On This Day in 1956, Elvis Presley Topped the Charts for the First Time Thanks to a Song Inspired by a Tragedy

On this day (May 5) in 1956, Elvis Presley went to No. 1 on the Hot 100 and other early charts with “Heartbreak Hotel.” It also reached the top of the Most Played in Jukeboxes chart for the first of seven weeks. The single simultaneously reached the peak of the Honor Roll of Hits chart for the first of two nonconsecutive weeks. At the same time, Presley started a 10-week run at No. 1 with his self-titled album. Two weeks earlier, “Heartbreak Hotel” topped the Best Sellers in Stores chart, where it stayed for eight consecutive weeks.

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By 1956, Presley had released four singles on Sun Records. None of them performed well on the pop chart. His fourth and final single with the label, “I Forgot to Remember to Forget,” reached No. 1 on the country chart. He then left Sun and signed with RCA Victor. “Heartbreak Hotel” was his first release with the new label. It was a smash hit, topping multiple charts in the United States and becoming a top 5 hit in the United Kingdom and Australia.

How a Tragedy Led to Elvis Presley’s First Pop No. 1

The story behind “Heartbreak Hotel” is debated. The best-known story behind the song starts with a suicide. Tommy Durden, who wrote the song with Mae Boren Axton, read a story in the Miami Herald about a man who jumped out of a hotel after burning all of his identification. He only left behind a note that read “I walk a lonely street.” Axton reportedly suggested that there should be a Heartbreak Hotel at the end of the street, and the song came together. She was also the one who delivered the demo to Elvis Presley.

The Songfacts staff attempted to find the original Miami Herald article. After much searching, they learned that the accepted story behind “Heartbreak Hotel” is an urban legend. However, it wasn’t completely pulled out of thin air.

In 2016, Rolling Stone found the truth. The original news story wasn’t about a suicide, and it didn’t happen in Florida. Instead, it was about a man named Alvin Krolik who tried to rob a liquor store in El Paso, Texas, in 1955.

He turned himself in after a crime spree in 1953. Some news outlets printed excerpts from his unpublished memoirs. Among those snippets was “This is the story of a person who walked a lonely street. I hope this will help someone in the future.”

Two years later, a liquor store owner shot Krolik during an attempted robbery. When local papers reported on it, they reused the “lonely street” bit from his memoir.

While the details are different, the broad strokes remain the same. Durden read a story about a tragic death and wrote a song about it. Then, Elvis Presley made it one of the biggest hits of his career.

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