MELISSA BLOCK, Host:
Oh, heartbreak.
Elvis Presley's first number one pop hit lives on, but the place where it was recorded is gone. Torn down to make way for a parking lot. 1525 McGavock Street in Nashville was a studio until the late '90s, when auto dealer Lee Beaman bought the property. Well this week we learned from The Tennessean Newspaper that the building has been demolished.
(soundbite of Elvis singing.)
RCA Records used the McGavock Street studio a lot in the '50s. Other artists whose voices were immortalized within those four walls...
Jim Reeves, Hank Snow, and The Everly Brothers. Chet Atkins cut this version of Mr. Sandman there, too.
RCA switched its operations over to Nashville-famed Studio B in 1957. Now there's a pile of rubble at 1525 McGavock. And the site is waiting to become customer parking for Beaman Automotive. And now a walk past 1525 McGavock is a trip down Lonely Street for sure.
This is NPR. National Public Radio.
(SOUNDBITE OF ELVIS SINGING)
(SOUNDBITE OF JIM REEVES SINGING)
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
(SOUNDBITE OF ELVIS SINGING) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.