In July 1954, three men crowded into a tiny Memphis studio and accidentally invented rock and roll. One was a 19-year-old truck driver called Elvis Presley. The other two were working musicians: Scotty Moore on guitar and Bill Black on bass. Look at the label on that first record, and it reads exactly as it happened: “Elvis Presley,” and underneath, in smaller letters, “Scotty and Bill.” Three years later, at the absolute height of it all, Scotty and Bill wrote a letter of resignation and walked out. The reason was money, and the numbers are genuinely shocking.
Here is what Scotty Moore was paid, in his own accounting. In 1954 he earned $139.25 for the year. In 1955 he earned $8,052.24. And in 1956 — the year “Heartbreak Hotel” and “Hound Dog” went to number one, the year Elvis appeared on Ed Sullivan, the year Elvis personally earned over a million dollars — Scotty Moore made $8,193.58.
Scotty Moore talks about Elvis & his career playing guitar 1997
The arrangement was simple and brutal. They were paid $100 a week while sitting at home and $200 a week while on the road, with a $1,000 Christmas bonus. And crucially, they received no royalties at all. Not on “That’s All Right.” Not on “Heartbreak Hotel.” Not on “Hound Dog.” They were paid for showing up, and nothing else — while the records they had played on sold in their millions.
It got worse than the money. As Elvis’s fame exploded, the two men found themselves quietly pushed out of his life. When Elvis went to Hollywood to make Love Me Tender, the studio refused to let him use his own band, claiming they could not play the required style. During the filming of his second film, Scotty and Bill were staying in the same hotel as Elvis — just a couple of floors away — and barely saw him. They came to believe the separation was deliberately organized to keep them away from him, and that they were no longer even permitted to talk to him.
“That’s All Right” Elvis Presley, Scotty Moore, & Bill Black Historic Record! 1954
The breaking point came in September 1957. After a recording session for Elvis’s Christmas album, Scotty and Bill had been promised they could use the leftover studio time to record a couple of instrumentals of their own, to make some extra money. The session ended, and they were told to pack up.
That same evening, they wrote the letter. They delivered it on 7 September 1957. In two years they had received exactly one pay rise.
Elvis was hurt and responded publicly, saying that things could have been sorted out if they had come to him directly rather than taking it to the newspapers. He offered them another $50 a week, and for a short time they came back. But the damage was done. Bill Black left again in 1958 and never returned. His final session with Elvis was in February 1958.
There are two footnotes, and they pull in opposite directions. Bill Black formed his own group, the Bill Black Combo, and had genuine hits of his own — the first one went straight to number one. He died in 1965, aged just 39.
And Scotty Moore came back one last time, in 1968, for the Comeback Special. Elvis rang him personally and asked, and Scotty said yes. Then the money came through, and it did not even cover his travel and hotel costs. He described it, drily, as one final lesson in Elvis economics.