- published: 26 May 2010
- views: 2880975
- author: SuedeVideo
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![Suede - Stay Together [1994]](http://web.archive.org./web/20130201063233im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EUUi7w3uSsk/default.jpg "The Stay Together video was shot at Riverside Studios in London. In one part, we can actually see Bernard hanging upside down, playing his guitar. And Brett gagged. The band despise this video for too many empty symbolisms. The whole video doesn't fit the song, though, I think. Source: essentialsuede.com")
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CBS Television City
Coordinates: 34°04′28″N 118°21′36″W / 34.07444°N 118.36°W / 34.07444; -118.36
CBS Television City is a television studio complex located in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles at 7800 Beverly Boulevard, at the corner of North Fairfax Avenue. It is one of two CBS television studios in southern California — the other is CBS Studio Center, located in the Studio City section of the San Fernando Valley, which houses additional production facilities and the network's Los Angeles local television operations (KCBS and KCAL). Since 1961, it has served as the master control facility for CBS' west coast television network operations; prior to that, it was based at Columbia Square. The company's West Coast radio production center is located more than a mile away to the south, in the Miracle Mile neighborhood.
Since Television City opened in 1952, numerous TV shows have been broadcast live or taped at the facility, including many shows not broadcast on CBS. Many films have also been produced in-part at Television City, such as the 1996 feature That Thing You Do! starring Tom Hanks and Liv Tyler. During the opening credits of many of the shows taped here, a voice-over announced the phrase "From Television City in Hollywood". The complex currently houses a total of eight separate studios. Backstage tours occasionally take place, with the guests being escorted by a CBS page.
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Fort Chaffee
Fort Chaffee Maneuver Training Center is in northwest Arkansas, adjacent to the city of Fort Smith, and one mile (1.6 km) southeast of Fort Smith Regional Airport. The Arkansas River flows eastward along the northern border of the post. Interstate 40 is five miles (8 km) to the north on the opposite side of the river. Fort Chaffee is primarily used as a training facility by regional National Guard and Army Reserve units and active military units from other installations. Fort Chaffee currently houses no active units.
Fort Chaffee was originally named Camp Chaffee. Camp Chaffee was established in response to the need for more US troops for the imminent involvement in World War II. Construction on Camp Chaffee was started in September 1941, with troops arriving on the base in December 1941. In March 1956, the name of Camp Chaffee was officially changed to Fort Chaffee in recognition of the permanent nature of the base.
Fort Chaffee, located just outside of Fort Smith (Sebastian County) and Barling (Sebastian County) on Arkansas Highway 22, has served the United States as an army training camp, a prisoner of war camp, and a refugee camp. Currently, 66,000 acres are used by the Arkansas National Guard as a training facility, with the Arkansas Air National Guard using the fort’s Razorback Range for target practice.
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Fort Hood
Fort Hood is a United States military post located outside of Killeen, Texas. The post is named after Confederate General John Bell Hood. It is located halfway between Austin and Waco, about 60 miles (100 km) from each, within the U.S. state of Texas.
Its origin was the need for wide-open space to test and train with World War II tank destroyers. The War Department announced the location in January 1942, and the initial completion was set for that August. As originally constructed, Fort Hood had an area of 158,706 acres, with billeting for 6,007 officers and 82,610 enlisted personnel. The main cantonment of Fort Hood had a total population of 53,416 as of the 2010 U.S. Census. It is in Bell County, with some portions of the base in Coryell County.
During World War II, tank destroyers were developed to counter German mobile armored units. These were mobile anti-tank guns on armored halftracks or specially developed tanks. Wide-open space was needed for the tank destroyer testing and training, which Texas had in abundance. Andrew Davis (A.D.) Bruce was assigned to organize a new Tank Destroyer Tactical and Firing Center, and he chose Killeen, Texas for the new camp. The War Department announced the selection on 15 January 1942. An initial acquisition of 108,000 acres (169 mi² / 437 km²) was made, and it was estimated that the camp would cost $22,800,000 for the land, facilities, and development of utilities. The date of completion was set for 15 August 1942.
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Grand Ole Opry
The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, that has presented the biggest stars of that genre since 1925. It is also among the longest-running broadcasts in history since its beginnings November 28, 1925, as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM-AM. Dedicated to honoring country music and its history, the Opry showcases a mix of legends and contemporary chart-toppers performing country, bluegrass, folk, gospel, and comedic performances and skits. Considered an American icon, it attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world and millions of radio and Internet listeners. The Opry, today part of the American landscape, is "the show that made country music famous" and has been called the "home of American music" and "country’s most famous stage."
In the 1930s, the show began hiring professionals and expanded to four hours; and WSM-AM, broadcasting by then with 50,000 watts, made the program a Saturday night musical tradition in nearly 30 states. In 1939, it debuted nationally on NBC Radio. The Opry moved to a permanent home, the Ryman Auditorium, in 1943. As it developed in importance, so did the city of Nashville, which became America's "country music capital".
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Hawaii
Coordinates: 21°18′41″N 157°47′47″W / 21.31139°N 157.79639°W / 21.31139; -157.79639
Hawaii (
i/həˈwaɪ.iː/ or /həˈwaɪʔiː/; Hawaiian: Hawaiʻi Hawaiian pronunciation: [hɐˈvɐiʔi]) is the most recent of the 50 U.S. states (August 21, 1959), and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean.
Hawaii’s diverse natural scenery, warm tropical climate, abundance of public beaches and oceanic surrounding, and active volcanoes make it a popular destination for tourists, surfers, biologists, and volcanologists alike. Due to its mid-Pacific location, Hawaii has many North American and Asian influences along with its own vibrant native culture. Hawaii has over a million permanent residents along with many visitors and U.S. military personnel. Its capital is Honolulu on the island of Oʻahu.
The state encompasses nearly the entire volcanic Hawaiian Island chain, which comprises hundreds of islands spread over 1,500 miles (2,400 km). At the southeastern end of the archipelago, the eight "main islands" are (from the northwest to southeast) Niʻihau, Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, Kahoʻolawe, Maui, and the island of Hawaiʻi. The last is by far the largest and is often called "The Big Island" to avoid confusion with the state as a whole. The archipelago is physiographically and ethnologically part of the Polynesian subregion of Oceania.
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Las Vegas
Las Vegas (/lɑːs ˈveɪɡəs/) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous for its consolidated casino–hotels and associated entertainment. A growing retirement and family city, Las Vegas is the 28th-most populous city in the United States, with a population at the 2010 census of 583,756. The 2010 population of the Las Vegas metropolitan area was 1,951,269.
Established in 1905, Las Vegas was incorporated as a city in 1911. At the close of the 20th century, Las Vegas was the most populous American city founded in that century (a distinction held by Chicago in the 19th century). The city's tolerance for various forms of adult entertainment earned it the title of Sin City, and this image has made Las Vegas a popular setting for films and television programs. There are numerous outdoor lighting displays on Fremont Street, as well as elsewhere in the city.
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Las Vegas Strip
The Las Vegas Strip is an approximately 4.2-mile (6.8 km) stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard South in Clark County, Nevada. The Strip is not located within the city of Las Vegas proper— it passes through the unincorporated towns of Paradise and Winchester, which are south of the Las Vegas city limits. Most of the Strip has been designated an All-American Road.
Many of the largest hotel, casino and resort properties in the world are located on the Las Vegas Strip. Fifteen of the world's 25 largest hotels by room count are on the Strip, with a total of over 62,000 rooms.
One of the most visible aspects of Las Vegas' cityscape is its use of dramatic architecture. The modernization of hotels, casinos, restaurants, and residential high-rises on the Strip has established the city as one of the most popular destinations for tourists.
Historically, the casinos that were not in Downtown Las Vegas along Fremont Street were restricted to outside of the city limits on Las Vegas Boulevard. In 1959 the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign was constructed exactly 4.5 miles (7.2 km) outside of the city limits. The sign is today about 0.4 miles (0.64 km) south of the southernmost entrance to Mandalay Bay (the southernmost casino).
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London Palladium
The London Palladium is a 2,286 seat West End theatre located off Oxford Street in the City of Westminster. From the roster of stars who have played there and many televised performances, it is arguably the most famous theatre in London and the United Kingdom, especially for musical variety shows.
Walter Gibbons, an early moving pictures manager, built the Palladium in 1910 to compete with Edward Moss's London Hippodrome and Oswald Stoll's London Coliseum. The facade (originally that of Argyll House, which is why the pub opposite is called The Argyll Arms) dates back to the 19th century. Formerly it was a temporary wooden building called Corinthian Bazaar, which featured an aviary and aimed to attract customers from the recently closed Pantheon Bazaar (now Marks and Spencers) on Oxford Street. The theatre was rebuilt a year later by Fredrick Hengler, the son of a tightrope walker, as a circus venue that included an aquatic display in a flooded ring. Next it became the National Skating Palace - a skating rink with real ice. However the rink failed and the Palladium was redesigned by Frank Matcham, a famous theatrical architect who also designed the Coliseum, for a site that previously housed Hengler’s Circus. The building now carries Heritage Foundation commemorative plaques honouring Lew Grade and Frankie Vaughan.
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Mississippi
Mississippi (i/ˌmɪsɨˈsɪpi/) is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi ("Great River"). Mississippi is the 32nd most extensive and the 31st most populous of the 50 United States. The state is heavily forested outside of the Mississippi Delta area, which was cleared for cotton cultivation in the 19th century. Today, its catfish aquaculture farms produce the majority of farm-raised catfish consumed in the United States. The state symbol is the magnolia grandiflora tree.
Mississippi is bordered on the north by Tennessee, on the east by Alabama, on the south by Louisiana and a narrow coast on the Gulf of Mexico and on the west, across the Mississippi River, by Louisiana and Arkansas.
In addition to its namesake, major rivers in Mississippi include the Big Black River, the Pearl River, the Yazoo River, the Pascagoula River, and the Tombigbee River. Major lakes include Ross Barnett Reservoir, Arkabutla Lake, Sardis Lake and Grenada Lake. The largest lake in Mississippi is Grenada Lake.
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New Jersey
New Jersey (i/nuː ˈdʒɜrzi/) is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the U.S. state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania, and on the southwest by Delaware. New Jersey is the 4th least extensive, but the 11th most populous and the most densely populated of the 50 United States. New Jersey lies mostly within the sprawling metropolitan areas of New York City and Philadelphia. It is also the third wealthiest by 2009–2010 median household income.
The area was inhabited by Native Americans for more than 2,800 years, with historical tribes such as the Lenape along the coast. In the early 17th century, the Dutch and the Swedes made the first European settlements. The British later seized control of the region, naming it the Province of New Jersey. It was granted as a colony to Sir George Carteret and John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton. At this time, it was named after the largest of the British Channel Islands, Jersey, Carteret's birthplace. New Jersey was the site of several decisive battles during the American Revolutionary War.
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RCA Studio B
RCA Studio B is a noted recording studio in Nashville, Tennessee. Situated at 1611 Roy Acuff Place and originally known simply as RCA Studios, it became famous in the 1960s for being a part of what many refer to as the Nashville Sound. A sophisticated style characterized by background vocals and strings, the Nashville Sound both revived the popularity of country music and helped establish Nashville, Tennessee as an international recording center.
Built by Dan Maddox in 1956, it was constructed at the request of Chet Atkins and Steve Sholes to facilitate the needs of RCA Victor Records and other record labels. According to Chet Atkins, the plans for the studio were drawn up on a napkin by Bill Miltenburg, RCA's chief engineer and recording manager.
Construction took four months, and the studio was opened at the cost of $37,515. The recording studio is a single-story building with offices occupying the front but the area of the studio and control room has a second story that contains an echo chamber. The studio itself measures 42.5' by 27' by 13'. In 1960 and 1961 an addition was built to provide office space and rooms for tape mastering and a lacquer mastering lab. A larger studio was built on 17th avenue in 1964 that became known as Studio A; the existing studio was referred to as Studio B from that point on.
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San Diego
San Diego /ˌsæn diːˈeɪɡoʊ/ is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round climate, natural deep-water harbor, extensive beaches, long association with the U.S. Navy, and recent emergence as a healthcare and biotechnology enclave. The population was 1,301,617 at the 2010 census.
