4.THE BIG TIME: Elvis performs on the famed Ed Sullivan Show for the first time on Sept. 9, 1956. Elvis scored his first No. 1 hit with "Heartbreak Hotel" in 1956; it would become his first gold record (because it sold more than 1 million copies). He went on to have 107 Top 40 hits overall, PEOPLE noted in 1987. RCA released his first full-length album, Elvis Presley, in March 1956, and it soon went gold as well. Later that year, as his live performances got more and more daring, Elvis offered a particularly physical performance of "Hound Dog" on The Milton Berle Show, which drove the audience's younger members into a frenzy but brought the ire of more conservative viewers. A month later, on The Steve Allen Show, the host had Elvis sing the same song, dressed in a tuxedo, to a live basset hound, in response to the controversy. Though his clothes, musical style and gyrations onstage were outrageous for the day, Elvis remained humble when speaking publicly. When Elvis performed again on the Ed Sullivan Show in January 1957 (and was filmed only from the waist up), its beloved host said of him, "This is a decent, fine boy," CNN.com noted in 1997.