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On this day, July 5, 1954, Elvis Presley recorded Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup's 1946 song "That's All Right."
Last edited Fri Jul 5, 2024, 07:47 AM - Edit history (1)
ENTERTAINMENT
Arthur Crudup wrote the song that became Elvis’ first hit. He barely got paid
BY BEN FINLEY
Updated 9:04 AM EDT, July 2, 2024
1 of 9 | In this image provided by Jeff Titon, Athur Crudup performs in Ann Arbor, Mich., Sunday, Aug. 3, 1969. Crudup wrote the song “That’s All Right,” which Elvis Presley later recorded for his first single. (Jeff Titon via AP)
FRANKTOWN, Va. (AP) — Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup helped invent rock ‘n’ roll. ... His 1946 song “That’s All Right,” an easygoing shrug to a lover, would become the first single Elvis Presley ever released. Rod Stewart would sing it on a chart-topping album. Led Zeppelin would play it live.
But you wouldn’t have known it if you saw Crudup living out his later years on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, dressed in coveralls and leading a crew picking cucumbers, tomatoes and sweet potatoes. ... Despite being dubbed “the father of rock ‘n’ roll,” Crudup received scant songwriting royalties in his lifetime because of a recording contract that funneled the money to his original manager. Crudup died 50 years ago, leaving behind one of the starker accounts of 20th century artist exploitation.
“Of course materialistic things don’t mean everything,” says Prechelle Crudup Shannon, a granddaughter. “But they took so much more than just money. They left him with all of the burdens of a poor Black man. And even more so because they left him with a broken heart.”
In recent years, Crudup has received flashes of recognition. He was briefly portrayed by Gary Clark Jr. in the 2022 biopic “Elvis” and mentioned last year by a California reparations task force examining the long history of discrimination against African Americans. ... The 70th anniversary of Presley recording “That’s All Right” is Friday — many historians consider July 5 a cultural milestone — and comes as the state of Virginia plans a highway marker honoring Crudup. ... “Among others who covered Crudup were the Beatles, B.B. King, and Elton John,” the marker will state. “Rarely receiving royalties, Crudup supported his family as a laborer and farm worker.”
{snip}
Arthur Crudup wrote the song that became Elvis’ first hit. He barely got paid
BY BEN FINLEY
Updated 9:04 AM EDT, July 2, 2024
1 of 9 | In this image provided by Jeff Titon, Athur Crudup performs in Ann Arbor, Mich., Sunday, Aug. 3, 1969. Crudup wrote the song “That’s All Right,” which Elvis Presley later recorded for his first single. (Jeff Titon via AP)
FRANKTOWN, Va. (AP) — Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup helped invent rock ‘n’ roll. ... His 1946 song “That’s All Right,” an easygoing shrug to a lover, would become the first single Elvis Presley ever released. Rod Stewart would sing it on a chart-topping album. Led Zeppelin would play it live.
But you wouldn’t have known it if you saw Crudup living out his later years on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, dressed in coveralls and leading a crew picking cucumbers, tomatoes and sweet potatoes. ... Despite being dubbed “the father of rock ‘n’ roll,” Crudup received scant songwriting royalties in his lifetime because of a recording contract that funneled the money to his original manager. Crudup died 50 years ago, leaving behind one of the starker accounts of 20th century artist exploitation.
“Of course materialistic things don’t mean everything,” says Prechelle Crudup Shannon, a granddaughter. “But they took so much more than just money. They left him with all of the burdens of a poor Black man. And even more so because they left him with a broken heart.”
In recent years, Crudup has received flashes of recognition. He was briefly portrayed by Gary Clark Jr. in the 2022 biopic “Elvis” and mentioned last year by a California reparations task force examining the long history of discrimination against African Americans. ... The 70th anniversary of Presley recording “That’s All Right” is Friday — many historians consider July 5 a cultural milestone — and comes as the state of Virginia plans a highway marker honoring Crudup. ... “Among others who covered Crudup were the Beatles, B.B. King, and Elton John,” the marker will state. “Rarely receiving royalties, Crudup supported his family as a laborer and farm worker.”
{snip}
I copied the image from https://kstp.com/kstp-news/business-news/arthur-crudup-wrote-the-song-that-became-elvis-first-hit-he-barely-got-paid/ .
50 Years Ago: Elvis Songwriter Dies in Poverty, as He Predicted
Martin Kielty
Published: March 28, 2024
{snip}
Martin Kielty
Published: March 28, 2024
{snip}
https://news.google.com/search?for=arthur+big+boy+crudup+that%27s+all+right
Arthur Crudup
Background information
Birth name: Arthur William Crudup
Also known as: Big Boy Crudup, Elmer James, Percy Lee Crudup
Born: August 24, 1905; Forest, Mississippi, U.S.
Died: March 28, 1974 (aged 68); Nassawadox, Virginia, U.S.
