How Elvis Presley's Neighbors May Have Played An Unexpected Hand In The Legend's Career

The King's earliest forays into the world of music weren't exactly groundbreaking from the off. As CBS News reports, it's "That's All Right Mama" that is often regarded as the first Elvis Presley song, the one that garnered him countrywide attention which would soon blossom into worldwide acclaim. This did not happen overnight, however.

The outlet goes on to state that Presley's first recording was about as inauspicious as it gets. He paid the princely sum of $4 for a fleeting session of one-off recording time at Sun Studio. Quite apart from a chance at his big break, or even knowing whether he was likely to get one, CBS shares the famous piece of Elvis folklore: the recording was perhaps intended as just a humble birthday gift for his mother.

Emerging from the studio having recorded his take on "My Happiness," the 18-year-old could never have dreamed that he had just recorded what would become, in the words of Graceland archivist Angie Marchese (per CBS News), "the holy grail of rock and roll."

In January 2015, at an auction to mark what would have been the King's 80th birthday (according to The Guardian), that one-of-a-kind record was sold. The price? $300,000. Sam Phillips of Sun Records would go on to have a monumental effect on Elvis' career. The studio was, perhaps, the reason he went on to have one. Presley's neighbors, however, could have been just as important.

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