- Seventy years ago, Tupelo welcomed home a young man who had become a star. This September, the city will gather once again—not only to remember the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, but to celebrate the hometown boy who never forgot where he came from.
Seventy years ago, a 21-year-old Elvis Presley came home to Tupelo. He was no longer simply the shy boy from East Tupelo who sang in church and listened closely to the music he heard in his Mississippi hometown. By September 1956, he was one of the most talked-about young entertainers in America.
Still, Tupelo was home.
On Saturday, September 26, the city will celebrate the 70th anniversary of Elvis’ legendary homecoming concert with an evening of live music at Fairpark—the very place where it happened.
The free celebration, presented as part of Downtown Tupelo’s Down on Main Concert Series, will feature Wyly Bigger, Brothers Windham, and Elvis tribute artist Nick Perkins. Perkins will recreate the 1956 Homecoming Concert, when a hometown boy who had left Mississippi with his family returned as a star.
Of course, no recreation can fully capture what Tupelo must have felt like that day.
The year 1956 had been a big one for Elvis. His first RCA album had been released, and songs such as “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Hound Dog,” and “Don’t Be Cruel” were changing popular music. He had appeared on television screens across the country, including his first appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” just a few weeks before coming home. He was also filming his first movie, “Love Me Tender.”
America may have been trying to decide what to make of Elvis Presley, but Tupelo knew exactly who he was: one of its own.
The city declared September 26 “Elvis Presley Day” and planned a downtown parade with Elvis-themed floats. Elvis did not ride in it—his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, reportedly worried about controlling the crowd—but the celebration went on. At the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show, Elvis performed twice, once in the afternoon and again that evening, backed by Scotty Moore, Bill Black, D.J. Fontana and the Jordanaires.
Thousands came to see him. Accounts vary wildly on the size of the crowd, which makes the story feel even more appropriately Elvis; but, what no one disputes is the excitement. Fans screamed and pressed toward the stage as the young singer in a blue velvet shirt performed on the same fairgrounds where he had once been a nervous 10-year-old contestant singing “Old Shep.”
In 1945, Elvis had stood on a chair to reach the microphone and earned a few dollars in fair-ride tickets. Eleven years later, he received a guitar-shaped key to the city. Mississippi Gov. J.P. Coleman introduced him as a leading figure in popular music.
Somewhere near the front of the crowd was another Mississippi girl with big dreams. Her name was Virginia Wynette Pugh, but the world would later know her as Tammy Wynette.
I love that part of the story. Before either name belonged to music history, both belonged to small Mississippi communities, church pews, radio songs, and ordinary families. One was on the stage that day, and the other was watching from the crowd.
What made the 1956 concert so special was not simply that Elvis had become famous. It was that he came back. He returned to the very fairgrounds where, at 10 years old, he had stood before a microphone and hoped someone might notice him. And by 1956, the entire country was watching.
The homecoming also became part of something lasting. Elvis returned to the Tupelo fairgrounds again in 1957 for a benefit concert and donated the proceeds to help establish a youth park in East Tupelo. The city purchased land that included the little two-room house where he was born. That gift helped preserve a place that now welcomes Elvis fans from around the world and tells the story of the Mississippi childhood behind the famous name.
On September 26, Fairpark will once again fill with music. The celebration runs from 6 to 10:30 p.m. Admission is free, and guests are encouraged to bring lawn chairs.
Wyly Bigger and Brothers Windham will join Nick Perkins for a night honoring the music, the history, and a young man who never forgot where he came from.
Seventy years ago, Tupelo welcomed home a young man who had become a star. This September, the city will gather once again—not only to remember the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, but to celebrate the hometown boy who never forgot where he came from.
