Who really wrote the song ‘Blue Suede Shoes’?
Hear me out, but Elvis Presley is perhaps the most tragic case of underutilised talent in music history.
Now, I completely understand how such a claim may seem shocking, especially given the fact that he stands as one of, if not the most famous, musicians in history. He stood alone and faced all the stereotypical tropes of crippling stardom and fame, beyond anything anyone had experienced, and that included The Beatles.
He was the epitome of the modern rockstar, with the talent and charisma to boot. But ultimately, that rendered him powerless to the manipulation of label executives and management manipulators whose sole aim was to squeeze as much cash out of this handsome new rock and roll cow. The primary proprietor of that was his manager, Colonel Tom Parker. While he indeed helped transform the young American into a superstar, he did it for huge financial gain and ripped out his artistic soul in exchange for unrelenting commercialism that kept him to a very strict creative schedule that never left the borders of America.
Ultimately, Parker took massive commissions of up to 50% and, so, incentivised by the potential profits of such a deal, kept Elvis in a cycle of low-quality movies and gruelling Las Vegas residencies. After his breakout in the ‘50s, we rarely saw Elvis delivering an album to the public, but rather a string of crappy films, which he then soundtracked. Releases that existed outside of that were rarely any of Elvis’ original ideas, either.
After shooting to fame in the mid ‘50s with a collection of blues-rock covers, The Colonel decided that any release strategies thereafter should follow something of a rinse and repeat model, despite the fact that Elvis was secretly harbouring a string of original songs that would have showcased his songwriting talent. So really, Elvis, despite his iconic status in culture, never really fulfilled his potential. After all, his biggest and most recognised hit might just be ‘Blue Suede Shoes’, which, as outlined, wasn’t even one of his own. That song should have been his breakout, not his calling card, but here we are, nearly a century on, remembering him as a great defined by a song written by somebody else.
Who actually wrote ‘Blue Suede Shoes’?
It was actually written by the man known as ‘The King of Rockabilly’ Carl Perkins, a Tennessee singer-songwriter, who was initially a country singer, but had begun to lean into the wild hillbilly music of his native Appalachians mountains, and thus gained his musical nickname for mastering the art. However, it was under the influence of both Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley that he wrote the hit he would never really be known for.
In 1955, Cash and Perkins were performing at a show in Amory, Mississippi, along with a young Elvis Presley, who took to the stage and delivered a triumphant rendition of blues rock covers. While Presley performed, Cash told Perkins a story from his days serving in the Air Force in Germany, with the subject of the anecdote his sergeant, an eccentric character named CV White, who was well known in the troop for donning well-groomed outfits when allowed off base.
According to Cash, at one point, White said to him, “Don’t step on my blue suede shoes”. While the shoes were really just Air Force-issued black, White would say, “Tonight they’re blue suede”, and so the mythology behind the song was born.
Keeping it simple, Perkins began with a US nursery rhyme: “One for the money, two for the show!” before reeling off all the things one can do before stepping on White’s famous blue suede shoes. With Elvis’ performance ringing in his ear that night, the melody was likely written with ‘The King’ in mind, and so a song, a moment and a calling card anthem for the century’s biggest rockstar was born.
