TODAY IN ELVIS HISTORY

Elvis concluded the work on It Happened At The World's Fair with some publicity stills. It Happened At The Worlds Fair is probably my favorite Elvis movie, and one of my all time favorite movies period. Elvis Character Mike Edwards of course inspired my pen name on here.

Audubon Drive

This video was took in 2002 inside a house Elvis once owned in Memphis on Audubon Drive. This was the first house Elvis actually bought. It was his gift to his mom. It is a cool home and was once owned by Mike Freeman and his former wife. Mike is the coolest. He does tours and such of Memphis and Tupelo. Anyway no the house has been sold since. This house has a strong connection to Elvis because this is where he lived from 56-57 when he was taking over the world of entertainment. The inside for the most part is like it was when Elvis lived there. Many of the things in the house are things from the 50's similar to what Elvis had in the house. The glass trophy case if you notice is one of the many things Elvis had done when he moved into the house. He also added a pool in the back that never worked right when he was there. It was there until a short time ago when it was tore up and filled in by the people that bought it. A producer out of Nashville bought the house and has had done work to it and was going to donate it to a college to run a musical education class out of it or something. It almost got into the hands of some psychic and I was not comfortable about that. I did not go by the house this year but I was our there in 07 and it looked great and work was still being done on the outside. Anyway check this video out and hear Wink Martindale as he interviews Elvis in the 1950's. This is pretty cool.

Eagle's Nest or not?

For years now I have thought the above building was the site of the what was once known as

The Eagle's Nest. The Eagle's Nest was a a nightclub in the 50's that mostly middle class white folks came to to enjoy drinking and country and western music. Elvis, Scotty, and Bill performed there many times in 1954. The Eagle's Nest was part of a two story building that had a dance floor on the second floor where people would dance and such and live acts would perform from time to time. The first floor housed a 24 hour restaurant, the only one in Memphis at the time. It also has dressing rooms for the pool that sat outside. The place sounds so damn cool. Just once more reason to wish I was a teenager in Memphis in the early 50's. Anyway for years now I had saw in several books that this was the site on the Eagle's Nest and some even said this was the actual building. So for a while I thought it was. A few years ago I had heard things saying that this was not the actual building and the old site had been torn down and very long time ago. Some said it was at this site, and some said it was across the street. The building in the picture shown above that was last know as the Americana is on the corner of Lamar and Winchester. On Scotty Moore's website they have some information on this and his thoughts on where the old place once stood. I really do not know what to think about this because I have heard about twenty different stories on this but it stands to reason that the old building in the picture above was not the old club. Sad, because I feel that one more of the significant places in Elvis history and Memphis is gone. The few places that stand to this day I love to visit because I feel like I am getting to see and know a little of the real Elvis at 19 and 20 and how it was like for him back then. Anyway be sure to check out Scotty's site to see more on this and some great rare picture from the Eagle's Nest.

http://scottymoore.net/eaglesnest.html

Reinvented By The King

Back in the day when I was a new Elvis fan, I never new that he rerecorded songs from other artists. I always thought songs like "That's All Right" 'Hounddog"or "My Way" were songs written for him. Other songs include "One Night" which was orginally recorded by Smiley Lewis in 1956. Lewis' version was much more lewd and was titled "One Night Of Sin", Elvis recorded the original song and then later cleaned it up a bit recorded it again and called it "One Night". Another song that surprised me was "Are You Lonsesome Tonight?" which was orginally recorded by Al Jolson is 1926. If i'm not mistaken, Col. Parker wanted Elvis to record the song because his wife thought it would be perfect for him. After recording it in 1960, he was nominated for three grammy awards. "Steamroller Blues" which was awesome when he sang it during the Aloha Concert was orginally composed by James Taylor in 1970. Perhaps a more famous song which (to me) described Elvis' life was a song written by Paul Anka for Frank Sinatra called "My Way". Other songs include Righteous Brothers 'Lost That Love And Feeling", Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline", Three Dog Nights "Never Been To Spain", Big Momma Thorton "Hounddog", CCR "Proud Mary" among many others. He not only reinvented this songs, he made them alot better.

Today In Elvis History

July 4, 1956 Elvis arrived in Memphis just coming off a trip to New York which he had appeared on the Steve Allen show and also had a recording session in which he made some of the best music ever. Anyway, Elvis would hop off his train and walk across town to his home on Audubon and spend the day with his girlfriend and family. That night he put on a show at Russwood Park which was one of his greatest ever. This is the concert which he announced no one was gonna change him. He was pissed about the way he was treated on Allen's show and came home and tore the freakin place down. I have heard stories about people blocks away feeling what was going on in that park with all the noise and such. If I could go back and see some of Elvis performances they would almost all be the 50's and this would be at the top of my list. Just listening to the stories you know that it was really special.

