My Elvis Presley Blog

Welcome to my next instalment in the series “Songs Written About Elvis”.  In this one he shares the spotlight with two other super super stars, Marilyn Monroe and James Dean.  There was a time when I was fascinated by Marilyn Monroe and read everything about her that I could get my hands on.  Another victim of too many prescription drugs, too much fame and not enough authentic support from friends and family.  I was never a fan of James Dean because he was way before my time but Elvis adored him and aspired to be as great an actor so that’s all I need to know about that.  That was, obviously, before that old illegal Dutch crook with the phoney name was permitted to crush all of Elvis’ dreams.

This a song sung by The Bellamy Brothers who you might know better for their song “Let Your Love Flow” from around 1975.  (And “If I Told You That You Had a Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me”)…a corny Groucho Marx line that made this group a ton of money. 

Elvis, Marilyn and James Dean was recorded and released on not one but two albums in the summer of 1995. One in June called Native American and one in August called Sons of Beaches.  Same track listing, different album name and different cover.  Huh?

Needless to say this or any other tune from those two “twins from a different father” albums ever achieved any notoriety at all but the sentiment at least of this tribute song is appreciated by this Elvis (and Marilyn) fan.

Read More about The Bellamy Brothers

I would have liked to have given you the lyrics for this song but “We’re sorry, the artist has decided not to publish the lyrics to this song.” Huh? 

Anyway watch this video below and you’ll hear the lyrics whether the artist wants you to or not.  I just don’t get that!

The great picture at the top of Elvis, Marilyn and James Dean (okay, I guess I have to acknowledge that Bogart is in the picture but why?  Why? How does it relate to the subject, I ask you?) is available in poster format from AllPosters.com either as is or in a framed version.  And Yes if you click the link below I will make about 15 cents if you decide to buy so the FTC is happy I’ve just told you that.  Click the link below if you’re interested in this collector’s item.

Royal Flush Art Print
Consani, Chris
Buy at AllPosters.com

Until next time….

Mark Knopfler is best known as the lead guitarist, vocalist and songwriter for the British rock band Dire Straits, which he co-founded in 1977 with his brother David. After Dire Straits disbanded in 1995, Knopfler continued to record and produce albums as a solo artist under his own name. Occasionally, Knopfler has played in other groups, such as the The Notting Hillbillies; as well, he has guested on works by other artists, including The Dandy Warhols, Bob Dylan, Bryan Ferry, Eric Clapton, Jeff Healey, John Fogerty, Jools Holland, Steely Dan, Emmylou Harris, Sonny Landreth, Phil Lynott, Joan Armatrading and Chet Atkins. He has produced albums for artists such as Tina Turner, Willy DeVille, Randy Newman, Bob Dylan and even "Weird Al" Yankovic. In addition, he has scored the music to several films, including Metroland, Local Hero, Cal, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Wag the Dog, and Rob Reiner’s classic, The Princess Bride.

He is one of the most respected fingerstyle guitarists of the modern rock era. Knopfler was ranked #27 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time."

Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits have sold in excess of 120 million albums to date

Like many other schoolboys of the 1960s, he served an early apprenticeship by forming and joining anonymous schoolboy bands and listening to singers like Elvis Presley and guitarists Chet Atkins, Scotty Moore, Jimi Hendrix, Django Reinhardt and James Burton.  The rest, as they say, is history and if you wish to know more about Mark, check out his full bio here: Mark Knopfler

I have never heard “Back to Tupelo” before today although I’ve been a fan of Mark’s for a long time all the way back to when Dire Straits was the hottest thing on the radio. He is one of the great all time guitar players in my opinion and I know my guitar players. This song was released on Mark’s solo album titled The Trawlerman’s Song in 2005.  As I listened to the YouTube video below I also read the lyrics as Mark is not all that easy to understand sometimes and I got chills down my spine.  I also became very sad.  For Elvis. Again. Note the reference to the “lying dutchman”. 

