ELVIS PRESLEY’S GOOD PAL OF 1953

Maurice Colgan mourns the passing of Ed Leek, the man who helped Elvis make his very first recording

The death of Captain Edwin S Leek Junior, on 4 June 2010, made the obituary column of a newspaper in Florida, USA, but failed to make an impact elsewhere in the media.

Nevertheless – for good reason – news of Leek’s death is now circulating on the internet. Ed Leek, as he was known to his friends, played a very important part in the early history of Elvis Presley’s astounding career in popular music.

According to Ed, it was he who gave the shy and evasive Elvis four dollars to go and record two songs at the Memphis Recording Service, later to become world famous as Sun Studios. Ed’s idea was to get the record played on radio shows, so Elvis’ voice would be heard by the general public on the Tennessee airwaves.

Legend has it that, eventually, Elvis acquiesced to Ed’s taunting and, still toting his first guitar, hesitantly entered the Memphis Recording Service one day in August 1953. The studios were – and are – a far cry RCA’s. They’re surprisingly small, barely furnished and claustrophobic in the ferocious Memphis heat.

Marion Keisker, Sam Phillip’s assistant, was on hand to witness Elvis’ far from confident entrance. To put the 18-year-old at his ease, Marion engaged Elvis in conversation, asking him what kind of …

by Maurice Colgan
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