Last time on Sun Records
You ain't from around here, huh?
Just loaded out of Nashville this morning.
Gonna open up a record studio. Memphis Recording Service.
That the Presley boy?
Why is Elvis at the colored church?
You ruined everything, Elvis.
You will never see him again, you hear me?
Between the skeeters and the floods,
there's just low rent bottom land.
Music or no music,
the ducks keep dancing.
It's like the melodies are in their head!
There's no need for that now. Madam, you are no lady.
Whoo!
You're a sinner.
And I'm talking about you, Jerry Lee Lewis. Sinner.
Get out of the way!
Let not the sun go down on you on Fourth Street.
Well, I'll tell you what, Swaggart, I had some money,
I'd have her go downtown on me on Fourth Street.
Wow.
There you go.
That cat's shaking on down.
Whoo!
Wine, wine, wine, blackberry
Pass that bottle to me...
Man, look at him pound them keys.
Son of a gun.
Lookit.
What the hell are you doing?
Just checking out the music.
Our uncle, Lee Calhoun owns this place.
And what would he say if he had caught you,
instead of me?
He'd say, "Jerry Lee",
"go on in, get you a beer, have one on me."
You some kind of smartass, ain't you?
What if I call the sheriff?
Uh, Uncle Lee owns the sheriff.
Is that so?
You Elmo Lewis's boy?
Jerry Lee Lewis.
Well, last I heard,
Elmo's in jail.
So, if your Uncle Lee
can't keep his cousin out of jail
for running his liquor,
then how the hell is he supposed
to keep a black man out of jail
for serving booze to his under aged,
white, snot-nose relations in this part of town?
It's Wednesday night.
Shouldn't you be at Bible study?
Mr. Haney,
we just come from church.
"Therefore to him
that knoweth to do good"
"and doeth it not, to him it is sin!"
He's fixing to be a preacher.
Couldn't you tell?
Well then, he's gonna have more money than all of us.
Now get!
Another thing. You know, I can play piano better
than that fool over there!
Now I done heard it all.
Now I done damn heard it all!
Ha!
Sam.
Don't start.
Marion, we just got a little carried away is all.
Don't we always?
Mmm.
Look, Marion,
we promised we would leave this all behind
when we left Nashville.
We always knew
that was one promise we could never keep.
I got to go.
Knox.
Knox, are you ready for school?
Be right down, Ma!
When did you get in?
Why didn't you come to bed?
Uh... Oh, I didn't wanna wake you.
Sam.
Doctor told you to take it easy.
Oh, this is what's gonna get me right.
Knox, Mrs. McClusky's coming.
She's driving you today. I've got sewing to do.
Let's go
- Hey. - Hey.
Morning, Knox.
Morning, Daddy.
You like this music?
- Yeah. - Yeah?
Your dear old dad found that. Come on.
It's lively. It's very lively.
Oh, it's lively? It's lively? Come on, Beck.
Oh, it's jumping out the damn grooves.
Don't swear. There's no need.
Knox, don't keep Mrs. McClusky waiting.
Okay, Mom.
All right. Go on, boy.
There's ain't no need for you to look at me
Like three sheets in the wind
Oh. Thank you for the work, Nadine.
Bye, Daddy.
Oh, bye, son.
Morning, Nadine.
Now I do believe you're speechless.
Is this a first?
I told you I'd do everything I could for you
I'd buy you fine clothes and an automobile now...
Good Lord.
When this kid started playing,
Becky, I swear I heard the heavens open up.
Hmm. Sounds like the gates of hell to me.
No, this is life.
He's singing about his girlfriend,
whooping her ass and going to jail.
Sam, we need to talk about Bible School for Knox.
No.
No. This is what I wanna talk about.
Today, tomorrow, for the rest of my life.
Making this music,
finding some way to sell it.
Trust to God, I can make us some kind of living at it.
We had a good living, Sam.
In Nashville.
