On This Day in Guitar History: July 5
Edited by Sleuth · Reviewed
July 5 is arguably the single most important date in rock guitar history. At Sun Studio in Memphis in 1954, Elvis Presley, guitarist Scotty Moore, and bassist Bill Black recorded 'That's All Right,' the session widely credited as the birth of rock and roll, with Moore playing his gold-finish Gibson ES-295. Steppenwolf's original lead guitarist, Michael Monarch, was born in 1950, and singer-songwriter Marc Cohn was born in 1959.
On July 5 in guitar history
1950 · Born
Steppenwolf's original lead guitarist Michael Monarch is born
Michael Monarch was born in Los Angeles and became the original lead guitarist for Steppenwolf while still a teenager, playing on the band's biggest hits, Born to Be Wild and Magic Carpet Ride, between 1967 and most of 1969. He later worked with musicians including Roger Glover of Deep Purple and Andy Fraser of Free.
Source: Michael Monarch
1954 · Release
Elvis Presley, Scotty Moore, and Bill Black record 'That's All Right' at Sun Studio
During a break in a stalled session at Sun Studio in Memphis, Elvis Presley began playing an impromptu, uptempo version of bluesman Arthur Crudup's 'That's All Right.' Guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black joined in, and producer Sam Phillips, hearing something new through the control room door, had them run it again so he could record it. Moore played the session on his gold-finish 1953 Gibson ES-295, modified with a Melita Synchro-Sonic bridge for finer intonation control. The resulting single, released later that month, is widely cited as the recording that launched rock and roll.
1959 · Born
Singer-songwriter Marc Cohn is born in Cleveland
Marc Cohn was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and later became best known for his 1991 hit single Walking in Memphis, from his self-titled debut album. The song was nominated for Song of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male at the Grammy Awards, and Cohn won Best New Artist that year.
Source: Marc Cohn
Why we track this
Guitar history keeps getting made on every date on the calendar, not just the ones with round-number anniversaries. This page collects what is actually documented for July 5, and it grows every time we verify another event for the date. If you landed here because today's news desk came up quiet, this is what a strings site does with a quiet day instead of padding: real dates, real sources, filed for good. And if today has you thinking about your own guitar, the Ernie Ball Regular Slinky is still the closest thing the instrument has to a default set.
Start your own July 5
It is hard to top a date that plausibly contains the birth of rock and roll guitar itself, Scotty Moore's Gibson ES-295 on 'That's All Right' is the sound almost every electric guitar record since has some relationship to. If yours need a change, our history of guitar strings guide covers how we got from gut to cobalt, and the set below is the one we point most beginners to first.
Regular Slinky
Why this one: A widely played, balanced electric set and a safe starting point no matter which era of guitar history brought you here today.
More guitar history
This page is part of an evergreen series, one per calendar day, filled in as we verify more events. Browse our news desk for what is happening right now, check our artist profiles for deeper dives on the players named above, or head to the full history index to see which dates are live so far.