Today in Elvis History

June 22, 1965 Elvis starts filming on his seventeenth film, Girl Happy. Girl Happy is not Elvis' best movie, but certainly not his worst. It has always been in my top ten favorites because I love the soundtrack and the story. what pushes this ahead of many other for me is Shelley Fabares and Mary Ann Mobley.

Do you look at your bald head and wish you had hair?

First and formost I would like to apologize for my absence due to pc problems, hopefully everything is taken care of and I can get the Vegas blogs rolling. Im gonna start by the review of "All Shook Up". This album was recorded from the complete midnight show on August 26, 1969 in Las Vegas. This would be one of the first few concerts Elvis performed after his comeback. You can hear on the album that he's very nervous but yet he still puts on a good show with his music and comedy. The infamous laughing version of "Are You Lonesome Tonight" is on this album where Elvis adds the line "Do you look at your bald head and wish you had hair." It sends Elvis into a tailspin of giggles but he comes back strong with an impromptu jam of "Rubberneckin'". After correcting himself and speeding up the tempo, he rocks out the song. Another aspect of the early vegas shows that I like is hearing songs that he'd recently recorded such as "Suspicious Minds", hearing the first few live version compared to the TTWII Disc 2 version amazes me how much he made that song better live throughout the years. There is also his version of Del Shannon's "Runaway" on there which I think is pretty kick ass because thats one of my all time favorite songs and to hear him sing it is simply amazing. As you can expect, it's a typical Vegas Elvis show but what makes it really good is his nervousness and how he counteracts it with comedy. The one thing that makes me love this album is the rare live version of "Rubberneckin", that's what makes the whole album great to me. The next album I will review will be "Elvis At The International", The show recorded on August 23, 1969, stay tuned!!

Elvis at Graceland

This is some footage from Elvis at Graceland from 1957, not 56 as the vid says. Anyway, I had seen it some time ago but thought it would be nice to post and preserve on our blog. I enjoy anything Elvis in the early days, and this footage is priceless.

Elvis in Vegas

Ive decided that im gonna dedicate this week to a turning point in Elvis' career. Each day im going to review a cd from live concerts recorded in Las Vegas. Starting tonight with "All Shook Up" check back later to read the review. PEACE!

Elvis and Ed part two

It Has been a long time since I have done any of my blogs about Elvis on TV. I am going to continue tonight talking about Elvis' second appearance on the Ed Sullivan show. On October 28 1956 Elvis and the boys would be in New York to be on Sullivan's show. Ed was back by this time to see up close and personal the Hillbilly Cat take off. This is my favorite TV appearance from Elvis ever! More then Aloha, The NBC special, or any other thing he did. This is my all time favorite. He is performing with such energy. He sings some of my favorites. Also the outfit is damn cool. The white shoes, loose fitting pants, the over-sized jacket, and the cool tie. That outfit was one of the coolest ever.

Elvis starts out the show with Don't Be Cruel. The performance is great, but might be a notch below the version from the next Sullivan show. He then sings the title track from his debut movie, Love Me Tender. He does a pretty good job on it. Elvis would be back later in the show to sing another new song from his latest album called Love Me. This of course is probably one of my all time favorite songs. He does a wonderful job with it and plays with the crowd from time to time during the song. Elvis would sing Hound Dog for his last number. This for me is Elvis rockin at his best. When I think of Elvis and REAL Rock and Roll one of the things I think of is this song. When I hear Elvis songs different images of Elvis often float around in my head. Though It never fails, If I hear Hound Dog I always think of this performance.

This show was just one more stepping stone to the top. Elvis was already the biggest thing in the business. Now he had just done a movie and was on his way. One sad note though would be that there was no need for TV anymore. The movies would do for Elvis what TV had done but to a larger extent. Only one more TV appearance would be left. Now enjoy the video below of Love Me and Hound Dog. My favorite six minutes of Elvis footage ever.

