Moore were not happy about their compensation. Fontana was hidden behind a curtain, his drums heard but not seen.īy the time Presley made his first appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” in September 1956, a performance seen by 60 million viewers, the drums were in plain sight - and Presley was well on his way to becoming a worldwide phenomenon.īut according to “Last Train to Memphis,” Peter Guralnick’s Presley biography, Mr. On early television appearances - including Presley’s first, on the television version of “Louisiana Hayride” in 1955 - Mr. In its early days, the band played mostly the country music circuit, where guitars, mandolins and fiddles dominated and drummers were generally shunned. “Elvis and Scotty and Bill were making good music,” the drummer and singer Levon Helm said in an interview with The Associated Press in 2004, “but it wasn’t rock ’n’ roll until D. Fontana’s powerful drumming raised it to a new level. Presley’s blend of country, blues and other elements was already distinctive. Fontana played with the band on that broadcast, and the next year he became a permanent member. Presley, then at the beginning of his career, appeared on the show in October 1954 with his backing band, which at the time consisted of just two musicians: Scotty Moore on guitar and Bill Black on double bass. Fontana’s entree into rock history came by way of his job as a member of the band on “Louisiana Hayride,” a popular country-music radio show broadcast from Shreveport, La.
He was later an in-demand studio musician in Nashville. He backed Presley on more than 450 recordings, including hits like “Hound Dog,” “All Shook Up,” “Blue Suede Shoes” and “It’s Now or Never,” and was seen playing with him in the movies “Loving You,” “Jailhouse Rock” and “G.I. Fontana was the first drummer in Presley’s band and played with him for 14 years, from Presley’s earliest days in the national spotlight through the 1968 television special, called simply “Elvis,” that was widely hailed as Presley’s return to form. Fontana had been in poor health since breaking his hip in a fall last year. His death was confirmed by his son David, who said Mr. Fontana, whose simple but forceful drumming behind Elvis Presley helped to shape the early sound of rock ’n’ roll, died on Wednesday at a hospital in Nashville.