Historically home to the Kumeyaay people, San Diego was the first site visited by Europeans on what is now the West Coast of the United States. Upon landing in San Diego Bay in 1542, Juan Cabrillo claimed the entire area for Spain, forming the basis for the settlement of Alta California 200 years later. The Presidio and Mission of San Diego, founded in 1769, were the first European settlement in what is now California. In 1821, San Diego became part of newly independent Mexico, and in 1850, became part of the United States following the Mexican-American War and the admission of California to the union.
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Tennessee
Tennessee (i/tɛnɨˈsiː/) (Cherokee: ᏔᎾᏏ) is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. Tennessee is the 36th most extensive and the 17th most populous of the 50 United States. Tennessee is bordered by Kentucky and Virginia to the north, North Carolina to the east, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi to the south, and Arkansas and Missouri to the west. The Appalachian Mountains dominate the eastern part of the state, and the Mississippi River forms the state's western border. Tennessee's capital and second largest city is Nashville, which has a population of 626,144.Memphis is the state's largest city, with a population of 670,902.
The state of Tennessee is rooted in the Watauga Association, a 1772 frontier pact generally regarded as the first constitutional government west of the Appalachians. What is now Tennessee was initially part of North Carolina, and later part of the Southwest Territory. Tennessee was admitted to the Union as the 16th state on June 1, 1796. Tennessee was the last state to leave the Union and join the Confederacy at the outbreak of the U.S. Civil War in 1861, and the first state to be readmitted to the Union at the end of the war.
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Villanova University
Villanova University is a private university located in Radnor Township, a suburb northwest of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. Named for Saint Thomas of Villanova, the school is the oldest Catholic university in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Founded in 1842 by the Order of Saint Augustine, the university traces its roots to old Saint Augustine's Church, Philadelphia, which the Augustinian friars founded in 1796, and to its parish school, Saint Augustine's Academy, which was established in 1811.
In October 1841, two Augustinian friars from Saint Augustine's Church in Philadelphia purchased the 200-acre (0.81 km2) "Belle Air" estate in Radnor Township with the intention of starting a school. The school, which was called the "Augustinian College of Vilanova," opened in 1842. However, the Philadelphia Nativist Riots of 1844 that burned Saint Augustine's Church in Philadelphia caused financial difficulties for the Augustinians, and the college was closed in February 1845. The college reopened in 1846 and graduated its first class in 1847. In March 1848, the governor of Pennsylvania incorporated the school and gave it the power to grant degrees. In 1859, the first master's degree was conferred on a student. In 1857, the school closed again as the demand for priests in Philadelphia prevented adequate staffing, and the crisis of the Panic of 1857 strained the school financially. The school remained closed throughout the Civil War and reopened in September 1865; since then it has operated continuously.
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Viva Elvis
Viva Elvis is the seventh resident Cirque du Soleil show on the Las Vegas Strip. It resides at the Aria Resort & Casino and premiered on February 19, 2010. Cirque du Soleil partnered with Elvis Presley Enterprises to produce this show, similar to how they partnered with The Beatles' Apple Corps Ltd to produce the resident show Love at the Mirage.
CKX, Inc., the company that owns the rights to Elvis Presley's name, likeness, and music publishing, signed an agreement to have Cirque create the Elvis-themed residency show. The gala premiere was originally scheduled for January 2010 on what would have been Elvis' 75th birthday, but was postponed until February 19, 2010. The Elvis Presley Projects will include additional touring and its multimedia presentations, along with "Elvis Experiences" (interactive multimedia exhibits).
Due to low attendance records for Viva Elvis, MGM Resorts has asked Cirque to replace the show. The show will end its run in August, 2012. On March 7, 2012, Cirque du Soleil announced that following its second Radio City Music Hall engagement, Zarkana would replace Viva La Elvis at the Aria Resort & Casino. Previews begin on October 25 for a November 8, 2012 opening.
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African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans or Afro-Americans, and formerly as American Negroes) are citizens or residents of the United States that have ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa.
African Americans make up the single largest racial minority in the United States. Most African Americans are of West and Central African descent and are descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States. However, some immigrants from African, Caribbean, Central American or South American nations, or their descendants, may be identified or self-identify with the term.
African-American history starts in the 16th century with African slaves who quickly rose up against the Spanish explorer Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón and progresses to the present day, with Barack Obama as the 44th and current President of the United States. Between those landmarks there have been events and issues, both resolved and ongoing, including slavery, racism, Reconstruction, development of the African-American community, participation in the great military conflicts of the United States, racial segregation, and the Civil Rights Movement.
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Al Green
Albert Greene (born April 13, 1946), better known as Al Green, is an American gospel and soul music singer. He reached the peak of his popularity in the 1970s, with hit singles such as "You Oughta Be With Me", "I'm Still In Love With You", "Love and Happiness", and "Let's Stay Together". In 2005, Rolling Stone named him #66 in their list of the '100 Greatest Artists of All Time'. The nomination stated that "people are born to do certain things, and Al was born to make us smile." The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Green in 1995, referring to him as "one of the most gifted purveyors of soul music." Green has sold more than 20 million records.
Green was born in Forrest City, Arkansas. He was the sixth of ten children born to Robert and Cora Greene. The son of a sharecropper, he started performing at age ten in a Forrest City quartet called the Greene Brothers; he dropped the final "E" from his last name years later as a solo artist. They toured extensively in the mid-1950s in the South until the Greenes moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, when they began to tour around Michigan. His father kicked him out of the group because he caught Green listening to Jackie Wilson.
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Al Martino
Al Martino (born Jasper Cini, October 7, 1927 – October 13, 2009) was an American singer and actor. He had his greatest success as a singer between the early 1950s and mid 1970s, being described as "one of the great Italian American pop crooners", and also became well known as an actor, particularly for his role as singer Johnny Fontane in The Godfather.
Jasper "Al" Cini was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The name Jasper was an anglicisation of his father's name, Gasparino. His parents were immigrants from Abruzzo, Italy, who ran a construction business, and while growing up he worked alongside his brothers as a bricklayer. However, he was inspired to become a singer by emulating artists such as Al Jolson and Perry Como, and by the success of a family friend, Alfredo Cocozza, who had changed his name to Mario Lanza. After serving with the United States Navy in World War II, including being a part of the Iwo Jima invasion where he was wounded, Cini began his singing career. Encouraged by Lanza, he adopted the stage name Al Martino - Martino being the name of his mother's father - and began singing in local nightclubs. In 1948 he moved to New York City, and in 1952 won first place on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts television program with a performance of Como's hit "If".
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Albert Goldman
Albert Harry Goldman (April 15, 1927 – March 28, 1994) was an American professor and author.
Born in Dormont, Pennsylvania, Albert Goldman wrote about the culture and personalities of the American music industry both in books and as a contributor to magazines. He is best known for his bestselling book on Lenny Bruce and his controversial biographies of Elvis Presley and John Lennon.
Goldman's Ph.D was on Thomas de Quincey. Goldman argued that de Quincey had plagiarized most of his acclaimed journalism from lesser-known writers. Goldman's thesis was published in 1965.
Goldman's breakthrough bestseller, Ladies and Gentlemen - Lenny Bruce!!! won praise from the likes of Norman Mailer and Pauline Kael, who called the book "brilliant." The book was largely positive in its appraisal of Bruce's talent, though it was attacked by many of Bruce's friends for allegedly distorting his character and for claims that Bruce had had homosexual experiences. Goldman had done legal work for Bruce before the latter's death.
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Arthur Crudup
Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup (August 24, 1905 – March 28, 1974) was an American Delta blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known outside blues circles for writing songs such as "That's All Right" (1946), "My Baby Left Me" and "So Glad You're Mine", later covered by Elvis Presley and dozens of other artists.
Arthur Crudup was born in Forest, Mississippi, United States. For a time he lived and worked throughout the South and Midwest as a migrant worker. He and his family returned to Mississippi in 1926. He sang gospel, then began his career as a blues singer around Clarksdale, Mississippi. As a member of the Harmonizing Four he visited Chicago in 1939. Crudup stayed in Chicago to work as a solo musician, but barely made a living as a street singer. Record producer Lester Melrose allegedly found him while he was living in a packing crate, introduced him to Tampa Red and signed him to a recording contract with RCA Victor's Bluebird label.
He recorded with RCA in the late 1940s and with Ace Records, Checker Records and Trumpet Records in the early 1950s and toured throughout the country, specifically black establishments in the South, with Sonny Boy Williamson II and Elmore James (around 1948). He also recorded under the names Elmer James and Percy Lee Crudup. He was popular in the South with records such as "Mean Old 'Frisco Blues", "Who's Been Foolin' You" and "That's All Right".
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Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand (/ˈstraɪsænd/; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress, writer, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, five Emmy Awards including one Daytime Emmy, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award.
She is one of the most commercially and critically successful entertainers in modern entertainment history, with more than 71.5 million albums shipped in the United States and 140 million albums sold worldwide. She is the best-selling female artist on the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) Top Selling Artists list, the only female recording artist in the top ten, and the only artist outside of the rock and roll genre. Along with Frank Sinatra, Cher, and Shirley Jones, she shares the distinction of being awarded an acting Oscar and also recording a number-one single on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart.
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Big Mama Thornton
Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton (December 11, 1926 – July 25, 1984) was an American rhythm and blues singer and songwriter. She was the first to record the hit song "Hound Dog" in 1952. The song was #1 on the Billboard R&B charts for seven weeks in 1953. The B-side was "They Call Me Big Mama," and the single sold almost two million copies. Three years later, Elvis Presley recorded his version, based on a version performed by Freddie Bell and the Bellboys. In a similar occurrence, she wrote and recorded "Ball 'n' Chain," which became a hit for her.Janis Joplin later recorded "Ball and Chain," and was a huge success in the late 1960s.
Thornton was born in Montgomery, Alabama, United States. Her introduction to music started in a Baptist church, where her father was a minister and her mother a church singer. She and her six siblings began to sing at very early ages. Thornton left Montgomery at age 14 in 1941, following her mother's death. She joined Sammy Green's Georgia-based Hot Harlem Revue. Her seven-year tenure with them gave her valuable singing and stage experience, and enabled her[vague] to tour the South. In 1948, she settled in Houston, Texas, where she hoped to further her career as a singer She was also a self-taught drummer and harmonica player, and frequently played each instrument onstage.
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Bill Black
William Patton "Bill" Black, Jr. (September 17, 1926 – October 21, 1965) was an American musician who is noted as one of the pioneers of rockabilly music. Black was the bassist in Elvis Presley's early trio and the leader of Bill Black's Combo.
Black was born in Memphis, Tennessee, to a motorman for the Memphis Street Railway. He was the oldest of nine children His father played popular songs on the banjo and fiddle to entertain the family. Black learned to play music at the age of 14 on an instrument made by his father—a cigar box with a board nailed to it and strings attached. At the age of sixteen, Black was performing "honky-tonk" music on acoustic guitar in local bars.
During World War II, Black was stationed with the U.S. Army at Fort Lee in Virginia. While in the Army, he met Evelyn, who played guitar as the member of a musical family. They married in 1946 and returned to Memphis. Black worked at the Firestone plant.
Black began playing the upright bass fiddle. He modeled his "slap bass" technique after one of his idols, Fred Maddox of Maddox Brothers and Rose. Black also developed a "stage clown" persona in the same way that Maddox entertained audiences. Black performed as an exaggerated hillbilly with blacked-out teeth, straw hat and overalls. According to his son, Black said his goal was always to give his audience "a few moments of entertainment and maybe a little bit of humor that'll tickle 'em for a while."
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Bill Haley
William John Clifton "Bill" Haley (
/ˈheɪliː/; July 6, 1925 – February 9, 1981) was one of the first American rock and roll musicians. He is credited by many with first popularizing this form of music in the early 1950s with his group Bill Haley & His Comets (inspired by Halley's Comet) and million selling hits such as, "Rock Around the Clock", "See You Later Aligator", and "Shake Rattle and Roll". He has sold over 100 million records worldwide.
