{"id":77426,"date":"2025-08-17T23:24:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T23:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/77426\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T23:24:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T23:24:07","slug":"on-this-day-in-1955-elvis-presley-dropped-his-first-no-1-hit-topping-the-country-jukebox-charts-for-five-weeks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/77426\/","title":{"rendered":"On This Day in 1955, Elvis Presley Dropped His First No. 1 Hit\u2014Topping the Country Jukebox Charts for Five Weeks"},"content":{"rendered":"

In July 1954, Elvis Presley was an aspiring electrician<\/a> when he crossed paths with record producer Sam Phillips. Having launched Sun Records just two years earlier, Phillips was looking for a performer who could bridge the gap between Black and white audiences. At just 19 years old, Presley quit his job and inked a deal with Sun Records. The next summer, Phillips began to see his investment bear out when Presley released his first No. 1 hit, \u201cI Forgot to Remember to Forget \/ Mystery Train,\u201d on Aug. 17, 1955.<\/p>\n

Elvis Presley Flexed His Country Muscles<\/p>\n

Although hailed as the king of rock and roll, Elvis Presley grew up on country music. While the Mississippi native had a fraught relationship with the genre during his career, he first reached the top of the charts with a country song.<\/p>\n

Written by Stan Kesler and Charlie Feathers, \u201cI Forgot to Remember to Forget\u201d introduced Presley to a country music audience. He teamed up with Scotty Moore, Bill Black, and Johnny Bernero to record the mournful ballad.<\/p>\n

Six months later, \u201cI Forgot To Remember To Forget\u201d hit the top of Billboard\u2019s national country music chart, remaining there for two weeks. Overall, the song spent 39 weeks on the country charts. It was also sat at No. 1 for five weeks on the Country & Western Most Played in jukebox chart. <\/p>\n

Fittingly, Presley\u2019s first No. 1 single was also his final with Sun Records, as he left for RCA Records shortly after. He wouldn\u2019t score another No. 1 country hit until the end of his life, with \u201cMoody Blue\u201d in 1976 and \u201cWay Down\u201d in 1977. Presley died two months after releasing \u201cWay Down\u201d at his Graceland home on Aug. 16, 1977. He was 43 years old.<\/p>\n

[RELATED: The Man Who Gave Us Elvis: Remembering Sam Phillips, Rock\u2019s Grand Architect]<\/a><\/p>\n

Why Did Elvis Leave Sun Records?<\/p>\n

Despite Elvis Presley\u2019s first-ever No. 1 hit, Sun Records was flailing. Faced with mounting debt<\/a>, soaring manufacturing costs and legal action, Sam Phillips knew he simply didn\u2019t have the resources to support Presley\u2019s rising star. So he sold the \u201cHound Dog\u201d crooner\u2019s contract to RCA Records on Nov. 21, 1955.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel Elvis is one of the most talented youngsters today,\u201d Phillips told the\u00a0Memphis Press-Scimitar<\/a>. \u201cAnd by releasing his contract to RCA-Victor we will give him the opportunity of entering the largest organization of its kind in the world, so his talents can be given the fullest opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Featured image by Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In July 1954, Elvis Presley was an aspiring electrician when he crossed paths with record producer Sam Phillips.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,4398,15432,75,341],"class_list":["post-77426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-country-music","tag-elvis-presley","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}