Still The King

I ranted in an earlier blog on how people who arent die hard Elvis fans didnt recognize what good he had actually done. As I said in the other blog, Elvis was famous for giving away Cadillacs, cash and jewelryusually on the spur of the moment. But his true generosity and community involvement is not so widely known. In 1961, Elvis gave a benefit concert at Bloch Arena in Hawaii that raised over $65,000 toward the building of the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. The resulting publicity gave life to the fund raising effort, which had lost its momentum. The memorial opened a year later. Audience tickets for his 1973 Aloha from Hawaii television special and its rehearsal show was free but each audience member was asked to pay whatever he or she could. The performances and concert merchandise sales were a benefit raising $75,000 for the Kui Lee Cancer Fund in Hawaii. Each year, for many years, Elvis gave $1,000 or more to each of fifty Memphis charities, but also made other charitable donations in Memphis and around the country. Most of Elvis’ contributions received no publicity at all. Throughout his life, for his friends, family, and even total strangers, he quietly paid hospital bills, bought homes, supported families, paid off debts, and much more. So for all the people that portray Elvis as being a monster, read this blog over really good and rethink your conclusion on what type of man he REALLY was and not what the media and bitter former employees or a crazy step mother and step brothers portrayed him to be.

Honoring a legend

Otis Blackwell is one of the most underrated song writers ever. Elvis fans know him, but most people do not give him his proper due. He is by far my favorite songwriter ever. Otis was born in in Brooklyn and raised in New York. He grew up a fan of country and admired Tex Ritter. He gave performing a try but was not very successful. He kind of got thrown into song writing. in the mid fifties, at 24 Blackwell scored a big hit with the song Fever. In 1955 Blackwell was in New York and was trying to come up with some money. He sold a few songs, the Hill& Range people happened to be there. The bought a song for $25, it was called Don't Be Cruel. Blackwell did a demo of it along with another song, Paralyzed. Elvis would go on to record both of course. Blackwell would do several songs for Elvis in the 50's including All Shook Up. We all know the story of All Shook up. Blackwell's friend once said "Otis, you can write about anything. Write a song about this(shook up a Pepsi bottle) and call it All Shook Up." That's how that classic came to be. All Shook Up would be the biggest hit of 1957. Don't Be Cruel was the biggest hit of 56, and they both stand as Elvis' most successful singles. Blackwell would also write many other classics in the 50's. One of the was Great Balls Of Fire for Jerry Lee Lewis. Blackwell would also write several songs that would Elvis would record in the 60's including Return To Sender, One Broken Heart For Sale,(Such An) Easy Question, and Make Me Know It. All which are favorites of mine. Blackwell would make an attempt to do his own thing again. He had the album "These Are My Songs" and the tribute album "The No.1 King Of Rock and Roll".

Elvis and Otis never met. It is said it was because Elvis never met any of his song writers, which is false. I guess there was some reason behind it, I just can't say for sure. Blackwell did not mind, they both has a system down and it worked. Though I would have been pissed If I was Otis, he shared the writing credit with Elvis on the first few records. That was Parker's doing. Though When Elvis found out, it stopped. Health problems stopped Blackwell from performing in the early 90's and he could not even talk. He had to communicate by computer. He passed away at his home in Nashville in 2002. Otis is my man, he wrote most of the songs which I consider my all time favorites. All Shook Up was the song that got me into the whole Elvis thing so hardcore. (Such An) Easy Question is on of my all time favorites. Gotta respect the man who wrote the tow most successful songs ever for Elvis.Hey Little Girls and Priscilla are also songs I have loved for a long time by other artist. Of course I am big on The Killer and he is responsible for both Breathless and Great Balls of Fire. Classics, all of them. Also, I would have loved to have heard Elvis do Hey Little Girl. I think he could have rocked that pretty well.

Anyway, lets show Mr. Blackwell some love. For some reason most people do not even know of him. Unless you are up on Elvis are a serious rock historian, you probably have not heard of him. Damn shame, one of the most talented writers ever. Below are some of his songs not sung by Elvis that I dig.

Elvis Is Human

Ive ranted recently on how Elvis is larger than life. With the focus on how much of an impact he brought upon the world, some people lost sight on that he was like you and I. I'll be the first to admit, there will be no other Elvis Presley. When people who despise him only talk about his flaws, he has done alot more good. For example, giving to charaties, giving cars to fans, acknowledging the fans among other things. The reason I felt like ranting is because I just read a negative comment on a website and it just set me off, yes people are entitled to their opinion but make sure what your are basing you opinion off of is facts and not bs. In the future, im gonna blog about all his donations to charaties and even talk about foundations, hospitals and other things that have been set up in his name to help people out. It makes me sick to see people try to make Elvis a monster. Ive selected the picture above because it is one of my favorites. It shows Elvis with his daughter and Pricilla in a family photo. This pic shows Elvis as a human being smiling at his daughter who he was very proud of and just shows him as a family man and not the monster skeptics make him out to be.

