Bill Randle and Electric Elvis

"Shake, Rattle and Roll"

Bill Randle and Electric Elvis

I'd like to discuss probably the most dramatic debut of any popular singer of the 20th century - the first appearance by Elvis Presley on U.S. television. This debut began the year when Elvis went from a regional rockabilly singer to a national megastar of rock n' roll.

I was privileged to work for the disc jockey who introduced Elvis on that historic debut telecast in 1956. What follows is my personal account of that event and also about the disc jockey who set it up….

First, it needs to be explained about the first television appearances of Elvis. Beginning in late 1954 on radio station KWKH in Shreveport, Louisiana, Elvis and the Blue Moon Boys (Scotty Moore and Bill Black) appeared on a program called Louisiana Hayride. This program was later moved to television. Elvis made his television debut on this program on March 5, 1955. Even though Elvis would eventually appear fifty times on this program, it was still a regional telecast so it didn't have as much impact as the national ones the following year. [1]

During 1956 Elvis made eleven appearances on national television. It was those programs that changed him from his early "Hillbilly Cat" nickname into what I call "Electric Elvis."

It all began on January 28, 1956. This is how it was described by RCA staff employee Chick Crumpacker:

The theater was sparsely filled with shivering servicemen and Saturday nighters, mostly eager for refuge from the weather. Outside groups of teenagers rushed past the marquee to a rollerskating rink nearby. [2]

Crumpacker couldn't even give away free tickets for that night's program. Stage Show was a half hour program produced by comedian Jackie Gleason as the first half hour of his hour-long program on Saturday nights. The second half was devoted to Gleason's popular comedy, The Honeymooners. But Gleason wasn't the host of Stage Show. He chose instead two famous brothers from the Big Band days, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey. The ratings for this program were slipping so producer Jack Philbin was in search of new talent. A popular disc jockey suggested a new singer to him. So Philbin took a chance and signed up the singer and his group. Though probably nobody would have guessed it, on that night there was a passing of the musical torch from pop crooners, like Eddie Fisher or Perry Como, to a new type of singer. Yet, the two Big Band musicians didn't introduce this young singer. That honor was given to the disc jockey who had recommended him. His name was Bill Randle. He had a popular radio program on WERE in Cleveland and also a weekly radio show on WCBS in New York. That night, Randle was dressed very conservatively with a dark suit and tie and he wore thick black-rimmed glasses. He looked more like a bank executive than a disc jockey. His introduction of the young singer was short and to the point:

We'd like at this time to introduce to you a young fellow, who like many performers, Johnnie Ray among them, come out of nowhere to be overnight very big stars. This young fellow we met for the first time while making a movie short. We think tonight that's he's going to make television history for you. We'd like you to meet him now - Elvis Presley. And here he is! [3]

Out walked a swaggering young guy with a guitar. He had long sideburns and was dressed like a gangster. He looked dangerous. Immediately, he heated things up by singing a medley of two raw rhythm & blues songs by Charles E. Calhoun and Lou Willie Turner which had been made popular by Big Joe Turner: "Shake, Rattle and Roll" and "Flip, Flop and Fly." After that medley, Elvis also sang the Ray Charles song, "I Got A Woman." [4]

Many have wondered why Elvis didn't sing "Heartbreak Hotel" for his television debut. He had just recorded it for RCA and it had been released on January 17. Randle told me RCA executives wanted to wait until they could gather more publicity for a big buildup of their risky new singer and his first single. The song was finally performed on his third appearance on Stage Show on February 11. In her book, Patricia Jobe writes that Col. Tom Parker was so excited about the "Heartbreak Hotel" record that "he devoted himself to the promotion (and guardian) of Elvis's career." She goes on to classify Parker as "a fast-buck master packager and peddler." She also quotes a newspaper story which reports that Parker told Elvis: "We do not socialize. Our great social interest is money." [5]

As he sang these songs on that January night in 1956, Elvis exploded on stage with his backup boys. Elvis certainly heated up that cold January night. As I watched him perform on our small black & while television set, I knew immediately this guy was really different. He had a magnetic way about him that was very appealing. I became one of his many early fans.

He was born in 1923 in Detroit, Michigan. At the age of only 16 he began his long career in broadcasting. Eventually he introduced Big Bands on live radio broadcasts and ran a nightclub. To help control the crowds at his nightclub, he hired a kid then known as "Detroit Red." Years later, this kid would be better known as - Malcolm X. In 1949, Randle moved to Cleveland and by 1955 he had 60 per cent of the local radio audience. [6]

Twenty years later, in 1975, I worked for Randle as his teaching assistant at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. I taught my first class on American popular music that included some Elvis songs. I told the students the story of Elvis being introduced and promoted by Randle. Most of them didn't believe me. So I read his 1973 newspaper column. He told how he had introduced Elvis on Stage Show and also included him in his movie short. He also wrote that he had written the first newspaper article on Elvis. [7]

In his column, Randle mentioned "this was months before there was any public recognition of him." He goes on to write - "taking the country by storm will be a sensational young singer from the Nashville-Atlanta-Memphis area. He's 19 year old Elvis Presley, whose style is a combination of hillbilly nasalities, rock n' roll, Johnnie Ray, and a peculiar sound all his own." Randle adds that in his column he wrote this prediction about Elvis: "Watch him soar." [8]

Randle wrote in his newspaper article that Elvis was wearing a red suit and white suede shoes when he made the movie short. He looked different even in those early days.

