What a story!
According to many sources including Wikipedia, when Carl Perkins played a dance on December 4, 1955, he noticed a couple dancing near the stage. Between songs, Carl heard a stern, forceful voice say, "Uh-uh, don't step on my suedes!" Carl looked down and noted that the boy was wearing blue suede shoes and one had a scuff mark. Good gracious, a pretty little thing like that and all he can think about is his blue suede shoes, thought Carl who wrote the song that night.. This next year Carl Perkins released "Blue Suede Shoes" (Perkins) and on the flip was the classic "Honey Don't". This single was released by Sun and March 17, Perkins became the first country artist to reach the number three spot on the rhythm & blues charts. Mr. Perkins was booked to next appear on The Perry Como Show on NBC-TV on March 24, but on March 22 he and his band members had a serious automobile accident on the way to New York City, resulting in the death of a truck driver and the hospitalization of both Perkins and his brother. While Perkins recuperated from the accident, "Blue Suede Shoes" rose to number one on most pop, R&B, and country regional charts. It also held the number two position on the Billboard Hot 100 and country charts The hit is on the "Dance Album with Carl Perkins". Carl peaked in the top five with the original.

For his part, when Elvis Presley, who knew both Perkins and Phillips from his days at Sun Records, gave in to pressure from RCA to record "Blue Suede Shoes", he requested that they hold back his version from release as a single. Guitarist Scotty Moore has said that Presley recorded the top twenty song to help out Perkins after his accident. "Elvis wasn't really thinking at that time that it was going to make money for Carl; he was doing it as more of a tribute type thing. Of course Carl was glad he did. It really helped as his record started going down