19 Elvis Fans Can Be Polled: The ILM Elvis Presley poll roll out thread

If only I had told Doc Pomus that

Maybe somebody else voted for it whose ballot hasn’t been posted yet

Thanks Euler and Moka and everybody who participated, really enjoyed this poll and hope to comment a little more this weekend.

My copy of the Elvis On Tour DVD came in today's mail. Really looking forward to checking it out this weekend.

treat city, here you come!

Been off-grid for a few days so just catching up with results now. Thanks Euler and Moka, hope to see the complete results at some point. Here's my ballot.
1. Any Day Now
2. Suspicious Minds
3. Mystery Train
4. Don’t Be Cruel
5. Trying To Get To You
6. Kentucky Rain
7. Reconsider Baby
8. Tomorrow Night
9. All Shook Up
10. Jailhouse Rock
11. A Mess of Blues
12. Baby, Let’s Play House
13. Tomorrow is a Long Time
14. I’ll Hold You In My Heart (till I Can Hold You In My Arms)
15. Blue Moon of Kentucky
16. True Love Travels on a Gravel Road
17. Santa Claus Is Back In Town
18. I Feel So Bad
19. So Glad You’re Mine
20. If You Talk In Your Sleep
21. That’s Someone You’ll Never Forget
22. One Night
23. (Marie’s The Name Of)His Latest Flame
24. That’s All Right
25. Heartbreak Hotel
26. Love Me
27. Promised Land
28. Wearin’ That Loved On Look
29. Good Rockin’ Tonight
30. Blue Christmas
31. Little Sister
32. Spinout
33. Let Yourself Go
34. Hound Dog
35. Love Lettters
36. Crawfish
37. Don’t
38. (That’s What You Get) For Lovin’ Me
39. Separate Ways
40. Surrender
41. Stranger In My Own Home Town
42. I Want You, I Need You, I Love You
43. (You’re So Square) Baby I Don’t Care
44. Run On
45. Guitar Man
46. Burning Love
47. Ain’t That Lovin’ You Baby
48. Blue Moon
49. Summer Kisses, Winter Tears
50. When It Rains, It Really Pours

Glad to see there was at least one other vote for the majestically lewd "Santa Claus Is Back In Town".

Is there a lazy way to post the full results? I have a spreadsheet.

Just link to it in Google Docs?

I’ll see how easy it is in the next few days then

thanks for running this Euler and Moka, was fun to follow

This may have been mentioned already--the Comeback special is going to be in theatres within a couple of weeks. There was an ad for it where I was yesterday. I've never seen it, so if it shows up here I'll definitely be there.

Marie's the name was way too high

https://www.elvis.com.au/presley/elvis-presley-doc-pomus-mort-shuman.shtml

Okay, getting a little far down in this POLL-induced rabbit hole. Just heard Elvis say "Play it, James!" and thought he was talking to me.

Hm, seems that "(Marie's the Name) His Latest Flame" was originally recorded by Del Shannon.

I'm surprised no one posted it during the preamble.

Oh wait, just found that version on Youtube. It's a misfire. The King strikes again, TCB in a flash.

C
T ⚡️B

     C
T ⚡️B

(Oh well, the latter works in zing, at least, sort of)

Love the acoustic/electric bass combo on Marie...

OK so I'm obsessed with Elvis now, thank you to the pollrunners and voters for settin' my soul on fire

:D

Where Were You When Elvis Died?

Have to admit I don’t have the deepest knowledge of the catalog. Over the years I just went for some of the obvious high points, made my way through some box sets, stuck random probes into different career phases, followed various blips of reappraisal or cover versions leading me back to the Elvis version. First heard “Little Sister” - my #5- when it was done by Robert Plant and Rockpile at the Concert for Kampuchea. The more I listen, the further into the rearview mirror go various retro/kitschy/American/bloated pop-star baggage simplifications and I just hear the excellence in the singing, the combination of technical chops, careful listening and emotional interpretation. For one thing, he has a lot of big effects that one might imagine he lays on a bit thick, but in fact way more often than not he keeps a lot of it in reserve so it doesn’t get wasted until the big moment is needed.

yeah the conventional wisdom re cheesiness of his later material really falls away once you dig in

unless majesty is cheese in which case CHEDDAR ME UP

Yup. Meant to type “Americana” above.

It's funny, because he didn't even become an album artist in the post-Beatles sense of that term until From Elvis in Memphis, but almost all of the 12 non-gospel studio albums he did between 1969 and 1977(!) are really good. There are a couple of awful ballads (I really, really hate "My Boy") but overall the music is pretty astonishingly strong.

