'Marion Keisker: The woman who first recorded Elvis Presley'
By Paul Belard
Book Review by Piers Beagley - February 2025
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Marion Keisker was Sam Phillips' assistant when he established the Memphis Recording Service, and later Sun Records.
She is best remembered as the first person to record Elvis in July 1953, then encouraging Sam Phillips (numerous times) to record him "commercially", therefore playing a pivotal role in Elvis' ascent towards the pinnacle of his career.
Throughout interviews given, Marion discloses the workings of Sun Records, the sessions, Elvis' moods during those first days of his career. There is a trove of little known or unknown anecdotes many fans will delight in.
This book is a fitting and well-deserved tribute to Marion Keisker.
Packed full of great stories, rare photos and Marion's personal recollections, EIN's Piers Beagley spent some quality time enjoying this very fine tribute to one of the key inspirations behind the Elvis legacy. |
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At the Jaycee ceremony in January 1971, honoring Elvis Presley as one of the 'Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Nation', Elvis saw Marion Keisker in the audience.
As he approached with Priscilla, he said, 'This is the woman I've been telling you about. She's the one who made all this possible. Without her, I wouldn't be here today." |
Marion Keisker is one of the most important figures in the Elvis Presley story. Without her note “Good ballad singer” about Elvis' first acetate and her bringing Elvis to the attention of Sam Phillips, the history of pop culture would no doubt be completely different.
As Elvis himself noted, “That woman was the one who had faith, she was the one who pushed me ... Marion did it for me.” - Elvis Presley
Over the years there have been plenty of books published about Sam Phillips and Sun Records but disappointingly no specific book about Marion Keisker.
In 2025 this omission has thankfully be righted with Paul Belard’s new book ‘Marion Keisker: The woman who first recorded Elvis Presley’
It can be no coincidence that the importance of Bill Black was also finally properly acknowledged with Paul Belard’s excellent 2021 book ‘Don't Be Cruel, Elvis - The Bill Black Story’.
Marion Keisker was not only present for the all-important recording of Elvis’ very first acetate but was also there for his ‘Grand Ole Opry’ try-out and even his Overton Park Shell debut, as well as at various Sun recording sessions.
Later on Marion would also bump into Elvis in Germany while both in the US services and she was also there for Elvis’ Jaycee's award in 1971. Marion Keisker was also a prominent radio identity as well as a leader in the women’s rights movement.
Her intriguing busy life and how it crisscrossed with Elvis' career is a very absorbing read. The book includes some absolutely stunning photos and so many that I have never seen previously
Author Paul Belard acknowledges his multiple sources for the book, including on-line interviews, Elvis websites plus other Elvis biographies but does give special thanks to author Darrin Lee Memmer who researched the Jerry Hopkins archives held by the University of Memphis. Memmer passed away in 2022 while working on his sadly unpublished book about Marion Keisker and Sun records.
The Content
The physical book is 310 pages printed in a easy-to-read font and there are plenty of rare photos throughout. It is available as a printed soft-cover book and also as an E-book via Amazon Kindle.
There are introductory chapters on topics such as ‘Rhodes College’ and her own background. It’s stunning to discover that Marion debuted age 12 on the radio and had a fulltime job at radio WREC by the age of 30.
While fans may know that Marion was infatuated by Sam Phillips, they might not realise that Marion also helped pay to set-up the Memphis Recording Service. “Because Sam could not get any loan from a bank, she took $500 from her life insurance, no small sum (close to $6,400 in 2025 money) and put it into the venture.”
The Sam Phillips, Elvis and Sun Records sections all help set the scene before we get to that magic moment of Elvis walking in the door of Memphis Recording Service July 18, 1953 and asking to make his personal acetate.
The book features a stunning amount of previously unpublished Keisker interviews (a lot with author Jerry Hopkins) and there is a real joy in reading her personal remembrances on all these crucial moments in musical history.
How can one not be captured by stories on that crucial first acetate..