I've got sewing to do.
And you need to get back to work.
Humes!
Five-six-seven-eight!
H-U-M-E-S
Humes Humes High
We're the team that can't be beat
Humes Humes High
One-two-three-four,
five-six-seven-eight!
Two-two-three-four, five-six-seven-eight!
We're the team that can't be beat
Humes Humes High
H-U-M-E-S, Humes Humes High
Said he wants to take me to the drive-in on Friday.
Yeah, let's hang out later.
Trixie, hon. You've been dodging me.
What, I grow horns or something?
Oh, come on, tell me, Trix. Now what's happened?
- You know what you did. - You know.
Presley.
You're slopping grease on her.
God knows it ain't sweat.
Come see Singin' in the Rain with me, will you?
Seen it last week, you know. It's your kind of movie.
He'll get to sit downstairs
with the white folks this time!
See you around, Presley.
But the mark the merc makes
at the tip-top of the time and temperature tower
is 76 big degrees here
at W-R-E-C. How's everybody doing today?
This here's Top Rail Tom,
and next up,
we're gonna hear the newest hit from Eddy Arnold.
It's Anytime
Oh, yeah. Anytime is Eddy Arnold time.
What's your poison?
White Horse.
We'll get you a bottle.
Now here's a special copy of Anytime.
But I don't want you to play Anytime just anytime.
I need for you to play it precisely at 2:10 PM,
for the rest of the week. 2:10.
2:10. If'n you say so.
Thank you.
Don't tell me you ain't been on skates before.
Slid around on the pond when it froze up, but
never been on wheels.
Check out them fillies over yonder.
Come on.
Let's mosey.
Jambalaya, crawfish pie and fillet gumbo
'Cause tonight I'm gonna see my ma-chere-amie-oh
Hey! Beau!
I'm coming.
I'll tell you what, I need to get me some
good old American cooch before we ship out.
I read someplace that they make girls over
in Germany.
Yeah, well, I'm telling them we're headed to Korea tomorrow
and they need to lay it down for God and country tonight.
Yeah, good luck with that.
Come on, cowboy.
Oh, man. You just got to get out here and go, man!
- Come on up, man. Let's go. - Come on.
Ho-ow difficult could it be, huh?
Go, Johnny!
Whoa!
Air Force, flyin' by.
Whoo. Look out.
I got... I got it.
And Go-time!
It's Go-time, everyone.
Flying... Solo!
Come on, are you ready?
- I'm good. - Well then, go!
- Fly, Johnny Boy! Fly! - Hey! Johnny!
I don't got it. I don't got it.
Whoa!
Ahh!
Hello. I'm JR Cash.
Well, look who's slumming it on the late shift.
How about playing a hit, like Perry Como here?
Oh, pardon me.
Now that's a hit.
I got a question for you, Diz.
Who's the king of late night radio in the tri-state?
You are, partner.
Darn right. And who breaks all the hits?
You do, partner.
Darn right.
Well, dang if I ain't just broke
another one, boy.
All right, all right.
Did your old lady kick you out?
Tell you what I want you to do.
Go on down, see Grandma at Grandma's Furniture.
Bedroom suites, living room suites.
Go tell Grandma you want nothing but the best,
and you wanna pay nothing down
and rest when they catch up with you, boy. Ho!
Dewey, Dewey, Dewey.
Hey.
This is it. The BeBop Boy.
The one-man-band guy? Country as all get-out?
- That's him. - Hey!
Think you can test it out on air for me?
Yeah... No, man.
No. No, no, no, no, man.
No. I... It don't work like that.
You see, I-I got my playlist,
and my station manager Earle here says,
"If you play something,"
"you got to be able to go buy it someplace."
Ain't that right, Mr. Hutchins, sir?
That's right.
Now, play these.
In this order.
Yes, sir.
Man, get these...
You're running the board
for the BB King session tomorrow. Remember?
Yeah. So?
