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

Is that s cheeseburger I see before me.

since he's not in the building yet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoHDrzw-RPg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8oNHMNCSjQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEwcMvcWKgk

These clips indicate why this poll is such a challenge... the originals of the tunes Elvis did are also great so you have to sort of tease out the added Elvis-ness of his versions.

This is a good point. I often worry that I will think “why bother?” but usually come around in the end.

Also
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPkd9ZQOtbI

I sometimes think the same about Susanna Hoffs covers, but usually come around in the end as well, and not just because I am a Redd-blooded U.S Male.

speaking of buildings, i grew up literally around the corner from his first palm springs abode. learned to ride a bicycle on the street right in front
http://✧✧✧.elvishoneym✧✧✧.com/index_htm_files/1✧✧✧@2✧.j✧✧

That's an amazing house. Seems to be up for sale now for $4.9 million. Down from $5.9 million last year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jc08gY8wfVc

I think the talent of Elvis in interpretation was his ability to mine the emotion of a song & pull you in with a level of feeling. He was such a fan of so many types of music and artists that i think it was almost innate for him to honor the material as best he could.
Like, he’s saying to the artist “this is what I love about your song” rather than “look at how much better than you I am.” imo

These clips indicate why this poll is such a challenge... the originals of the tunes Elvis did are also great so you have to sort of tease out the added Elvis-ness of his versions.

Nice line (and funny Susanna Hoffs rejoinder). There's no real equivalent, is there, where you have to differentiate in that direction, from cover to original? (I collect Beatles, Neil Young, and Velvet Underground covers, where you do the usual thing, try to figure out if the covering artist has brought anything to the original.)

Hold on...I guess it is the same thing, except in this case the cover is almost always the more famous version (with occasional exceptions like "Tomorrow Is a Long Time").

VegemiteGirl otm. He doesn’t really change the melody, he sings it pretty close to the original, but he still seems to find his own convincing emotional center.

Pretty much the only difference seems to be that Elvis’s version is a little more rockabilly.

Sorry, was referring to “Money Honey.”

It's worth bearing in mind the question of whether it's a "cover" if the song was written by third-party songwriters to begin with. I mean, Big Mama Thornton didn't write "Hound Dog," Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller did. Now, in the case of "Promised Land" (which placed pretty high on my ballot), that's a cover, 'cause Chuck Berry wrote it.

I'd agree with that distinction. Elvis is doing versions of songs that others recorded before him; he's covering "Tomorrow Is a Long Time," because the original belongs exclusively to Dylan. (It gets weird where you get someone like Carole King recording one of her own compositions years after someone had a hit with it.)

Another distinction is that even when it's the same songwriters it could be Elvis hearing the song from a previous hit version... or directly from the songwriters' demo. For example, "Hound Dog" and "Jailhouse Rock" are both Leiber-Stoller but only the former had been a hit record. "Jailhouse Rock" was written expressly for Elvis.

(*Elvis's "Hound Dog" was evidently derived more from Freddie Bell and the Bellboys' version btw).

Then there's a song like "Gentle On My Mind," which was basically mandatory for albums released in 1968 and 1969, including From Elvis in Memphis. Roger Miller, Tammy Wynette, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin...fucking everybody recorded that song.

and he still bodies the fuck out of it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vhFnTjia_I

I just read that Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" was produced by Chips Moman et al. at American Sound in Memphis

somehow Elvis managed to get a little different sound there

Yes, in fact I believe that the story is that when Elvis went to record at American a Neil Diamond session was already scheduled and Neil had to be bumped. Which didn’t sit well with the musicians as this is kind of a session musician no-no. Leading to some Q&As at the time of the form
Q: Are you looking forward to recording with Elvis?
A: Well, it’s not like he’s Neil Diamond or anything

The story about the session being bumped is true; I suspect that's why Elvis recorded "And the Grass Won't Pay No Mind," which Diamond wrote. It was payback for the use of the studio, and ended up on Back in Memphis, the "sequel" album.

Thanks. Found the quote in Sweet Soul Music, which I always assume was written when the bumping of Neil had yet to be revealed, making the quote seemed somewhat puzzling without the extra context:

There was nothing really special about it, says Wayne Jackson, who played trumpet on the session; it was just another date. “We had been doing Neil Diamond just before Elvis came in, and Neil was a big deal to us. I mean, we were thrilled about Elvis, but it wasn’t like doing Neil Diamond.”

This article provides all sorts of detailed context for the events leading up to and through that session. Opened my eyes when I first read it and still packs a nightly (karate) punch. Ho!
http://www.furious.com/perfect/elvis69.html

Can’t seem to find anything else that guy wrote but damn if writing that article doesn’t constitute a one hit wonder, Have A Nice Day, thank you very much

Chip's exact words were, "Fuck Neil Diamond. Neil Diamond will just have to be postponed. Tell Elvis he's on."

