A number one country, pop, and r&b hit in the fall of 1956, Elvis Presley’s “Don’t Be Cruel” was, arguably, the first instance of what would soon be termed the Nashville Sound.  At any rate, that’s the case I made here back in September.

One major objection to awarding that honor to Presley, I’d imagine, is that “Don’t Be Cruel” was recorded in New York, not Nashville. Fair enough, though that places all of the emphasis on the adjective (Nashville) rather than on the noun in question (Sound) and also overlooks that key Nashville Sound musicians–Chet Atkins and the Jordanaires–were intimately involved in making it.

Presley had been working on what would become the Nashville Sound template for awhile, of course. His first country hit, “Baby, Let’s Play House,” was cut in Memphis for Sun and was in a clear rockabilly style. Presley’s second country hit while at Sun, “I Forgot to Remember to Forget,” was a spare, crooned ballad and therefore much closer to where country was headed, but with a rhythm that lurched and yo-yo’d stiffly, it was clearly its own animal; no country records ever sounded like “I Forgot…”

Ditto for Presley’s next country chart toppers, both for RCA, “Heartbreak Hotel” and “I Want You, I Need You, I Love You.” The former is almost suis generis, a record that pulls from several other styles without ever being entirely of any of them. Furthermore, it’s drowning in so much echo as to be almost ready made for Stan Freeberg’s 1956 parody.

Stan Freeberg “Heartbreak Hotel” (Capitol, 1956)

Next came “Hound Dog,” as hard a rocking record as he ever made, as almost anyone has ever made, but not a record that anticipated where country music, or even Elvis, was moving. But “Don’t Be Cruel”…well, “Dont’ Be Cruel” was a pop record in a way no earlier Presley singles had been. It was still clearly rock and roll in spirit but it also came to terms with, fit in with, a lot of the pop and pop-country that had come before it.

With the distance of decades, we can today hear more clearly, I think, just how of a piece “Don’t Be Cruel” was specifically, and how the Nashville Sound was generally, with many pop hits that preceeded it. For instance, limiting ourselves to records that hit number one on the pop charts…Dean Martin’s “Memories Are Made of This” from earlier in 1956, which makes plain that Elvis’ professed love for Dean-o wasn’t just lip service; Billy Hayes’ “The Ballad of Davey Crockett” from the year before, which sounds entirely of a piece with “Battle of New Orleans,” “Sink the Bismark,” and any number of other Nashville Sound-era hits of a folk historical bent from the late 1950s; and of course ”Sixteen Tons,” the crossover smash by Tennessee Ernie Ford.

The Martin and Ford records were both on Capitol (a heretofore unremarked upon Nashville Sound antecedent), and all three were crooned easily above rhythm beds that are insistently swinging but still gentle, even minamalist–a strummed guitar, brushes, finger snaps. This less-is-more approach, a melody sung over a spare-but-driving groove, is a big part of what made the new sound out of Nashville into the Nashville Sound. Have a listen for yourself, and see if I’m not right.

Dean Martin “Memories Are Made of This” (Capitol, 1956)

Bill Hayes “The Ballad of Davey Crockett” (Cadence, 1955)

Tennessee Ernie Ford “Sixteen Tons” (Capitol, 1955)

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