Bill Haley was born in Highland Park, Michigan as William John Clifton Haley. Because of the effects of the Great Depression on the Detroit area, his father moved the family to Boothwyn, Pennsylvania, near the town of Chester, when Bill was seven years old. Haley's father William Albert Haley was from Kentucky and played the banjo and mandolin, his mother Maude Green originally from Ulverston in England was a technically accomplished keyboardist with classical training. Haley told the story that when he made a simulated guitar out of cardboard, his parents bought him a real one.
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Bill Monroe
William Smith Monroe (September 13, 1911 – September 9, 1996) was an American musician who created the style of music known as bluegrass, which takes its name from his band, the "Blue Grass Boys," named for Monroe's home state of Kentucky. Monroe's performing career spanned 60 years as a singer, instrumentalist, composer and bandleader. He is often referred to as The Father of Bluegrass.
Monroe was born on his family's farm near Rosine, Kentucky, the youngest of eight children of James Buchanan "Buck" and Malissa (Vandiver) Monroe. His mother and her brother, Pendleton "Pen" Vandiver, were both musically talented, and Monroe and his family grew up playing and singing at home. Bill was of Scottish heritage. Because his older brothers Birch and Charlie already played the fiddle and guitar, Bill Monroe was resigned to playing the less desirable mandolin. He recalled that his brothers insisted he remove four of the mandolin's eight strings so he would not play too loudly.
Monroe's mother died when he was ten, followed by his father six years later. As his brothers and sisters had moved away, after bouncing among uncles and aunts, Monroe settled in with his disabled uncle Pendleton Vandiver, often accompanying him when Vandiver played the fiddle at dances. This experience inspired one of Monroe's most famous compositions, "Uncle Pen," recorded in 1950, and the 1972 album, "Bill Monroe's Uncle Pen." On that album, Monroe recorded a number of traditional fiddle tunes he had often heard performed by Vandiver. Uncle Pen has been credited with giving Monroe "a repertoire of tunes that sank into Bill's aurally trained memory and a sense of rhythm that seeped into his bones." Also significant in Monroe's musical life was Arnold Shultz, an influential fiddler and guitarist who introduced Monroe to the blues.
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Bo Diddley
Ellas Otha Bates (December 30, 1928 – June 2, 2008), known by his stage name Bo Diddley, was an American rhythm and blues vocalist, guitarist, songwriter (usually as Ellas McDaniel), and rock and roll pioneer. He was also known as "The Originator" because of his key role in the transition from the blues to rock & roll, influencing a host of acts, including Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, The Velvet Underground, The Who, The Yardbirds, Eric Clapton,The Beatles, and George Michael, among others. He introduced more insistent, driving rhythms and a hard-edged electric guitar sound on a wide-ranging catalog of songs, along with African rhythms and a signature beat (a simple, five-accent rhythm) that remains a cornerstone of rock and pop. Accordingly, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation and a Grammy Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. He was known in particular for his technical innovations, including his trademark rectangular guitar.
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Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (
/ˈdɪlən/), born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941, is an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist. He has been an influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly reluctant figurehead of social unrest. A number of Dylan's early songs, such as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'", became anthems for the US civil rights and anti-war movements. Leaving his initial base in the culture of folk music behind, Dylan's six-minute single "Like a Rolling Stone" has been described as radically altering the parameters of popular music in 1965. However, his recordings employing electric instruments attracted denunciation and criticism from others in the folk movement.
Dylan's lyrics incorporated a variety of political, social, philosophical, and literary influences. They defied existing pop music conventions and appealed hugely to the then burgeoning counterculture. Initially inspired by the songs of Woody Guthrie,Robert Johnson, and Hank Williams, as well as the music and performance styles of Buddy Holly and Little Richard, Dylan has both amplified and personalized musical genres. His recording career, spanning fifty years, has explored numerous distinct traditions in American song—from folk, blues and country to gospel, rock and roll, and rockabilly to English, Scottish, and Irish folk music, embracing even jazz and swing.
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Bob Wills
James Robert Wills (March 6, 1905 – May 13, 1975), better known as Bob Wills, was an American Western swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader. Considered by music authorities as the co-founder of Western swing, he was universally known as the King of Western Swing.
Wills formed several bands and played radio stations around the South and West until he formed the Texas Playboys in 1934 with Wills on fiddle, Tommy Duncan on piano and vocals, rhythm guitarist June Whalin, tenor banjoist Johnnie Lee Wills, and Kermit Whalin, who played steel guitar and bass. The band played regularly on a Tulsa, Oklahoma radio station, and added Leon McAuliffe on steel guitar, pianist Al Stricklin, drummer Smokey Dacus, and a horn section that expanded the band's sound. Wills favored jazz-like arrangements and the band found national popularity into the 1940s with such hits as "Steel Guitar Rag", "New San Antonio Rose", "Smoke on the Water", "Stars and Stripes on Iwo Jima", and "New Spanish Two Step".
Wills and the Texas Playboys recorded with several publishers and companies, including Vocalion, Okeh, Columbia, and MGM, frequently moving. In 1950, he had two top ten hits, "Ida Red Likes the Boogie" and "Faded Love", which were his last hits for a decade. Throughout the 1950s, he struggled with poor health and tenuous finances, but continued to perform frequently despite the decline in popularity of his earlier music as rock and roll took over. Wills had a heart attack in 1962 and a second one the next year, which forced him to disband the Playboys although Wills continued to perform solo.
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Bobbie Ann Mason
Bobbie Ann Mason (born May 1, 1940) is an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and literary critic from Kentucky.
With four siblings Mason grew up on her family's dairy farm outside of Mayfield, Kentucky. As a child she loved to read, so her parents, Wilburn and Christina Mason, always made sure she had books. These books were mostly popular fiction about the Bobbsey Twins and the Nancy Drew mysteries. She would later write a book about these books that she loved to read as an adolescent titled The Girl Sleuth: A feminist guide to the Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew, and Their Sisters.
After high school, Mason went on to major in English at the University of Kentucky. After graduating in 1962, she took several jobs in New York City with various movie magazines, writing articles about various stars who were in the spotlight. She wrote about Annette Funicello, Troy Donahue, Fabian, and other teen stars. She earned her master’s degree at the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1966. Next she went to graduate school at the University of Connecticut, where she subsequently received her Ph.D. in literature with a dissertation on Vladimir Nabokov's Ada in 1972. Her dissertation was published in paperback form as Nabokov's Garden two years later.
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Book Elvis Presley
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Boots Randolph
Homer Louis "Boots" Randolph III (June 3, 1927 – July 3, 2007) was an American musician best known for his 1963 saxophone hit, "Yakety Sax" (Benny Hill's signature tune). Randolph was a major part of the "Nashville Sound" for most of his professional career.
Randolph was born in Paducah, Kentucky and raised in Cadiz, Kentucky, attending high school in Evansville, Indiana.
At the end of World War II, Boots Randolph played saxophone, trombone, and vibraphone in the United States Army Band. After his service in the Army, he played with Dink Welch's Kopy Kats in Decatur, Illinois from 1948-1954. He briefly resided in Louisville, Kentucky before returning to Decatur to start his own group. He left Decatur in 1957.
During his more than forty year career, Randolph performed in hundreds of venues alongside many artists in pop, rock, jazz, and country music. He played on many recording sessions with Elvis Presley and also performed on soundtracks for a number of Presley's motion pictures.
Mr. Randolph recorded for Monument Records in Nashville and played on Roy Orbison's 1963 hit, "Mean Woman Blues." He was also featured on "Little Queenie" by REO Speedwagon, "Java" by Al Hirt, "Turn On Your Lovelight" by Jerry Lee Lewis, and "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" by Brenda Lee. Early in his career, he often billed himself as Randy Randolph.
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Candice Bergen
Candice Patricia Bergen (born May 9, 1946) is an American actress and former fashion model.
She is known for starring in two TV series, as the title character on the situation comedy Murphy Brown (1988–1998), for which she won five Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards; and as Shirley Schmidt on the comedy-drama Boston Legal (2004–2008), for which she was nominated for two Emmys, a Golden Globe, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Her first film was The Group (1965), which was based on Mary McCarthy's novel of the same name. She starred in several major films throughout the mid 1960s to early 1980s such as The Sand Pebbles, Carnal Knowledge, The Wind and the Lion, and Gandhi and received an Academy Award nomination for her role in Starting Over. Her later career includes character roles in Miss Congeniality and Sweet Home Alabama.
Bergen was born in Beverly Hills, California. Her mother, Frances Bergen (née Westerman), was a Powers model who was known professionally as Frances Westcott. Her father, Edgar Bergen, was a ventriloquist, comedian, and actor. Her paternal grandparents were Swedish-born immigrants who anglicized their surname, which was originally Berggren. As a child, Candice was irritated at being referred to as Charlie McCarthy's little sister, Charlie McCarthy being her father's star dummy.
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Carl Perkins
Carl Lee Perkins (April 9, 1932 – January 19, 1998) was an American rockabilly musician who recorded most notably at Sun Records Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, beginning during 1954. His best known song is "Blue Suede Shoes".
According to Charlie Daniels, "Carl Perkins' songs personified the rockabilly era, and Carl Perkins' sound personifies the rockabilly sound more so than anybody involved in it, because he never changed." Perkins' songs were recorded by artists (and friends) as influential as Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and Johnny Cash, which further cemented his place in the history of popular music.
Called "the King of Rockabilly", he was inducted into the Rock and Roll, the Rockabilly, and the Nashville Songwriters Halls of Fame; and was a Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipient.
Perkins was the son of poor sharecroppers, Buck and Louise Perkins (misspelled on his birth certificate as "Perkings") near Tiptonville, Tennessee. He grew up hearing Southern gospel music sung by whites in church, and by black field workers when he started working in the cotton fields at age six. During spring and autumn, the school day would be followed by several hours of work in fields. During the summer, workdays were 12–14 hours, "from can to can't." Carl and his brother Jay together would earn 50 cents a day. With all family members working and not having any credit, there was enough money for beans and potatoes, some tobacco for Carl's father Buck, and occasionally the luxury of a five-cent bag of hard candy.
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Cassandra Peterson
Cassandra Peterson (born September 17, 1951) is an American actress best known for her on-screen horror hostess character Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. She gained fame on Los Angeles television station KHJ wearing a black, gothic, cleavage-enhancing gown as host of Movie Macabre, a weekly horror movie presentation. Her wickedly vampish appearance is offset by her comical character, quirky and quick-witted personality, and Valley girl-type speech.
Born in Manhattan, Kansas, Peterson grew up near Randolph, until the area was flooded to create Tuttle Creek Reservoir; her family then moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado. According to a 2011 interview, Peterson states that as a child, while other girls were occupied with Barbie dolls, she was more fascinated by horror-themed toys. During her teens, Peterson worked as a go-go dancer in a local gay bar.
She graduated from General William J. Palmer High School in 1969. Days after graduating, she drove to Las Vegas, Nevada, where she became a showgirl in "Viva Les Girls" at The Dunes, where she met Elvis Presley. She had a small role as a showgirl in the 1971 James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever, played a topless dancer in The Working Girls (1974), and purportedly posed for the cover of Tom Waits's 1976 album, Small Change. However, this story is apparently unverified as Peterson has since described it as "a giant mystery", claiming that while she has no memory of the event, the picture looks enough like her that she feels "pretty sure" that it is. She is a vegetarian and has appeared in a humorous Halloween-themed ad for PETA promoting a vegetarian diet.
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Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton (1 July 1899 – 15 December 1962) was an English-born American stage and film actor, screenwriter, producer and director.
Laughton was born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, the son of Robert Laughton and his wife Elizabeth (née Conlon), Yorkshire hotel keepers. His mother was a devout Roman Catholic of Irish descent. He attended Stonyhurst College, a Jesuit school, in Lancashire. He served during World War I (in which he was gassed) first with the 2/1st Battalion of the Huntingdonshire Cyclist Regiment and later with the 7th Battalion of the Northamptonshire Regiment.
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Chet Atkins
Chester Burton Atkins (June 20, 1924 – June 30, 2001), known as Chet Atkins, was an American guitarist and record producer who, along with Owen Bradley, created the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country's appeal to adult pop music fans as well.
