Early in July, 1954, a young man called Elvis Presley made his radio debut when a WHBQ Radio in Memphis, Tennessee played his first recording for Sun Records, titled That's All Right.
This may mean little to a generation weaned on Himesh Reshammiya and 50 Cent, but it was the first time that pristine voice made its presence felt. It would, in time, become one of the world's most recognisable, changing the face of rock 'n' roll as we know it.
As legend has it, Presley stepped into the Memphis Recording Service booth a year before, to record a track called My Happiness as a present for his mother.
To cut a long story short, the record label chief Sam Phillips asked him to come in for an audition months later, which didn't really go very well. While fooling around between tapes, however, Elvis sang That's All Right (Mama), which immediately sounded like a hit. He was asked to do a better take and, this time, it was recorded.
When Elvis has finally left the building a few decades later, the composer Leonard Bernstein described him as the greatest cultural force in the twentieth century: 'He introduced the beat to everything -- music, language, clothes. It's a whole new social revolution... the 60's comes from it.'
Text: Preetee Brahmbhatt | Photograph: Liaison/Getty Images
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