27 January: Heartbreak Hotel

On this date in 1956 Elvis Presley released Heartbreak Hotel. 10 facts about the song:

1. Heartbreak Hotel was written by was written by Mae Boren Axton and Tommy Durden. In a 1982 interview, Durden said this song "has paid the rent for more than 20 years." Elvis was also given a writing credit, as requested by his manager, meaning Elvis got a third of the royalties.

2. It was the first song Elvis recorded for his new record label RCA Victor. He was 21 years old when it was released.

3. The B-side was I Was the One.

4. The official story about what inspired the song was that the idea came from an article in the Miami Herald about a man who’d destroyed all his identity papers and jumped to his death from a hotel window. His suicide note read, "I walk a lonely street". However. Songfacts.com tried in vain to find the article or any evidence this actually happened, and found none. They concluded it was an urban legend. It could, therefore, have originated with a painter and criminal called Alvin Krolik, whose marriage had failed, and who wrote his autobiography including the line "This is the story of a person who walked a lonely street."

5. The song was offered to The Wilburn Brothers, a country music duo. They turned it down because they thought it was "strange and almost morbid."

6. Presley, however, loved it. Axton played him a demo in his room at the Andrew Jackson Hotel in November 1955, and he said, "Hot dog, Mae, play that again!" and proceeded to listen to it ten times.

7. Elvis first performed this song live in December 1955, telling club owner Rob King, "This is gonna be my first hit." He was right – it earned Elvis his first Gold record for sales of over one million singles.

8. When Bill Clinton played the Saxophone on The Arsenio Hall Show as part of his presidential campaign, he played Heartbreak Hotel.

9. Lynyrd Skynyrd released an acoustic version on their album Endangered Species.

10. For a time, there was a real "Heartbreak Hotel" located across the street from Graceland in Memphis, with '50s decor and framed photos of Elvis. One of the suites was named the Burning Love Suite. It has closed down, however.

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