Presley recorded it on January 10, 1956, in a session with his band, the Blue Moon Boys, the guitarist Chet Atkins and the pianist Floyd Cramer.

"Heartbreak Hotel" comprises an eight-bar blues progression, with heavy reverberation throughout the track, to imitate the character of Presley's Sun recordings.

"Heartbreak Hotel" achieved unheard of feats as it reached the top 5 of Country and Western, Pop, and Rhythm 'n' Blues charts simultaneously.

In 1995, "Heartbreak Hotel" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and in 2004 Rolling Stone magazine named it one of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

[citation needed] The song was written in 1955, by Mae Boren Axton, a high school teacher with a background in musical promotion, and Jacksonville, Florida-based singer–songwriter Tommy Durden.

The lyrics were based on a report supposedly 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".

Krolik's story was published in news media, and received further publicity after he was shot and killed in an attempted robbery in El Paso, Texas.

[15] Axton had been hired earlier in the year to publicise the Hank Snow Jamboree concerts at the Gator Bowl Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida, which included Presley in the line up.

[16] During one concert Axton observed the reaction of the audience to Presley's performance, in which a crowd of screaming fans chased him back to his dressing room and ripped his clothes off to take as souvenirs.

Axton followed Presley's career closely after this incident,[17] and met him at a July 28 concert in Jacksonville, this time interviewing him for the local media.

[11] Rumors had been circulating in the press for several weeks that Presley, who had begun his career at Sun Records, was ready to move to RCA Victor to help launch him nationally.

[20] "Heartbreak Hotel" was the second song Presley recorded at RCA Victor, following "I Got a Woman",[4] during his debut session at 1525 McGavock Street in Nashville on January 10, 1956.

RCA Victor had always insisted their performers stay still as they sang so the microphone would pick up the vocals; even the slightest tilt of the head would result in missing sound.

Fontana, Presley was joined by two established RCA Victor musicians: Chet Atkins (who also helped Sholes produce the session)[26] on guitar and Floyd Cramer on piano.

[27] In an interview, Durden conceded that he did not recognize his song after Presley had made the changes to it in the studio, including the tempo, phrasing, lyrics, and overall sound.

[29] In subsequent recordings, these major modifications to the existing material became a normal procedure for Presley who took over the role of producer, although Sholes was still credited.

"[30] "Heartbreak Hotel" was released as a single on January 27, 1956, with B-side "I Was the One", a song that was also recorded during Presley's RCA Victor debut sessions.

"[23] BBC, which held a monopoly on broadcasting in Britain at the time, didn't consider it fit for general entertainment and placed it on its "restricted play" list.

[citation needed] Presley made his national television debut on January 28, appearing on CBS' Stage Show, starring Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey.

[33] Subsequently, Presley and his band performed "Heartbreak Hotel" with borrowed instruments (their own were being driven to Florida in preparation for a tour) with the backing of the Dorsey Brothers' orchestra.

[36] This resulted in "Heartbreak Hotel" becoming only the second single in history to reach all three Billboard charts, after Carl Perkins' "Blue Suede Shoes".

To us, it just sounded as a noise that was great[45]George Harrison described "Heartbreak Hotel" as a "rock n roll epiphany" when in 1956, at age 13, he overheard it while riding his bike at a neighbor's house.

[48]Critic Robert Cantwell wrote in his unpublished memoir Twigs of Folly: The opening strains of "Heartbreak Hotel", which catapulted Presley's regional popularity into national hysteria, opened a fissure in the massive mile-thick wall of post-war regimentation, standardization, bureaucratization, and commercialization in American society and let come rushing through the rift a cataract from the immense waters of sheer, human pain and frustration that have been building up for ten decades behind it.

[49]The song was mentioned in the chorus of Patty Loveless's 1988 single "Blue Side of Town" from her album Honky Tonk Angel.

[56] In his solo song "Piledriver Waltz", written for the EP Submarine, Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys, references going for breakfast at "The Heartbreak Hotel."

Radio humorist Stan Freberg parodied "Heartbreak Hotel" immediately after its release, because the vocals on the original record featured a heavy use of reverb.

Country singer Johnny Cash parodied the song in 1959 on the television show Town Hall Party, imitating Presley's characteristic crib and hip movements.

However, McCartney (using Bill Black's upright bass) did a version for a documentary Elvis – Viva Las Vegas, which also appears on DVD.

[64][65] Others who have covered the song include Ann-Margret, who would later co-star with Presley in the 1964 motion picture Viva Las Vegas,[66] The Cadets,[67][68] Delaney Bramlett, Justin Timberlake, Cher, Roger Miller, Bob Dylan,[69] Bruce Springsteen,[70] John Cale,[22] Merle Haggard,[71] Tom Jones,[72] Dax Riggs,[73] Roger McGuinn,[74] Suzi Quatro,[75] Van Halen,[76] Jimi Hendrix,[77] Neil Diamond,[78] Lynyrd Skynyrd,[22] Guns N' Roses,[79] Tones on Tail,[80] and Queen + Adam Lambert.

[85] Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman covered the song in a medley with Prince's "Kiss", for the 2006 Warner Bros. film Happy Feet.