Heartbreak Hotel in an attempted robbery in El Paso, Texas. On August 25, 1955, the "El Paso Times" reported Krolik's death under the headline "Story Of Person Who Walked Lonely Street". Axton and Durden give different accounts of how the song was written. Durden's account is that he had already written the song and performed it with his band the Swing Billys before he presented it to Axton. Axton's account is that Durden had written only a few lines of the song and asked her to help him finish it. She says that the report of the suicide "stunned" her, and she
Heartbreak Hotel and the Country and Western chart at number nine. Within two months, "Heartbreak Hotel" reached number one on both charts. It also made top five on the R&B chart, the first Presley single to chart there. This resulted in "Heartbreak Hotel" becoming only the second single in history to reach all three "Billboard" charts, after Carl Perkins' "Blue Suede Shoes". The song spent a total of twenty-seven weeks in the top 100. By April, "Heartbreak Hotel" became a million-seller, earning Presley his first RIAA-certified gold record, and going on to be the biggest selling single of 1956. "Heartbreak Hotel/I Was