Scotty Moore
Encyclopedia
Winfield Scott "Scotty" Moore III (born December 27, 1931 near Gadsden, Tennessee
) is an American
guitar
ist. He is best known for his backing of Elvis Presley
in the first part of his career, between 1954 and the beginning of Elvis' Hollywood years. He was ranked twenty-ninth in Rolling Stone magazine's list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time in 2011.
Scotty Moore learned to play the guitar from family and friends at eight years of age. Although underaged when he enlisted, Moore served in the United States Navy
between 1948 and 1952.
Moore's early background was in jazz
and country music
. A fan of guitarist Chet Atkins
, Moore led a group called the "Starlite Wranglers" before Sam Phillips
at Sun Records
put him together with then teenage Elvis Presley. Phillips believed that Moore's lead guitar and double bass
ist Bill Black
was all that was needed to augment Presley's rhythm guitar and lead vocals on their recordings. In 1954 Moore and Black accompanied Elvis on what would become the first legendary Presley hit, the Sun Studios session
cut of "That's All Right (Mama)
", a recording regarded as a seminal event in rock and roll
history. Elvis, Black and Scotty Moore then formed the "Blue Moon Boys." For a time, Moore served as Elvis's personal manager. They were later joined by drummer D.J. Fontana. Beginning in July 1954, the "Blue Moon Boys" toured and recorded throughout the American South and as Presley's popularity rose, they toured the United States and made appearances in various Presley television
shows and motion pictures
. The Blue Moon Boys including Scotty appear in the few 1955 home movie clips surviving of the pre-national Elvis. Of course, Scotty, Bill and DJ also appear on the Dorsey Brothers, Milton Berle, Steve Allen, and Ed Sullivan live TV shows of January 1956 - January 1957, and also reunite on the 1960 Timex TV special with Sinatra welcoming Elvis' return from the army. Scotty and DJ also appear live with Elvis on his "Singer" (so called "Comeback") NBC TV special of 1968. Scotty and the Blue Moon Boys also perform (and have additional small walk-in and speaking roles) with Elvis in 3 of his 50s' movies (Loving You, Jailhouse Rock, and King Creole - filmed 1957 - 58).
Scotty's playing on his Gibson with his unique finger-picking style with pick at same time, as on the Sun and early RCA recordings, was unique and exciting, and certainly moved the more staid Chet Atkins style into a truly rockabilly mode. At its best, Moore's playing is rated as phenomenal and precedent-setting, as further documented below.
Moore played on many of Presley's most famous recordings including "Good Rockin' Tonight", "Baby Let's Play House", "Heartbreak Hotel
", "Mystery Train
", "Hound Dog
", "Too Much" and "Jailhouse Rock
".
Scotty Moore is given credit as the pioneer of the rock 'n' roll lead guitarist. Most popular guitarists cite Moore as the performer that brought the lead guitarist to a dominant role in a rock 'n' roll band. Although some lead guitarists/vocalists had gained popularity such as Chuck Berry
and blues legend BB King, Presley rarely played his own lead while performing, usually providing rhythm and leaving the lead duties to Moore. Moore was a noticeable presence in the Presley performances, strictly as a guitarist. As a result, he became an inspiration to many subsequent popular guitarists, one of the more vocal of these being Keith Richards
of the Rolling Stones. Moore, being quite introverted on stage, accomplished this almost exclusively through his performance and interpretation of the music. While Moore was working on his memoir with co-author James L. Dickerson, Keith Richards told Dickerson, "Everyone else wanted to be Elvis--I wanted to be Scotty.". Keith has stated many times ("Rolling Stone" magazine, "Life" autobiography") that he could never figure out how to play (and "hopes he never will" to keep it a mystery) the awesome "stop time" break and figure that Scotty plays on "I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone" (Sun) from among the many phenomenal guitar solos and fills from Scotty's Sun and early RCA days with Elvis. Bruce Springsteen has also labeled the same songs and Scotty in particular as a key inspiration.
In the 1960s, Moore released a solo
album
called The Guitar That Changed the World. As noted, he performed on the NBC
television special
known as the '68 Comeback Special
.
While with Presley, Moore initially played a Gibson
ES-295, before switching to a Gibson L5
and subsequently a Gibson Super 400.
For his pioneering contribution, Moore has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame
. In 2000, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
.
Mark Adam portrayed Moore in the 2005
CBS
miniseries Elvis.
Emory Smith portrayed Moore in the 1981 documentary film This is Elvis
.
Jesse Dabson played Scotty Moore in the 1990 ABC television series "Elvis: The Early Years".
