Hi, this is Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley - The Truth About Me (Monologue)
Elvis Presley - Interview (Jacksonville, Florida)
Elvis Presley - Interview (WMPS, Memphis)
Elvis Presley - Interview (Witchita Falls, Texas)
Elvis Presley - Interview (Lacrosse, Wisconsin)
Elvis Presley - Interview (Little Rock, Arkansas)

I first got into the music of Elvis Presley on a school trip to Central Australia. At a truck stop, for two dollars, I picked up a cassette of his early recordings. Much to the chagrin of many, who seemed to prefer NKOTB or some similar pap, this tape got a fair airing on the bus stereo system. Of course I already knew of him from his movies, which were shown back-to-back every weekend afternoon on Australian television in the eighties, but this was my introduction to his tunes. I don't have the cassette to hand but it was probably all his Sun recordings, which is a damn good place to start with Elvis.

From shortly after he made those recordings, for today's post, I'm featuring a handful of interviews he did while on tour. Elvis' ascent to fame was rapid. From the release of his first single in July, 1954 to him being the top selling recording artist in the US was just a couple of years. These interviews take place when he was right on the cusp of full blown superstardom. He is a phenomenon. He just gets bigger and bigger with every record he releases, every town he plays and every television appearance. I find it fascinating to listen to a young, and relatively unguarded, Elvis speak humbly and politely, answering all sorts of personal questions, while a storm is brewing around him of a size that no one could possibly fathom.

The first selection is also the latest. It was recorded in Hollywood on August 29, 1956 and included on a gold 7" flexidisc that came out with a magazine called Elvis Answers Back - The Truth About Me. He's incredibly frank and open; when he talks about being an only child it's spine tingling.

Just over one year earlier, Elvis was interview by Mae Axton in Jacksonville. Axton would go on to co-write Heartbreak Hotel and do some PR for The Colonel (Tom Parker), but in 1955 she was still a high school teacher. Elvis is as polite as ever but he's fibbing when he says that he "never did sing anywhere in public in my life, till I made this first record".

Bob Neil, a WMPS radio DJ and Elvis' first manager, recorded this interview with Elvis and his band (Scotty Moore and Bill Black) to promote an upcoming show in Texarkana. It's a casual affair with Elvis referring to the interviewer as "Bobert" and Black simply plugging the Elvis photographs he will be selling for a quarter at the show. Neil mentions another rising star, Johnny Cash, who's apparently "a swell young fella".

In April, 1956, for radio station WNOE in Wichita Falls, Jay Thompson recorded this interview where Elvis recalls how he was driving a truck and studying to be an electrician before getting mixed up in the music business. At the interview's conclusion Elvis thanks the interviewer and all the wonderful people who have been buying his records and coming out to see his shows... "that's really what makes, anybody, is the people, you can make 'em or break 'em".

From Elvis's dressing room at the Sawyer Auditorium in Lacrosse, Wisconsin comes the next selection. Elvis sounds a little tired as he goes through the motions of answering the same questions. After four minutes you can hear the hoards of screaming girls trying to break the door down.

Just two days later, on May 16, 1956, Elvis recorded an interview with Ray Green in Little Rock, Arkansas. Green asks him how it feels to be "right up there on top... right with the best of them." According to Elvis, "it feels pretty good".

YouTube - Elvis' first TV appearance
Belfast Telegraph - Elvis weird and wonderful facts