've got to take my hat off to Elvis. The silence is your canvas, that's your frame, that's what you work on; don't try and deafen it out. That's what "Heartbreak Hotel" did to me. It was the first time I'd heard something so stark.[45]
Led Zeppelin's lead singer Robert Plant stated that the song "changed his life." He recalled hearing it for the first time when he was 8 years old:
It was so animal, so sexual, the first musical arousal I ever had. You could see a twitch in everybody my age. All we knew about the guy was that he was cool, handsome and looked wild.[46]
Critic Robert Cantwell wrote in his unpublished memoir Twigs of Folly:
The opening strains of "Heartbreak Hotel", which catapulted Presley's regional popularity into national hysteria, opened a fissure in the massive mile-thick wall of post-war regimentation, standardization, bureaucratization, and commercialization in American society and let come rushing through the rift a cataract from the immense waters of sheer, human pain and frustration that have been building up for ten decades behind it.[47]
The song was mentioned in the chorus of Patty Loveless's 1988 single "Blue Side of Town".
President
In the
In 2015, "Heartbreak Hotel" was named as The #2 Song of the Rock Era in the book The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era: 1955-2015.[54]
Early cover types
Radio humorist
Connie Francis recorded the song for her 1959 album Rock 'n' Roll Million Sellers; this album also features "Don't Be Cruel". Country singer Johnny Cash parodied the song in 1959 on the television show Town Hall Party, imitating Presley's characteristic crib and hip movements.[56][57] Before the performance Cash explained that it was "an impersonation of a rock and roll singer impersonating Elvis, is what this really is".
Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn noted that, at first as The Quarrymen then later as the Beatles, the group performed "Heartbreak Hotel" live from 1957 until 1961 (in Liverpool then later in Hamburg and elsewhere).[58] It is unclear whether the lead vocal was by John Lennon or Paul McCartney or both. A recorded version has not been forthcoming. However, McCartney (using Bill Black's upright bass) did a version for a documentary Elvis - Viva Las Vegas, which also appears on DVD.
Later renditions
Part of the original personnel of the 1956 recording released their own versions, Chet Atkins recorded it for the 1963 album The Guitar Genius,[59] and also, Presley's lead guitarist Scotty Moore recorded the song for his 1964 album The Guitar that Changed the world.[60] Willie Nelson and Leon Russell had a number one cover version in 1979 on the country charts, it was Russell's only number one hit on the charts.[61]
Paul McCartney later also made another cover of the song in Others who have covered the song include Ann-Margret, who would later co-star with Presley in the 1964 motion picture Viva Las Vegas,[64] The Cadets,[65][66] Delaney Bramlett, Justin Timberlake, Cher, Roger Miller, Bob Dylan,[67] Bruce Springsteen,[68] John Cale,[20] Merle Haggard,[69] Tom Jones,[70] Dax Riggs,[71] Roger McGuinn,[72] Suzi Quatro,[73] Van Halen,[74] Jimi Hendrix,[75] Neil Diamond,[76] Lynyrd Skynyrd,[20] Guns N' Roses,[77] Tones on Tail,[78] and Queen + Adam Lambert.[79] In Canada, a version by "The Scoundrelz" reached #60 in 1966,[80] and another by "Frijid Pink" reached #38 in 1971.[81]
In the 1992 film Honeymoon in Vegas, Billy Joel made a version of "Heartbreak Hotel" and "All Shook Up",[82] while the same year in True Romance, actor Val Kilmer performed an a cappella version.[83] Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman covered the song in a medley with Prince's "Kiss", for the 2006 Warner Bros. film Happy Feet.[84] The song was also featured in Alvin and the Chipmunks' 1990 television special Rockin' Through the Decades, as part of the fifties medley and its soundtrack and again for the 2007 video game Alvin and the Chipmunks.[85]
Charts
Elvis Presley
Year | Chart | Peak Position |
---|---|---|
1956 |
1 1 1 5 | |
1956 |
UK Singles Chart |
2 |
1971 |
UK Singles Chart |
10 |
1996 |
UK Singles Chart |
45 |
Willie Nelson and Leon Russell
Year | Chart | Peak Position |
---|---|---|
1979 |
1 |
Certifications
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
United Kingdom (BPI)[37] | Silver | 200,000‡ |
United States (RIAA)[35] | 2× Platinum | 2,000,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
See also
- List of number-one singles of 1956 (U.S.)
- Billboard Year-End
- List of number-one country singles of 1979 (U.S.)
References
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