Horace Logan announced:
"Is there anyone from Mississippi? Anyone from Arkansas? Let's
hear it from the folks from Oklahoma. Now who's from Louisiana. Now how
many of y'all from the great state of Texas?"
The Hayride band struck up
its theme, "Raise a Ruckus Tonight," as the crowd joined-in.
"Come along, everybody come along, while the moon is shining
bright, We're going to have a wonderful time, at the Louisiana Hayride
tonight!"
Emcee Frank Page
introduced Elvis who was standing against a painted backdrop. The call
letters of the station, KWKH, and a Louisiana Hayride banner stretched
across the scene. Elvis wearing a pink jacket, black shirt and colorful
tie, white pants and two-tone shoes. Scotty Moore and Bill Black were
in western shirts.
Frank Page: "Just a
few weeks ago a young man from Memphis, Tennessee, recorded a song on
the Sun label and, in just a matter of weeks, that record has
sky-rocketed right up the charts. It's really doing well all over the
country. He is only nineteen years old. He has a new, distinctive
style. Elvis Presley. Let's give him a nice hand.
"How are you this
evening?" Page
"Just fine. How're you, sir?" replied Elvis
"Are you all geared up with your band" Page
"I'm all geared up" Elvis
"Let's hear your songs?" Page
"Uh, well, I'd just like to say how happy we are to be down here.
It's a real honor for us to get a chance to appear on the Louisiana
Hayride. We're gonna do a song for ya... " Elvis
"You got anything else to say?" Page
"I'm ready -.We're gonna do a song for ya we got out on Sun
Records. It goes something like this."
Elvis sang That's Alright
Mama. Whether it was Elvis's stage fright or the originality of his act
before a new audience, his performance was flat much like his Grand Ole
Opry debut a few weeks previous. Elvis huddled with Sam Phillips
during intermission. Sam exhorted Elvis to be himself, do his own kind
of show; all he could do was fail and that would happen anyway if he
didn't loosen-up.
The second show was
different. It was a young crowd hungry for excitement. A huge cheer
went up from the first bars of That's Alright Mama. It wasn't country
music, it was rock n' roll and the audience loved it. On their feet,
clapping and dancing, the crowd rode the thunderous beat. They didn't
want Elvis to stop. Gyrating like a dervish, Elvis burned That's
Alright Mama and Blue Moon of Kentucky. The Hayride had birthed its
greatest star.
On
6 November 1954, Elvis signed a contract to appear on the Louisiana
Hayride every Saturday night for a year. Gladys and Vernon Presley came
to Shreveport to witness the contract because Elvis was underage. He
was nineteen years old.
Elvis was paid $18.00 per
performance, Scotty Moore and Bill Black $12.00 each. The Hayride
became the foundation of Elvis's early rise to stardom.
Elvis would travel nearly
half million miles over the next year, often before audiences that
would have heard him first time. During 1955, if it was a Saturday
night, Elvis was in Shreveport at the Louisiana Hayride
