Elvis Presley Unravelled #21
Elvis with Scotty Bill and DJ
All of Elvis’s five singles at Sun Records received a label credit for Scotty and Bill. Then came DJ Fontana – Elvis with Scotty Bill and DJ. That’s guitarist Scotty Moore, upright bass player Bill Black and drummer DJ Fontana.
25 February to 3 March
…guest feature on the Mop Tops and The King show
Steve Chelmsford presents the Mop Tops and the King show. As the name suggests, the show is all about the music of The Beatles and Elvis Presley.
Every other week, author of Rock’n’Roll Unravelled Derek Shelmerdine presents The Beatles Unravelled, alternating with Elvis Presley Unravelled.
The podcast provides a 1-minute look at a little bit of Beatles and Elvis Presley history.
The MTK Network broadcasts the show, with 100 radio stations around the world. Consequently, the Mop Tops and the King is playing somewhere in the world, every day of the week.
Show Schedule for times and radio stations.
(Times on the Show Schedule are Eastern Time. The UK is five hours ahead.)
Listen Again – PODCAST
Elvis with Scotty, Bill and DJ
Elvis’s first trio of regular musicians…
Scotty Moore, Bill Black and DJ Fontana
Elvis visited to Sam Phillips’ Memphis Recording Service to record his second private recording on 4 Jan 1954. At the end of the session, Phillips told Elvis that if he found a song he thought would suit him, he’d call him back to record it.
As good as his word, six months later Sam Phillips invited Elvis back to the studio. He introduced Elvis to guitarist Scotty Moore and upright-bass player Bill Black. As a result, Elvis recorded his first single on Sun Records, That’s All Right. The label credited all three artists, “Elvis Presley, Scotty and Bill”. Subsequently, this label credit appeared on all five of Elvis’s Sun singles.
Scotty Moore and Bill Black had previously played together in Doug Poindexter’s Starlite Wranglers. As a result of meeting Elvis, they parted company with Doug Poindexter to form the Blue Moon Boys. With their new band they backed Elvis on his live performances.
Subsequently, in the summer of 1955 drummer DJ Fontana joined the Blue Moon Boys. The core backing band was in place, Elvis with Scotty, Bill and DJ.
In the 1960s British frontman Wayne Fontana, of Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders fame, took DJ Fontana’s surname as his stage name.
Extracts from Rock’n’Roll Unravelled
All of the Elvis Presley Unravelled and The Beatles Unravelled podcasts are based on extracts from Derek Shelmerdine‘s book Rock’n’Roll Unravelled.
Elvis Presley – Extracts taken from Rock’n’Roll Unravelled
This are only a small fraction of the stories, discographies, and other and associated Elvis Presley information in the book.
About the book – Rock’n’Roll Unravelled
Rock’n’Roll Unravelled tells the story of rock’n’roll from its roots to mid-1970s punk.
In addition to the music, the book looks at the social factors influencing the music. The Vietnam War, fear of communism and Civil rights struggle certainly helped to shape the sounds of the time.
Rock’n’Roll Unravelled has three sections: Timeline, What Happened Today and Pocket Histories.
What Happened Today – looks at the events happening on a day-by-day basis.
Consequently, as the review in Record Collector magazine puts it in its review of the book, “Shelmerdine has made a painstaking effort to documented pretty much every event that will prove significant in shaping popular music”.
Moreover, the cross-referenced events in What Happened Today create the other two sections, Timeline and Pocket Histories.
Timeline – consequently provides a date-order listing of all of the events in What Happened Today.
Pocket Histories – further extends the cross-referencing to build a picture of the lives and times of the artists, bands and events in What Happened Today.
TO BUY – a signed copy of Rock’n’Roll Unravelled
For all the previous editions of…
The Beatles Unravelled and Elvis Presley Unravelled
First Broadcast: Elvis with Scotty, Bill and DJ
25 February to 3 March 2022, on the MTK network.
