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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781623688615 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Triumph Books |
| Publication date: | 04/01/2014 |
| Series: | 100 Things...Fans Should Know Series |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 256 |
| File size: | 6 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
100 Things Elvis Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die
By Gilliam G. Gaar
Triumph Books
Copyright © 2014 Gillian G. GaarAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-62368-861-5
CHAPTER 1
Let's Meet Elvis
Elvis Presley was the world's first rock star, whose fame and influence was such that it led to his being proclaimed the King of Rock 'n' Roll. He became so famous that even today, more than 35 years after his death, you only have to say his first name — Elvis — and everyone knows exactly who you're talking about. No last name is necessary.
One reason why Elvis' rise was so remarkable is because his roots were so humble. Elvis was born on January 8, 1935, at the home of his parents, Vernon and Gladys Presley, in East Tupelo, Mississippi (the town was later incorporated into the town of Tupelo itself in 1946). The two-room house was the kind of small structure dubbed a "shotgun shack" because you could shoot your gun from the front door straight through the house and right out the back door without hitting anything else. There was no electricity, no running water, and an outhouse in the backyard.
It was a difficult pregnancy for Gladys, and she eventually had to quit her job. She could tell she would probably give birth to twins, as she grew bigger and bigger, not to mention her being able to feel two babies moving around inside her. She went into labor on the night of January 7, and Dr. William Robert Hunt arrived at the Presley home in the early hours of January 8. Around 4:00 am, Gladys' first son was delivered, a stillborn birth; the arrival of a second baby about half an hour later helped alleviate some of the pain. The twins were named Jessie Garon and Elvis Aaron. Elvis was Vernon's middle name, and Aaron was in honor of his friend, Aaron Kennedy; Jessie was Vernon's father's name, and Garon was to rhyme with Aaron. It had been a hard delivery, and Gladys and her newborn son were sent to the hospital; afterward, she was unable to have another child. Jessie was buried in an unmarked grave in the nearby Priceville Cemetery.
The loss of one baby made Vernon and Gladys treasure Elvis all the more, and Gladys in particular fussed over him. Though Elvis sometimes resisted his mother's attentions ("Mama never let me out of her sight," he later recalled), there was nonetheless a strong bond between the two, and it was undoubtedly the most important relationship of his life.
The Presleys were poor and moved throughout Elvis' childhood. The family unit was broken up for a time in 1938 when Vernon was sent to prison for nine months for forging a check. But Elvis' parents were always devoted to their son and encouraged his growing interest in music. Elvis first began singing at church, and avidly listened to country music on the radio. He made his public debut at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show in 1945, and soon after received a guitar for his 11th birthday. He became a regular visitor at Tupelo radio station WELO, where he'd watch local musician Mississippi Slim perform, then shyly ask him for tips on playing the guitar after the broadcast. He could soon play well enough that he could be coaxed into performing for his schoolmates during lunch breaks.
In November 1948, the Presleys moved to Memphis in search of better job opportunities. It was an exciting city to be in for someone as interested in music as Elvis was. He could find everything from country to pop to R&B on the radio; listen to the gospel music he loved so much at one of the city's many churches or at all-night Gospel Singings; or hang out on Beale Street, the main thoroughfare in Memphis' African American neighborhood, and hear the exciting music emanating from its many nightclubs.
By the time he graduated from Humes High School in 1953, Elvis was determined to become involved in music somehow. He wasn't sure how to make it happen. But in just a year's time, he would finally get the break he was longing for.
Aron or Aaron?
Elvis' middle name has been spelled differently over the years. His birth certificate spelled it as "Aron." On his tombstone, it's spelled "Aaron." But a 1980 box set went back to the original spelling for its title: Elvis Aron Presley.
Much has been made about the different spellings. Some even think that the spelling of Aaron on Elvis' tombstone is meant to be a clue that Elvis isn't really dead.