Enjoy this, it’s very good especially if you enjoy world class guitar playing as I do. Thank you Mark for writing such a poignant and moving tribute to the King.

around the time of ‘clambake’
movie number twenty-five
you and the lying dutchman
are still in overdrive
you’re as strong as when you started
mississippi in your soul
you can still be marlon brando
and the king of rock and roll
it isn’t just the records
no, you must have hollywood
the songs alone are not enough
that much is understood
you’ll soon be back in memphis
maybe then you’ll know what to do
the storylines they’re giving you
are just not ringing true
oh, it’s a ways to go
back to tupelo
when you’re young and beautiful
your dreams are all ideals
later on it’s not the same
lord, everything is real
sixteen hundred miles of highway
roll back to the truth
and a song to give your mother
in your first recording booth
around the time of ‘clambake’
that old dream’s still rolling on
sometimes there’ll be the feeling
things are going wrong
the morning star is fading
lord, the mississippi’s cold
you can still be marlon brando
and the king of rock and roll
but it’s a ways to go
back to tupelo

"(619) 239-KING" and “Elvis is Everywhere” by Mojo Nixon

Hello again, dear Readers.  I am back with your 2nd instalment of the songs written about Elvis.  If you remember from my first post in this series, was it just yesterday? Yes indeed it was. Anyway, I discovered while reading yet another biography about Elvis that there are over 232 songs written and recorded about Elvis.  I was enchanted to know this because who else can you name that has had that many songs written about them besides God, Jesus, Mother Mary and several other religious figures? 

I promised you that I would research these songs and present them to you. My first post included probably the most famous tune ever written and recorded about Elvis, “Black Velvet”. Today I thought I’d cover two more songs that really should put a smile on your face and I’m pretty sure even Elvis would have gotten a kick out of them. 

Mojo Nixon was born exactly 20 days before me on August 2, 1957 in Chapel Hill, N.C. He was originally named Neill Kirby McMillan, Jr. and I can’t seem to find an explanation for the name change but no matter, Mojo suits him much better as you’ll soon see.

Mojo is an irreverent artist taking shots at just about anybody he wants to. Some of his song titles include “Don Henley Must Die”, “Jesus at McDonalds” and “Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant with My Two-Headed Love Child”.  You get the idea?  However with the two songs he recorded about Elvis, it seems that Mojo actually really loves Elvis and for that, I will forgive him for using so many really ugly and bad Elvis impersonators in his videos.  Of note: in the “619-239-KING” video there is actually one impersonator that shows up early in the video who actually does resemble Elvis as he looked in the mid-70’s. Mojo is quoted as saying that his personal religious trinity was Presley, Foghorn Leghorn and Otis Campbell.

If you’re interested in reading more about Mojo Nixon, click here.  Meanwhile, enjoy these two videos:

(619) 239-KING Embedding is disabled for this one but you should be able to watch it at YouTube by clicking on the link

So I’m reading the Jerry Hopkins Elvis biography, the latest edition that has his two Elvis bio’s combined.  The first book he wrote before Elvis died and it’s the only biography that I’m aware of that was written while Elvis was alive besides the one book that shall remain unnamed on this blog that may or may not have killed him and was written by his two “good friends” Red & Sonny West as told to a hack gossip columnist. The 2nd book was written after Elvis left us.

But I digress. So I’m reading this biography and really enjoying it although much of what is in it I already know.  But it seems when you are in love with the King, you can read the same things from different sources and get a whole different perspective.  And Hopkins writes well which helps a lot.

Anyway I encountered a section in the book where the author starts to list all the songs that had been written “about” Elvis.  My eyebrows started to raise up and I immediately got a lot more interested because I only ever knew one song that was written about Elvis and that’s the one included here sung by Alannah Myles. 

Now folks, I have to be honest here. Up until a few months ago, I didn’t even know this song WAS about Elvis but of course, as soon as I heard that and remembered the words, (which I have memorized because it used to be one of my all time favorite songs) I thumped my forehead as if I was in a V8 commercial because OF COURSE it’s about Elvis! Who else could it be about you stupid twit?! 

Yes sometimes I am unusually harsh on myself. 

Tonight I thought I’d research this topic a wee bit more and just see, out of curiosity, how many songs were actually credited with being “about” Elvis.  Can you guess?  Would you think maybe 20 or 30?  Does that seem like a lot?  How about over 200?  That’s right, there are over 200 songs that are credited with being about Elvis!  And many more that refer to him in more minor ways. 

So I have just created another “series” of Elvis pieces I’m going to be doing on the Songs that were Written about Elvis.  Black Velvet of course will start out the series because it’s the one I’m most familiar with as are most of my readers, I’m sure. 

