July 3, 1955 Elvis at The Hoedown Club

Elvis, Scotty Moore, Bill Black and DJ Fontana logged a lot of miles in 1955 criss-crossing across the south, in fact just a few weeks prior to this date his pink and white Cadillac caught on fire outside of Texarkana (Scotty returned to Memphis to pick up the Presley family's Crown Victoria to keep the tour going).. Elvis was still on Sun Records and was in the process of transferring management from Bob Neal to Colonel Tom Parker. Elvis and the trio worked from Florida to Texas and back many times that year. A good bit of the dates they did in 55 were in Texas, not only for his ever-growing fan base here but also for the relative close proximity to Shreveport, where he performed every Saturday night on The Louisiana Hayride. ( He had picked that gig up earlier in the year).

Now Corpus is not exactly around the corner from Shreveport in fact with today's highway system it can be done in just over 8 hours, but that is where they headed, most likely driving after the gig on July 2 at The Hayride. Elvis and band were slated to perform at Nelson's Hoedown Club at 4320 South Lexington Blvd. which is now South Padre Island Drive. In fact the site where the Hoedown was is a strip mall today home to a furniture store (between Weber and Everhart on SPID).

Elvis and the band performed from 4 to 8 that day in Corpus. That would be at least three sets. I suspect there were other performers on the show that day that were not listed in the ads. It's reasonable to think that he stretched his show a bit to accommodate the requirements of the gig.In fact there are reports that he did at least two songs that were not in his usual set list: Born to Lose (originally done by Ted Daffin's Texans and Do The Mess Around which was an R&B hit for Ray Charles in 1953 (Corpus Gold note: of course Brother Ray later had a hit with Born to Lose himself).

The next day, Elvis and the boys really got to work, they oerfomed three shows in three diferent towns: Stephenville, De Leon, and Brownwood, Texas.

July 4 Stephenville, TX City Recreation Hall (10:00am)

DeLeon, TX Hodges Park (afternoon)

Brownwood, TX Soldier's & Sailor's Memorial Hall (8pm)

Cited from an Elvis news site:

On 7/4/55 various music acts performed in two different cities - Stephenville and nearby De Leon - in what was called the Battle of Songs. They would perform in the first city then when there was a break, the groups would change cities and perform again. It was a mix of country and gospel singing. Elvis began in the morning at Stephenville and did his regular rockabilly show. The rest of the performers were gospel singers, The Blackwood Brothers and The Statesmen. Over in De Leon was one country act and other gospel groups such as The Stamps. Elvis was so touched by the tribute the Blackwood Brothers gave for their members who had died in a plane crash that he didn't sing his usual music in De Leon. He sang only gospel, including "The Old Wooden Church," "Precious Memories," "Known Only To Him" and "Just A Closer Walk With Thee," disappointing the teenagers who had come to see him. That night Elvis performed in Brownwood in a benefit show at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall, doing his regular show. It was a three-show day for Elvis.

Just a month later Elvis would record the Junior Parker blues classic, Mystery Train at the Memphis Recording Company (Sun) in Memphis.