After graduating from Humes High School in 1953, Elvis took a job driving a truck for Crown Electric while trying to get his foot in the door of the music industry. In the summer of 1953, he walked into the Sun Records studio and paid $4 to record a two-sided acetate disc of “My Happiness” and “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin” as a gift for his mother

Background

In the summer of 1953, Elvis Presley was 18 years old, freshly graduated from Humes High School, and still a long way from becoming Elvis Presley the star. He was working ordinary jobs around Memphis and trying to figure out what came next. Later that year he would work for Crown Electric, doing various jobs that included driving a delivery truck while also studying at night to become an electrician. But on July 18, 1953, he walked into Memphis Recording Service, the studio connected to Sun Records, with four dollars in his pocket.

For that money, Elvis recorded two songs onto a two-sided acetate: “My Happiness” and “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin.” The familiar story is that Elvis made the record as a gift for his mother, Gladys. Graceland itself has repeated that account, although another part of the story makes it even more interesting: the Presley family did not own a record player. Elvis took the acetate to the home of his friend Ed Leek to hear it and eventually left it there.

Introduction

At the time, there was nothing glamorous about the session. No backing band. No screaming audience. No record contract.

Just an unknown teenager paying to hear what his own voice sounded like on a record. He would return to the studio in January 1954 for another acetate. Then, in July of that year, Sam Phillips paired him with Scotty Moore and Bill Black. Their spontaneous run through “That’s All Right” finally produced the sound Phillips had been looking for.

Within a few years, Elvis would become one of the most famous entertainers in the world. But before RCA, before Las Vegas, before the movies and the gold records, there was that first acetate.

Two songs. Four dollars. And an 18-year-old truck driver trying to find out whether his voice might lead somewhere.

Video

Lyrics

🎵 Let’s sing along with the lyrics! 🎤

And now the end is near
So I face the final curtain
My friend, I’ll say it clear
I’ll state my case of which I’m certain

I’ve lived a life that’s full
I’ve traveled each and every highway
And more, much more than this
I did it my way

Regrets, I’ve had a few
But then again, too few to mention
I did what I had to do
And saw it through without exception

I planned each charted course
Each careful step along the byway
And more, much more than this
I did it my way

Yes, there were times, I’m sure you know
That I bit off more than I could chew
But through it all when there was doubt
I ate it up and spit it out
I faced it all and I stood tall
And did it my way

I’ve loved, I’ve laughed and cried
I’ve had my fill, my share of losing
And now as tears subside
I find it all so amusing
To think I did all that
And may I say, not in a shy way
Oh, no, no not me
I did it my way

For what is a man, what has he got
If not himself, then he has not
To say the words he truly feels
And not the words of one who kneels
The record shows I took the blows
And did it my way