"It's down at the end of lonely street at "Heartbreak Hotel"...
When I did the morning show at WKDA in Nashville our GM was Jack Stapp, one of the nicest bosses any jock could ask for. Jack always had a warm smile on his face and spoke in a low Atlanta tinged drawl. Jack had partnered with Buddy Killen to form Tree Publishing and was always proud to tell everyone within listening range about the formation of his company and the title of the first song he published. That song was "Heartbreak Hotel". Not a bad way to start a publishing company...
"Heartbreak Hotel" was born on this date in 1956 as one of several songs recorded by Elvis Presley at his first Nashville recording session for RCA. "I Was The One", "I'm Counting On You", "I Got A Woman" and "Money Honey" were the others. "Heartbreak Hotel" would be released on January 27th with "I Was The One" on the B-side. The song would top both the Pop and R&B charts and reach top 5 on the Country chart...
Tree Publishing would become one of the biggest publishing companies in the world. Our receptionist at WKDA, Donna Hilley would wind up running Tree, now under the SONY umbrella of companies...
More on "Heartbreak Hotel" in my commentary...
More January 10 Memories...
1776) Thomas Paine publishes the pamphlet "Common Sense" (which could best be described as the forerunner of "The Drudge Report")...
1863) Britain's Prime Minister (Gladstone) opens the 1st section of the London Underground Railway (running from Paddington to Farringdon Streets)...
1870) John D. Rockefeller incorporates Standard Oil...
1949) Vinyl records are introduced by RCA (45 rpm) and Columbia (33.3 rpm)...
1949) "The Goldbergs" premieres on CBS-TV...
1956) Elvis records his 1st tunes for RCA (feature story)...
1958) Jerry Lee Lewis tops the charts with "Great Balls of Fire"...
1964) The U.S. version of "That Was The Week That Was" premieres with Nancy Ames and David Frost as part of the "newsmakers" cast...
1967) PBS begins as a 70-station network...
1969) The final Saturday Evening Post hits the stands after 147 years of publication...
1971) "Masterpiece Theatre" premieres on PBS with host Alistair Cooke (the introduction drama series was "The First Churchills")...
1981) Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Pirates of Penzance" opens at the Uris Theatre on Broadway starring Linda Ronstadt and Rex Smith...
1982) Joe Montana hits Dwight Clark for "The Catch" giving San Francisco a 28-27 comeback win over the Cowboys and putting the 49ers in the Super Bowl to face Cincinnati the following week...
1990) Time Inc. and Warner Communications Inc. complete a $14 billion merger making Time Warner the world's largest entertainment company...
2000) Time Warner agrees to buy AOL in the largest-ever corporate merger priced at $162 billion. The FTC approves the deal on December 14, 2000 (How'd that deal work out ?)...
2000) Melissa Etheridge ends her silence, naming David Crosby at the father of her child raised by her and partner Julie Cypher...
2001) American Airlines agrees to acquire most of TWA's assets for about $500 million, ending TWA's financially troubled plight...
2003) Thomas D. Mottola is out at SONY after 14 years at the helm...
2004) Actor-writer Spalding Gray, 62, vanishes from his Manhattan apartment (2 months later his body is found floating in the East River, an apparent suicide)...
To ensure accuracy, multiple reference sources were used in the timeline...
Happy Birthday To...
1935) Ronnie Hawkins...
1938) Baseball Hall of Famer Willie ("Stretch") McCovey...
1945) Rod Stewart...
1948) Steely Dan's Donald Fagen...
1949) George Foreman...
1953) Pat Benatar...
Commentary...
A real "Heartbreak Hotel", named after the song title is located in Memphis, across from Graceland. A movie by the same title and based on a mythical incident involving the kidnapping of Elvis Presley was released in movie theaters in 1988 and starred David Keith and Tuesday Weld. Although there have been numerous cover versions of the song, two different songs, also titled "Heartbreak Hotel" were released as singles, one by the Jacksons which was later renamed "The Place Hotel", the other by Whitney Houston, whose mother, gospel singer Cissy Houston appears in several Elvis recordings as a member of the Sweet Inspirations...
This is the 10th day of January with 355 days left in the year. The first day of Spring is 69 days away...