Atkins's picking style, inspired by Merle Travis, Django Reinhardt, George Barnes and Les Paul, brought him admirers within and outside the country scene, both in the United States and internationally. Atkins produced records for The Browns, Porter Wagoner, Norma Jean, Dolly Parton, Dottie West, Perry Como, Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers, Eddy Arnold, Don Gibson, Jim Reeves, Jerry Reed, Skeeter Davis, Waylon Jennings and many others.
Among many honors, Atkins received 14 Grammy Awards as well as the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, nine Country Music Association Instrumentalist of the Year awards, and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
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Chips Moman
Lincoln Wayne "Chips" Moman (born, June 12, 1937 La Grange, Georgia, United States) is an American record producer, guitarist, and songwriter. As a record producer, Moman is known for recording Elvis Presley, Bobby Womack, Carla Thomas, and Merrilee Rush, as well as guiding the career of the Box Tops in Memphis, Tennessee during the 1960s. As a songwriter, he is responsible for standards associated with Aretha Franklin, James Carr, Waylon Jennings, and B. J. Thomas. He has been a session guitarist for Franklin and other musicians.
After moving to Memphis, Tennessee as a teenager, Moman played in the road bands of Johnny Burnette and Gene Vincent. Settling in Los Angeles, California, he played guitar on sessions recorded at the Gold Star Studios. Back in Memphis, he began an association with Satellite Records (later Stax Records), producing their first hit single, Carla Thomas's 1960 "Gee Whiz." He also produced the first single for the Stax subsidiary label Volt, "Burnt Biscuits" b/w "Raw Dough," by the Triumphs, whose members included future Al Green and drummer Howard Grimes. Leaving Stax in 1964 after a monetary dispute with label founder Jim Stewart, he began operating his own Memphis recording studio, American Sound Studio.
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Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry (born October 18, 1926) is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" (1955), "Roll Over Beethoven" (1956), "Rock and Roll Music" (1957) and "Johnny B. Goode" (1958), Chuck Berry refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive, with lyrics focusing on teen life and consumerism and utilizing guitar solos and showmanship that would be a major influence on subsequent rock music.
Born into a middle class family in St. Louis, Missouri, Berry had an interest in music from an early age and gave his first public performance at Sumner High School. While still a high school student he served a prison sentence for armed robbery between 1944 and 1947. On his release, Berry settled into married life and worked at an automobile assembly plant. By early 1953, influenced by the guitar riffs and showmanship techniques of blues player T-Bone Walker, he was performing in the evenings with the Johnnie Johnson Trio. His break came when he traveled to Chicago in May 1955, and met Muddy Waters, who suggested he contact Leonard Chess of Chess Records. With Chess he recorded "Maybellene"—Berry's adaptation of the country song "Ida Red"—which sold over a million copies, reaching No. 1 on Billboard's Rhythm and Blues chart. By the end of the 1950s, Berry was an established star with several hit records and film appearances to his name as well as a lucrative touring career. He had also established his own St. Louis-based nightclub, called Berry's Club Bandstand. But in January 1962, Berry was sentenced to three years in prison for offenses under the Mann Act—he had transported a 14-year-old girl across state lines.
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Cliff Richard
Sir Cliff Richard, OBE (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is a British pop singer, musician, performer, actor, and philanthropist. With his backing group The Shadows, Richard, originally positioned as a rebellious rock and roll singer in the style of Little Richard and Elvis Presley, dominated the British popular music scene in the pre-Beatles period of the late 1950s and early 1960s. His 1958 hit single "Move It" is often described as Britain's first authentic rock and roll song, and John Lennon once claimed that "before Cliff and the Shadows, there had been nothing worth listening to in British music." A conversion to Christianity and subsequent softening of his music later led to a more middle of the road pop image, sometimes venturing into gospel music.
Over a 53-year career, Richard has become a fixture of the British entertainment world, amassing many gold and platinum discs and awards, including three Brit awards and two Ivor Novello awards. He has had more than 130 singles, albums and EPs make the UK Top 20, more than any other artist and holds the record (with Elvis Presley) as the only act to make the UK singles charts in all of its first six decades (1950s–2000s). He has achieved 14 UK No. 1 singles (or 18, depending on the counting methodology) and is the only singer to have had a No. 1 single in the UK in six consecutive decades: the 1950s through to the 2000s (discounting digital downloads and counting only CDs, he had a UK No. 1 single in the 2000s). Richard is the biggest selling singles artist of all time in the UK, with total sales of over 21 million and has reportedly sold an estimated 250 million records worldwide.
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Colonel Tom Parker
Colonel Thomas Andrew "Tom" Parker (June 26, 1909 – January 21, 1997) born Andreas Cornelis ("Dries") van Kuijk, was a Dutch-born entertainment impresario known best as the manager of Elvis Presley. Parker's management of Presley defined the role of masterminding talent management, which involved every facet of his life and was seen as central to the astonishing success of Presley's career. "The Colonel" displayed a ruthless devotion to his client's interests and took far more than the traditional 10 percent of his earnings (reaching up to 50 percent by the end of Presley's life). Presley said of Parker: "I don't think I'd have ever been very big if it wasn't for him. He's a very smart man." For many years Parker falsely claimed to have been U.S.-born, but it eventually emerged that he was born in Breda, Netherlands.
Parker was born Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk in Breda, the Netherlands, the seventh of eleven children. As a boy, he worked as a barker at carnivals in his home town, learning many of the attributes that he would require in later life working in the entertainment industry.
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Connie Stevens
Connie Stevens (born August 8, 1938) is an American actress and singer, best known for her roles in the television series Hawaiian Eye and other TV and film work.
She was born Concetta Rosalie Ann Ingoglia in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Peter Ingoglia (known as musician Teddy Stevens) and singer Eleanor McGinley.
She adopted her father's stage name of Stevens as her own. Her parents were divorced and she lived with grandparents. and attended Catholic boarding schools. Actor John Megna was her half-brother. At the age of twelve, she witnessed a murder in Brooklyn and was sent to live in Boonville, Missouri, with family friends.
Coming from a musical family, she joined the singing group called The Fourmost, in which the other three vocalists — all males — went on to fame as The Lettermen. In 1953, Stevens moved to Los Angeles with her father. When she was 16, she replaced the alto in a singing group, The Three Debs. She enrolled at a professional school (Georgia Massey's School of Song and Dance in the San Fernando Valley), sang professionally and appeared in local repertory theater.
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Cybill Shepherd
Cybill Lynne Shepherd (born February 18, 1950) is an American actress, singer and former model. Her best known roles include starring as Jacy in The Last Picture Show, as Betsy in Taxi Driver, as Madeleine Spencer in Psych, as Maddie Hayes in Moonlighting, as Cybill Sheridan in Cybill, and as Phyllis Kroll in The L Word.
Shepherd was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the daughter of Patty (née Shobe), a homemaker, and William Jennings Shepherd, who managed a home appliance business. Named after her grandfather Cy and her father Bill, Shepherd won the 1966 "Miss Teenage Memphis" contest at age 16, and the 1968 "Model of the Year" contest at age 18, making her a fashion star of the 1960s, resulting in fashion modeling work through high school and after.
According to Shepherd's autobiography, it was a 1970 Glamour magazine cover that caught the eye of film director Peter Bogdanovich. His then-wife Polly Platt, claimed that it was she who upon seeing the cover in a check-out line in a Ralphs grocery store in southern California, said "That's Jacy," referring to the role Bogdanovich was casting — and ultimately offered to Shepherd — in The Last Picture Show (1971).
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Dave Marsh
Dave Marsh (born March 1, 1950, Detroit, Michigan) is an American music critic, author, editor and radio talk show host. He was a formative editor of Creem magazine, has written for various publications such as Newsday, The Village Voice, and Rolling Stone, and has published numerous books about music and musicians, mostly focused on rock music.
Marsh briefly attended Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.
In 1979, Marsh wrote a now-famous review in Rolling Stone of the album Jazz by Queen, in which he wrote, "Queen may be the first truly fascist rock band." (Rolling Stone, Feb. 8th 1979). Previously, he had described lead singer Freddie Mercury as possessing a merely "passable pop voice."
In his 1980 review on Bob Seger's album Against the Wind, Marsh stated, "I'd like to say that this is not only the worst record Bob Seger has ever made, but an absolutely cowardly one as well."
In the 1983 Rolling Stone Record Guide on Journey, Marsh wrote, "Journey was a dead end for San Francisco area rock." He awarded all of the band's albums the minimum possible score of 1/5 stars.
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Dewey Phillips
"Daddy-O" Dewey Phillips (May 13, 1926 – September 28, 1968) was one of rock 'n' roll's pioneering disk jockeys, along the lines of Cleveland's Alan Freed, before Freed came along.
Phillips spent his childhood in Adamsville, Tennessee, but he was born in Crump, Tennessee. He is buried there in the Crump Cemetery.
He started his radio career in 1949 on WHBQ/560 in Memphis, and was the city's leading radio personality for nine years and was the first to simulcast his "Red, Hot & Blue" show on radio and television.
Phillips' on-air persona was a speed-crazed hillbilly, with a frantic delivery and entertaining sense of humor. However, he also had a keen ear for music the listening public would enjoy, and he embraced both black and white music, which was abundant in post-World War II Memphis, a booming river city which attracted large numbers of rural blacks and whites (along with their musical traditions). He played a great deal of rhythm and blues, country music, boogie-woogie, and jazz as well as Sun Records artists. In July 1954, he was the first DJ to broadcast the young Elvis Presley's debut record, "That's All Right/Blue Moon Of Kentucky" (Sun 209), and got Presley to reveal his race in an interview by asking which high school the 19-year-old singer attended (knowing that, because of segregation, his audience would readily know what race attended which schools).
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Doc Pomus
Jerome Solon Felder, better known as Doc Pomus (June 27, 1925 - March 14, 1991), was an American blues singer and songwriter. He is best known as the lyricist of many rock and roll hits. Pomus was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the category of non-performer in 1992. He was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992. and the Blues Hall of Fame.
Born Jerome Solon Felder in 1925 in Brooklyn, New York, his parents were Jewish immigrants. Felder became a fan of the blues after hearing a Big Joe Turner record. Having had polio as a boy, he used crutches to walk. Later, due to post-polio syndrome, exacerbated by an accident, Felder eventually relied on a wheelchair.
His brother is New York attorney Raoul Felder.
Using the stage name "Doc Pomus," Felder began performing as a teenager, becoming a blues singer; his stage name wasn't inspired by anyone in particular, he just thought it sounded better for a blues singer than the name Jerry Felder did. Pomus stated that more often as not, he was the only Caucasian in the clubs, but that as both a Jew and a polio victim, he felt a special "underdog" kinship with African-Americans, while in turn the audiences both respected his courage and were impressed with his talent. Gigging at various clubs in and around New York City, Pomus often performed with the likes of Milt Jackson and King Curtis.
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Domenico Modugno
Domenico Modugno (9 January 1928 – 6 August 1994) was an Italian singer, songwriter, actor, and later in life, a member of the Italian Parliament. He is known for his 1958 international hit song "Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu (Volare)". He is considered the first Italian cantautore.
Modugno was born in Polignano a Mare, province of Bari (Puglia).
From a young age he wanted to become an actor and in 1951, after his military service, he enrolled in an acting school. While still studying he had a role in a cinematographic version of Filumena Marturano by Eduardo De Filippo as well as some other films.
In 1935 his father moved to San Pietro Vernotico, in the Province of Brindisi (where his parents are buried). Here Domenico attended primary school and learned San Piertro Vernotico's dialect, which belongs to the linguistic area of Lecce's dialect, which is similar to Sicilian. He attended secondary school in Lecce.
In 1957 his song "Lazzarella," sung by Aurelio Fierro, came second in the Festival della Canzone Napoletana, bringing him his first taste of popularity.