Interesting (to me) to see that the original version of “Suspicious Minds” was on the Scepter label. Which led me to find that BJ Thomas also cut a version at American with the Memphis Boys which I have yet to hear. Forgot about the Fine Young Cannibals version.

BJ Thomas version uses exactly the same arrangement with the same players, with maybe some slightly more in your face horn lines peeking out like that extra piccolo trumpet line in the alternative version of “Penny Lane.” And a little more blue-eyed soul shouting on some of the vocals, I guess, which is kind of interesting. Sounds a little like The Box Tops (d’oh!) but really a little more like The Buckinghams.

lol @ this thread title

I’d like to think the thread title was inspired by my ballot title, but only Elvis Preston knows for sure.

Dwight Yoakum version of “Suspicious Minds” is pretty good. Retains some of the hooks, particularly in the backing vocals, but changes stuff up as well, such as playing a (simplified) variant of the rhythm guitar lick a little more louder and upfront.

Sorry, Dwight Yoakam not
Pappy Yokum

Pronounced duh-white yolk-ham

“This is ‘Dwight Yoakam,’ and it’s Take 1! Take 1”
“It’s, it’s ‘yolk-ham,’ actually.”
“What did I say?”

Ah, the Scepter connection deepens. Dionne Warwick also recorded an album at American.

Also had overlooked the Billy Strange connection and forgotten the rest of this Mac Davis story, from Guralnick’s Careless Love

even the Colonel seemed to sense there was something special about Strange’s twenty-seven-year-old protégé, whom he had met for the first time at the Charro! session. “That first night Colonel Parker said [to me], ‘Are you the boy who wrote that “Little Less Conversation”?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘You a pretty good-lookin’ boy, you’re going to be a star.’ I said, ‘Well, thank you very much.’ He said, ‘You want the Colonel to rub your head?’ I’m looking around, and I’m thinking he’s really putting me through the grease, but these guys with him are dead serious, they’re all just looking at me. So I bent over, and he put his hand on my head, like Oral Roberts, and he said, ‘You’re going to be a star. You tell everybody the Colonel touched your head.’

And here is the original, pretty-much-identical except-for-the-vocal version of “Suspicious Minds,” performed by the composer, Mark James. No need for any advanced degree in Kingology to recognize what Elvis brought to the song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFP0EP-Oi2I

A little lessmore pre-rollout preamble posting from a different point of view:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9psq4wzl98

Seems that Mark James also wrote "Hooked on a Feeling" and, um, "Always on My Mind."

(xpost) A bunch of songs about or referring to Elvis:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_songs_about_or_referencing_Elvis_Presley

My favourites are X's "Back 2 the Base" and R.E.M.'s "Man on the Moon."

Yeah, those are two good ones.

Presumably “The King Is Gone (So Are You)” as posted up thread is also mentioned

Elvis is such an all-encompassing subject, I wouldn't doubt that there are a few dozen songs not on that list where, if you asked the songwriters, they'd tell you they were elliptically writing about Elvis.

Forgot about Mojo Nixon and Gillian Welsh songs.

Yes, he is such a wide-ranging subject that if you can hang on as you dive into the omphalos of his belt buckle, you end up appreciating whole worlds of other music other than what he himself actually recorded.

One thing not on that list that explicitly references Elvis is the Odds' "Wendy Under the Stars."

In parallel to this thread, something just made me remind myself of the interesting story of how the Grand Ole Opry got its name, but sleep is coming so I will save it for another day or another thread.

Doing the images from this poll and damn there's so many good photos of him. He was a very photogenic, gorgeous looking man.

It also makes it very noticeable how bad his health got in his final year. He looks out of shape in 1975 and early 1976 but he still looks great in front of a camera... the spark in his eyes is still there. Then in one year it seems like he aged ten years.

otm. the Wertheimer photos in particular completely slay me

Larry Geller had a good gig putting the L’Oréal into Elvis’s hair every few weeks.

And so 41 years ago today....

... I seem to recall seeing Geraldo on tv in a jumpsuit. An unfortunate image I can thankfully usually keep at a considerable distance.

At the time I didn’t really know the fuss what about. I had mostly only seen the artist on television when my mother would watch his films. But then soon after I saw this and it opened my eyes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gj0Rz-uP4Mk

I would like to think one of the connections James Brown saw with him was the dancing, the ability to feel the rhythm all over his body and to use different sections of his limbs and torso as if they were parts of a drum kit.

That clip I hadn’t seen before, the films my mother watched always seemed to have him in a marina with a little captain’s cap or some other boring getup.

Two years later there was an intriguing tribute from Rockpile to pique my interest once again:
https://www.nytimes.com/1979/08/22/archives/rock-rockpile-performs.html

Then a few months later they also came up with this tribute, playing a song I had never heard of before https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2013/11/concerts-for-the-people-of-kampuchea-little-sister-rockpile-with-robert-plant2.html, which eventually led to my fateful encounter with Doc Pomus and the minor blues turnaround.

