IT ALL BEGAN WITH A KID, A BALLAD, $4 AND A DREAM

Elvis Presley, arguably the dominant cultural force in

20th-century music, popularized rock ’n’ roll internationally and became the genre’s first superstar.

His first step was a recording made in 1953 at Sam Phillips’ Memphis Recording Service, later Sun Studio.

The 18-year-old Presley didn’t burst out of the gate with one of the sensual rockabilly rave-ups that would soon sweep the nation’s teens into a frenzy. Instead, he paid

$4 to record a 10-inch acetate disc of the syrupy ballad My Happiness, which had been recorded in the 1940s by the Marlin Sisters, the Pied Pipers and Ella Fitzgerald.

Presley was dissatisfied with his tentative version, but he returned in early 1954 and

recorded I’ll Never Stand in Your Way and It Wouldn’t Be

the Same Without You, this time with a captivated Phillips in attendance. The studio owner invited the singer back later in the year, with mixed results. While Presley faltered in repeated stabs at

Without You, his natural gifts emerged when Phillips encouraged him to improvise on songs of his choice.

Phillips felt he had found the embodiment of his longsought formula for pop music success: “A white man with the Negro sound and the Negro feel.”

Biographers differ on Presley’s motivation for strolling into Sun that summer day: He wanted to hear the sound of his recorded voice. He wanted to craft a sentimental gift for his mother, Gladys. He wanted to be discovered. Perhaps all were true. “I sing all kinds,” Presley said when the receptionist asked what type of singer he was. “I don’t sound like nobody.” My Happiness never hijacked radio or won a Grammy. It simply set history in motion, giving rise to a king.