That's not all right

Memphis is calling Monday, the date in 1954 Elvis recorded his first song, the 50th birthday of rock 'n' roll. Others have lots of objections to that.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - As far as Elvis Presley songs go, That's All Right, his first record, wasn't among his biggest hits. The 1954 song wasn't a hit at all.

Yet Monday, 50 years to the day the song was recorded, media and fans will converge on Memphis for a blowout celebration to commemorate it. The city has labeled That's All Right as the tune that started the musical and cultural phenomenon known as rock 'n' roll.

But though Elvis may be universally known as the King of Rock 'n' Roll, some consider it a stretch to anoint him the creator of a genre that mixed blues, R&B, country and even a bit of swing, musical styles that were around long before Elvis.

"There was a birth way before. Where did Elvis get it from?" rocker Lenny Kravitz said.

"The thing we think of as rock 'n' roll is Elvis," rock historian Marc Kirkeby said. "But there were records that would be thought of as rock 'n' roll before that, and they were done by black artists."

Two years ago, commemorations of the 50th anniversary of rock 'n' roll were pegged to disc jockey Alan Freed's Moondog Coronation Ball in Cleveland. Some rock historians have claimed the March 21, 1952, show as the first rock concert, and that's the main reason the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was established in that city.

Other historians point to Rocket '88, a 1951 hit written by Ike Turner, as the first rock record because of its distorted electric guitar sound. Others claim Bill Haley's 1954 hits Rock Around the Clock and Shake, Rattle and Roll (the latter a remake of a Big Joe Turner version) helped birth the rock explosion.

And others say the blues and swing recordings of black artists from years earlier were rock tunes.

That's All Right is a cover of a blues number by Arthur Crudup. Released in 1954 by the famed Sun Records, then a blues label in Memphis owned by relatively unknown Sam Phillips, it was not a national success, but it caused a sensation when played on local radio.

Presley's upbeat version, mixing in a bit of country twang, gave the song a different sound. It created a buzz for Presley that eventually caught the attention of RCA Records, which bought out Elvis' contract a year later. Presley didn't get his first pop No. 1 single until 1956 with Heartbreak Hotel.

When pressed, even folks in Memphis won't go as far as to say That's All Right's recording session was the definitive date rock was created.

"I think if you look at the annals of history, people look at that date as something that had a dramatic effect on rock 'n' roll," said Kevin Kane, president and CEO of the Memphis convention and visitors bureau.

Even during a tour of Sun Studio, still the tiny structure it was in 1954, the tour guide points to Rocket '88, recorded there before Phillips started Sun Records, as the first rock record.

"I don't think anyone is calling this the very first rock 'n' roll song ever made, but it is the first time rock 'n' roll went global and exploded on the world scene," said John Schorr, who purchased Sun more than a decade ago (it remains a recording studio).

Others also suggest that more than the music, That's All Right was perhaps the first time American teens - specifically, white teens - started embracing a new style of edgy, sexy black music as their own.

Soul legend Isaac Hayes puts it bluntly.

"You've got to think about it at a time when black music was looked down upon by whites. People like Elvis got lambasted for singing that kind of music," he said. "It took a white guy to break it. Blacks couldn't break it."

More than 1,000 stations around the globe are scheduled to play That's All Right at the same time on Monday, and Memphis talent such as Justin Timberlake and Hayes are expected to perform during a concert. Throughout the year, dozens of promotional tie-ins have celebrated That's All Right as the start of rock 'n' roll, from Rolling Stone magazine covers to DVD and CD releases.

Rolling Stone has agreed that Presley's debut song marks the birth of rock. But Joe Levy, a deputy managing editor of the magazine, says it wasn't jumping on the Memphis bandwagon.

"We've been talking for several years about when to mark the anniversary of rock 'n' roll, and in the end it seemed pretty natural," Levy said.

"As a mass phenomenon that changed American culture, Elvis Presley is a legitimate starting point for the beginning of rock 'n' roll. That's where the music became a phenomenon, and the phenomenon grew into a culture that would change the culture and the rest of the world."

Kravitz says the true creators of rock will likely never get their due.

"The guys who invented rock 'n' roll, we probably don't even know who they are," he said. "We can talk about all the Bo Diddleys and the Fats Dominos and all the great guys and Chuck Berrys who were the pioneers, but I'm sure there were a bunch of guys sitting on porches somewhere in the backwoods. We don't even know who they are."

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