Blue Suede Shoes

Blue suede shoes were a luxury item in the South, a stylish footwear for a night out. You had to be careful with them, however, because suede isn't easy to clean. Perkins never owned a pair, but Johnny Cash told him a story about someone who did. As Cash told it, he and Perkins were performing at a show in Amory, Mississippi along with Elvis Presley. When Presley was on stage, Cash told Perkins a story from his days serving in the Air Force in Germany. Cash's sergeant, a black guy named C.V. White, would wear his military best when he was allowed off base, and at one point said to Johnny, "don't step on my blue suede shoes." The shoes were really just Air Force-issued black, but white would say, "Tonight they're blue suede." The story Perkins told is that later on, he was playing at a high school sorority dance when he came across a guy who wasn't paying much attention to his date, but kept telling everyone not to stop on his "suedes," meaning his blues suede shoes. At 3 a.m. that night, Perkins woke up and wrote the lyrics based on what happened that night and the story he heard from Cash. He couldn't find any paper, so he wrote it on a potato sack.

Perkins recorded this in Memphis for Sam Phillips at Sun Records. As he was driving to make his first national appearance to promote it (on the Perry Como Show), he got into an accident that seriously injured him and killed his brother. "I was 85 miles away from being the first rockabilly on national television," he recalled. Perkins never fully recovered, either emotionally or career-wise. With Perkins unable to touring and promote it, Elvis' cover version became a massive hit. Presley's copy was done at RCA studios in Nashville.

Sam Phillips discovered Elvis Presley but sold his contract to RCA for $35,000. The money helped Phillips finance this and other records by artists like Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison, but Elvis became The King. Elvis recorded this later in 1956. His version hit US #20 and UK #9.