The book "That's Alright, Elvis" - The untold story of Elvis's first guitarist and manager, Scotty Moore - is written by Scotty Moore as told to James Dickerson. A recent book called the "Blue Moon Boys" also tells the story of Scotty, Bill and DJ before, during and after their historic tenure with Elvis.
Gadsden, Tennessee
Gadsden is a town in Crockett County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 470 at the 2010 census. It is the birthplace of Hall of Fame rock guitarist Scotty Moore who played with Elvis and Ricky Nelson.-Geography:...
) is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
ist. He is best known for his backing of Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
in the first part of his career, between 1954 and the beginning of Elvis' Hollywood years. He was ranked twenty-ninth in Rolling Stone magazine's list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time in 2011.
Scotty Moore learned to play the guitar from family and friends at eight years of age. Although underaged when he enlisted, Moore served in the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
between 1948 and 1952.
Moore's early background was in jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
. A fan of guitarist Chet Atkins
Chet Atkins
Chester Burton Atkins , known as Chet Atkins, was an American guitarist and record producer who, along with Owen Bradley, created the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country's appeal to adult pop music fans as well.Atkins's picking style, inspired by Merle...
, Moore led a group called the "Starlite Wranglers" before Sam Phillips
Sam Phillips
Samuel Cornelius Phillips , better known as Sam Phillips, was an American businessman, record executive, record producer and DJ who played an important role in the emergence of rock and roll as the major form of popular music in the 1950s...
at Sun Records
Sun Records
Sun Records is a record label founded in Memphis, Tennessee, starting operations on March 27, 1952.Founded by Sam Phillips, Sun Records was known for giving notable musicians such as Elvis Presley , Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, and Johnny Cash...
put him together with then teenage Elvis Presley. Phillips believed that Moore's lead guitar and double bass
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
ist Bill Black
Bill Black
William Patton "Bill" Black, Jr. was an American musician who is noted as one of the pioneers of rockabilly music. Black was the bassist in Elvis Presley's early trio and the leader of Bill Black's Combo....
was all that was needed to augment Presley's rhythm guitar and lead vocals on their recordings. In 1954 Moore and Black accompanied Elvis on what would become the first legendary Presley hit, the Sun Studios session
The Sun Sessions
The Sun Sessions is a compilation of Elvis Presley recordings at Sun Studios in 1954 and 1955. It was issued by RCA Records in 1976. It had been issued and charted as The Sun Collection in the United Kingdom the previous year...
cut of "That's All Right (Mama)
That's All Right (Mama)
"That's All Right" is the name of the first single released by Elvis Presley, written and originally performed by blues singer Arthur Crudup. Elvis' version was recorded on 5 July 1954, and released on 19 July 1954 with "Blue Moon of Kentucky" as the B-side...
", a recording regarded as a seminal event in rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
history. Elvis, Black and Scotty Moore then formed the "Blue Moon Boys." For a time, Moore served as Elvis's personal manager. They were later joined by drummer D.J. Fontana. Beginning in July 1954, the "Blue Moon Boys" toured and recorded throughout the American South and as Presley's popularity rose, they toured the United States and made appearances in various Presley television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
shows and motion pictures
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
. The Blue Moon Boys including Scotty appear in the few 1955 home movie clips surviving of the pre-national Elvis. Of course, Scotty, Bill and DJ also appear on the Dorsey Brothers, Milton Berle, Steve Allen, and Ed Sullivan live TV shows of January 1956 - January 1957, and also reunite on the 1960 Timex TV special with Sinatra welcoming Elvis' return from the army. Scotty and DJ also appear live with Elvis on his "Singer" (so called "Comeback") NBC TV special of 1968. Scotty and the Blue Moon Boys also perform (and have additional small walk-in and speaking roles) with Elvis in 3 of his 50s' movies (Loving You, Jailhouse Rock, and King Creole - filmed 1957 - 58).
Scotty's playing on his Gibson with his unique finger-picking style with pick at same time, as on the Sun and early RCA recordings, was unique and exciting, and certainly moved the more staid Chet Atkins style into a truly rockabilly mode. At its best, Moore's playing is rated as phenomenal and precedent-setting, as further documented below.
Moore played on many of Presley's most famous recordings including "Good Rockin' Tonight", "Baby Let's Play House", "Heartbreak Hotel
Heartbreak Hotel
"Heartbreak Hotel" is a song recorded by American rock and roll musician Elvis Presley. It was released as a single on January 27, 1956, Presley's first on his new record label RCA Victor. His first number-one pop record, "Heartbreak Hotel" topped Billboards Top 100 chart, became his first...