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Doris Day
Doris Day (born Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff, April 3, 1924) is an American actress, singer, and animal rights activist. With an entertainment career that spanned through almost 50 years, Day started her career as a big band singer in 1939, but only began to be noticed after her first hit recording, "Sentimental Journey", in 1945. After leaving the Les Brown & His Band of Renown to try a solo career, she started her long-lasting partnership with Columbia Records, which would remain her only recording label. The contract lasted from 1947 to 1967, and included more than 650 recordings, making Day one of the most popular and acclaimed singers of the 20th century. In 1948, after being persuaded by Sammy Cahn, Jule Styne and her agent at the time, Al Levy, she auditioned for Michael Curtiz, which led to her being cast in the female lead role in Romance on the High Seas.
With a legendary Hollywood "girl next door" image, and capable of delivering comedy and romance as well as heavy drama, she appeared in 39 films, released 29 albums, spent 460 weeks in the Top 40 charts and eventually became one of America's most beloved entertainers. She received an Academy Award nomination for her performance in Pillow Talk, won three Henrietta Awards (World Film Favorite), a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, Presidential Medal of Freedom, Legend Award from the Society of Singers, Los Angeles Film Critics Association's Career Achievement Award and, in 1989, received the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in motion pictures.
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Dorsey Burnette
Dorsey Burnette (December 28, 1932, Memphis, Tennessee - August 19, 1979, Canoga Park, California) was an early Rockabilly singer. With his younger brother, Johnny Burnette, and a friend named Paul Burlison, he was a founder member of The Rock and Roll Trio.
Dorsey Burnett was born on December 28, 1932 to Willie May and Dorsey Burnett Sr. in Memphis, Tennessee. The 'e' at the end of his surname was added later. His younger brother, John Joseph "Johnny" Burnett, was born on March 25, 1934. The family lived in a public housing project in the Lauderdale Courts area of Memphis, Tennessee.[citation needed]
Dorsey was a competent athlete with an interest in boxing. Both of the Burnette Brothers turned out to be successful amateur boxers, becoming local Golden Gloves champions. In 1949, Dorsey was introduced to another young boxing contender named Paul Burlison by his boxing teacher, Jimmy Denson and they were to become firm friends. Later, Burlison was introduced to Johnny Burnette and they also become firm friends. All three men had a mutual interest in music to which they had had an early introduction to music. Burlison had begun to receive guitar lessons when he was eight years old. In 1939, Dorsey Sr. gave his two sons a pair of Gene Autry guitars. According to most sources, each brothers immediately broke them over the other's head.[citation needed] Dorsey Sr. doggedly bought them two more guitars. Dorsey later recalled that their father had said, "Learn to play those guitars. You can be like those folks on the Grand Ole Opry if you want to ……." Dorsey said that "he learned the G, C and E chords and when the strings broke, he would use bailing wire".[citation needed]
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Ed Sullivan
Edward Vincent "Ed" Sullivan (September 28, 1901 – October 13, 1974) was an American entertainment writer and television host, best known as the presenter of the TV variety show The Ed Sullivan Show. The show was broadcast from 1948 to 1971 (a total of 23 years), which made it one of the longest-running variety shows in U.S. broadcast history.
In 1996, Ed Sullivan was ranked #50 on TV Guide's "50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time".
Sullivan was born in New York City, New York, the son of Elizabeth F. (née Smith) and Peter Arthur Sullivan, a customs house employee. He was of Irish descent. A former boxer, Sullivan began his media work as a newspaper sportswriter for The New York Evening Graphic. When Walter Winchell, one of the original gossip columnists and the most powerful entertainment reporter of his day, left the newspaper for the Hearst syndicate, Sullivan took over as theatre columnist. His theatre column was later carried in The New York Daily News. His column, 'Little Old New York', concentrated on Broadway shows and gossip, as Winchell's had and, like Winchell, he also did show business news broadcasts on radio. Again echoing Winchell, Sullivan took on yet another medium in 1933 by writing and starring in the film Mr. Broadway, which has him guiding the audience around New York nightspots to meet entertainers and celebrities. Sullivan soon became a powerful starmaker in the entertainment world himself, becoming one of Winchell's main rivals, setting the El Morocco nightclub in New York as his unofficial headquarters against Winchell's seat of power at the nearby Stork Club. Sullivan continued writing for The News throughout his broadcasting career and his popularity long outlived that of Winchell.
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Eddy Arnold
Richard Edward Arnold (May 15, 1918 – May 8, 2008), known professionally as Eddy Arnold, was an American country music singer who performed for six decades. He was a so-called Nashville sound (country/popular music) innovator of the late 1950s, and scored 147 songs on the Billboard country music charts, second only to George Jones. He sold more than 85 million records. A member of the Grand Ole Opry (beginning 1943) and the Country Music Hall of Fame (beginning 1966), Arnold ranked 22nd on Country Music Television's 2003 list of "The 40 Greatest Men of Country Music." He co-wrote the country and pop standard "You Don't Know Me".
Arnold was born on May 15, 1918 on a farm near Henderson, Tennessee. His father, a sharecropper, played the fiddle, while his mother played guitar. As a boy Arnold helped on the farm, which later gained him his nickname—the Tennessee Plowboy. Arnold attended Pinson High School in Pinson, Tennessee, where he played guitar for school functions and events. He quit before graduation to help with the farm work, but continued performing, often arriving on a mule with his guitar hung on his back. Arnold also worked part time as an assistant at a mortuary.
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Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King".
Born in Tupelo, Mississippi, Presley moved to Memphis, Tennessee, with his family at the age of 13. He began his career there in 1954, working with Sun Records owner Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African American music to a wider audience. Accompanied by guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, Presley was the most important popularizer of rockabilly, an uptempo, backbeat-driven fusion of country and rhythm and blues. RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, who would manage the singer for over two decades. Presley's first RCA single, "Heartbreak Hotel", released in January 1956, was a number one hit. He became the leading figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll with a series of network television appearances and chart-topping records. His energized interpretations of songs, many from African American sources, and his uninhibited performance style made him enormously popular—and controversial. In November 1956, he made his film debut in Love Me Tender.
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Ernest Tubb
Ernest Dale Tubb (February 9, 1914 – September 6, 1984), nicknamed the Texas Troubadour, was an American singer and songwriter and one of the pioneers of country music. His biggest career hit song, "Walking the Floor Over You" (1941), marked the rise of the honky tonk style of music. In 1948, he was the first singer to record a hit version of "Blue Christmas", a song more commonly associated with Elvis Presley and his mid-1950s version. Another well-known Tubb hit was "Waltz Across Texas" (1965), which became one of his most requested songs and is often used in dance halls throughout Texas during waltz lessons. Tubb recorded duets with the then up-and-coming Loretta Lynn in the early 1960s, including their hit "Sweet Thang". Tubb is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Tubb was born on a cotton farm near Crisp, in Ellis County, Texas (now a ghost town). His father was a sharecropper, so Tubb spent his youth working on farms throughout the state. He was inspired by Jimmie Rodgers and spent his spare time learning to sing, yodel, and play the guitar. At age 19 he took a job as a singer on San Antonio radio station KONO-AM. The pay was low so Tubb also dug ditches for the Works Progress Administration and then clerked at a drug store. In 1939 he moved to San Angelo, Texas and was hired to do a 15-minute afternoon live show on radio station KGKL-AM. He drove a beer delivery truck in order to support himself during this time, and during World War II he wrote and recorded a song titled "Beautiful San Angelo".
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Fats Domino
Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino Jr. (born February 26, 1928) is an American R&B and rock and roll pianist and singer-songwriter. He was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. Domino was French Creole and Creole was his first language. Domino was delivered at home by his midwife grandmother who was born into enslavement in 1857. Like most families in the Lower Ninth Ward, Domino's family were new arrivals from the sugar and cotton plantations. His father was a well known violinist, and Domino was inspired to play himself. He eventually learned from his Uncle, jazz guitarist Harrison Verrett. Fats released five Gold (million selling) records before 1955. Domino also had 35 Top 40 American Hits and has a music style based on traditional R&B ensembles or Bass, Piano, Electric Guitar, Drums, and Saxophone.
Domino first attracted national attention with "The Fat Man" in 1949 on Imperial Records. This song is an early rock and roll record, featuring a rolling piano and Domino doing "wah-wah" vocalizing over a strong back beat. "The Fat Man" sold one million copies by 1953. Fats Domino released a series of hit songs with producer and co-writer Dave Bartholomew, saxophonists Herbert Hardesty and Alvin "Red" Tyler and drummer Earl Palmer. Other notable and long-standing musicians in Domino's band were saxophonists Reggie Houston, Lee Allen, and Fred Kemp, Domino's trusted bandleader. Domino finally crossed into the pop mainstream with "Ain't That A Shame" (1955), which hit the Top Ten, though Pat Boone characteristically hit #1 with a milder cover of the song that received wider radio airplay in a racially-segregated era. Domino eventually had 37 Top 40 singles.
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Floyd Cramer
Floyd Cramer (October 27, 1933 – December 31, 1997) was an American Hall of Fame pianist who was one of the architects of the "Nashville sound". He was known for his "slip note" piano style, where an out-of-key note slides into the correct note.
Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, Cramer grew up in the small town of Huttig, Arkansas, teaching himself to play the piano. After finishing high school, he returned to Shreveport, where he worked as a pianist for the Louisiana Hayride radio show.
In 1953, he cut his first single, "Dancin' Diane", backed with "Little Brown Jug", for the local Abbott label. He then toured with an emerging talent who would later figure significantly in his career, Elvis Presley.
Cramer moved to Nashville in 1955 where the use of piano accompanists in country music was growing in popularity. By the next year he was, in his words, "in day and night doing sessions.” Before long, he was one of the busiest studio musicians in the industry, playing piano for stars such as Elvis Presley, Brenda Lee, Patsy Cline, The Browns, Jim Reeves, Eddy Arnold, Roy Orbison, Don Gibson, and the Everly Brothers, among others. It was Cramer's piano playing, for instance, on Presley's first national hit, "Heartbreak Hotel". However, Cramer remained strictly a session player, a virtual unknown to anyone outside the music industry.
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Francis Craig
Francis Craig (1900 – 1966) was a songwriter and leader of a Nashville dance band. His works included "Dynamite" and "Near You".
"Dynamite!" now the official fight song of Vanderbilt University, was written by Craig in 1922, when Craig was an undergraduate student at the University. It is played mainly at football games, basketball games, and at other Commodore sports events.
His own recording of "Near You" was released by Bullet Records as catalog number 1001. It first reached the Billboard Best Seller chart on August 30, 1947, and lasted 21 weeks on the chart, peaking at #1. It held the number one spot for 17 straight weeks, which makes it the "Chart Champ", having been number one for the longest period of time. (Beating "White Christmas" which was number one for 11 weeks in a row, and then 4 more weeks for a total of 15 weeks.) Various recordings by other persons have followed.
Other works included "Beg Your Pardon" with Beasley Smith.
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Frank Ifield
Francis Edward Ifield (born 30 November 1937) is an early Australian-English easy listening and country music singer. He achieved considerable success in the early 1960s, especially in the UK Singles Chart, where he had four Number 1 hits between 1962 and 1963.
Born in Coundon, Coventry, Warwickshire, England, Ifield moved with his Australian parents to Dural, 50 km (31 mi) from Sydney, about 1946. It was a rural district and he listened to hillbilly music (now called country) while milking the cows. He learned how to yodel in imitation of country stars like Hank Snow. At the age of thirteen he recorded "Did You See My Daddy Over There?", and by the age of 19 was the number one recording star in Australia and New Zealand.[citation needed] He returned to the UK in 1959.
His first record in the UK was "Lucky Devil" (1960) which got to number 22 in the UK charts. His next six records were less successful, but he finally broke through with "I Remember You" which topped the charts for seven weeks in 1962. Known for Ifield's falsetto and a slight yodel, it was the second highest-selling single of that year in the UK and became the seventh million-selling single.
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Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra, /sɨˈnɑːtrə/, (December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and film actor.
Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the "bobby soxers", he released his first album, The Voice of Frank Sinatra in 1946. His professional career had stalled by the 1950s, but it was reborn in 1953 after he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in From Here to Eternity.
