In June 1956, a young man from Tupelo, Mississippi named Elvis Presley generated nationwide buzz with his appearance on The Milton Berle Show. The night’s most memorable moment came during Presley’s cover of “Hound Dog”, a blues number written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and recorded in 1952 by Big Mama Thornton. The burgeoning superstar sparked a moral panic with his hips alone, leaving teenage girls swooning and a Catholic publication declaring, “Beware of Elvis Presley.”
Controversy often equals ratings, however, and NBC’s The Steve Allen Show booked Presley for a July 1, 1956 appearance. Nonetheless, Allen was etermined to assuage the fears of concerned parents. So he introduced a “new Elvis”—dressed in formal attire and serenading a basset hound wearing a top hat. (Yes, really.)
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Furious and humiliated by the performance, Presley headed to New York City’s RCA Victor Studio the following day (July 2, 1956). With the backing of the popular Jordanaires quartet, he recorded “Hound Dog”, “Any Way You Want Me” and “Don’t Be Cruel”.
Elvis Presley Sent a Message With “Hound Dog”
According to his longtime guitarist, Scotty Moore, Elvis Presley channeled his frustration into the snarling, rollicking version of “Hound Dog” that most fans know and love today.
It reportedly took 31 takes to perfect, but when all was said and done, this much was clear—Presley would never be censored again.
He declared as much at an outdoor concert in Memphis a few days later. There, Presley announced, “You know, those people in New York are not gonna change me none. I’m gonna show you what the real Elvis is like tonight.”
“The real Elvis” would prove to be a massive hit. Released July 13, 1956, “Hound Dog” simultaneously topped the U.S. pop, country and R&B charts. It spent 11 weeks at number one on the pop charts—a record that stood for 36 years.
It Drove Crowds Crazy
“Hound Dog” marked the beginning of Elvis Presley’s status as a cultural phenomenon.
As Moore later recalled, “He’d start out, ‘You ain’t nothin’ but a Hound Dog,’ and they’d just go to pieces. They’d always react the same way. There’d be a riot every time.”
That wasn’t a metaphor. The National Guard sent 50 members to Presley’s September 1956 performance at the Mississippi–Alabama Fair and Dairy Show to help maintain crowd control.
“Hound Dog’s” success surprised everyone—including Presley, who once referred to it as “the silliest song he’d ever sung.”
The King of Rock and Roll reckoned he might sell “10 or 12 records right around his folks’ neighborhood.”
In fact, “Hound Dog” sold more than 10 million copies.
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