Randle told me he paid Elvis only $90 for making the movie short. He also said that Elvis was a real stud who used his car for sexual favors with his female fans. I asked Randle how he had found out about Elvis and he told me he learned about him from Tommy Edwards, who had a hillbilly show on the same radio station in Cleveland. Elvis's manager at that time was Bob Neal from Memphis, with some assistance provided by Tom Parker. That was obviously before Elvis made it big the following year with Parker as his only fulltime manager.

Bill Randle was right. Elvis did make "television history." It seems that Randle had played a major role in getting the Elvis bandwagon on the road to stardom. This is a fact is seldom recognized by Elvis biographers. Randle also told me that Elvis asked him if he would be his manager instead of Bob Neal. Randle turned the offer down because he didn't want to spend the grueling days on the road. Then he told me how Col. Tom Parker managed to manipulate his way into becoming Elvis's manager. He laughed when he told me how shrewd Parker was and how he learned his trade as a carnival huckster. Yet Randle was also something of a shrewd promoter too. He knew what his teenage audience liked and compiled statistics on which records were popular. He found that out when he first heard the Sun Records by Elvis and then later in live performances at the Circle Theater in Cleveland.

What about Elvis at that time in his career? I believe he was already assured of his ability as a performer since he had been perfecting his style on the road for more than a year. If you look at that first appearance on Stage Show, you'll witness a young confident singer with his own unique style. He would enhance his popularity with five more appearances on Stage Show (February 4, 11, 18; March 17, 24) and would go to become a superstar by the end of that year.

On that historic television debut of January 28, 1956, the spotlight was first shown on the two people who had made it happen - the promoter and the performer - disc jockey Bill Randle, and the new singing sensation, Electric Elvis.

[1] This information from the fact-filled book, The Ultimate Elvis - Elvis Presley Day By Day, by Patricia Jobe Pierce (Simon and Schuster, 1994).

[2] The quote is from the notes by Colin Escott included with the 4 CD set, Elvis - 50th Anniversary (RCA/BMG). The original compilation was produced in 1985 by Joan Deary and Greg Geller. The digitally remastered CD reissue was coordinated and produced by Ernst Mikael Jorgensen and Roger Semon in 1998.

[3] Randle's introduction is included in the film, THIS IS ELVIS (1981), available on video, and also on the 50th anniversary 4 CD set. Randle mentioned "a movie short." It was titled, "The Pied Piper of Cleveland: A Day in the Life of a Famous DJ," and was filmed on October 20, 1955. The star attractions were Bill Haley & His Comets, Pat Boone, and the Four Lads. After the movie short was made for Universal, it was never released and sat in their vault for decades. According a story in People magazine in 1993, Bill Randle sold the rights to the movie short for a reported $1.9 million to a British production company. They in turn sold the film to Polygram for $2.2 million. It's not known why it hasn't been issued as yet.

[4] All the early Elvis television appearances are on Elvis - 50th Anniversary (RCA/BMG). "Shake, Rattle and Roll" was one of the earliest crossover hits with black r & b to white rockabilly singers. According to Joel Whitburn's book, Pop Memories, 1890-1954 (Record Research, 1986), Big Joe Turner had the first recorded version to hit the charts on August 14, 1954. It reached a peak position of No. 22. Bill Haley & His Comets did a version that was released just a week after Big Joe Turner's record. The Comets version reached a peak position of No. 7 and was on the charts for twenty-seven weeks. It was a cleaner version than the raunchy one sung by Big Joe Turner. Elvis must have been aware that the two Turner hits would make a dramatic debut on national television. And it sure did.

[5] Jobe, page 107. The newspaper quote is from the Chicago Daily News, June 8, 1972.

[6] This biographical information is from a 2 CD set, Let Zion Move: Music of the Shakers (Rounder Records, 1999). Bill Randle produced the original recordings of Shaker music in 1961. According to Arnold Shaw's book, The Rockin' '50s (Hawthorn Books, 1974), Randle was very excited when he received a tremendous response from teen listeners on his radio show after playing "Mystery Train" and "I Forgot to Remember to Forget" in 1955. Because of this fan response, Randle arranged for Elvis to appear in the movie short later that year.

[7] The article was in the Cleveland Press, October 1, 1955. [8] Bill Randle's column mentioning Elvis appeared in The Sun Press, Cleveland Heights, Ohio, January 11, 1973