He signed with Capitol Records in 1953 and released several critically lauded albums (such as In the Wee Small Hours, Songs for Swingin' Lovers, Come Fly with Me, Only the Lonely and Nice 'n' Easy). Sinatra left Capitol to found his own record label, Reprise Records in 1961 (finding success with albums such as Ring-a-Ding-Ding!, Sinatra at the Sands and Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim), toured internationally, was a founding member of the Rat Pack and fraternized with celebrities and statesmen, including John F. Kennedy. Sinatra turned 50 in 1965, recorded the retrospective September of My Years, starred in the Emmy-winning television special Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music, and scored hits with "Strangers in the Night" and "My Way".
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Frankie Laine
Frankie Laine, born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio (March 30, 1913 - February 6, 2007), was a successful American singer, songwriter, and actor whose career spanned 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to his final performance of "That's My Desire" in 2005. Often billed as America's Number One Song Stylist, his other nicknames include Mr. Rhythm, Old Leather Lungs, and Mr. Steel Tonsils. His hits included "That's My Desire," "That Lucky Old Sun," "Mule Train," "Cry of the Wild Goose," "Jezebel," "High Noon," "I Believe," "Hey Joe!," "The Kid's Last Fight," "Cool Water," "Moonlight Gambler," "Love is a Golden Ring," "Rawhide," and "Lord, You Gave Me a Mountain."
He sang well-known theme songs for many movie Western soundtracks, including 3:10 To Yuma, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, and Blazing Saddles, although he was not a country & western singer. Laine sang an eclectic variety of song styles and genres, stretching from big band crooning to pop, western-themed songs, gospel, rock, folk, jazz, and blues. He did not sing the soundtrack song for High Noon, which was sung by Tex Ritter, but his own version (with somewhat altered lyrics, omitting the name of the antagonist, Frank Miller) was the one that became a bigger hit, nor did he sing the theme to another show he is commonly associated with—Champion the Wonder Horse (sung by Mike Stewart)—but released his own, subsequently more popular version.
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Freddy Bienstock
Freddy Bienstock (April 24, 1923 - September 20, 2009) was an American music publisher who built his career in music by being the person responsible for soliciting and selecting songs for Elvis Presley's early albums and films.
Bienstock was born to a Jewish family in Switzerland on April 24, 1923, and relocated to Vienna with his family when he was three-years old. After the Anschluss, He immigrated to the United States in 1938, just before the outbreak of World War II, with his brother Johnny Bienstock, who later founded Big Top Records. The family ended up settling in New York after his parents came to the U.S. in 1940.
After visiting a cousin, Jean Aberbach, who worked as an executive with Chappell Music at New York City's Brill Building, Bienstock found employment in the stock room there. He worked his way up to song plugger, offering sheet music for new songs to their prospective performers. He was hired in the 1950s by Hill & Range, a music publishing firm owned by his cousins Jean and Julian Aberbach that had long specialized in country music. There, Bienstock was given the task of finding songs for the company's most promising performer, Elvis Presley, supplying him with such songs by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller as "Don't" and "Jailhouse Rock", two of the King's earliest hit songs.
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George Melly
Alan George Heywood Melly (17 August 1926 – 5 July 2007) was an English jazz and blues singer, critic, writer and lecturer. From 1965 to 1973 he was a film and television critic for The Observer and lectured on art history, with an emphasis on surrealism.
He was born in Liverpool and was educated at Stowe school, where he discovered his interest in modern art, jazz and blues, and started coming to terms with his sexuality.
Melly once stated that he may have been drawn to surrealism by a particular experience he had during his teenage years. A frequent visitor to Liverpool's Sefton Park near his home, he often entered its tropical Palm House and there chatted to wounded soldiers from a nearby military hospital. It was the incongruity of this sight, men smoking among the exotic plants, dressed in their hospital uniforms and usually deficient a limb, that he felt he later recognised in the work of the Surrealists.
He joined the Royal Navy at the end of the Second World War because, as he quipped to the recruiting officer, the uniforms were 'so much nicer'. As he related in his autobiography, Rum, Bum and Concertina, he was crestfallen to discover that he would not be sent to a ship and was thus denied the "bell-bottom" uniform he desired. Instead he received desk duty and wore the other Navy uniform, described as "the dreaded fore-and-aft". Later, however, he did see ship duty. He never saw active combat, but was almost court-martialled for distributing anarchist literature.
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Germans
The Germans (Deutsche) are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages. Legally, Germans are citizens of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Of approximately 100 million native speakers of German in the world, about 66–75 million consider themselves Germans. There are an additional 80 million people of German ancestry mainly in the United States, Brazil, Canada, Argentina, France, Russia, Chile, Poland, Australia and Romania who most likely are not native speakers of German. Thus, the total number of Germans worldwide lies between 66 and 160 million, depending on the criteria applied (native speakers, single-ancestry ethnic Germans, partial German ancestry, etc.).
Today, peoples from countries with a German-speaking majority or significant German-speaking population groups other than Germany, such as Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg, have developed their own national identity and usually do not refer to themselves as "Germans" in a modern context.
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Ginger Alden
Ginger Alden (born November 13, 1956; Memphis, Tennessee) is an American actress/model who is best known as being the fiancée of Elvis Presley at the time of his death.
Alden first met Presley in 1961 through her father who had been Presley's induction officer when he joined the United States military in 1958. Her family had been invited to join Elvis at the fairgrounds for a night of fun. When she was 20 years old, she, her older sister Terry (then the current Miss Tennessee) and their older sister Rosemary were introduced to Presley once again. Presley asked Ginger Alden to marry him on January 26, 1977. Presley introduced Alden and her family often during their courtship and while on his tours and during his last CBS televised performance in 1977, Presley introduced her to a national audience and had planned to announce their engagement publicly on his upcoming tour in Memphis.
On August 16, 1977, Elvis, then aged 42, and Ginger came in from playing racquetball. Elvis went to go read a book in his bathroom. Ginger fell asleep and woke early that afternoon to find his lifeless body in the bathroom.
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Glenn Miller
Alton Glenn Miller (March 1, 1904 – missing in action December 15, 1944) was an American jazz musician (trombone), arranger, composer, and bandleader in the swing era. He was one of the best-selling recording artists from 1939 to 1943, leading one of the best known Big Bands. Miller's notable recordings include "In the Mood", "Moonlight Serenade", "Pennsylvania 6-5000", "Chattanooga Choo Choo", "A String of Pearls", "At Last", "(I've Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo", "American Patrol", "Tuxedo Junction", and "Little Brown Jug". While he was traveling to entertain U.S. troops in France during World War II, Glenn Miller disappeared in bad weather over the English Channel. The Glenn Miller Orchestra was re-formed after the war and continues to record and perform to this day.
Miller was born on a farm in Clarinda, Iowa, to Lewis Elmer Miller and Mattie Lou (née Cavender). He went to grade school in North Platte in western Nebraska. In 1915, Miller's family moved to Grant City, Missouri. Around this time, Miller had finally made enough money from milking cows to buy his first trombone and played in the town orchestra. In 1918, the Miller family moved again, this time to Fort Morgan, Colorado, where Miller went to high school. During his senior year, Miller became very interested in a new style of music called "dance band music." He was so taken with it that he formed his own band with some classmates. By the time Miller graduated from high school in 1921, he had decided he wanted to become a professional musician.
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Gordon Jenkins
Gordon Hill Jenkins (May 12, 1910 – May 1, 1984) was an American arranger, composer and pianist who was an influential figure in popular music in the 1940s and 1950s, renowned for his lush string arrangements. Jenkins worked with the Andrews Sisters, Johnny Cash, The Weavers, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Judy Garland, Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald, among other singers.
Jenkins was born in Webster Groves, Missouri. He began his career doing arrangements for a St. Louis radio station.[specify] He was then hired by Isham Jones, the director of a dance band known for its ensemble playing, and this gave Jenkins the opportunity to develop his skills in melodic scoring. He also conducted The Show Is On on Broadway. Jenkins married high school sweetheart Nancy Harkey in 1931 and had three children: Gordon Jr., Susan, and Page. In 1946, he divorced Harkey and married Beverly Mahr, one of the singers in his band. They had a son, Bruce.
After the Jones band broke up in 1936, Jenkins worked as a freelance arranger and songwriter, contributing to sessions by Isham Jones, Paul Whiteman, Benny Goodman, Andre Kostelanetz, Lennie Hayton, and others. In 1938, Jenkins moved to Hollywood and worked for Paramount Pictures and NBC, and then became Dick Haymes' arranger for four years. In 1944, Jenkins had a hit song with "San Fernando Valley".
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Greil Marcus
Greil Marcus (born June 19, 1945) is an American author, music journalist and cultural critic. He is notable for producing scholarly and literary essays that place rock music in a much broader framework of culture and politics than is customary in pop music journalism.
Marcus was born in San Francisco and earned an undergraduate degree in American Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, where he also did graduate work in political science. He has been a rock critic and columnist for Rolling Stone (where he was the first reviews editor, at $30 a week) and other publications, including Creem, The Village Voice, and Artforum. From 1983 to 1989, Marcus was on the Board of Directors for the National Book Critics Circle.
His 1975 book, Mystery Train, was notable for placing rock and roll within the context of American cultural archetypes, from Moby-Dick to The Great Gatsby to Stagger Lee. Marcus's "recognition of the unities in the American imagination that already exist" inspired countless rock scribes. On 30 August 2011, TIME magazine published a list of what they consider the 100 best non-fiction books since 1923, when the magazine was first published and included "Mystery Train" on the list, one of only five dealing with culture, and the only one dealing on the subject of American music.
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Hank Snow
Clarence Eugene "Hank" Snow (May 9, 1914 – December 20, 1999) was a Canadian-American country music artist. He charted more than 70 singles on the Billboard country charts from 1950 until 1980. This total includes the number 1 hits "I'm Moving On", "The Golden Rocket", "I Don't Hurt Anymore", "Let Me Go, Lover!", "I've Been Everywhere", and "Hello Love" as well as other top ten hits. He is a member of both the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame and the Music Hall of Fame.
Snow was born in Brooklyn, Queens County, Nova Scotia, Canada. He ran away from home to escape a brutal stepfather when he was 12 years old and joined a fishing boat as a cabin boy. When he was 14, he ordered his first guitar from an Eaton's department store catalogue for $5.95, and played his first show in a church basement in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia at age 16. He then sang in local clubs in and around Halifax. He married Minnie Blanche Aalders in 1935 and had one son, Rev. Jimmy Rodgers Snow.
A successful appearance on Halifax radio station CHNS led to Snow's audition with RCA Victor in Montreal, Quebec. In 1936, he signed with the label, staying for more than 45 years. A weekly CBC radio show brought him national recognition and, using the name, Hank, The Yodeling Ranger, and he began touring Canada until the late 1940s when American country music stations began playing his records.
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Hillbilly
Hillbilly is a term referring to certain people who dwell in rural, mountainous areas of the United States, primarily Appalachia but also the Ozarks. Owing to its strongly stereotypical connotations, the term is frequently considered derogatory, and so is usually offensive to those Americans of Appalachian heritage.
Origins of the term "hillbilly" are obscure. According to Anthony Harkins in Hillbilly: A Cultural History of an American Icon, the term first appeared in print in a 1900 New York Journal article, with the definition: "a Hill-Billie is a free and untrammeled white citizen of Alabama, who lives in the hills, has no means to speak of, dresses as he can, talks as he pleases, drinks whiskey when he gets it, and fires off his revolver as the fancy takes him."
The Appalachian region was largely settled in the 18th century by the Scotch-Irish, the majority of whom originated in the lowlands of Scotland. Harkins believes the most credible theory of the term's origin is that it derives from the linkage of two older Scottish expressions, "hill-folk" and "billie" which was a synonym for "fellow", similar to "guy" or "bloke".
