Story highlights Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel" was released January 27, 1956

John Lennon and Keith Richards cited the song as an influence

(CNN) Sixty years ago today came Elvis Presley's first No. 1 hit, "Heartbreak Hotel," and music was never quite the same.

A jagged lament by a jilted lover, it blended Elvis' distinctive vocal, a thumping bass line and a stinging guitar riff to land like a firecracker in a radio landscape filled with bland crooners such as Pat Boone and Doris Day.

"You make me so lonely, bay-bee ..." sang Presley in his deep, seductive baritone. "... I get so lonely I could die."

Released January 27, 1956, "Heartbreak Hotel" was a rare top-5 hit on the pop, country and rhythm and blues charts, demonstrating Elvis' appeal to a wide range of audiences. It also became the top-selling single of all of 1956, just ahead of his own "Don't Be Cruel."

The mournful song was written by Tommy Durden and Mae Boren Axton and was reportedly inspired by a news story about a lonely man who jumped to his death from a hotel window.

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