By September 1956, Elvis Presley’s life was moving at an almost ridiculous speed.
He was filming movies, making television appearances, touring constantly and releasing hit after hit.
Then, at just 21 years old, he walked into Radio Recorders in Hollywood and completed 13 songs in only three days.
The sessions ran from September 1 through September 3, 1956.
On the first day, Elvis finished four songs:
“Playing for Keeps,” “Love Me,” “How Do You Think I Feel” and “How’s the World Treating You.”
The next day was even more productive.
Elvis recorded six songs: “When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again,” “Long Tall Sally,” “Old Shep,” “Paralyzed,” “Too Much” and “Anyplace Is Paradise.”
Then on September 3, he finished the run with “Ready Teddy,” “First in Line” and “Rip It Up.”
Elvis Performs “Ready Teddy” Six Days Later
What makes the session even more impressive is what happened next.
Only six days after recording “Ready Teddy,” Elvis performed it on his first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on September 9.
An estimated 60 million viewers watched that broadcast.
So Elvis was not disappearing into a studio for months to perfect an album.
He was recording songs at breakneck speed, then almost immediately taking some of them in front of one of the biggest television audiences in America.
His second RCA album, simply titled Elvis, arrived on October 19, 1956.
Eleven of the 12 album tracks came from those September sessions. The only exception was “So Glad You’re Mine,” which had been recorded earlier in New York on January 30.
The two remaining September masters were hardly leftovers.
“Too Much” and “Playing for Keeps” were held back for a single release, with “Too Much” later becoming another major Elvis hit.
And these were not throwaway recordings.
The three days produced everything from the tenderness of “Love Me” and “Old Shep” to the raw rock and roll of “Ready Teddy,” “Long Tall Sally” and “Rip It Up.”
Elvis was also working with the core musicians helping define his early RCA sound: Scotty Moore, Bill Black, D.J. Fontana and members of the Jordanaires. Official session records even credit Elvis with both guitar and piano on several tracks.
That may be the best way to understand how intense 1956 really was for Elvis.
He was not slowly becoming famous.
Everything was happening at once.
Three days. Thirteen completed songs. Elvis Presley was 21 — and one of the biggest years in music history was still accelerating.