The simplest explanation is that it was likely that the Aron spelling was an error. Memphis journalist Bill Burk said that Vernon told him he didn't know the correct spelling of Aaron. But Burk's own book, Early Elvis: The Tupelo Years, says it was the mistake of the doctor who delivered Elvis and his twin, stating that Dr. William Hunt not only misspelled Aron on Elvis' birth certificate, but also recorded the twin's name as Jesse Garion instead of Jessie Garon.
According to Elvis Presley Enterprises (EPE), the company that looks after Elvis' business interests, Elvis was planning to start using Aaron as the official spelling of the name in the 1970s. After Elvis' death, Vernon, knowing Elvis' wishes, used Aaron on his tombstone, and EPE has since designated that Aaron is now the official spelling of Elvis' middle name.
CHAPTER 2Recording in Memphis: The First Single
The events of July 5, 1954, did more than bring about dramatic changes in Elvis Presley's life. What happened that evening would also alter the course of popular music — forever.
In 1953 and 1954, Elvis made two demo records at the Memphis Recording Service (later renamed Sun Studio). Though he later said he just wanted to hear what he sounded like, he also wanted to make sure he was heard by Sam Phillips, the studio's owner. Phillips eventually decided to see what Elvis was capable of, asking him to come to the studio on June 26, 1954, to work on a song Phillips was considering recording, a ballad called "Without You."
Nothing resulted from that session, but Sam mentioned Elvis to a guitarist he knew, Scotty Moore, who was in a local band called the Starlite Wranglers. Sam asked Scotty if he'd get together and work with Elvis on some numbers, and Scotty duly arranged for Elvis to come by his house on July 4, also inviting a fellow Wrangler, bassist Bill Black, to join them. They worked on a number of songs, primarily ballads, and when Scotty called Sam and told him how the evening went, Sam suggested the three come by the studio the next night, July 5.
The musicians started out working on ballads, recording versions of "Harbor Lights" and "I Love You Because." They were pleasant enough, but there was nothing terribly original about them. Then during a break, Elvis picked up his guitar and began to do a rocked-up version of Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup's "That's All Right." Though unfamiliar with the song, Scotty and Bill quickly joined in. "And Sam stuck his head out and said, 'Hey, what are you guys doing?'" Scotty said when talking about the famous session. "And Elvis told him, and Sam said, 'Well, that sounds pretty good, let me hear it again.' Of course, it was up-tempo and everything from what we'd been doing before. And so we went through it, we rehearsed it two or three times, and made a record of it."
Just like that, Elvis and his backup musicians had managed to create music that was new, different, and innovative. Crudup's original was laid back and drenched in the blues. Elvis took that bluesy beat and injected a bit of country & western swing, giving the song a high-spirited energy with a vocal performance that's positively joyous.
Sam knew he'd found the new sound he'd been looking for, even if he couldn't quite define what Elvis had done. "It's not black, it's not white, it's not pop, it's not country," he later recalled. He couldn't wait to share it with his friend, DJ Dewey Phillips — no relation to Sam, though the two men were as close as brothers. Sam cut an acetate of the song for Dewey, who played it on his Red, Hot and Blue radio show later that week (either July 6 or July 8). The phones lit up, and Elvis was brought down to the station for an interview — his very first.
Sam was now anxious to get out a single and capitalize on the growing excitement, so the musicians returned to the studio that week and recorded a B-side for "That's All Right," a cover of Bill Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky." This time, they took a country number and gave it a dose of the blues. "Hell, that's different," Sam said approvingly during the session. "That's a pop song now, nearly about!" Lightning had managed to strike twice.
On July 19, the single was ready to go, released on Sam's Sun Records label. It wasn't the first rock 'n' roll record — people are still debating about that one — but it showed that from the beginning, Elvis had an instinctive grasp of how to meld two seemingly disparate musical genres to create music that was fresh and exciting. As Billboard commented in its review of "That's All Right," "Presley is a potent new chanter who can sock over a tune for either the country or the R&B markets." Elvis was on his way.
CHAPTER 3Recording in Memphis: The Sun Sessions
The 19 surviving tracks Elvis recorded at Sun form the cornerstone of his musical career and are undeniably some of his best work.
