The year before Before Elvis signed with Sun Records and began his run to fame, he was still touring local establishments paying in an obscure small-time band (he was not even the frontman.) Elvis going solo got his first national exposure during the KWEM Radio Station Saturday Night Jamboree, a weekly amateur program, which also featured Johnny Cash, Reggie Young, Charlie Feathers, and several others, all still fairly unknown at the time.

On this day, July 7, in 1954 Elvis took to the stage at the 900-seat arena and performed “That’s All Right,” one of his signature songs. According to contemporary accounts, Elvis’s performance did not go over very well: he was a little too rock-n-roll for the country music show.

The building where Elvis played was since demolished, but on that location a plaque still marks the date when one of the most popular rock-n-roll acts of all time played for radio audiences for the first time.