"So?" "So?" "So?" You dense or something?
I got you the gig 'cause it's for Joe Bihari.
Modern Records?
Modern Records.
You get him to put BeBop out,
boy, I'll play the bejesus out of it.
That easy, huh?
That easy.
All right.
Mmm.
Red hot and blue, WHBQ!
Every weeknight, eight till midnight.
Ray. Colonel Tom Parker.
Remember, 2:10 on the nose. Anytime.
Jim... Colonel Tom Parker.
Now, remember, 2:10 on the nose. Anytime.
I have no idea where the Colonel is.
No idea at all.
I don't think we need to wait.
I don't think we do either.
You've had a great year, Eddy. Congratulations.
RCA has boundless confidence in your future.
We're upping your royalty from two to three percent.
Herb, I think this calls for a little celebration.
The good stuff. Glenlivet.
Um... Well, now, now, now. Hold on.
The Colonel really should be here.
Oh. Let's sign.
Then we can crack this baby open. What do you say?
There's no better deal to be had.
Now as much as I would like to sign...
Whoo! Forgive my tardiness.
Colonel. Perfect timing.
I was just telling Eddy here
that we're upping his royalty to three percent.
Hold on.
I just got this telegram from Don Law at Columbia.
"Must have Arnold. Stop.
"Five percent. Stop."
"5000 a quarter, guaranteed."
Whoo! Wee.
Uh, that's 20,000 smackeroos a year.
Yeah, and Paul Cohen
from Decca's been leaving messages.
Uh, we have a deal.
Well, we haven't signed,
and I feel... Awful.
Steve, let's face it,
you can't turn on the damn radio
without hearing Eddy Arnold.
Perhaps that's a bit of an exaggeration?
No, that's a fact.
Steve, are you a gambling man?
If we don't hear Eddy all across the dial right now,
we'll go back to the old deal.
- Uh. - No royalty bump. No advance.
But if Eddy is all over the radio,
you match Columbia's offer.
Every 4th of July
is your memory my dearie.
Anytime
That will prove your love for me is true
Okay. Okay.
I get it.
He's in heavy rotation.
But who got him there?
Me, Herb,
RCA Victor.
I don't have the approval to go that high.
Just one second, huh? One second.
Colonel, come here.
Take the Columbia deal.
There is no deal.
What?
Now, look, I know the offer at Columbia's better,
but, uh, business shouldn't be all about money.
I mean, relationships and loyalty should count, too.
You're always saying
what a great rapport you have with Steve here.
I mean,
who knows if you'd have that with Don Law.
You know what? Steve's right.
We wouldn't even be talking these numbers
if it wasn't for RCA.
Why don't we split the difference? Four percent.
375 a quarter, what do you say?
Pour the Glenlivet.
Ah. There you go, Steve.
And as a token of appreciation,
how about RCA throws in one of those
new 21-T-227 television sets for Eddy?
The console model.
And, uh, one for the Colonel, of course.
If they'd have called your bluff,
I'd be without a record deal right now.
But you're not.
Go on.
BB, let me hear you play something.
So we go down,
we check it out, and we see this fellow butt-naked,
and his private parts are just flopping.
I'm sorry, sugar.
But he's chasing her down.
She's got his pants and his billfold.
What happened?
Well, ruined a great take.
See, Joe? You get what you pay for.
Yeah, yeah, we do okay cutting at the Y.
You sure are a hell of a lot more expensive.
That's cause our equipment's better.
Our acoustics are better,
and Sam's very skilled at balance and EQ.
Come on.
Like people buying our records complain about balance and EQ?
Okay.
All right, boys.
Maggie Blues. Take one.
If Maggie hadn't changed her mind
I'd still be a happy man
If Maggie hadn't changed her mind...
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Now hold up there.
That sounds fine, what the hell is he doing?
That's Sam.
B, man, um,
how many times you sung this sucker?
I do it most every show.
Yeah. Sounds like it.
