Year of Production: 2005

Playing Time: 01:28:01

Catalogue Number: CVIS387

UPC: 823564506395

The facts are familiar. Memphis, Tennessee, 18 July 1953. A 19-year-old kid wanders into The Memphis Recording Service at 706 Union Avenue. He wants to record a couple of recent hits as a present for his mother. Company secretary Marion Keisker - alone in the office that day - runs off an extra copy and tells her boss the kid's "a good ballad singer." Six months later the kid stops by again, and Marion tells Sam Phillips - the boss - to listen.

June 1954. Sam's looking for a session singer. Marion mentions the kid. Sam's keen but doesn't have his number. Marion does. The kid's in the studio before the phone's back in the cradle. The kid works with Sam for a day, and he's recommended to Sun session guitarist Scotty Moore. Scotty's unimpressed but books the kid for a session at Sun on 5 July. Rock 'n' roll is invented that day, and the world changes forever!

But there's a lot more to the legend of Elvis Aaron Presley and the transformation of music and society than is suggested in the story above. This film looks behind the facts and between the lines and attempts to discover why and how. Why was rock 'n' roll invented in Memphis by a quiet, respectable and religious young man with a passion for all types of music? How did the events that led up to that fateful session on 5 July 1954 conspire to create a brand new music and a brand new way of life for all those who came along in its wake?

With contributions from many who were there at the time and others who have studied the subject in depth, rare footage and photographs, music from those pivotal sessions and subsequent recording dates, and a host of other features, this film goes some way to discovering why and how. It is the most detailed, informative and downright entertaining film yet to emerge about this period and about these historical events.