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Howard Hughes
Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American business magnate, investor, aviator, engineer, film producer, director, and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest people in the world. He gained prominence from the late 1920s as a maverick film producer, making big-budget and often controversial films like The Racket (1928), Hell's Angels (1930), Scarface (1932), and The Outlaw (1943). Hughes was one of the most influential aviators in history; he set multiple world air-speed records, built the Hughes H-1 Racer and H-4 "Hercules" (better known to history as the "Spruce Goose" aircraft), and acquired and expanded Trans World Airlines which would later on merge with American Airlines. Hughes is also remembered for his eccentric behavior and reclusive lifestyle in later life, caused in part by a worsening obsessive–compulsive disorder and chronic pain. His legacy is maintained through the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Hughes' birthplace is recorded as either Humble or Houston, Texas. The date is also uncertain, though Hughes claimed his birthday was Christmas Eve. A 1941 affidavit birth certificate of Hughes signed by his aunt Annette Gano Lummis and Estelle Boughton Sharp states he was born on December 24, 1905, in Harris County, Texas. However, his baptismal record of October 7, 1906, in the parish register of St. John's Episcopal Church, in Keokuk, Iowa, has his birth listed as September 24, 1905, without reference to the place of birth.
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Hy Gardner
Hy Gardner (December 2, 1908 – June 17, 1989) was a columnist for the New York Herald Tribune, host of The Hy Gardner Show, and a regular panelist on the first incarnation of To Tell The Truth. In 1957 Gardner also appeared on the show made up as a clown along with guest challenger (famous clown) Paul Jung. Gardner also played himself in the 1963 movie, The Girl Hunters with writer/friend Mickey Spillane.
In the early 1950s, New York Herald Tribune entertainment reporter and syndicated columnist Hy Gardner began interviewing celebrities on the radio on his own show, "Hy Gardner Calling." Gardner's television interviews began in 1954 and continued until 1965. In 1953, Miss Marilyn Boshnick became Hy Gardner's secretary. They were married in 1958. At that time, Gardner was the interviewer of the guests on Spike Jones's short-lived Club Oasis comedy/variety show on NBC.
After split-screen interviews were replaced by in-studio interviews, the show was renamed the "Hy Gardner Show." The Herald Tribune folded in 1966, and Hy and Marilyn Gardner moved from New York City to Miami, Florida. The "Hy Gardner Show" continued on television, and "Celebrity Party" debuted on radio. Interviews continued until the mid-1980s. When Hy Gardner died in 1989, his obituary in The New York Times was headlined "Hy Gardner, 80, Gossip Columnist And a Celebrity in His Own Right."
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Ivory Joe Hunter
Ivory Joe Hunter (October 10, 1914 – November 8, 1974) was an American rhythm and blues singer, songwriter, and pianist. After a series of hits on the US R&B chart starting in the mid 1940s, he became more widely known for his hit recording, "Since I Met You Baby" (1956). He was billed as The Baron of the Boogie, and also known as The Happiest Man Alive. His musical output transgressed from R&B to blues, boogie-woogie, and country, and Hunter made a name in all of those genres. Uniquely, he was honored at the Monterey Jazz Festival and the Grand Ole Opry.
Hunter was born in Kirbyville, Texas, United States. Ivory Joe Hunter was his birthname, not a nickname nor a stage name. As a youngster, Hunter developed an early interest in music from his father, Dave Hunter, who played guitar, and his gospel-singing mother. He was a talented pianist by the age of 13, and as a teenager, Hunter made his first recording for Alan Lomax and the Library of Congress in 1933.
In the early 1940s, Hunter had his own radio show in Beaumont, Texas, on KFDM, where he eventually became program manager, and in 1942 he moved to Los Angeles, joining Johnny Moore's Three Blazers in the mid 1940s. When he wrote and recorded his first song, "Blues At Sunrise", with the Three Blazers for his own label, Ivory Records, it became a nationwide hit on the R&B chart in 1945.
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Jack Gould
Jack Gould (February 5, 1914, New York, New York – May 24, 1993, Berkeley, California) was an American journalist and critic, who wrote influential commentary about television.
Born in New York City, Gould became the chief television reporter and critic for The New York Times in 1948 after several years covering theater and radio for that paper. His columns and reviews (along with those of rival John Crosby of the New York Herald Tribune) were widely read by decision makers in the fledgling medium of television, and Gould had many professional and personal relationships/acquaintances with prominent industry figures such as Edward R. Murrow and Fred Friendly.
Gould did not hold back harsh criticism, even when The New York Times itself produced its own public affairs program in 1963. Gould was heavily critical, yet optimistic, on the potential power of the television medium as a force for social good.
Gould retired from the Times in 1972.
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Jackie Wilson
Jack Leroy "Jackie" Wilson, Jr. (June 9, 1934 – January 21, 1984) was an American singer and performer. Known as "Mr. Excitement", Wilson was important in the transition of rhythm and blues into soul. He was considered a master showman, one of the most dynamic and influential singers and performers in R&B and rock history. Gaining fame in his early years as a member of the R&B vocal group Billy Ward and His Dominoes, he went solo in 1957 and recorded over 50 hit singles that spanned R&B, pop, soul, doo-wop and easy listening. During a 1975 benefit concert, he collapsed on-stage from a heart attack and subsequently fell into a coma that persisted for nearly nine years until his death in 1984. By this time, he had become one of the most influential artists of his generation.
A two-time Grammy Hall of Fame Inductee, Jackie Wilson was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Jackie Wilson #69 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
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Jake Hess
Jake Hess (December 24, 1927 – January 4, 2004) was an American Grammy Award-winning southern gospel singer.
Hess was born Manchild Hess December 24, 1927, in Limestone County, Alabama. Later, when he registered with the draft board in Lincoln, Nebraska, he gave his name as "William Jesse Hess." In 1997, when Hess was preparing to get a passport to travel overseas, he discovered that his birth certificate actually read Manchild Hess. His son, Jake Jr., named his recording company Manchild Records in honor of his father. He died January 4, 2004 in Opelika, Alabama after suffering a heart attack December 14, 2003, just days after a performance in Atlanta, Georgia.
Hess' career started at the age of 16, when he joined the popular John Daniel Quartet, making his recorded debut on "Just a Prayer Away". After that, he sang with three of his brothers as the Hess Brothers Quartet. He also sang with the Sunny South Quartet and their rival, the Melody Masters Quartet. In the latter part of his life, Hess sang with The Old Friends Quartet which was featured on the Bill Gaither Homecoming videos.
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James Brown
James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of funk music and is a major figure of 20th century popular music and dance.
In a career that spanned decades, Brown profoundly influenced the development of many different musical genres. Brown moved on a continuum of blues and gospel-based forms and styles to a profoundly "Africanized" approach to music making. Brown performed in concerts, first making his rounds across the Chitlin' Circuit, and then across the country and later around the world, along with appearing in shows on television and in movies. Although he contributed much to the music world through his hitmaking, Brown holds the record as the artist who charted the most singles on the Billboard Hot 100 without ever hitting number one on that chart.
For many years, Brown's touring show was one of the most extravagant productions in American popular music. At the time of Brown's death, his band included three guitarists, two bass guitar players, two drummers, three horns and a percussionist. The bands that he maintained during the late 1960s and 1970s were of comparable size, and the bands also included a three-piece amplified string section that played during ballads. Brown employed between 40 and 50 people for the James Brown Revue, and members of the revue traveled with him in a bus to cities and towns all over the country, performing upwards of 330 shows a year with almost all of the shows as one-nighters. In 1986, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in 1990 into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
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James Burton
James Burton (born August 21, 1939, in Dubberly, Louisiana) is an American guitarist. A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since 2001 (his induction speech was given by longtime fan Keith Richards), Burton has also been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. Critic Mark Demming writes that "Burton has a well-deserved reputation as one of the finest guitar pickers in either country or rock ... [Burton is] one of the best guitar players to ever touch a fretboard."
James Burton is also known as the "Master of the (Fender) Telecaster."
Since the 1950s, Burton has recorded and performed with an array of notable singers, including Bob Luman, Dale Hawkins, Ricky Nelson, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Glen Campbell, John Denver, Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris, Jerry Lee Lewis, Claude King, Elvis Costello, Joe Osborn, Roy Orbison, Joni Mitchell, Vince Gill, Suzi Quatro and Allen "Puddler" Harris.
Burton was born in Dubberly in south Webster Parish near Minden, Louisiana, to Guy M. Burton (1909–2001) and the former Lola Poland (1914–2011), a native of rural Fryeburg in Bienville Parish. She was the daughter of James and Althius Poland. Burton's wife is Louise Burton. One of his sisters, Mary B. DeMoss, is deceased. His surviving siblings are Jim Burton and wife Amelia, Dorothy B. Martin, and Billie B. Pool.
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Jean Aberbach
Joachim "Jean" Aberbach (12 August 1910 - 24 May 1992) was an Austrian-born American music publisher. With his brother Julian, he was responsible for establishing Hill and Range as one of the leading music publishing houses, responsible for songs recorded by Elvis Presley and many others.
Aberbach was born in Bad Vöslau, the son of Anna and Aron Adolf Aberbach, who were Ukrainian Jews. His father ran a jewelry business. Jean left school at the age of 16 and after a family argument began working in Berlin for a music publisher, Will Meisel, before moving to Paris to work for another publisher there. His brother Julian joined him in Paris in 1932, and they established a music publishing business, which concentrated on securing royalties for movie screenwriters. After the brothers sold the business in 1936, Jean began working in the US as an agent for French music publisher Francis Salabert, while Julian remained in Paris.
After the war, he worked in New York for music publisher Max Dreyfus at publishers Chappell & Co., but in 1952, when Dreyfus tried to buy the company that Julian Aberbach had established in Los Angeles, Hill and Range, Jean decided to leave and join his brother's company. Hill and Range rapidly expanded, particularly through dominating the country music publishing business in Nashville. At one point, the company represented some three quarters of the music produced in Nashville. The two brothers shared responsibility for running the company, with Jean primarily based in New York and Julian in Los Angeles, although they frequently swapped roles. After 1955, the company had particular responsibility for the songs recorded by Elvis Presley, through an arrangement by which the company owned 50% of the rights.
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Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis (born September 29, 1935) is an American rock and roll and country music singer-songwriter and pianist. He is known by the nickname "The Killer". An early pioneer of rock and roll music, Lewis had hits in the late 1950s with songs such as "Great Balls of Fire", "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On", "Breathless" and "High School Confidential". However, Lewis' rock 'n' roll career faltered in the wake of his marriage to his young cousin. He had little success in the charts following the scandal until his popularity recovered in the late 1960s after he extended his career to country and western music with songs such as "Another Place, Another Time". More country hits soon followed over the late 1960s and through the 1970s. Lewis's successes continued throughout the decade and he embraced his rock 'n' roll past with songs such as a cover of the Big Bopper's "Chantilly Lace" and "Rockin' My Life Away". In the 21st century Lewis continues to tour to audiences around the world and still releases new albums. One such new album, titled Last Man Standing, is his best selling to date at over a million copies sold worldwide.
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Jerry Schilling
Jerry Schilling (born 6 February 1942 in Memphis, Tennessee) is a veteran music industry professional, best known for his association with Elvis Presley since 1954 (see Memphis Mafia). He briefly managed The Beach Boys and Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie.
They met on Sunday, July 11, 1954. Jerry was only 12 and was called out by Red West to join them in a football game Elvis was part of. Elvis was the quarterback and threw a pass at Jerry. Since it was such a good catch, Jerry was called back to play games every Sunday for a couple of years until Elvis was too busy travelling to be able to play. A couple of years later Jerry paid a visit to Elvis and re-started their friendship. Not so long after, Elvis asked Jerry to join his team of bodyguards, the so-called "Memphis Mafia", and he agreed. A couple of hours later they were getting ready to hit the road.
As their friendship grew, Elvis bought Jerry a house, in which he still lives today.
He co-edited "Elvis On Tour" with Martin Scorsese.
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Jim Morrison
James Douglas "Jim" Morrison (December 8, 1943 – July 3, 1971) was the lead singer and lyricist of the rock band The Doors, as well as a poet. Following The Doors' explosive rise to fame in 1967, Morrison developed a severe alcohol and drug dependency that culminated in his death at the age of 27 in Paris. He is presumed to have died from a heroin overdose, but as no autopsy was performed, the events surrounding his death and the exact cause of it continue to be disputed by many to this day.
Morrison was well known for often improvising spoken word poetry passages while the band played live. Due to his wild personality and performances, he is regarded by critics and fans as one of the most iconic, charismatic and pioneering frontmen in rock music history. Morrison was ranked number 47 on Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time", and number 22 on Classic Rock Magazine's "50 Greatest Singers In Rock".