Man, this song, gentlemen,
needs to jump out and bite folks in the ass.
What's it about?
My old lady kicked me out.
Well, then I need to feel
like you're standin' in the rain,
man, you ain't got no place to go.
Sam. Am I paying you by the hour
or the week?
I'll tell ya what, B, quit playing lead.
You focus on your singin'.
Sax man, you ever played lead on a record before?
Well this here's your time.
Okay, uh,
at the top,
I want you to take the whole 12 bars
and then cut loose with a wail.
Ooh-whee.
That's it!
All right. Stand back a couple feet.
Okay. Bass man.
At the top, give me a little break.
Uh-huh.
Piano man, play it high.
That's it. Okay.
Tellin' the Blues Boy how to play the blues.
All right, boys.
Maggie Blues, take one.
If Maggie hadn't changed her mind
I'd still be a happy man
Oh, if Maggie hadn't changed her mind
And that's what you're paying me for.
You got talent, I'll pull it out of your ass.
And that's why you need the Memphis Recording Service.
But now I sit here crying
Holding my head between my hands
Well she never said a word
She just left a note that said
She don't wanna love me
There's someone else instead
Now listen, I got a one year contract here,
standard terms. Okay?
Thank you, man.
Nah, you don't need to read it.
Riley "Blues Boy" King,
you are now an RPM Modern recording artist.
Listen, uh, here's five Hamiltons.
Why don't you go get you and the boys
some new threads, huh?
Well, all right. Thank you, sir.
Mister Bihari, sure appreciate it.
Absolutely.
See you guys later.
No, no, no, sax man, no, sax man.
Sammy boy,
all right, so, we'll give you studio time.
Mmm-hmm.
Plus a, uh, standard producer fee.
And how about we get royalties
on any act we bring to you?
Yeah. I'll give you one point.
Meaning what?
Well, records sell for 89 cents, right?
So you make 89 cents for every 100 copies sold.
Hoo-whee, that's a hard road to a million bucks, ain't it?
It's tough for you, tough for us, baby.
Hey, Joe.
You know, I was, uh,
I was figurin' on sendin' this to RCA, Columbia,
but seein' as we're gettin' along so well,
I have your next bona fide, number one hit.
Here.
Let's go
Huh?
Hey Caldonia
Now where in the world has you been?
Gon' find your soul
Oh, yeah. That was my reaction, man.
30 seconds, I was sold.
Nah, man, I, I can't sell that.
What do you mean?
Look. You know,
the Negroes that got outta here,
I mean, the last thing they wanna be reminded about
is sweating their asses off in some damn cotton field.
That's what that is. It's too raw.
Hey.
Hey. You keep on slugging.
Becky. How are you?
Marion,
this studio look so nice.
Well, Sam's not here.
He's recording a recital at Humes High.
Marion, come sit a moment.
You know Sam had some, uh, personal health, well,
mental issues back in Nashville.
It was never my business, Becky, I don't know...
Well, this move was supposed to put all that behind us.
Um.
Do you need to get that?
Excuse me.
Memphis Recording Service.
Well, hello, Miss Marion. Any calls?
Becky's here right now.
Aw, hell. What does she want?
Do you want to talk to her?
I can't right now.
Tell her I'll be running late.
It's Sam. He says he's running late.
Isn't he always.
The other night, he...
Well, never mind.
Bye.
I'm sure you must get going.
It's always so wonderful to see you.
There is something that I want to say, actually.
I don't understand the music Sam's recording.
I wish I did, but I, I don't.
You really should speak with Sam. He's...
Marion. Please.
I know what you're doing,
and I need you to know that I know...
Becky, I don't...
Sam is lucky to have you.
Uh, we're both
so lucky to have you.
You're spending all your time with Sam to make sure
that this dream of his and mine comes true.
Thank you.
Don't keep him up too late.
Choose between...
Elvis, turn that down and get in here!