Years active: 1939–1973
Arthur William "Big Boy" Crudup (August 24, 1905 – March 28, 1974)[1] was an American Delta blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known, outside blues circles, for his songs "That's All Right" (1946), "My Baby Left Me" and "So Glad You're Mine", later recorded by Elvis Presley and other artists.
{snip}
Musical career
{snip}
Recordings
He recorded with RCA in the late 1940s and with Ace Records, Checker Records and Trumpet Records in the early 1950s. He toured black clubs in the South, sometimes playing with Sonny Boy Williamson II and Elmore James. He also recorded under the names Elmer James and Percy Lee Crudup. His songs "Mean Old 'Frisco Blues", "Who's Been Foolin' You" and "That's All Right" were popular in the South. These and his other songs "Rock Me Mama", "So Glad You're Mine", and "My Baby Left Me" have been recorded by many artists, including Elvis Presley, Slade, Elton John and Rod Stewart.
Arthur Crudup at the 1969 Ann Arbor Blues Festival.
Crudup stopped recording in the 1950s because of disputes over royalties.[He said, "I realised I was making everybody rich, and here I was poor". His last Chicago session was in 1951. His 1952–54 recording sessions for Victor were held at radio station WGST, in Atlanta, Georgia. He returned to recording, for Fire Records and Delmark Records, and touring in 1965. Sometimes labeled "The Father of Rock and Roll", he accepted this title with some bemusement. During this time Crudup worked as a laborer to augment the low wages he received as a singer (he was not receiving royalties). After a dispute with {record producer Lester Melrose} over royalties, he returned to Mississippi and took up bootlegging. He later moved to Virginia, where he lived with his family, including three sons and several of his siblings, and worked as a field laborer. He occasionally sang in and supplied moonshine to drinking establishments, including one called the Do Drop Inn, in Franktown, Northampton County.
Later years
Crudup's grave, in Franktown, Virginia
In 1968, the blues promoter Dick Waterman began fighting for Crudup's royalties and reached an agreement in which Crudup would be paid $60,000. However, Hill and Range Songs, from which he was supposed to get the royalties, refused to sign the legal papers at the last minute, because the company thought it could not lose more money in legal action. In the early 1970s, two Virginia activists, Celia Santiago and Margaret Carter, assisted Crudup in an attempt to gain royalties he felt he were due, with little success. By 1971, he had collected over $10,000 in overdue royalties through the intervention of the Songwriters Guild of America (then called the American Guild Of Authors And Composers).
On a 1970 trip to the United Kingdom, Crudup recorded "Roebuck Man" with local musicians. His last professional engagements were with Bonnie Raitt. Recognizing his fortunes would not change, Crudup said in 1970, "I was born poor, I live poor, and I am going to die poor."
Death
Crudup died of complications of heart disease and diabetes in the Nassawadox hospital in Northampton County, Virginia, on March 28, 1974, four years after the failed royalty settlement.
There was some confusion about the date of death because of his use of several names, including those of his siblings.
Legacy
Crudup has been honored with a marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail, placed at Forest. Elvis Presley acknowledged Crudup's importance to rock and roll when he said, "If I had any ambition, it was to be as good as Arthur Crudup".
One of the experts who consider Crudup's "That's All Right" to be the "first rock and roll song" is Southeastern Louisiana University rock historian Joseph Burns. He adds that "this song could contain the first ever guitar solo break". Another source is equally definitive, stating that the recording "stands as a convincing front-runner for rock ‘n’ roll's ground zero".
A 2004 article in The Guardian argues that rather than Presley's version being one of the first records of rock and roll, it was simply one of "the first white artists' interpretations of a sound already well-established by black musicians almost a decade before [...] a raucous, driving, unnamed variant of rhythm and blues".
The Blues Hall of Fame stated that Crudup "became known as 'The Father of Rock ‘n’ Roll' after Elvis Presley recorded three of his songs" but adds that "Crudup was a classic victim of music industry exploitation, and despite the commercial success of his music, was never able to even support his family from his music". The Hall quotes Presley as having said, "Down in Tupelo, Mississippi, I used to hear old Arthur Crudup bang his box the way I do now, and I said if I ever got to the place I could feel all old Arthur felt, I’d be a music man like nobody ever saw".
{snip}
Background information
Birth name: Arthur William Crudup
Also known as: Big Boy Crudup, Elmer James, Percy Lee Crudup
Born: August 24, 1905; Forest, Mississippi, U.S.
Died: March 28, 1974 (aged 68); Nassawadox, Virginia, U.S.
Years active: 1939–1973
Arthur William "Big Boy" Crudup (August 24, 1905 – March 28, 1974)[1] was an American Delta blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known, outside blues circles, for his songs "That's All Right" (1946), "My Baby Left Me" and "So Glad You're Mine", later recorded by Elvis Presley and other artists.
