Video: 'Carl Perkins, Matchbox (1950s)'

(Thursday, March 22, 1956, shortly before sunrise EST) — Musician Carl Perkins, 23, was severely injured this morning when the car he was riding in crashed on Route 13 between Dover and Woodside, Delaware.

Perkins and his band were headed to New York City for a Mar. 24, 1956, appearance on NBC-TV’s Perry Como Show after playing a show in Norfolk, Virginia, on Mar. 21, 1956.

Instead, Perkins was forced to spend several months in the hospital. By the time he recovered, Elvis Presley had covered Perkins’ hit, “Blue Suede Shoes,” and Perkins’ career was never the same.