Black Velvet was made into a huge hit by 3 time Juno award winning Canadian artist Alannah Myles back in 1989. She was also awarded a Grammy for Best Female Rock Performance for Black Velvet. Written by Canadian musicians David Tyson and Christopher Ward, it became a number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 charts in 1990 and reached number one on the Album Rock Tracks chart, as well as number one in Canada and number two in the UK Singles Chart. In 1990, country music artist Robin Lee reached number 12 on the U.S. country singles charts with a cover version.

In 1989, you couldn’t go anywhere without hearing it playing and in fact, the song was named the most played song on radio for 1989.  Alannah had such a sexy, bluesy voice that was perfect for this song.  I never heard the Robin Lee version of it and don’t really need to.  Like Elvis himself, the original song by Alannah was such a classic that anything after would seem like cheap karaoke. (I hate karaoke and I hate Elvis impersonators too.) 

There are some interesting theories about the Black Velvet title.  I prefer to think of it as a very apt description of Elvis’s style, his look and his voice.  Something awfully sexy and dangerous about black velvet.  However it’s possible that it refers to the Elvis on Black Velvet paintings  you can still find in some people’s homes or, and I think this is a pretty cool idea too, it refers to the hair dye Elvis always used which was called “Sullivan’s Black Velvet”.

Either way, black was one of Elvis’s favorite colors so the song title is a perfect fit, no matter the reason.   Here then are the lyrics:

Mississippi in the middle of a dry spell
Jimmy Rogers on the Victrola up high
Mama’s dancin’ with baby on her shoulder
The sun is settin’ like molasses in the sky
The boy could sing, knew how to move, everything
Always wanting more, he’d leave you longing for

Chorus:
Black velvet and that little boy’s smile
Black velvet with that slow southern style
A new religion that’ll bring ya to your knees
Black velvet if you please

Up in Memphis the music’s like a heatwave
White lightening, bound to drive you wild
Mama’s baby’s in the heart of every school girl
"Love me tender" leaves ‘em cryin’ in the aisle
The way he moved, it was a sin, so sweet and true
Always wanting more, he’d leave you longing for

Repeat chorus:

Every word of every song that he sang was for you 

In a flash he was gone, it happened so soon, what could
you do?

I hope you all enjoy this new series I’m beginning here and that you’ll stay tuned for more as I bring you all the songs that were written about Elvis, The King of Rock and Roll.

This video insert includes 4 of my favorite gospel songs sung by Elvis.  If it pleases you, listen while you read.  

On my MP3 player, I have over 230 Elvis songs on my “favorites” playlist.  Many of them are gospel songs with Swing Low Sweet Chariot, Run On, Help Me and Bosom of Abraham among my all time favorites. Actually, there isn’t really any gospel tune that Elvis sings that I don’t like. 

If you know anything at all about Elvis, you know that he was raised on southern gospel.  Him and his parents used to sing as a trio and would visit various churches to participate in services and sing.  Certainly there was a lot of old country music influence in his life but until Elvis discovered Beale Street and the African American blues, gospel was his music and he sang it like an angel.

So while listening to my playlist the other day, I noticed that Elvis’s voice and presence is different when he sings gospel versus when he sings any other genre of music.  His singing sounds completely effortless when he’s singing gospel as if it’s the most natural thing in the world.  His voice is softer, smoother and less forced and he sounds comfortable.  This may be because gospel was a major force in his upbringing but I think there’s more to it then that.

I think everybody must have heard by now the story that Gladys use to love to tell about her and young Elvis being in church together. When the choir started to sing, Elvis would squirm out of her lap and run up to the front of the church.  There he would try to imitate the choir singers, singing along and aping their gestures. There are stories about Elvis and his parents sitting on the front porch of their little two room shack singing gospel songs after dinner. So gospel was definitely something that was in Elvis’s soul from a very early age. However is that the only reason why Elvis sings gospel just like you would imagine an angel would?

Chris Beard, a writer for the 1968 Comeback Special, says “Elvis had a supernatural something to him.  He was very spiritual.  He, he was connected to the spirit.  And, a lot of people don’t know this and Colonel didn’t want that to be out there ‘cause it would’ve made him appear to be a little bit sort of like wiggy.  All of us that believe in spirit understand each other and, Elvis was right there. He wanted to have that knowledge.  He wanted to go to other places.” 