We've already mentioned "Harbor Lights" and "I Love You Because," both recorded at the "That's All Right" session. Bing Crosby recorded the former, while the latter was a country hit for Leon Payne. Both reveal the affinity Elvis had for ballads from the very beginning of his career.
Sam Phillips set up another session for Elvis in August, probably the week of August 15-21, 1954 (the dates are uncertain). Elvis recorded a haunting version of the Rodgers and Hart standard "Blue Moon," that becomes positively eerie when he goes into a wailing falsetto; the song's melancholy feeling is heightened by the fact that Elvis leaves out the final verse, which brings the song to a happy ending. Instead, Elvis is left alone under that blue moon.
But Sam didn't feel the song would work on a single, so Elvis returned to the studio on September 12 (and probably other days that week). He recorded a diverse array of songs, beginning with a lovely, languid version of Lonnie Johnson's "Tomorrow Night." Jimmy Wakely's "I'll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin')" also starts out as a ballad then segues awkwardly into a faster tempo toward the end.
This wasn't the new sound Sam wanted to capitalize on. The band's lively rendition of "Just Because" — popularized, among others, by Frankie Yankovic — was a step in the right direction, but Sam found Elvis' next single in the two best songs of the session. "I Don't Care If the Sun Don't Shine" was a top 10 hit for Patti Page in 1950 and had appeared in the Dean Martin/Jerry Lewis film Scared Stiff, and Elvis gave it a bright country swing. But the standout was a cover of Roy Brown's "Good Rockin' Tonight." Elvis sings with an appealing confidence from the very beginning, making this invitation to a big night out an instant classic. "Good Rockin' Tonight"/"I Don't Care If the Sun Don't Shine" was released in October 1954.
Elvis was back in to the studio in November (or possibly December), to record his next single. Sam took the country song "Milk Cow Blues" and renamed it "Milkcow Blues Boogie," to make it sound livelier. Elvis then gave it one of the most memorable openings of any of his songs, singing slowly, stopping to announce, "Hold it, fellas. That don't move! Let's get real, real, gone for a change!" then launching into a brisk rockabilly beat. He also recorded his first original number, the sweet "You're a Heartbreaker." The two songs were released as a single at the end of December 1954.
There are no exact dates for Elvis' remaining Sun sessions. In late January or early February '55, he recorded "Baby Let's Play House," a hit for Arthur Gunter, and here featuring a terrific hiccupping vocal from Elvis.
At some point between November '54 and April '55, Elvis recorded a slow version of "I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone." Drummer Jimmy Lott also remembers working on the song "How Do You Think I Feel" at the same time. And a second, faster (and superior) version of "I'm Left ..." was done possibly as late as mid-April. The faster version became the B-side of the "Baby Let's Play House" single, released in April '55. The song was the first Elvis recording to feature drums.
The next session was held in mid-July. Elvis recorded another original, the lyrically playful "I Forgot to Remember to Forget," as well as an impassioned "Tryin' to Get to You." But the highlight was a terrific rendition of Junior Parker's "Mystery Train," Elvis turning in a spirited performance that ends with a happy "Woo!" in the fade out that Sam rightly declared "A fucking masterpiece." "I Forgot to Remember to Forget"/"Mystery Train" was released in August '55. During Elvis' final Sun session, in November '55, the band recorded Billy "The Kid" Emerson's laidback "When It Rains, It Really Pours." But the session was cut short when word came that Elvis was signing to RCA.
The most comprehensive package of Elvis' Sun recordings is the A Boy From Tupelo: The Complete 1953–55 box set (2012) from the collector's label Follow That Dream; Sunrise is a cheaper collection with fewer outtakes.
Further reading: Good Rockin' Tonight: Sun Records and the Birth of Rock 'n' Roll by Colin Escott and Martin Hawkins.
CHAPTER 4The Man With the Vision: Sam Phillips
Sam Phillips was the visionary producer who recognized Elvis' potential as a singer and had the capability to draw it out of him. His belief in the redemptive power of music, and his desire to seek out undiscovered talent and share it with the world, led to his working with a range of legendary musicians in addition to Elvis.