", "Mystery Train
Mystery Train
"Mystery Train" is a song written by Junior Parker and Sam Phillips. It was first recorded in Phillip's Memphis Recording Service and Sun Records at 706 Union Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee in 1953. Raymond Hill plays tenor sax and Matt Murphy plays lead guitar with Bill Johnson on piano, Pat Hare on...
", "Hound Dog
Hound Dog (song)
"Hound Dog" is a twelve-bar blues written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and originally recorded by Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton in 1952. Other early versions illustrate the differences among blues, country, and rock and roll in the mid-1950s. The 1956 remake by Elvis Presley is the best-known...
", "Too Much" and "Jailhouse Rock
Jailhouse Rock (song)
"Jailhouse Rock" is a song written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller that first became a hit for Elvis Presley. The song was released as a 45rpm single on September 24, 1957, to coincide with the release of Presley's motion picture, Jailhouse Rock...
".
Scotty Moore is given credit as the pioneer of the rock 'n' roll lead guitarist. Most popular guitarists cite Moore as the performer that brought the lead guitarist to a dominant role in a rock 'n' roll band. Although some lead guitarists/vocalists had gained popularity such as Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...
and blues legend BB King, Presley rarely played his own lead while performing, usually providing rhythm and leaving the lead duties to Moore. Moore was a noticeable presence in the Presley performances, strictly as a guitarist. As a result, he became an inspiration to many subsequent popular guitarists, one of the more vocal of these being Keith Richards
Keith Richards
Keith Richards is an English musician, songwriter, and founding member of the Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone magazine said Richards had created "rock's greatest single body of riffs", and placed him as the "10th greatest guitarist of all time." Fourteen songs written by Richards and songwriting...
of the Rolling Stones. Moore, being quite introverted on stage, accomplished this almost exclusively through his performance and interpretation of the music. While Moore was working on his memoir with co-author James L. Dickerson, Keith Richards told Dickerson, "Everyone else wanted to be Elvis--I wanted to be Scotty.". Keith has stated many times ("Rolling Stone" magazine, "Life" autobiography") that he could never figure out how to play (and "hopes he never will" to keep it a mystery) the awesome "stop time" break and figure that Scotty plays on "I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone" (Sun) from among the many phenomenal guitar solos and fills from Scotty's Sun and early RCA days with Elvis. Bruce Springsteen has also labeled the same songs and Scotty in particular as a key inspiration.
In the 1960s, Moore released a solo
Solo (music)
In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...
album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
called The Guitar That Changed the World. As noted, he performed on the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
television special
Television special
A television special is a television program which interrupts or temporarily replaces programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Sometimes, however, the term is given to a telecast of a theatrical film, such as The Wizard of Oz or The Ten Commandments, which is not part of a regular...
known as the '68 Comeback Special
Elvis Presley's '68 Comeback Special
Elvis, starring Elvis Presley, was the title of a 1968 United States television special. Sponsored by The Singer Sewing Machine Company, it aired on December 2, 1968 on the NBC television network...
.
While with Presley, Moore initially played a Gibson
Gibson Guitar Corporation
The Gibson Guitar Corporation, formerly of Kalamazoo, Michigan and currently of Nashville, Tennessee, manufactures guitars and other instruments which sell under a variety of brand names...
ES-295, before switching to a Gibson L5
Gibson L5
The Gibson L-5 guitar was first produced in 1922 by Gibson Guitar Corporation, then of Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA under the direction of master luthier Lloyd Loar, and has been in production ever since. It was considered the premier rhythm guitar in the big band era...
and subsequently a Gibson Super 400.
For his pioneering contribution, Moore has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame
Rockabilly Hall of Fame
The Rockabilly Hall of Fame was established on the internet on March 21, 1997, to present early rock and roll history and information relative to the artists and personalities involved in this pioneering American music genre....
. In 2000, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
.
Mark Adam portrayed Moore in the 2005
2005 in film
- Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2005...
CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
miniseries Elvis.
Emory Smith portrayed Moore in the 1981 documentary film This is Elvis
This Is Elvis
This Is Elvis is a 1981 documentary film directed by Andrew Solt and Malcolm Leo, based on the life of Elvis Presley. It combined archival footage with reenactments, and narration by pop singer Ral Donner. It was screened out of competition at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival...
.
Jesse Dabson played Scotty Moore in the 1990 ABC television series "Elvis: The Early Years".
The book "That's Alright, Elvis" - The untold story of Elvis's first guitarist and manager, Scotty Moore - is written by Scotty Moore as told to James Dickerson. A recent book called the "Blue Moon Boys" also tells the story of Scotty, Bill and DJ before, during and after their historic tenure with Elvis.