The boy ain't got her in trouble, has he?
Son, you datin' a girl Trixie?
- Oh, yeah. - You know he is.
He is.
You seen him where?
Well, I will talk to him about that.
You troublin' this Trixie? Cheerleader practice?
No, sir. Just asked her on a date is all.
Well, well, I... I'm gonna talk to the boy.
About all of it.
Oh, no, he won't.
I can promise you that.
That was Trixie's daddy.
He said he seen a boy lookin' just like Elvis
comin' out of a colored church.
Daddy, I didn't mean nothin' by it.
I was just listenin' to the preachin', the prayin',
the singin'.
Look, if I'da known
it was gonna cause all this big ruckus,
- I'da, I'da just stayed... - It's okay, son.
No, it's not okay.
Trixie's daddy said
for Elvis to stay the hell away from her.
Pumpkin...
I'm 'bout ready to whup your ass, son,
clear across to Arkansas.
Pumpkin, you need to keep your mind
on your schoolwork instead of that girl.
I'm tired of y'all telling me what to do all the time!
Hey, hey, boy.
Panty-waist boy gonna talk to us that way?
Longest day I live, that ain't gonna happen.
You stay the hell away from the colored church.
Lord, have mercy.
Wine, wine
Sweet wine all the time
You're gonna have to choose between me...
Couldn't hack it.
Putting 51 gaskets on 51 Pontiacs,
52 gaskets on 52 Pontiacs,
spending all my time in hillbilly bars,
drinkin' up my money and dreamin' of home.
It was that bad?
Round where I come from,
the three R's are readin', writin',
and the road to Detroit.
Half the fellas in my year are workin' up there.
Well, only work I've ever done
is helping my daddy with his magic act.
Magic act?
Yeah.
Yeah. He sells insurance during the week
and on the weekends, he has a magic act.
He saws you in two?
Stuff like that.
My old man made me disappear.
You know who JC is, don't you?
Um, Jesus Christ?
You know what L stands for, don't you?
Lost, leave, left.
Aw, you know.
You know who VL is, don't you?
Vivien Leigh?
Nope.
It's someone prettier than Vivian Leigh.
Viv, I know that we ain't known each other long.
Three whole days.
Hmm. Thing is, I wouldn't never have found you
if I wasn't goin' off to Germany, but...
now I don't wanna go.
How long will you be away?
Not long.
How long is not long?
Just three years.
Three years.
I'll be an old maid by the time you get back.
Will you wait for me, Viv?
Three years?
Yes.
Yes, John Cash, I'll wait for you.
Oh, it's hell at home right now.
Becky,
longest day she lives,
she'll never get this music.
You know?
I gotta tell ya,
I've been sneaking around with Marion.
I figured you was, boy.
But she gets me, right?
But I'll tell you, she wants me so damn bad,
it scares me, man.
I mean, I'm supposed to be at the flicks right now.
Seeing uh,
well what was it, uh,
Singin' With the Rain.
At the Memphian with her right now,
I mean, can you imagine?
Whoo!
Man, we uptown 'bout as far as you can get, boy.
Ah. I owe you for Bihari, man. I do.
No, really. I appreciate it.
You know he brushed off Joe Hill?
Door's open now, man. That's the important thing.
Sam, man, you're a music guy
tryin' to figure out the business.
Oh, all right.
And they are,
they are business guys
tryin' to figure out the damn music, man.
My money's on you.
I'll, I'll tell you what, slick.
Why don't we press up Joe Hill our own selves, man,
and prove Bihari wrong? Wrong!
- Wrong. - Wrong.
- Wrong - Wrong.
- Wrong.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
That's... That's...
I'm sorry.
We'll show Joe damn Bihari how to sell records, boy.
How many records we should press up, huh?
5000? 10,000?
At least 300.
It wrecked him,
hell, it damn near killed him.
- Eddy Arnold. That really you? - Uh, well, yes, ma'am.