Samuel Cornelius Phillips was born on January 5, 1923, in Florence, Alabama. His parents were sharecroppers, and it was while working alongside his family in the cotton fields that he became fascinated with the songs the field hands sang as they worked. He also absorbed the music he heard in local churches, both the white Baptist church he attended and the black Methodist church nearby.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from 100 Things Elvis Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die by Gilliam G. Gaar. Copyright © 2014 Gillian G. Gaar. Excerpted by permission of Triumph Books.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
Introduction,1. Let's Meet Elvis,
2. Recording in Memphis: The First Single,
3. Recording in Memphis: The Sun Sessions,
4. The Man With the Vision: Sam Phillips,
5. The King's Manager: "Colonel" Tom Parker,
6. Elvis' Biggest Single,
7. The Comeback Special,
8. Recording in Memphis: The American Sound Sessions,
9. A Home Fit for a King,
10. The First Hawaiian Film,
11. Visit Memphis,
12. Elvis' Favorite Film Performance,
13. The Satellite Concert,
14. The Backing Musicians,
15. The Best Dance Number in an Elvis Movie,
16. The Breakout Single,
17. The Comeback Single,
18. The First Post-Army Album,
19. Visit Tupelo,
20. On Top on "Ed Sullivan",
21. "My Best Girl": Gladys Presley,
22. The Only Mrs. Elvis Presley,
23. "Hound Dog" On "Milton Berle",
24. Elvis and Las Vegas,
25. The First Documentary Film,
26. The Death of Elvis,
27. Soldier Boy,
28. The Singles that Charted a New Course,
29. Elvis' Daughter: Lisa Marie,
30. How to Have It All,
31. The Memphis Mafia,
32. The "Bodyguard Book",
33. Elvis and Drugs,
34. Jumpsuits,
35. From Coast to Coast,
36. The Ultimate '50s Box Set,
37. The "Message" Single,
38. Sweet Sweet Spirit,
39. The Private Plane,
40. Who's That Girl?,
41. The Islands of Aloha,
42. Visit Hawaii,
43. The Award-Winning Documentary,
44. The Debut Album,
45. The President Will See Mr. Presley,
46. The TCB Band,
47. Lucky in "Las Vegas",
48. First Performances,
49. The Unexpected Hit Single,
50. All That Glitters,
51. The Lost Album,
52. The First Post-Army Single,
53. Recording in Memphis: The Jungle Room Sessions,
54. "Elvis" Album,
55. The First Color Movie,
56. Recording in Memphis: The Memphis Recording Service Demo Sessions,
57. Last Performances,
58. The Last TV Special,
59. Elvis Is Dead. Or Is He?,
60. Imitation Elvis,
61. Big in the Big Apple,
62. The Set Closer,
63. Deck the Halls,
64. The Collector's Label,
65. Elvis Week,
66. Visit Las Vegas,
67. The Chart Toppers That Didn't Happen,
68. Recording in Memphis: Stax,
69. "Hound Dog" Two: "The Steve Allen Show",
70. The Best Elvis Biographies,
71. The Hit Makers: Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller,
72. The Backing Singers,
73. The First Film,
74. The Last Hit Single,
75. Rockin' on the "Hayride",
76. Live, Not Necessarily In Person,
77. The Signature Song,
78. Elvis and Race,
79. Elvis and the Fab Four,
80. Sam Phillips' Assistant: Marion Keisker,
81. The World's First Supergroup,
82. A Night at the "Opry",
83. The Hometown Album,
84. The Best of the Rest of Elvis' Movies,
85. The Rest of Elvis' Movies,
86. Dr. Feelgood,
87. The Seeker,
88. Tell 'Em Phillips Sent You,
89. Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting,
90. Discover the Music That Made the Man,
91. An Album of Chart Toppers,
92. The "Team Elvis" Logo,
93. The Best-Selling U.S. Stamp of All Time,
94. Frank Sinatra and Elvis,
95. King of the Road,
96. Home on the Range,
97. Hitting the Charts, Charting the Hits,
98. Elvis in Print,
99. The First Career Documentary,
100. Awards,
Sources,