Elvis is ready, ready,ready to rock and roll

It is July and Elvis is the hottest entertainer in the country. He is getting bigger every day. Earlier Ed Sullivan said he would never have Elvis on his show. After Allen killed him in the rating with Elvis on, Ed was calling Parker before the could get out of CBS's studios. So Elvis was signed for three episodes of the Sullivan show. Elvis was to be paid $50,000 for his appearances. Elvis was to make his first appearance on September 9,1956. Sullivan has been in an automobile accident in August and would not be able to host the show. Elvis was not in New York for his frist appearance. He would be singing from Hollywood. Elvis would sing Love Me Tender,Hound Dog,Don't Be Cruel, and Ready Teddy. Elvis is in great form as usual. He really rocks, and goes all out on Ready Teddy. This was a step up for Elvis. It did not get any bigger than Ed Sullivan when it came to television. The host for the evening in Sullivan's place was actor Charles Laughton. He would talk about four gold records he had on stage with him. They were for Elvis, each for a different single selling over a million. Even though Sullivan had Elvis on, I don't think his mind had changed any about him. Some people have said Elvis was buried into the show and did not open the show like most headliners on Ed's show did. Either way it did not matter, Elvis was in most of the country's living rooms that night. Some were amazed and some appalled. Either way it was just one more thing that Elvis knocked out of the park during those years when he truly ruled. Elvis would appear two more times on the show, each better then the last. Also, each would help become even bigger then he already was. This is not up to par with some of the Dorsey Shows as far as entertaining performances, but still is good.
Elvis opened the show by saying this"This is probably the greatest honor I’ve ever had in my life. Ah. There’s not much I can say except, it really makes you feel good". That lets you in on how important this was to Elvis.
Below is the last number Elvis did on the show. After singing three songs and being pretty tame. He tore into Ready Teddy.

Today in Elvis History

April 27th 1967, Elvis completes work on Clambake. What a classic! No not really, but one of my all time favorites.

Elvis on Hy Gardner

More tonight on Elvis' appearances on TV in the 50's. On the same night he did the Steve Allen show, Elvis appeared on Hy Gardner's show. It is not a performance but is worth seeing anyway. Any chance to hear Elvis speak at this time is worth seeing. He would call into the show from his hotel room. I am sure most people have seen this many times, but it is here to see again. I find it very interesting.

Today in Elvis History...April 23,1956

Elvis would open at the New Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas. He would perform two shows a night. Elvis was billed as the'Atomic Powered Singer' . Elvis was pretty much a flop. His teenage fans could not get in to see him and the older audience did not get into the act. The Colonel had a Saturday show for the kids and it was packed and loud like the usual Presley concerts. Elvis bombed for the first time since hitting the big time and he was upset. This was a very important trip though. Elvis would fall in love with the city. He caught as many acts as he could while there. He went to see Freddie Bell and The Bell Boys. He would hear them sing Hound Dog. They sang it in a different way then Big Mama and with different lyrics. Elvis and the boys loved the song and decided to use it as a show closer. It would go on to be one of his biggest hits ever.
Some of the performances from the gig can be found on disc five of the 50's masters set. It is pretty interesting to hear.

Elvis throughout the years to me

When I watch concerts, TV Show Appearences or Movies, I really don't know which Elvis era I like best. I'll like the late 60's one week, 50's the next and even dig the 70's on occasion. Tonight I watched an Ed Sullivan appearence with Mike and just to see him have so much talent just with his style was truely amazing. I think what sticks out the most to me about Elvis in the 50's was his style. There is know doubt anyone else on this planet can pull off the look that he did and thats what makes 50's Elvis freaking cool to me along with his songs which are too many to mention. The 60's era was a fresh start for Elvis, he was fresh out of the army, his rawness from earlier years were gone and he was clearly respected more by older folks because he did his duty of serving time in the army. The thing about the 60's era to me is when Elvis' music became more colorful and not as raw as Hound Dog, Don't be Cruel, or That's Alright Mama. in the mid 60's his songs consisted of pretty much soundtrack songs to his movies. By the late 60's, he was over his movie making and ready to start recording again but first he had the 68' Comeback Special which reinvented him as an entertainer. By the time the seventies rolled around, music had changed and so did Elvis. He seemed to be more colorful with his famous jumpsuits and had the big band sound. The 70's era had a high point with the Live from Via Satillite Aloha From Hawaii Special which attracted more than one third of the planet watching the concert live. All in all Every Elvis Era had huge impacts on the world whether it was good or bad, Elvis was and still is the biggest enigma that has ever been on the face of this planet.

