No More Heartbroke…
Well, since my baby left me,
I found a new place to dwell.
It’s down at the end of lonely street
At heartbreak hotel.
With that opening verse, Elvis’ Heartbreak Hotel hit the streets in January, 1956, zoomed to #1 on the charts and became Elvis’ first Gold Record by selling over a million. The first release under Elvis’ new contract with RCA, it was recorded at their McGavock Street studio in Nashville.
Nashville’s largest daily, The Tennessean, reported on January 19 that the RCA recording studio “is being torn down to make way for that unmistakable sign of urban progress: a parking lot.” The studio parking lot is at 1525 McGavock Street, between Broadway and Demonbreun on the edge of downtown, with a magnificent view of the Nashville skyline. Fantastic site for a parking lot!
In addition to Elvis, many big-name artists recorded at the old RCA studio, predecessor to Studio B in the heart of Music Row, including Jim Reeves, The Everly Brothers, Hank Snow, and Chet Atkins. Maybe the eventual use of the property by the curent owner, Beaman Automotive Group, will surprise, please, and delight us. But given the property’s storied history, a body shop or sales lot for “pre-owned” vehicles does not particularly excite…
3 Comments so far
I guess some would say that what really matters is WHAT was recorded there, not WHERE it was recorded, but the same could be said of Sun Studios as well. Maybe that hasn’t been torn down yet because the lot it sits on isn’t big enough for a parking lot.
I admire all those artists you name, but Jim Reeves’ voice . . . not the most imaginative singer, but a voice just like molasses.
Elvis was here
The first real recording studio in Nashville was “The Castle” in the Tulane Hotel, 8th Avenue North and Church Street, opened by three engineers from WSM radio in 1945. At…
And no on stumped up some shekels to preserve it! I am gob-smacked. Heartbreak Hotel, you quoted four lines, I can still remember the first time I heard it, my knees went weak.