1956
BLUE SUEDE SHOES * CARL PERKINS * LONDON 8271 * UK
Recorded in one take, and released on January 1st 1956 Carl Perkins had a number two hit with the original version of Blue Suede Shoes, a song he wrote after, it is said, he overheard a boy utter the immortal line "Don't step on my blue suede shoes" at a dance.
Right there, that throwaway line, because it was heard by someone who was listening, became poetry, and not only that, it became history, serious, serious history. It entered the lives of millions of people, it became a byword for a type of person and an attitude, it was synonymous with a life style and an anti life style, it meant different things to different people, some commend it others condemned it, while others condoned it. The question is: who's the poet? The boy who said it, or the man who framed it? And then there was the King's version as well (see below)
From that moment on the words 'blue suede shoes' became synonymous with youth, and rebel youth at that, and was referenced across the cultural spectrum, most notably in Pop music itself, as by the Great Buddy Holly, in his recording of Rock Around With Ollie Vee (see below).
BLUE SUEDE SHOES * ELVIS PRESLEY * RCA 66.36 * GERMANY
ROCK AROUND WITH OLLIE VEE * BUDDY HOLLY * BRUNSWICK 05800 * UK
See also: Matchbox