And that’s what you hear if you listen closely to Elvis sing gospel. His connection to spirit.  A connection he doesn’t show when singing rock & roll, or the blues, or country.  Those songs he’s obviously singing for his fans and we adore him for it. After all, Elvis fans know that he was the greatest singer to ever grace the planet.  But the gospel songs, those songs Elvis sang just for God. Whatever It is, Elvis had a direct line to It.

“It (gospel singing) more or less puts your mind to rest.  At least it does mine, since I was two.” Elvis is quoted as saying. Every rehearsal that ever took place with Elvis started with him warming up with gospel music.  And every concert that ever took place with Elvis ended with him cooling off in his hotel room singing gospel music. 

So now you understand why Elvis sounds different when he sings gospel music.  His mind is at rest, he’s in his comfort zone, he’s gone back to his roots and he’s completely connected to Spirit.

Listening to Elvis sing gospel is an experience not to be missed.  Even if you’re not a Christian, there’s just something about hearing Elvis sing gospel that calms your mind, eases your heart and let’s you forget your troubles. 

Although Elvis is known worldwide as The King of Rock & Roll, the only Grammy awards he received were for gospel. If you want to hear why click this link below.

Songwriters: Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller

Probably the first rock music video of all time, Elvis Presley’s Jailhouse Rock dance scene was historic in many ways in the making.  Elvis didn’t dance. Onstage he just moved rhythmically to the music. And boy! could he move.  There’s no account anywhere that I can find where Elvis ever danced with a girlfriend other then slow dancing in the dark.  When at clubs or parties, no one ever states that Elvis would ever just dance to fast music the way most of us relate to dancing.

So when Jailhouse Rock was being filmed and talk of the choreography for the title song began, it was quite humorous to read that the choreographer for the scene was aiming for some kind of old fashioned Gene Kelly type of performance from Elvis.  What? Have you seen this guy on stage?

According to George Klein, an Elvis friend from way back, “When Alex Romero, who was the choreographer of Jailhouse Rock, first presented the dance sequence for Jailhouse Rock, Elvis shook his head and he said, ‘That’s not me. I can’t do that, Alex. I appreciate, you know, what you’ve done here.’ He wanted Elvis to do more of a Gene Nelson/Fred Astaire type.  Elvis said, ‘It’s not me. I’ll try it.’ And Elvis being the cooperative guy, he got up and tried.  He said, ‘See Alex, it’s not me.’  And that’s when Alex said, ‘Elvis, I’ll tell you what.  Let me incorporate your stage act into what I wanna do, and let’s see if that’ll work.’  and he went home that night, came back the next day, and had taken Elvis’s stage act and incorporated that into a dance sequence. Elvis said, ‘Hey, I can do that. That’s me.’  And in one take, right there in the rehearsal hall at MGM, Elvis had it down.  And of course it became historic in being Elvis’s best dance sequence in a motion-picture.”

Sharon Sheeley, songwriter and friend of Elvis, remembers coming home from that movie (Pajama Game).  And it was very late at night, and there this little drizzle out.  And “Jailhouse Rock” came on the radio.  And I remember Elvis stopped the car, got out of the car.  It was on Fountain Avenue. And he danced the whole scene he did in the movie, in the middle of the street on Fountain Avenue.  And I kept thinking if people woke up right now and looked out their windows, they’d see Elvis Presley dancing in the streets like Gene Kelly.

Source for George Klein and Sharon Sheeley: Remember Elvis, Produced by Joe Esposito

The recording of Jailhouse Rock took place at MGM’s Radio Recorders on April 30th, 1957.  Morning and afternoon rehearsals were strange for Elvis who was more likely to start rehearsing at 10PM and work through until dawn but this was the movies and people kept somewhat regular hours. Elvis was never known to throw tantrums or lose his temper during rehearsals however he did lose it during this rehearsal.  Elvis always warmed up his voice by singing his favorite gospel tunes with the band and the back up singers.  During the rehearsals here at MGM, Elvis spent the morning doing just that and then broke for lunch.  During lunch, the production team spoke to Gordon Stoker, one of the backup singers in the Jordanaires group and asked that they not join Elvis in the gospel singing if he began doing that again after lunch. They needed to get to work.

When Elvis came back from lunch and got wind of this, he simply stood up and walked out.  As was the way Elvis always worked, if they had just let him be, he more then likely would have finished all the takes they required that day or possibly by the next day but as it was, they had nothing. Other singers may have taken weeks to get what they needed from him.  Elvis returned the next morning and finished all the required songs.  I’ve never read where anybody tried to interfere with his work habits after that.