Of course, prior to this, in addition to the studio films I had also seen my mother watching some of the concert films or performances but to be an honest I had a hard time telling him apart from Tom Jones although it was clear to even me that Engelbert Humperdinck was a distant third.

In high school I knew the songs that were oldies staples on WCBS-FM and I ended up buying A Date With Elvis and Elvis' Golden Records. A few years later in the college library I ran into and befriended a guy wearing a little Elvis pin on the lapel of his denim jacket, a fellow now known on WFMU as Mr. Fine Wine. Finally right after college I read a excerpt from an upcoming book about soul music in the Village Voice about Roosevelt Jamison, Quinton Claunch and the Goldwax label and their artist James Carr, none of whom I had ever heard before, http://www.peterguralnick.com/post/47106712366/roosevelt-jamison-1936-2013 and of course that ultimately led me to further Elvis exploration

Tbh not sure what date or year Geraldo started wearing the jumpsuit but it was pretty early on

The local multiplex has had limited screenings of the Comeback Special--last Thursday, the anniversary of Elvis's death, and again today. (That's it.) Saw it tonight in a theatre that was almost full.

My favorite songs were the three Sun recordings, and the Jimmy Reed and Lloyd Price covers. The hits medley reminded me again that my appreciation of a lot of Elvis's music is arm's-length. The "Guitar Man" set-piece, which was like some bizarre synthesis of The Band Wagon and Laugh-In, went on forever. I liked Elvis's throwaway mockery of "MacArthur Park," and the Steve Binder/Priscilla making-of interview beforehand was really good.

My favourite moment of all was non-musical: when Elvis got very quiet and said he wanted to say a little about music. ("Very little.") He came right up to the edge, then backed off into generalities--if felt like he wanted to say a lot more than he actually did. Maybe he wanted to apologize for the movie phase of his career, or confess that he was completely baffled by what was going on around him. He said he liked the Beatles, but I don't know how convincing he was ("The Beatles, the Beards..."--that was great.) It was a great, vulnerable moment, and he got to pay tribute to the importance of gospel in his life, but I do think he left some things unsaid.

ARGHHH i forgot to go & i missed it ;_;

I don't know why they limited this to two days. I was in Oakville, 25 miles outside of Toronto, and the theatre was almost sold out. I'm sure they would have done well with a week-long run.

That Beatles Beards quote is all time.

Here are the full results, finally.

Thanks! I feel like maybe one of my tail end votes went missing but don’t want nitpick.

Really enjoying the 136-ranked gospel tune, “I, John,” which keeps appearing in my Release Radar playlist, although it may be a “sweetened” version with a new backing track and vocals.

FYI
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fool%27s_Gold_Loaf

holy cow

Any Day Now was my #1. For me it's the pinnacle of the American Studios sessions. The band came up with an unbeatable arrangement (I love Reggie Young's descending intro lick), and Elvis's vocal is impeccable. BTW, Ronnie Milsap was working out of Memphis at the time, appearing nightly at a club called TJs, and Elvis went to see him several times. Milsap recorded over a dozen sides at American and was also a background singer on the Elvis sessions. He did a fine version of the song but doesn't communicate anguish like Elvis does.

― Ρεμπετολογια, Monday, July 30, 2018 2:10 PM

Did Ρεμπετολογια die? otherwise I am confused:(

Yes, sorry. Rolling Obituary Thread: 2020

oh wow. I don't normally look at that thread. RIP indeed

Bunch of these showing up in one of my Made For You algorithmic playlists. I must have been revisiting last summer.

Unless the algorithm mixes various summers together and is reaching back to years past.

this poll only getting 19 ballots taught me a good lesson about the alleged breadth of ILM listeners. it's nevertheless a good music message board, but in essence a pavement fan club. RIP

Yup. Same for this POLL: Wishin' and Votin' - the BURT BACHARACH SONGBOOK Poll Results, speaking of Ρεμπετολογια's #1, "Any Day Now."

yeah, that one too.

I listened to Lonnie Mack's "Memphis" earlier today, speaking of something we talked about on this thread.

listening to the s/t debut and thinking about scotty moore's 25 watt echosonic, which is discussed in detail here with lots of interesting photos:

http://www.scottymoore.net/echosonic.html

this poll only getting 19 ballots

still regret not finding the time to do a ballot :/

here too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCKO9eQAK7o

here too

here three

i’d love to do this rollout again & comment some more on the tracks - i really enjoyed this poll & still love nothing more than talking about the King

i’d love to do this rollout again & comment some more on the tracks - i really enjoyed this poll & still love nothing more than talking about the King

― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, October 11, 2020 7:19 AM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

I'm up for this

Bassist Norbert Putnam looks back at the legendary Nashville Cats recordings with Elvis Presley

Sock a little polk salad to me.
Don’t you know I need a meal.

“Steamroller Blues” released as a streaming single yesterday. The Aloha from Hawaii version that is, don’t know from the Royal Philharmonic version.