The original working lyrics for 'Heartbreak Hotel', estimated at $200,000-220,000 at GWS Auctions.
Signed by songwriters Mae Boren Axton and Tommy Durden, it is dated October 1955, three months before Elvis Presley recorded the song.
Axton, a high school teacher with a background in musical promotion, played a crucial part in the early career of Elvis. The two first met in 1955 when he was working with Sun Records and she was in a PR role for Colonel Parker.
After she taped a radio interview with Elvis in July 1955 in Jacksonville, she found him a place on a bill headlined by Hank Snow. In October 1955 she showed him the song Heartbreak Hotel, which she had written with Tommy Durden, a Jacksonville singer-songwriter. Elvis loved it and recorded it in January 1956 as his first single for new label RCA Victor. The rest is history.
These lyrics, which come with a letter of authenticity from memorabilia specialist James Spence Authentication, include various edits and corrections, settling on the words that would become those of the classic hit.
