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including Jerry Lee Lewis and Roy Orbison. It was on Billboard's country chart for half a year and at # 1 for three weeks. It was # 2 on the R&B chart for four weeks. And it was # 2 on the pop chart for four weeks, the first record to chart at the top of all three charts.

Presley recorded it in January, 1956, but made RCA hold it back to keep from hurting Perkins or Philips.

Here is Carl Perkins':

Blue Suede Shoes ^{:43 :39}

Elvis Presley left Sun Records for RCA a month before Perkins recorded 'Blue Suede Shoes.' His new company wasn't sure what to do with him and began by re-issuing his Sun sides. His first RCA session was in a converted church in Nashville, and one of the songs was "Heartbreak Hotel." The song was released on January 28; by the end of March "it had sold close to a million copies and, in an unprecedented achievement, (mirrored only by Carl Perkins' "Blue Suede Shoes" at virtually the same time), was closing in on the top of all three charts: pop, country, rhythm 'n' blues."⁵² It was # 1 on the country charts for seventeen weeks; # 3 on the R&B charts and # 1 on the country charts for eight weeks. It was 1956's biggest single. Elvis Presley became the biggest entertainer of the 20th Century. Rock 'n' Roll music was here to stay. Here is:

Heartbreak Hotel ^:39

By the time of Presley's 1956 triumph, the elements of rock 'n' roll were all in place. New performers who appealed to the