In the late 1940s radio was broadcasting blues, rhythm and blues, and gospel music, exciting listeners across North America and inspiring young, white, working-class musicians—especially those in locales with African-American populations—to mix Black music styles with the country music styles with which they were already familiar (western swing, hillbilly boogie, bluegrass, and honky tonk). The result was initially labeled country-and-western rhythm and blues, but it became known as rockabilly despite the mostly derogatory connotation of the word hillbilly.

In July 1954, in his first session for Sam Phillips’s Sun label of Memphis, Tennessee, Presley recorded two songs that would lay the foundation for rockabilly: “That’s All Right,” written by Mississippi bluesman Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup, and a hopped-up version of “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” a mid-tempo waltz by Bill Monroe, the creator of bluegrass. Presley sang with African-American inflections and more emotional intensity than country singers of the time. He accompanied himself on strummed acoustic guitar, Scotty Moore provided fills with electric guitar, and Bill Black added propulsive upright bass as the trio established rockabilly’s quintessential instrumentation. Following this blueprint, rockabilly records typically featured a wildly expressive vocalist tearing into a bluesy song while flailing away on an acoustic guitar. Backing was provided by a bass played in the slapping style, frequently supported by a drummer; an electric guitarist filled the gaps and took an energetic solo; and the whole sound was enlarged by a studio effect called slap-back, or “Sun echo,” developed by Phillips.

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