Elvis Presley: Jailhouse Rock

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Songwriters: Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller

Probably the first rock music video of all time, Elvis Presley’s Jailhouse Rock dance scene was historic in many ways in the making. Elvis didn’t dance. Onstage he just moved rhythmically to the music. And boy! could he move. There’s no account anywhere that I can find where Elvis ever danced with a girlfriend other then slow dancing in the dark. When at clubs or parties, no one ever states that Elvis would ever just dance to fast music the way most of us relate to dancing.

So when Jailhouse Rock was being filmed and talk of the choreography for the title song began, it was quite humorous to read that the choreographer for the scene was aiming for some kind of old fashioned Gene Kelly type of performance from Elvis. What? Have you seen this guy on stage?

According to George Klein, an Elvis friend from way back, “When Alex Romero, who was the choreographer of Jailhouse Rock, first presented the dance sequence for Jailhouse Rock, Elvis shook his head and he said, ‘That’s not me. I can’t do that, Alex. I appreciate, you know, what you’ve done here.’ He wanted Elvis to do more of a Gene Nelson/Fred Astaire type. Elvis said, ‘It’s not me. I’ll try it.’ And Elvis being the cooperative guy, he got up and tried. He said, ‘See Alex, it’s not me.’ And that’s when Alex said, ‘Elvis, I’ll tell you what. Let me incorporate your stage act into what I wanna do, and let’s see if that’ll work.’ and he went home that night, came back the next day, and had taken Elvis’s stage act and incorporated that into a dance sequence. Elvis said, ‘Hey, I can do that. That’s me.’ And in one take, right there in the rehearsal hall at MGM, Elvis had it down. And of course it became historic in being Elvis’s best dance sequence in a motion-picture.”

Sharon Sheeley, songwriter and friend of Elvis, remembers coming home from that movie (Pajama Game). And it was very late at night, and there this little drizzle out. And “Jailhouse Rock” came on the radio. And I remember Elvis stopped the car, got out of the car. It was on Fountain Avenue. And he danced the whole scene he did in the movie, in the middle of the street on Fountain Avenue. And I kept thinking if people woke up right now and looked out their windows, they’d see Elvis Presley dancing in the streets like Gene Kelly.

Source for George Klein and Sharon Sheeley: Remember Elvis, Produced by Joe Esposito

The recording of Jailhouse Rock took place at MGM’s Radio Recorders on April 30th, 1957. Morning and afternoon rehearsals were strange for Elvis who was more likely to start rehearsing at 10PM and work through until dawn but this was the movies and people kept somewhat regular hours. Elvis was never known to throw tantrums or lose his temper during rehearsals however he did lose it during this rehearsal. Elvis always warmed up his voice by singing his favorite gospel tunes with the band and the back up singers. During the rehearsals here at MGM, Elvis spent the morning doing just that and then broke for lunch. During lunch, the production team spoke to Gordon Stoker, one of the backup singers in the Jordanaires group and asked that they not join Elvis in the gospel singing if he began doing that again after lunch. They needed to get to work.

When Elvis came back from lunch and got wind of this, he simply stood up and walked out. As was the way Elvis always worked, if they had just let him be, he more then likely would have finished all the takes they required that day or possibly by the next day but as it was, they had nothing. Other singers may have taken weeks to get what they needed from him. Elvis returned the next morning and finished all the required songs. I’ve never read where anybody tried to interfere with his work habits after that.

The soundtrack version of Jailhouse Rock, heard here on this video, includes orchestration and back up vocals that are not on the released single version. That version included only Elvis’s original band Scotty Moore, Bill Black and DJ Fontana with the addition of Dudley Brooks on piano. Of course the Jordanaires were ever present as back up singers but even the back up vocals were toned down from the soundtrack version. I personally prefer the single released version but I’ll never stop loving watching Elvis perform in this video. Today it seems almost cheesy in it’s simplicity but remember, we’re talking over 52 years ago. I was only 4 months away from making my entrance into the world.

Jailhouse Rock debuted at No.1 for the week of November 9th, 1957. This was to be Elvis’s 8th chart topper. During this year, Elvis had the No. 1 hit 17 out of 56 weeks according to Cash Box Magazine Charts.

The single with the B side of Treat Me Nice (one of my all time favorites) was a US #1 hit for 7 weeks. The song as sung by Elvis is #67 on Rolling Stone’s list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and was named one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.