Forty years ago today, Elvis Presley "died." [View all]

[mahatmakanejeeves]

But not in our hearts. Let's have something from Hoyt Axton's mom:

And something Clyde McPhatter performed first:

And something from his plaid period:

Mae Boren Axton

Mae Boren Axton (September 14, 1914 in Bardwell, Texas – April 9, 1997 in Hendersonville, Tennessee) was known in the music industry as the "Queen Mother of Nashville". She co-wrote the Elvis Presley hit single "Heartbreak Hotel" with Tommy Durden. She worked with Mel Tillis, Reba McEntire, Willie Nelson, Eddy Arnold, Tanya Tucker, Johnny Tillotson, and Blake Shelton.
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Music career

Boren is credited with writing approximately 200 songs. "Skid Row" a song recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis is perhaps her most famous song after "Heartbreak Hotel".

"Heartbreak Hotel"

Main article: Heartbreak Hotel

Boren was the link between Elvis Presley and RCA Victor. She introduced a 19-year-old Presley to Colonel Tom Parker after a performance in Jacksonville, FL. She worked on behalf of Bob Neal to promote Presley and pressured RCA Victor's Nashville division head Stephen H. Sholes to sign Presley. In 1955 Boren co-wrote the Elvis Presley hit-song "Heartbreak Hotel" with Tommy Durden. Durden presented the idea to Mae Axton, from a newspaper article he had read about a man who had killed himself, leaving behind only the message "I walk a lonely street." It was Boren who suggested there be a Heartbreak Hotel at the end of the man's lonely street thus creating Elvis' first #1 record and one of rock n rolls greatest hits.

Clyde McPhatter

The unlikely MC in that last clip is Charles Laughton. I see that was Elvis's first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.

Charles Laughton (1 July 1899 – 15 December 1962) was an English stage and film character actor, director, producer and screenwriter. Laughton was trained in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and first appeared professionally on the stage in 1926. In 1927, he was cast in a play with his future wife Elsa Lanchester, with whom he lived and worked until his death; they had no children.
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Television

Laughton was the fill-in host on 9 September 1956, when Elvis Presley made his first of three appearances on CBS's The Ed Sullivan Show, which garnered 72 million viewers (Ed Sullivan was recuperating from a car accident). That same year, Laughton hosted the first of two programmes devoted to classical music entitled "Festival of Music", and telecast on the NBC television anthology series Producers' Showcase. One of his last performances was on Checkmate, in which he played a missionary recently returned from China. He threw himself into the role, travelling to China for several months to better understand his character.