Elvis Presley July 2, 1956 RCA

Elvis Presley July 2, 1956 RCA; hand-drawn portrait of 21 year old Elvis recording on said date at RCA Studios NYC, slapping the back of his leather-clad Martin D28 while recording “Hound Dog”.

Presley’s Martin D28 leather-tooled covering was made by Marcus Van Story, who worked for the O.K. Houck Piano Company as a repairman.
Presley got the idea because he admired a similar guitar cover used by Hank Snow and decided he needed one.

At RCA Studios, Elvis recorded “Hound Dog” and “Don’t Be Cruel”, which were released by RCA as two sides of one single.
This was the only time both sides of a single reached number one on the charts. The session at RCA Studios was also the last time Elvis would record in New York.

Elvis brought his own crew: Scotty Moore on guitar, DJ Fontana on drums, Bill Black on bass, and the four Jordanaires (Gordon Stoker, Neal Matthews, Hoyt Hawkins, Hugh Jarrett) as back-up singers. Shorty Long was hired as the piano player.

For the first song, “Hound Dog,” Elvis was set up in his booth with two microphones, one for his voice and the second for his leather-covered guitar.
He didn’t actually play the guitar, but he slapped the back of it. The session went something like this: “You ain’t nothing but a hound dog, crying all the time” -thump- “you ain’t never caught a rabbit and you ain’t no friend of mine” – thump.
The thump was picked up by the second microphone.

“Hound Dog” took 31 takes. “Don’t Be Cruel” took 28 takes.
Within a few weeks “Hound Dog” had risen to #2 on the Pop charts with sales of over one million.
“Don’t Be Cruel” (written by Otis Blackwell in 1956) went on to become Presley’s biggest selling single recorded in 1956, with sales over six million by 1961.

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