The King of cool

I am going to talk tonight some more about the performers who influenced Elvis. Dean Martin was some Elvis really held in high regard and wanted to immolate him when he was trying to break into the business. One the night Elvis recorded That's All Right, he has spent most of the night singing ballads and stuff of that nature. I have read it is possible he even tried a Dean Martin song. This would not surprise me a bit. Elvis even did a number at Sun that Martin did,I Don't Care If The Sun Don't Shine. That song is personally one of my favorite Elvis tunes from the Sun era.

Many people do not realize just how much Martin influenced Elvis. Elvis sang a lot of Martin's while trying to catch on around Sun. If you notice Elvis' style of singing ballads in the 50's you can certainly hear the Martin influence. Elvis would go on to sing many songs in his time Martin recorded at one time or another. Martin wanted Elvis to be on his first TV show in the 50's but Parker wanted a ton of cash and Dean was not having that. It is a shame it did not happen. That would have been something really important to Elvis. In a book about Martin, it tells a story that you can absolutely believe about Elvis. in the 60's Elvis used to ride by Dean's house all the time, but never got gather the nerve to go up to see him. Elvis was the shy type, and probably would have been scared to death. Even though Elvis was the biggest thing ever, he had his own hero's. Dean Martin was one of his biggest. Once in 1970 during a Vegas concert Elvis noticed his idol in the audience and broke out into Everybody Loves Somebody. I have never heard this, but would love to get the chance. As important as the influence of Gospel, Blues, and Country are, the crooners can't be over looked. Elvis wanted to be a balled singer long before he became a rock and roller. Dean Martin was one of those singers Elvis greatly admired. Below is the version of I Don't Care If The Sun Don't Shine. It is brilliant. Also I can't do a blog about Martin and not post my favorite song as well. Please watch both and enjoy the King of Cool, Dean Martin.

You can tell Elvis was certainly doing his version with Martin's in mind. Also just notice his delivery and such. Then listen to some of Elvis' ballads from the 50's.

That song has always been on of my favorites of all time.

We are going to present you with the new Elvis Presley tonight

On July 1,1956 Elvis would appear on the Steve Allen show. It was a natural movie after appearing on Berle and the Dorsey Brothers. This was the big time when it came to television, only Sullivan was bigger. Elvis had caused such a uproar over his last appearance on TV that Sullivan had shortly before said he would never have Presley on. Allen was going to tone Elvis down and said that this would be a show the whole family could watch. Elvis would appear in a tuxedo and would not be moving around. Elvis would sing I Want You, I Need You, I Love You, and Hound Dog. Allen would give Elvis a giant roll of paper that has 18,000 signatures saying they wanted to see Elvis on TV again. After Berle's show, critics, reporters, and parents said he should never be shown again. Allen joked it looked like a giant roll of toilet paper, an attempt to make Elvis look bad. Allen hated rock and roll, and did not like Elvis. This whole damn show was to make Elvis look like an idiot. Ironically a few years later the killer would appear on his show and get better treatment. Anyway after Elvis and I Want You, Allen brought a basset hound out for Elvis to sing Hound Dog to. We all know how much Elvis hated this, but this was truly a bunch of crap. Allen would later talk Elvis up good, but he really wanted to make him look like a fool. Elvis and his band was treated badly that night. The night would end with a sketch featuring Elvis, Allen, Imogene Coca, and Andy Griffith. The show thought turned out to be a huge hit. It was the best showing NBC had in years. Allen also killed Ed Sullivan in the rating, which never happened. You knew this was coming as far as how the show played out. Allen was going to try to tame down Elvis. Even though Elvis hated it and despised doing it, it was an important part of his path. Parker knew that if Allen blew Sullivan away, Ed would come a calling. Sure enough Sullivan was calling Elvis' people before they even left the studio that night. That would lead to the appearances on Sullivan later in the year. The next day Elvis was off to the studio to record and he was greeted by irate fans. This time instead of the people bashing him telling him he was vulgar, it was is fans wanting the "real Elvis " back. Elvis would head back home to Memphis to put on a fourth of July concert. He would tell his fans "those people in New York ain't going to change me none, I'm going to show you the real Elvis Presley tonight". He was right they hadn't. Elvis was changing things for them though. Even though he was still under fire and getting criticized, people wanted to see him for various reasons. So they had to put him on TV. Tom Parker was playing this game better then anyone could ever imagine and turning Elvis into the biggest star the world had ever saw. This is probably the least inspired TV performance, and my least favorite. Though it was the ultimate springboard to the biggest stage of them all for the time, Sullivan. This would always be the one time Elvis really thought he sold out. He was really embarrassed by it. Though it worked out better in the long run for him this way. He probably never realized that. That is why Parker was so great though. He understood this and knew how to capitalize on it.Below is the footage from this show. It is almost painful for me to watch the Hound Dog take, but the I Want You is great.