Elvis Presley's Sun recordings

Elvis Presley recorded at least 24 songs at Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, between 1953 and 1955. The recordings reflect the wide variety of music that could be heard in Memphis at the time: blues, rhythm & blues, gospel, country & western, hillbilly, and bluegrass. Because of the recordings' historical significance in the foundation of rock and roll music, they were inducted into the US Congress's National Recording Registry in 2002.

Of the 24 known tapes, 22 survive. Ten were released by Sun as Elvis' first five singles between 1954 and 1955. With the exception of the first four songs, which were demos recorded at Presley's expense, all of the songs were produced by Sam Phillips and featured Scotty Moore on guitar and Bill Black on bass.

A year after Presley left for RCA, he had a spontaneous informal session with Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis when visiting the Sun studio. This meeting was recorded on December 4, 1956, and dubbed the Million Dollar Quartet by the local newspaper the next day. These sessions are not generally included when reference is made to "Elvis's Sun Sessions", however.

On July 18, 1953, Presley first went to the Memphis Recording Service at the Sun Record Company, now commonly known as Sun Studio. He paid $3.98 to record the first of two double-sided demo acetates, "My Happiness" and "That's When Your Heartaches Begin." Presley reportedly gave the acetate to his mother as a much-belated extra birthday present, although many biographers suggest that Presley simply wanted to get noticed by Sun owner Sam Phillips. These suggestions are strengthened by the fact that the Presleys did not own a record player at the time. That one-off acetate has since been valued at $500,000 by Record Collector magazine. Returning to Sun Studios on January 4, 1954, he recorded a second acetate, "I'll Never Stand in Your Way"/"It Wouldn't Be the Same Without You."

...
Wikipedia