“Jailhouse Rock” by Elvis Presley

Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller wrote "Jailhouse Rock" as the title song for Elvis Presley's third movie, and RCA Victor put it out as a 45 on September 24, 1957, the first single from the film's soundtrack EP. It went all the way to the top in the US and into the top ten in several other countries.

The song's cast of characters hides a joke: some of them are real. Shifty Henry was a Los Angeles musician, not a crook; the Purple Gang was an actual mob; and Sad Sack was World War II army slang for a born loser, and a comic strip besides. Rolling Stone later filed it with the tongue-in-cheek goofs the pair wrote for the Coasters, and Elvis sells the gag like his life depends on it. The American Film Institute has honored it, and the Grammy Hall of Fame took it in in 2016.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.