Heartbreak Hotel (Elvis Presley Song)

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Label of the single Heartbreak Hotel by Elvis Presley, German first pressing, 1956

Heartbreak Hotel is a rock 'n' roll sung by Elvis Presley that made the southern artist a nationally known star. The song, performed in the authentic shout blues style, was Elvis Presley's first pop hit. On the list of the 500 best singles of all time by the music magazine Rolling Stone, the song ranks 45th.

Emergence

It wasn't until November 22, 1955 that Elvis Presley switched from Sun Records to RCA Records. For January 10, 1956, producer Steve Sholes had a first recording session with Elvis in Nashville, Tennessee, in which the "Sun Records sound" was to be imitated. As an accompaniment were Bill Black (bass), Scotty Moore (guitar), Floyd Cramer (piano) and DJ Fontana (drums) are available. A total of five songs were written on January 10 and 11, 1956, including the bluesy Heartbreak Hotel as a second recording , composed by Mae Boren Axton (the mother of Hoyt Axton ) and the guitarist Tommy Durden. Axton worked for Elvis manager Colonel Tom Parker as local public relations manager in Florida and analyzed the situation: “Elvis is still missing the million-seller. I'll write it. ”To the inspiring newspaper passage“ I walk a lonely street ”, Axton then built the 8-bar blues about the singer abandoned by his girlfriend and the metaphor of a hotel for broken hearts within 22 minutes. Sholes used the studio entrance to generate the audible vocal echo, which reinforced the bluesy impression.

Sales success

The recording released by RCA on January 27, 1956 with the B-side I Was The One was Elvis' first single on the new record label. With several appearances in the nationally broadcast television show Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey Stage Show on January 28th and in February 1956 Elvis achieved notoriety all over the United States with this title. Elvis presented the song on the Milton Berle Show on April 3rd, and by April 21st, 1956, it reached # 1 on the pop charts, where it stayed for 8 weeks. It even held number 1 in the country charts for 17 weeks and reached number 3 in the rhythm & blues charts. With two million copies, the single became the best-selling title of 1956 . The hit was the trigger for one of the most successful careers for a pop music interpreter. In Germany, the original version of the song was released in September 1956 by Teldec on the RCA label. In 2006 the track was re-released and again reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot Singles Sales Charts. In total, the title , which has received a BMI Award , has been covered more than 47 times.

German cover versions

As usual in the 1950s, the title was first published for the German market as a cover version with German text. On July 5, 1956, Ralf Bendix recorded a German version produced by Nils Nobach in the Electrola studio on Maarweg in Cologne under the title Hotel zur Einsamkeit (Electrola EG 8609; 17-8609). The record label Philips followed with the version by Werner Overheidt (Philips 44 857 H; 344 857 PF) recorded on September 12 in the Bruno Hall in Cologne . Both recordings, the arrangements of which differ significantly from each other and from the original, were accompanied by Adalbert Luczkowski and his orchestra. In December 1959 a version by Ferry Graf was released on the Austrian record label Mastertone, accompanied by Will Fantel and the Rockers (Mastertone ML 7019). In Switzerland, this version was also released on an EP on the Disco Club label. In all cases it was only about the German versions; it was not intended to approach the original interpreters, who were still largely unknown in Germany. The German text was penned by Hans Bradtke .

  • Ralf Bendix: Hotel for loneliness , shellac record 1956.

  • Ralf Bendix: Hotel for loneliness , single 1956.

  • Werner Overheidt: Hotel for loneliness , shellac record 1956.

  • Werner Overheidt: Hotel for loneliness , single 1956.

  • Ferry Graf: Hotel for Solitude , single 1956.

  • Ferry Graf: Hotel for Solitude , EP 1956/57.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ For the interpretation of the lyrics cf. Werner Faulstich: Heartbreak Hotel - the tension between protest and adaptation . In: ders .: From rock 'n' roll to Bob Dylan. Tübingen lectures on rock history. Part 1: 1955-1963 . Rockpaed Verlag, Gelsenkirchen 1983, pp. 73-76.
  2. ↑ a b Fred Bronson, The Billboard Book Of Number One Hits , p. 10.
  3. ↑ Axton was not an inexperienced author, because a total of 93 titles are registered for her at BMI: BMI entry Mae Boren Axton ( Memento of the original from December 8, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / repertoire.bmi.com
  4. ^ Entry by Coverinfo.de
  5. ↑ Jürgen Brückner and Richard Weize : Discography in the booklet of the CD Through the Years by Ralf Bendix , Bear Family Records (BCD 15795), 1994.
  6. ↑ Dietrich Heitz and Richard Weize : Discography in the booklet of the CD When I lose you by Werner Overheidt , Bear Family Records (BCD 17103), 2010.
  7. ↑ Walter Hilbrecht: Text accompanying the CD When I lose you by Werner Overheidt , Bear Family Records (BCD 17103), 2010.