{snip}
Musical career
{snip}
Recordings
He recorded with RCA in the late 1940s and with Ace Records, Checker Records and Trumpet Records in the early 1950s. He toured black clubs in the South, sometimes playing with Sonny Boy Williamson II and Elmore James. He also recorded under the names Elmer James and Percy Lee Crudup. His songs "Mean Old 'Frisco Blues", "Who's Been Foolin' You" and "That's All Right" were popular in the South. These and his other songs "Rock Me Mama", "So Glad You're Mine", and "My Baby Left Me" have been recorded by many artists, including Elvis Presley, Slade, Elton John and Rod Stewart.
Arthur Crudup at the 1969 Ann Arbor Blues Festival.
Crudup stopped recording in the 1950s because of disputes over royalties.[He said, "I realised I was making everybody rich, and here I was poor". His last Chicago session was in 1951. His 1952–54 recording sessions for Victor were held at radio station WGST, in Atlanta, Georgia. He returned to recording, for Fire Records and Delmark Records, and touring in 1965. Sometimes labeled "The Father of Rock and Roll", he accepted this title with some bemusement. During this time Crudup worked as a laborer to augment the low wages he received as a singer (he was not receiving royalties). After a dispute with {record producer Lester Melrose} over royalties, he returned to Mississippi and took up bootlegging. He later moved to Virginia, where he lived with his family, including three sons and several of his siblings, and worked as a field laborer. He occasionally sang in and supplied moonshine to drinking establishments, including one called the Do Drop Inn, in Franktown, Northampton County.
Later years
Crudup's grave, in Franktown, Virginia
In 1968, the blues promoter Dick Waterman began fighting for Crudup's royalties and reached an agreement in which Crudup would be paid $60,000. However, Hill and Range Songs, from which he was supposed to get the royalties, refused to sign the legal papers at the last minute, because the company thought it could not lose more money in legal action. In the early 1970s, two Virginia activists, Celia Santiago and Margaret Carter, assisted Crudup in an attempt to gain royalties he felt he were due, with little success. By 1971, he had collected over $10,000 in overdue royalties through the intervention of the Songwriters Guild of America (then called the American Guild Of Authors And Composers).
On a 1970 trip to the United Kingdom, Crudup recorded "Roebuck Man" with local musicians. His last professional engagements were with Bonnie Raitt. Recognizing his fortunes would not change, Crudup said in 1970, "I was born poor, I live poor, and I am going to die poor."
Death
Crudup died of complications of heart disease and diabetes in the Nassawadox hospital in Northampton County, Virginia, on March 28, 1974, four years after the failed royalty settlement.
There was some confusion about the date of death because of his use of several names, including those of his siblings.
Legacy
Crudup has been honored with a marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail, placed at Forest. Elvis Presley acknowledged Crudup's importance to rock and roll when he said, "If I had any ambition, it was to be as good as Arthur Crudup".
One of the experts who consider Crudup's "That's All Right" to be the "first rock and roll song" is Southeastern Louisiana University rock historian Joseph Burns. He adds that "this song could contain the first ever guitar solo break". Another source is equally definitive, stating that the recording "stands as a convincing front-runner for rock ‘n’ roll's ground zero".
A 2004 article in The Guardian argues that rather than Presley's version being one of the first records of rock and roll, it was simply one of "the first white artists' interpretations of a sound already well-established by black musicians almost a decade before [...] a raucous, driving, unnamed variant of rhythm and blues".
The Blues Hall of Fame stated that Crudup "became known as 'The Father of Rock ‘n’ Roll' after Elvis Presley recorded three of his songs" but adds that "Crudup was a classic victim of music industry exploitation, and despite the commercial success of his music, was never able to even support his family from his music". The Hall quotes Presley as having said, "Down in Tupelo, Mississippi, I used to hear old Arthur Crudup bang his box the way I do now, and I said if I ever got to the place I could feel all old Arthur felt, I’d be a music man like nobody ever saw".
{snip}
Arthur Crudup - That's All Right (Official Audio)
Arthur Crudup
1.98K subscribers
48,363 views May 19, 2022 #OfficialAudio #ArthurCrudup #ThatsAllRight
"That's All Right” by Arthur Crudup
Listen to Arthur Crudup: https://ArthurCrudup.lnk.to/listenYD
Watch more of Arthur Crudup's videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyCcEhsGyll0wdf6LgH9YNw
Subscribe to Arthur Crudup’s official YouTube channel: https://ArthurCrudup.lnk.to/subscribeYD
#ArthurCrudup #ThatsAllRight #OfficialAudio
Arthur Crudup
1.98K subscribers
48,363 views May 19, 2022 #OfficialAudio #ArthurCrudup #ThatsAllRight
"That's All Right” by Arthur Crudup
Listen to Arthur Crudup: https://ArthurCrudup.lnk.to/listenYD
Watch more of Arthur Crudup's videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyCcEhsGyll0wdf6LgH9YNw
Subscribe to Arthur Crudup’s official YouTube channel: https://ArthurCrudup.lnk.to/subscribeYD
#ArthurCrudup #ThatsAllRight #OfficialAudio