This Day in History: Elvis Presley's song "Heartbreak Hotel" was released on this day in 1956. The song was inspired by a suicide. The lyrics were based on a report in The Miami Herald about a man who had destroyed all his identity papers and jumped to his death from a hotel window, leaving a suicide note with the single line, "I walk a lonely street". The song was initially offered to the Wilburn Brothers, but they declined because to them it was strange and morbid. The BBC in the UK didn't consider it fit for general entertainment and placed it on its "restricted play" list.
On February 22, the song entered the Billboard pop chart at number 68, and the Country and Western chart at number nine. Within two months, "Heartbreak Hotel" reached number one on both charts. It also made top five on the R&B chart, the first Presley single to chart there. This resulted in "Heartbreak Hotel" becoming only the second single in history to reach all three Billboard charts, after Carl Perkins' "Blue Suede Shoes". The song spent a total of twenty-seven weeks in the top 100. By April, "Heartbreak Hotel" became a million-seller, earning Presley his first RIAA-certified gold record, with it going on to be the biggest-selling single of 1956.
In 2004, it was ranked number 45 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time", the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame included it in its list of 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll and in 2005, Uncut magazine ranked the first performance of "Heartbreak Hotel" in 1956 by Presley as the second greatest and most important cultural event of the rock and roll era.
And yes, there is an actual Heartbreak Hotel, in Kenansville Florida
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