Colonel Tom Parker - Finding Elvis

Finding Elvis

In early 1955, Parker became aware of a young singer by the name of Elvis Presley. Presley had a singing style that was different from the current trend, and Parker was immediately interested in the future of this musical style. Elvis’s first manager was guitarist Scotty Moore, who was encouraged by Sun Records owner Sam Phillips to become his manager to protect Elvis from unscrupulous music promoters. In the beginning, Elvis was part of a trio named Blue Moon Boys, the other two members being Moore and bassist Bill Black. However, when Elvis signed a recording contract with Phillips, Moore and Black were excluded from the contract. Phillips told them to make a separate deal with Elvis. According to Moore, Elvis agreed to take 50 percent, with Moore and Black splitting the other 50 percent. Moore’s one-year management contract with Elvis provided him with a 10 percent commission, which Moore said he never took. The contract, dated July 12, 1954, eight days after their first recording session, was signed by Elvis and his mother and father. When the contract expired, Memphis radio personality Bob Neal stepped in and made a deal with Phillips to become Elvis’s manager. At that point, Moore and Black had no contractual ties to either Phillips or Elvis. Presley's new manager, Bob Neal, was struggling at the time to accommodate the success of his client, and in February 1955, following a meeting with Parker, he agreed to let Colonel Tom Parker take some control of future bookings and promotions.

Parker and Neal worked together to promote Presley, using their own Hank Snow Tour to book him and tour him. Although Neal remained Presley's official manager, Parker was becoming increasingly involved in the running of his career, and by the summer of 1955 he had become "Special Advisor" to Presley. As Presley was still a minor at the time, his parents had to sign the contract with Parker on his behalf. Part of Parker's role was to secure a new recording contract with a bigger label. Presley had been at Sun Records since the beginning of his career, but Sam Phillips, the owner of Presley's current label, was aware that for Presley to have any kind of a successful future in the business he would need the backing of a much larger label. Despite this, Phillips was not keen to let him go easily, advising Parker that he would require $40,000 to secure the release of Presley's contract, a completely unheard-of sum at the time.

Parker immediately got to work on finding a new label for Presley. Both Mercury Records and Columbia Records showed interest, although their initial offers were nowhere near the $40,000 requirement. RCA Victor, Hank Snow's current label, was also showing an interest, but they were also put off by the cost of the contract. However, RCA Victor producer Steve Sholes was convinced that Presley's style of music would be a huge hit with the right label, and he began talks with Parker. RCA made it very clear that they were not willing to go above $25,000 for a practically unknown singer, but Parker persuaded them that Presley was no ordinary unknown singer. Around the same time, realizing that the deal for Presley might fall through due to the cost of the contract, Parker attempted to once again sell Tommy Sands to RCA. He suggested to Scholes that Sands could record material similar to the style of Presley. Scholes, remembering his previous experience with Sands, dismissed him as a viable replacement for Presley.

In November, Parker and Snow persuaded RCA to buy Presley out from Sun for $40,000, and on November 21 Presley's contract was officially transferred from Sun Records to RCA Victor. Snow attended the signing, thinking that Elvis had signed a management contract with Jamboree Attractions, which he owned with Parker. However, that was not the case since Elvis was still under contract to Bob Neal. The only document that was signed on November 21 pertained to the record label transfer. In return for a larger financial part of the deal, Neal agreed not to renew his management contract with Presley after it had run out in March 1956, allowing Parker the opportunity to claim the job for himself.