Born 93 Years Ago Today in Louisiana, the Self-Taught Pianist Who Helped Create the Nashville Sound and Played on Elvis Presley’s Breakthrough Hit

Pianist Floyd Cramer, born in Louisiana on 27 October 1933, helped shape the Nashville Sound with his distinctive “slip-note” style, sliding into notes from below. His playing featured on Elvis Presley’s breakthrough hit “Heartbreak Hotel” and on recordings by country and pop stars, helping country music reach a wider audience.

Cramer learned piano by ear and began performing on the Louisiana Hayride after finishing school in 1951. He became a sought-after Nashville session musician, signed to RCA in 1958 and released “Last Date” in 1960; it sold more than a million copies and reached number two on the US pop chart. He was named the Academy of Country Music’s Keyboardist of the Year from 1969 to 1974 and died aged 64 in 1997.