“It was a Saturday afternoon, a very hot day. The sensation of the Sun bearing down on that glass into that warm little office made it pretty uncomfortable. It was a very busy, busy, afternoon. And when Elvis came in, it was full of people, you know, waiting to make personal records, and it was sort of, stand and-wait-your-turn sort of thing, and a whole lots of things were going on. At first, I wondered if he wanted a handout. We got a lot of drifters along Union Avenue. His hair was long and shaggy, and he was wearing khaki work clothes and was dirty. Of course he had his guitar. I happened to be alone at the time; Sam had taken a break and was next door at Taylor’s Restaurant, where we always fled to have our unofficial conferences and to grab a bite to eat between our sessions. He wanted to know how much the record was. I told him to make a little ten-inch acetate, demo record, two sides would be four dollars. And he said, well, he would like to make one.”
… At one point, he said, “I want to remind you I am a singer.”
I remember he asked me if we needed a singer. And I said, “Well, we sometimes did. How do you sing?”
And he said, “Well, I sing all kinds of music." And I said, “Well, who do you sound like?” And he said, “I don’t sound like nobody.”
And I said, “Well, do you sing hillbilly?” He said, “Yes.”
And I said, “Well, who do you sound like?” And he repeated it, “I don’t sound like nobody”.
And we went through all of the different categories and he insisted that he didn’t sound like anybody else. And so, to myself, I said, “Hmmm. One of those.”
Of course, as I found out later, he was telling the truth. He didn’t sound like anybody else that I had ever heard - or that we at Sun Records had ever heard. Sort of a historic conversation.”
OMG! “Sort of a historic conversation” is a little bit of an understatement!
Later on Marion talks about the crucial moment that would alter the future of pop music.
“When I heard Elvis sing for the first time that was the quality that I noticed and that really interested me. So, I kept the tape and I took Elvis’ name. I had a little slip of paper which I had kept under my desk pad for a long, long time that said, “Elvis Presley” and it gave his address, I believe it was on Alabama Street and the telephone number where he could be reached. To make sure I remembered which one he was, I wrote ‘Timothy Sideburns’ on the paper and ‘Good ballad singer.’ And then across the top of the paper I put, “SAVE” so I would be sure to remember this is an important piece of paper.”
In June 1954 Keisker would get Sam Phillips to agree to try out Elvis on the song ‘Without You’. Once again the book captures the occasion very well.
Elvis later explained, “I must have sat there for at least three hours. I sang everything I knew, pop, spirituals, anything I remembered”.
Marion is beautifully understated in her telling..
“Sam and Elvis.. it was just the three of us. We stayed there, oh, well, I don’t know how many hours. Far into the night, just, you know, just Elvis playin’ and talkin’ with us. And still, he was looking for a band and we had a hillbilly band that we were working with at the time that was very successful out here at one of these little roadhouses — out on the other side of town. At the conclusion of it, Sam, well, he had thought he could put him with a group that would help him develop. And that’s how it all began.”
Other chapters include ‘Sun Records and Artist Piracy’, ‘January 4, 1954’ the second acetate, ‘The First Single’ and ‘I Don’t Care If The Sun Don’t Shine’ Marion’s favourite Sun recording where she supplied the lyrics for Elvis to sing.
In the chapter ‘The Sessions’ she recalls..
“Every session was starting from scratch. And every session was extremely difficult and took a great deal of time. Elvis didn’t have his own original material, as all of our other Sun artists did. So, we were looking for material, we were looking for a style, we were looking for everything to fall into place, as it finally did.”
About ‘First Radio Plays’-
“Dewey said, “Who is this? I have never heard of him. Who is Ev-lis Presley?” In fact, until the day he died, Dewey always pronounced Elvis’ name as “Ev-lis Presley” (Marion laughs) with a little, kind of a warm thing that he had.”
On Elvis’ ‘July 30th, 1954’ Overton Park Shell concert, Marion’s reaction was used to good effect in the Baz Luhrmann film ‘ELVIS’.
“As I have said since, I am a very restrained person at least publicly, and I heard somebody screaming, you know, “Ahhhhh!!!” The keening. And I suddenly fell back. Suddenly, to my chagrin, surprise and horror, I realized that one of those shrieking voices was mine. I was on my feet and I was shrieking, and I had never done anything like that in my whole life, before!”