The soundtrack version of Jailhouse Rock, heard here on this video, includes orchestration and back up vocals that are not on the released single version. That version included only Elvis’s original band Scotty Moore, Bill Black and DJ Fontana with the addition of Dudley Brooks on piano.  Of course the Jordanaires were ever present as back up singers but even the back up vocals were toned down from the soundtrack version. I personally prefer the single released version but I’ll never stop loving watching Elvis perform in this video.  Today it seems almost cheesy in it’s simplicity but remember, we’re talking over 52 years ago.  I was only 4 months away from making my entrance into the world.

Jailhouse Rock debuted at No.1 for the week of November 9th, 1957. This was to be Elvis’s 8th chart topper. During this year, Elvis had the No. 1 hit 17 out of 56 weeks according to Cash Box Magazine Charts.

The single with the B side of Treat Me Nice (one of my all time favorites) was a US #1 hit for 7 weeks.  The song as sung by Elvis is #67 on Rolling Stone’s list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and was named one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.

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I have several hundred of favorite Elvis tunes but one of my all time favorite songs recorded by Elvis is Guitar Man, a tune written and originally recorded in 1967 by Jerry Reed. For Jerry, this song began his singing career and put him on the Country Music Billboard for the first time. Elvis heard this tune on the radio and liked it so much he decided that Guitar Man would be included in his next recording session.

So on September 10th, 1967 in the RCA’s Studio B in Nashville with guitarists Scotty Moore, Chip Young and Harold Bradley present, Elvis attempted to record Guitar Man.  However no matter what they did or how hard they tried, the musicians couldn’t get the sound that Elvis was looking for.  Of course that sound was Jerry Reed.

So Elvis told somebody to get Jerry on the phone and maybe he could tell them how to achieve that “Jerry Reed” sound.  Well Jerry was on a fishing trip somewhere out in the middle of nowhere but somehow somebody did manage to locate him and get him on the phone. Who actually accomplished this depends on whose account you’re reading but remember, nobody ever said no to Elvis and what Elvis wanted, Elvis got. Reportedly, Reed responded to the request to tell someone how he got that sound, he’d just “c’mon out there” and do it himself.

Felton Jarvis, the producer at this session, said that Reed arrived looking “like a sure-enough Alabama wild man.”  Apparently from the fishing boat to the Nashville studio, Reed hadn’t stopped to shave, change his clothes or clean up in anyway.  When Elvis saw him walk into the studio he said “Lord, have mercy, what is that!”  But no matter, they all soon got to work to get Guitar Man in the can.

At first, Jerry struggled a lot with getting it right complaining that he hadn’t played his guitar all weekend.  Shaking his fingers and making several attempts, he finally took his guitar out into the parking lot, telling Elvis to just hold on a second, he’d catch up.  And catch up he did.

Finally Jerry, back in the studio, played the intro and says “You could see Elvis’ eyes light up – he knew we had it.”  It’s reported that from there on in, Jerry took over the session.  Coaching the musicians, egging them on, and encouraging them.  There was no question that Elvis was engaged in the session finally as there was no horsing around, no self-deprecation or wisecracking.  He is totally focused on the music. Around the 5th take, Elvis begins to play around with the song, introducing a hint of the Ray Charles tune “What I’d Say” on the outro.

For Jerry Reed, the session was a joy.  “It was just a jamming session…I got pumped, and then Elvis got pumped, and the more he got pumped up, the more I did.” Jerry claims he was on cloud nine and that “once Elvis got the spirit, things really started to happen… one of those rare moments in your life you never forget.”

You can hear Jerry on Big Boss Man and US Male, both of which are also on my favourite song list.  There was something magnetic about Elvis and Jerry Reed together in the studio.  When you listen to as much of Elvis as I do, you get a sense after awhile of how or what he’s feeling while recording a song.  He can be either completing disengaged and bored or he can be inspired and totally focused.  With Jerry Reed in the studio, Elvis was always the latter.  Elvis loved Guitar Man so much he chose to open his 1968 Comeback Special with it.  Click on video link to the right to hear a really great Elvis Presley song.

Sources: Careless Love by Peter Guralnick, Elvis Presley: The Complete Recording Sessions by Ernst Jorgensen