Scotty Moore and Bill Black were there at the very beginning. Scotty played guitar. Bill played the big upright bass. In 1954, at Sun Records in Memphis, the two of them backed a young singer named Elvis Presley on “That’s All Right,” his first hit.
You can hear that 1954 record by Elvis, Scotty and Bill right here.
The 1954 “That’s All Right” record by Elvis, Scotty and Bill
Three years later, Elvis was the biggest star in America. Scotty and Bill had been right beside him for the whole ride.
Then in September 1957 they quit.
Scotty’s life story is back in the spotlight thanks to a biography by Paul Belard, “Scotty Moore – The Guitar Player Who Changed The World,” a 344-page paperback that the Elvis Day By Day blog wrote about this week. So it’s a good moment to look back at the strangest chapter of their time with Elvis.
Before we get to the money, it’s worth meeting Scotty himself, talking about his early recording sessions with Elvis and the gear he played.
Scotty Moore remembers his first recording sessions with Elvis
The split came right after Elvis recorded his first Christmas album in Hollywood. Scotty and Bill sent Elvis a letter of resignation, and on Sept. 13, 1957, reporter Robert Johnson broke the story on the front page of the Memphis Press-Scimitar.
The two men didn’t trash their old friend. “Both men expressed admiration for Elvis and wishes for his continued success, but said he had prospered and they haven’t,” the reporter wrote.
They made it clear they didn’t resent him, either. As one of them told the paper, “and I certainly don’t begrudge him any of the success he has had or what it’s brought him.”
Bill Black also made his case. “But I figure we’ve been more important to him in his work than anyone but Col. Parker,” he said. (Colonel Parker was Elvis’s manager.)
Then Bill told the reporter exactly where the two of them stood.
“I don’t believe Scotty and I could raise more than 50 bucks between us,” said Black.
Fifty bucks. This was from two men who had played on Elvis’s hit records.
Here’s Elvis on TV in January 1956, back when Scotty and Bill were right beside him on the way up.
Elvis on the Dorsey Brothers’ “Stage Show” in January 1956
A few days later, a letter dated Sept. 18, 1957, and signed by Elvis’s father, Vernon Presley, accepted Scotty’s resignation, effective Sept. 21. Tucked inside was “your final salary check in the amount of $86.25.”
Elvis had already answered them in the same paper, on Sept. 14. What he said was kind.
“Scotty, I hope you fellows have good luck. I will give you fellows good recommendations,” Elvis said. “If you had come to me, we would have worked things out. I would have always taken care of you.”
He finished simply. “All I can say to you is ‘good luck.'”
The break didn’t last. Scotty and Bill missed just one show with Elvis, in Tupelo on Sept. 27, 1957. By the end of October they were back in his band.
In this clip, Scotty and Elvis’s drummer DJ Fontana talk about Bill Black’s talent and clear up a mystery about the song “Baby, I Don’t Care.”
Scotty Moore and DJ Fontana talk about Bill Black
Bill Black passed away in 1965. Scotty Moore passed away in 2016, at 84. Years later, Scotty looked back on those days with a laugh. “Well, I didn’t get rich, but it was better than picking cotton, trust me (laughs),” he told writer Larry Katz in 2002.