I would like someone to tell me which of the 1971-77 albums are really good, because I only know the singles from that period, and to be honest, I'm skeptical. I don't like "My Boy" either.

By the way, apologies if I've overstated this, but 10 of the final 50 in this poll were recorded in January-February 1969. That means seven of the From Elvis in Memphis tracks plus "Stranger in My Home Town," "Suspicious Minds" and "Kentucky Rain." That's remarkable.

As a person who has had an longstanding fascination with the various studio house bands, particularly along the Memphis/Muscle Shoals axis, to me those recordings represent one of the greatest harmonic convergences in pop music history (and I still keep finding/relearning new trivia about them I’d like to bore you with). Even so, I mostly concentrated on the biggest hits and only gradually spread out in concentric circles to listen to the other tunes and after the voting was in I saw that I may have given some of those short shrift.

I had three in my top seven (could easily have been 1,2 and 3) and then another three in my top forty.

I would like someone to tell me which of the 1971-77 albums are really good, because I only know the singles from that period, and to be honest, I'm skeptical. I don't like "My Boy" either.

Weird how some of the singles were not originally on From Elvis to Memphis, same way singles were not on UK Beatles albums, and their corresponding live versions weren’t on the original release of On Stage.

Looking at the cover art for the single “In the Ghetto” b/w “Any Day Now” and the image of Elvis totally makes it seem to be another soundtrack-related release

Both of which were on the original version of the album, as you are aware.

Another weird thing is that the singles released from this recording session were alternating with singles drawn from soundtracks. To add another layer, some of those tracks were also written by Mac Davis (and Billy Strange)

One of my new favorite stories is of Freddy Bienstock flying back from the sessions in Memphis, running into Bob Dylan on the airplane and, momentarily forgetting about being mumped up about missing out on his taste of the publishing, going on and on about what a great job Elvis did on “Only the Strong Survive.”

that's an awful lot of Coke, ribeyes, and ring-dings you're buying there, Mr. President. I think I'm gonna need to see some ID.

I would like someone to tell me which of the 1971-77 albums are really good, because I only know the singles from that period, and to be honest, I'm skeptical. I don't like "My Boy" either.

He touched me
Good times
Promised land

They're all good

otm

Elvis Country is great

This may have been mentioned already--the Comeback special is going to be in theatres within a couple of weeks. There was an ad for it where I was yesterday. I've never seen it, so if it shows up here I'll definitely be there.

I would like someone to tell me which of the 1971-77 albums are really good, because I only know the singles from that period, and to be honest, I'm skeptical. I don't like "My Boy" either.

They're almost all good (Love Letters From Elvis kinda sucks). Also, this set (Walk A Mile In My Shoes: The Essential '70s Masters) is easy to find very cheap and is totally worth it.

Thanks for all the album recs everyone. Since Elvis Country is the earliest of this batch I think I'll start with that and move forward. Also I remember from the Guralnick book that the sessions that that record comes from, June 1970 in Nashville, had a relatively good vibe to them. Love Letters is from the same sessions but I'm guessing those are the second-tier selections. Will consider Walk a Mile in My Shoes as well.

It's hard with Elvis not to constantly psychoanalyze the man, but it seems to me mid-1970 is when something changes and the late-life oddness comes to the forefront. Pills, paranoia, failed relationships etc. Inevitably one listens to the music with that in mind, whether it's fair or not.

I go back and forth on that. It used to bother me more, but now I can tune it out for longer periods of time and in recent years it hasn’t seemed to interfere with my listening at all *knock wood* Not to start a fite, but at some point I crossed over and had more of a problem listening to The Beatles and thinking about the nonsense they got up to.

I just dug up this review of Goldman’s bio, gone off the web because of Moody Blue, but in the wayback machine, which I long ago found a helpful corrective to certain ways of thinking
https://web.archive.org/web/20160421064858/http://www.ulmus.net:80/ace/aceworks/presley.html

Also, this set🕸 (/Walk A Mile In My Shoes: The Essential '70s Masters/) is easy to find very cheap and is totally worth it.

Meant to say he could always sing, even when he was hurt, way down in the jungle room.

Btw: speaking of The Beatles, don’t think we ever got the correct answer that the first recording of “Burning Love” was by Arthur Alexander.

Always think the backing vocal hook for that one comes from The Isley Brothers version of “Love the One You’re With” but maybe it’s just an obvious thing to do.

Ooh could well be the case