1950s-early 1960s
Moore's early background was in jazz and country music. A fan of the guitarist Chet Atkins, Moore led a group called the Starlite Wranglers before Sam Phillips at Sun Records put him together with then-teenage Elvis Presley. The trio was completed with double bass player Bill Black, who brought a "rhythmic propulsion" that much pleased Phillips. In 1954, Moore and Black accompanied Elvis on what would become the first Presley hit, the Sun Studios session cut of "That's All Right", a recording regarded as a seminal event in rock and roll history.
This session, held on the evening of July 5, 1954, proved entirely unfruitful until late in the night. As they were about to give up and go home, Presley took his guitar and launched into a 1946 blues number, Arthur Crudup's "That's All Right". Moore recalled,All of a sudden, Elvis just started singing this song, jumping around and acting the fool and then Bill picked up his bass and he started acting the fool too, and I started playing with them. Sam, I think, had the door to the control booth open...he stuck his head out and said, "What are you doing?" And we said, "We don't know." "Well, back up," he said, "try to find a place to start and do it again." Phillips quickly began taping as this was the sound he had been looking for.The trio soon recorded a bluegrass number, Bill Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky", again in a distinctive style and employing an echo effect that Sam Phillips called "slapback". A single was pressed with "That's All Right" on the A side and "Blue Moon of Kentucky" as the B-side.
Phillips' rhythm-centered vision led him to steer Moore away from Chet Atkins' style, the one which had been adopted by Merle Travis's finger-picking style, now dubbed as "travis picking", which he deemed fine for pop or country but not for the simple, gutsy sound Phillips was aiming at. Simplify was the keyword.
By his performance at the Louisiana Hayride in October 1954, Presley, Black and Moore were called the Blue Moon Boys. For a time, Moore served as Presley's personal manager. They were later joined by the drummer D.J. Fontana.
Beginning in July 1954, the Blue Moon Boys toured and recorded throughout the American South. Subsequently, Elvis's popularity rose amongst teenage girls, they began touring nationwide, appearing on distinguished programs such as The Ed Sullivan Show, which, at the time, was the hallmark for success for young artists. On April 3, 1956, they performed "Shake, Rattle and Roll," "Heartbreak Hotel," and "Blue Suede Shoes" on The Milton Berle Show. Elvis and the band appeared on The Steve Allen Show in a comedy sketch performing "Hound Dog" to an actual hound dog. Presley was prohibited from doing the gyrations that elicited screams from the audience, which would produce good reviews, but those were nothing compared to the scandals Elvis and the band would face. Elvis never understood why the girls screamed out of control when he sang. It was Moore who told him why. "It's your leg, man. The way you shake your left leg."
Moore played on many of Presley's most famous recordings, including "That's All Right," "Good Rockin' Tonight," "Milkcow Blues Boogie," "Baby Let's Play House" (where Elvis introduced the vocal stutter to the music pundits), "Heartbreak Hotel," "Mystery Train," "Blue Suede Shoes," "Hound Dog," "Too Much," ""Jailhouse Rock," and "Hard Headed Woman." He called his solo on "Hound Dog" "ancient psychedelia."
During the filming and recording of Loving You in Hollywood in early 1957, Moore and Black drove boredom away by jamming with Presley between takes but they usually saw little of Presley, although he stayed only a couple of floors away from them. They grew hurt and resentful at the separation, which they came to perceive as willfully organized.
They did not accompany Presley on the soundtrack recordings for his first movie, Love Me Tender, because 20th Century Fox had refused to allow him to use his own band, with the excuse that the band could not play country. By December 1956, they were experiencing financial difficulties because there had been few performances since August. When there were performances, they received $200 a week (US$2,368 in 2025 dollars), but only $100 (US$1,184 in 2025 dollars) when they were not performing. Moore and his wife were forced to move in with her three sisters and brother-in-law. In an interview with the Memphis Press-Scimitar that December, they spoke about their lack of performances and contact with Presley himself. The interview was the vehicle for their announcement that management had given them permission to record an instrumental album of their own, which RCA Victor would release, permission which was needed in order for them to appear as a group without Presley.
During Presley's 1957 tour of Canada, the concert promoter Oscar Davis offered to represent them as their manager. Moore and Black, who had seen Presley become a millionaire while they were still earning $200 or $100 a week themselves, were willing to work with Davis but the backing vocalists, the Jordanaires, were not amenable, because they did not trust Davis. They had usually been living off $100 a week since 1956, as had Elvis; however, once Hollywood had been introduced, Presley's salary experienced a dramatic rise, while Moore and Black continued at $100 a week. They only received one raise in two years and with the lack of personal appearances it was getting to be too financially difficult.
Tension hit a breaking point right after the September 1957 sessions for Presley's first Christmas album. Moore and Black had been promised an opportunity to jam with Elvis after the session, on Presley's studio time. Yet when the session was over, they were told to pack up and leave. That same evening, the duo wrote a letter of resignation. They deduced (correctly) the Colonel was working against them. They had been denied virtually all access to Presley and felt as if "they were no longer even permitted to talk to him". Colonel Parker didn't interfere but RCA Victor executive Steve Sholes, who had little regard for the ability of Presley's band, hoped the separation would be permanent. Back in Memphis, a journalist found out about the split and interviewed the duo. Presley responded to the article with a press statement wishing them good luck, saying things could have been worked out if they had come to him first instead of bringing it to the press. In an accompanying interview, Presley revealed that during the previous two years, people had tried to convince him to get rid of his band so from his point of view he had stayed loyal to them.
Presley was scheduled to appear in Tupelo within the next two weeks and started to audition new musicians. He performed with Hank Garland on guitar and D.J. Fontana's friend, Chuck Wiginton, on bass, but despite their musical ability, it didn't feel the same to him. The week after his Tupelo engagement he hired back Moore and Black on a per diem basis. In the meantime, the duo had played "a miserable two-week engagement at the Dallas State Fair." Moore declared there were no hard feelings, though Presley himself, according to biographer Guralnick, seems to have taken a more melancholic view. One day, Guralnick writes, Presley heard "Jailhouse Rock" on the radio "and declared, 'Elvis Presley and his one-man-band,' with a rueful shake of his head."
Moore and the Blue Moon Boys performed (and had additional small walk-on and speaking roles) with Presley in four of his movies (Loving You, Jailhouse Rock, King Creole, and G.I. Blues) filmed in 1957, 1958, and 1960.
In 1958, after Presley was drafted, Moore purchased part of local Memphis record label Fernwood Records and produced a hit record, "Tragedy," for Thomas Wayne Perkins, the brother of Johnny Cash's guitarist Luther Perkins. The song also featured Moore doubling on guitar, with Black playing bass. Moore also released an instrumental, "Have Guitar Will Travel", as a solo single on Fernwood, featuring Black on bass and Joe Lee on saxophone. Moore later sold his portion of Fernwood by summer 1960.
In 1960, Moore resumed working with Presley in the studio and became the "production manager at Sam Phillips Recording Service, which involved supervising all aspects of studio operation." Moore played on such Presley songs as "Fame and Fortune," "Such a Night," "Frankfort Special," "Surrender," "I Feel So Bad," "Rock-A-Hula Baby", "Kiss Me Quick," "Good Luck Charm," "She's Not You", "(You're the) Devil in Disguise", and "Bossa Nova Baby." Moore remained as a guitarist for the majority of the songs recorded after Presley's work was dominated by Hollywood sessions. Moore mostly played rhythm guitar, however, with his last lead guitar work occurring by 1962. Moore also played on sessions for Roy Orbison (most notably on “Crying”) and others.