I got just about every record you ever made.
Cattle Call. What is Life Without Love?
I mean, what is it, right?
Right.
Little Angel With the Dirty Face.
You know, that could just about be my theme song.
It's time for me to retire.
What did the Colonel promise you when we started?
My song on every jukebox, my face on every lamp pole,
and, uh, the finest ta-tas.
What on Earth are you doing?
Ironin'.
It's four o' clock in the morning, Sam.
Those pills.
Gotta have a nice shirt ironed
before work in the morning.
Gotta look right, right. Shh. Sharp.
On the wall and on.
Sam...
Give me a few minutes.
Sam, Sam...
Hey. Hey, hey, hey.
Look at me. Look at me. Hey.
It's all right. You just need to get some sleep. Let's go.
There's a lot of things to do.
I know.
We're gonna do them in the morning, okay?
Hey, look at me.
- You all right? - Mmm. Yeah.
Come on.
Why don't you try it in C?
That guy down at Haney's
was playin' most everything in C.
What was you boys doin' at Haney's?
I was just passin' by
on my way home from church, Momma.
You better have been.
So then my thumb will hit the G and then the A.
So now you're playin'
half of what that colored fella was playin',
'cause he was playin' two fisted.
Hmm. At about one half of one half the tempo.
Go butt a stump.
And in one chord.
Hell, it's just one, two, three, four.
You ain't doin' like he done. You ain't got that feelin'.
Well, I know that, fool!
Now you're getting some place.
Yeah. That's some Devil's music for you there, Swaggart.
Now you gotta do somethin' with that other hand.
Hell, you wrecked that hand
with all that ungodly self-gratification.
Can't say I didn't warn you!
Yeah.
Mmm.
I do believe you're gettin' it.
You're a natural born piano player, Jerry Lee.
Work on it. Bring that money home.
Damn boy, that beat is kickin'.
Uh-huh. How do you like that organ, huh? That's good.
Mmm-hmm. Mmm-hmm.
300.
You two Einsteins couldn't press 25.
Even 50. 300.
I'm doing my part, man.
I'm playin' the hell outta BeBop Boy.
You get calls on it?
Yeah. Someone told me he was tossin' his damn radio
out the window if I didn't quit playin' it, boy.
The distributor took every last copy.
Well, that doesn't mean he sold them.
Yeah, but the way Dewey's layin' on it,
it's pretty much guaranteed to catch on around here.
Then Jackson, New Orleans, St. Louis, Chicago.
They jump on it, before you know it,
we got us a Top Ten record.
We can just go shoppin' for Cadillacs.
Woo-whee! A blue, blue two-tone for me!
Whoa.
Hey. Pay the rent first?
Well she never said a word
Memphis Recording Service, how may I help you?
- I gotta jump. - All right.
Yes Mr. Rosen, I'm aware we're in arrears.
Good luck, cuz.
We're good for the bill.
We're expecting some cash coming in today,
as a matter of fact and you're at the top of the pile.
We need to talk.
I heard it.
Like you said,
we got cash comin' in the mail for Joe Hill.
No, we need to talk about what happened between us.
Morning Sam, morning Miss Marion.
Mornin'.
There's more. I'll be right back.
Mmm.
This looks promisin'.
Light, gas and water bill.
Plastic products bill.
I swear we paid that one, guess not.
Mastering bill. Should've done it myself.
Plating bill.
You know, we oughta get one of them, uh...
Past due stamps.
That don't sound too good.
Returns. They're all coming back.
Oh Mary don't you weep
Oh yeah this has got 'em
Oh Mary don't you weep
Walking to the city
Oh Mary don't you weep
He said Mary
Oh Mary don't you weep
You don't have a worry
Oh Mary don't you weep
Yeah
Oh Mary don't you weep
You don't have a worry
Oh Mary don't you weep
Yes sir yes sir
Whoo
Oh, you got something going on.
You got something going on.