At Elvis’ 1954 Grand Ole Opry try-out and rejection, Marion was also there to tell the story…
“When it was time for Elvis to go on, I happened to be standing there and gave him a little pat on the back before he made his entrance. Hank Snow came up and said, ‘Well, kid, you ready?’ Elvis said, ‘Yes Sir.’ And Hank said, ‘What was your name again?’ Elvis said, ‘Elvis Presley.’ Hank said, ‘No, but I mean, what is the name you used on your record?’ Elvis said, ‘Elvis Presley.’“
Other sections include her thoughts on ‘Selling Elvis’ The RCA sale’, ‘Tapes handed to RCA’, ‘Sam’s Opinion of Elvis’, ‘Johnny Cash’ and of course Marion's take on ‘Tom Parker’..
.. Prompted on Tom Parker and what she thought of him, Marion answered with a tone of disgust: .. “this was my first totally negative reaction to Colonel Tom and some practices that I thought were rather strange and unethical: of saying one thing and doing something else, you know, taking advantage of the situation.”
Multiple photos of the group together are included that were taken on ‘September 24, 1956’ when Elvis visited Sun records and showed both Marion and Sam Phillips the car he bought in Florida.
‘Radio WHER’ - Sam Phillips founded the country’s first all-female radio station WHER in 1955, to help the course of female liberation. Marion Keisker was the first voice heard on-air.
On ‘Stampede at the Mid-South Fair’ she tells a great story which starts with …
“One exciting time in my life and it was sort of funny. Well, it is and it's very dear. WHER, the all-girls station, was broadcasting from the Memphis Fairgrounds during the Mid-South Fair. All of the sudden this car pulls over to the curb. There is Elvis! All shiny and resplendent. He says, "Hop in, Marion." So, of course, I did. What girl could resist a "Hop in" invitation from Elvis!”…
Other sources as well as Marion’s interviews are included to fill out the story, one in particular I enjoyed was about Elvis’ Memphis Press Scimitar July 1954 interview..
Edwin Howard explains, .. “I’ll never forget. He walked in there looking like the wrath of God. Pimples all over his face. The boy’s hair looked as if it had been cut by a lawn mower, but the trademarks were already there - flat top, duck tail and sideburns.”
Later chapters explain how Elvis and Marion - who by then had joined the US Air Force - met on March 1st, 1960 at Elvis’ departure from Germany Press Conference.
When Elvis saw her his face was one of utter shock and great surprise. When he was able to speak, he said, “Marion! In Germany! And an officer!” Then he added, “I do not know, do I kiss you or salute you?” “In that order” Marion replied!
Elvis then had to explain to his superiors, “Captain, you do not understand. You wouldn’t even be having this thing today if it wasn’t for this lady.’”
In a particularly touching description Marion explains..
“So then, he held my hand. But it was a very significant thing for me. And very important to me. I am the sole, one person who never made a penny out of him, who never asked him for a favor, who never ever benefitted directly in any way from him. And it was the first and only time that Elvis ever indicated publicly that he recognized the role that I played. And to me that was a real, big … (she fights back tears). Elvis is close, second only to my son, in my affection.”
A decade later on ‘January 16, 1971, Marion was similarly at the Jaycees’ Memphis ‘Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Nation’ reception when Elvis spotted her and told Priscilla, “This is the woman I’ve been telling you about. She’s the one who made all this possible. Without her, I wouldn’t be here today.”
Marion's whole life is a wonderful story and even more enjoyable when one discovers that Marion obviously enjoyed her later years, performing in Theatre and also supporting women’s right particularly with The ‘National Organization for Women’ a dedicated women’s rights advocacy coalition founded in 1966.
A later chapter also shows Marion with Elvis’ school friend Ed Leek who ended up owning Elvis' very first acetate recording. We would never have heard that precious acetate had Leek not carefully looked after it for decades.
Overall Verdict: Marion Keisker was unstoppable and she was certainly one of the most important and interesting characters in Elvis history. If you know a lot about Sam Phillips but little about Marion Keisker this is an enthralling read, especially all her personal recollections of the key moments at Sun Records. This book is a real joy and it made me a little sad that Marion, who died in 1989 aged 72, never got to see a book published about her life story. Thanks to Paul Belard this poor oversight has been finally resolved. Highly recommended.
Go here to Amazon UK or Amazon.com to order
Or for a signed edition Paul Belard he can contacted by email: pbelard@hotmail.com
Book Review by Piers Beagley.
-Copyright EIN February 2025
EIN Website content © Copyright the Elvis Information Network.
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