James Douglas Morrison was born in Melbourne, Florida, to future Rear Admiral George Stephen Morrison and Clara Morrison. Morrison had a sister, Anne Robin, who was born in 1947 in Albuquerque, New Mexico; and a brother, Andrew Lee Morrison, who was born in 1948 in Los Altos, California. He was of Irish and Scottish descent.
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Jimmie Davis
James Houston "Jimmie" Davis (September 11, 1899 – November 5, 2000) was a noted singer of both sacred and popular songs who served two nonconsecutive terms as the Governor of Louisiana (1944–1948 and 1960–1964). Davis was a nationally popular country music and gospel singer from the 1930s into the 1960s, occasionally recording and performing as late as the early 1990s. He is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
Davis was born in 1899 to a sharecropping couple, the former Sarah Elizabeth Works and Samuel Jones Davis, in the now-ghost town of Beech Springs near Quitman in Jackson Parish. The family was so poor that young Jimmie did not have a bed in which to sleep until he was nine years old.
He graduated from Beech Springs High School and Soule Business College, New Orleans campus. The late U.S. Representative Otto Ernest Passman, a Louisiana Democrat, also graduated from Soule, but from the Bogalusa campus. Davis received his bachelor's degree in history from the Baptist-affiliated Louisiana College in Pineville. He received a master's degree from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Davis's 1927 master's thesis examines the intelligence levels of different races, and is titled Comparative Intelligence of Whites, Blacks and Mulattoes.
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Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States (1977–1981) and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office. Before he became President, Carter served as a U.S. Naval officer, was a peanut farmer, served two terms as a Georgia State Senator and one as Governor of Georgia (1971–1975).
During Carter's term as President, two new cabinet-level departments were created: the Department of Energy and the Department of Education. He established a national energy policy that included conservation, price control, and new technology. In foreign affairs, Carter pursued the Camp David Accords, the Panama Canal Treaties, the second round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT II), and returned the Panama Canal Zone to Panama. Throughout his career, Carter strongly emphasized human rights. He took office during a period of international stagflation, which persisted throughout his term. The end of his presidential tenure was marked by the 1979–1981 Iran hostage crisis, the 1979 energy crisis, the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (at the end of 1979), 1980 Summer Olympics boycott by the United States of the Moscow Olympics and the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.
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Jimmy Dorsey
James "Jimmy" Dorsey (February 29, 1904 – June 12, 1957) was a prominent American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, trumpeter, composer, and big band leader. He was known as "JD". He composed the jazz and pop standards "I'm Glad There Is You (In This World of Ordinary People)" and "It's The Dreamer In Me".
Jimmy Dorsey was born in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, the son of a music teacher and older brother of Tommy Dorsey who also became a prominent musician. He played trumpet in his youth, appearing on stage with J. Carson McGee's King Trumpeters in 1913. He switched to alto saxophone in 1915, and then learned to double on clarinet. Jimmy Dorsey played on a clarinet outfitted with the Albert system of fingering, as opposed to the more common Boehm system used by most of his contemporaries including Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw.
With his brother Tommy playing trombone, he formed Dorsey’s Novelty Six, one of the first jazz bands to broadcast. In 1924 he joined the California Ramblers (who were based in New York City). He did much free lance radio and recording work throughout the 1920s. The brothers also appeared as session musicians on many jazz recordings. He joined Ted Lewis's band in 1930, with whom he toured Europe.
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Joel Whitburn
Joel Carver Whitburn (born November 29, 1939; Wauwatosa, Wisconsin) is an American author and music historian.
Whitburn founded Record Research Inc. in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, in 1970, and put together a team of researchers to examine in detail all of Billboard's music and video charts. Record Research publishes reference books based on data from the various popular music charts and to date has published over 200 books, 50 of which are currently in the Record Research catalog. His flagship publication is Top Pop Singles which covers the history of Billboard's popular music charts. Featuring each recording's peak position, date charted, weeks charted, label and information, and trivia on recordings and artists, Whitburn's books are used extensively by the entertainment industry (especially radio DJs) and music fans worldwide. His research extends from 1890 to the present and covers many genres. Whitburn is also the author of the Top 40 Hits series of books published by Billboard Books.
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Johnny Burnette
John Joseph "Johnny" Burnette (March 25, 1934 – August 14, 1964) was an American rockabilly musician. Along with his older brother Dorsey Burnette and friend Paul Burlison, Burnette was a founding member of The Rock and Roll Trio. He was the father of 1980s rockabilly singer Rocky Burnette.
Johnny Burnette was born to Willie May and Dorsey Burnett Sr. in Memphis, Tennessee. (The ‘e’ at the end of the name was added later.) Johnny grew up with his parents and Dorsey in a public housing project in the Lauderdale Courts area of Memphis, which from 1948 until 1954 was also the home of Gladys and Vernon Presley and their son Elvis.
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Johnny Cash
John R. "Johnny" Cash (February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003), was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. Although he is primarily remembered as a country music icon, his songs and sound spanned many other genres including rockabilly and rock and roll—especially early in his career—as well as blues, folk, and gospel. This crossover appeal led to Cash being inducted in the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and Gospel Music Hall of Fame.
Cash was known for his deep, distinctive bass-baritone voice; for the "boom-chicka-boom" sound of his Tennessee Three backing band; for his rebelliousness, coupled with an increasingly somber and humble demeanor; for providing free concerts inside prison walls; and for his dark performance clothing, which earned him the nickname "The Man in Black". He traditionally started his concerts by saying, "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash." and usually following it up with his standard "Folsom Prison Blues".
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Johnny Horton
John Gale "Johnny" Horton (April 30, 1925–November 5, 1960) was an American country music and rockabilly singer most famous for his semi-folk, so-called "saga songs" which began the "historical ballad" craze of the late 1950s and early 1960s. With them, he had several major successes, most notably during 1959 with the song "The Battle of New Orleans" (written by Jimmy Driftwood) which was awarded the 1960 Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Recording. The song was awarded the Grammy Hall of Fame Award, and during 2001 ranked No. 333 of the Recording Industry Association of America's "Songs of the Century".
During 1960, Horton had two other successes with "North to Alaska" for John Wayne's movie, North to Alaska, and "Sink the Bismarck." Horton is a member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.
Horton was born in Los Angeles, California, to John and Claudia Horton, the youngest of five siblings, and raised in Rusk, Texas. His family often traveled to California, frequently as migrant fruit pickers. After graduation from Gallatin High School in 1944, he attended the Methodist-affiliated Lon Morris Junior College in Jacksonville, Texas, with a basketball scholarship. He later attended Seattle University and briefly attended Baylor University, although he did not graduate from any of these institutions.
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Jon Landau
Jon Landau (born 1947) is an American music critic, manager and record producer, most known for his association in all three capacities with Bruce Springsteen.
He is currently the head of the nominating committee for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
As a critic, Landau wrote for Rolling Stone from its first issue and for other publications. In vol. 1, number 1 of RS, 1967.11.09, Landau compared Jimi Hendrix and his debut album, Are You Experienced, to Eric Clapton and Cream's debut album, Fresh Cream (both released months before, and both Jimi and Cream having made huge American splashes as live performers that summer). The next few issues saw Landau staking out more traditional R&B and soul territory with profiles of Aretha Franklin, and Sam and Dave, plus a posthumous Otis Redding appreciation.
Landau's prophetic 1974 article in The Real Paper, wherein he famously claimed "I saw rock and roll's future and its name is Bruce Springsteen", is credited by Nick Hornby and others with fostering Springsteen's popularity. Landau was then hired by Springsteen, and is cited as co-producer on Springsteen studio records from 1975's Born to Run, through 1992's Human Touch and Lucky Town. He is considered to have influenced Springsteen artistically as well as professionally.
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Judy Spreckels
Judy Spreckels (born 1933) is an American writer, publisher and trial historian. She was a friend of Elvis Presley during the rock 'n' roll singer's rise to stardom.
Spreckels describes herself as having been like a sister to Presley when he was about 21 and she was two years older. According to her own account, she was "a companion, confidante and keeper of secrets in the exciting days of his early career". At that time, "Elvis was surrounded by the first wave of what would become known as the Memphis Mafia." She says that she "was with him and the guys all the time." They drove bumper cars in Las Vegas, rode horses in California and hung out at Graceland. "There wasn't a crowd then, just a few guys," and she emphasizes that she "had nothing to do with being a yes man for him and obviously he trusted me." She also claims that Presley told her secrets "that I never told and will never tell." In 1956, the singer sat for a portrait she drew. He inscribed it, "To Judy Spreckels, I love you, baby. Elvis Presley." For this drawing and a photograph of her with Presley, see also Judy Spreckels, "Elvis Presley: His Favorite Picture." Modern Screen, May 1957. In February 1957, the same magazine included the article, "Elvis And Me" describing her as "Elvis' No.1 fan."
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Judy Tyler
Judy Tyler (October 9, 1932 - July 3, 1957) was an American actress.
Born Judith Mae Hess in Milwaukee, she came from a show business family and was encouraged to study dance and acting. Her acting career began as a teenager with regular appearances on Howdy Doody as Princess Summerfall Winterspring from 1950 to 1953.
Like her mother, she became a chorus girl but then went on to star in a major role in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, Pipe Dream. Life did a story on rising Broadway talent with Tyler on the magazine's cover as one of the up-and-coming stars. She lived with her parents in Teaneck, New Jersey when appearing on Howdy Doody and Broadway.
Offered an opportunity in Hollywood, Tyler appeared in the film Bop Girl Goes Calypso then starred opposite Elvis Presley in Jailhouse Rock (1957).
After completing filming of the Presley movie, she and her second husband, Greg Lafayette, left Los Angeles to drive back home to their apartment in New York City. While driving through Wyoming on July 3, 1957, they were involved in an automobile accident on U.S. Route 30 just 3 miles north of Rock River. Judy was killed instantly and Greg died the next day at a hospital in Laramie.
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Julian Aberbach
Julian J. Aberbach (8 February 1909 - 17 May 2004) was an Austrian-born music publisher, who lived and worked in both the United States and France. He was responsible, with his younger brother Jean Aberbach, for establishing the Hill and Range music publishing house, and was instrumental in the careers of many leading country and popular music performers of the mid and late twentieth century, including Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, Edith Piaf and Jacques Brel.
Aberbach was born in Vienna, the son of Anna and Aron Adolf Aberbach, who were Ukrainian Jews. His father ran a jewelry business. Julian left school at the age of 17 and went to the Tyrol with his brother, selling upholstery, before returning to Vienna. His brother Jean then began working in Berlin for a music publisher, Will Meisel, before moving to Paris to work for another publisher there. Julian joined him in Paris in 1932, and soon established his own publishing business, which concentrated on securing royalties for movie screenwriters. After the brothers sold the business in 1936, Jean began working in the US as an agent for French music publisher Francis Salabert, while Julian remained in Paris. In 1939 he secured an exit visa to travel to New York. He was drafted in 1941, and after working with Free French troops in Fort Benning, Georgia, became an instructor at a military intelligence school in Maryland, from where he was discharged in 1944.
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Julie Parrish
Julie Parrish (October 21, 1940, Middlesboro, Kentucky – October 1, 2003, Los Angeles, California) was an American film, stage and television actress.
Born as Ruby Joyce Wilbar in Middlesboro, Kentucky, as the oldest of six children of William Robert Wilbar and Gladys Marie Webb. She spent her early years in Lake City, Tennessee, before moving to Tecumseh, Michigan, at age 11. There she graduated from high school. She then attended a modeling school in Toledo, Ohio. She won a national contest for "Young Model of The Year" at a modelling school chain.
Parrish first appeared as an actress in Jerry Lewis movies (It's Only Money, 1962 and The Nutty Professor, 1963). After some guest appearances on Television series, and roles in lesser known films such as The Doberman Gang, she co-starred with Elvis Presley in Paradise, Hawaiian Style. Furthermore, she appeared in well-known Television series such as Gunsmoke , Star Trek, Bonanza, Capitol and Beverly Hills, 90210. She also had lead roles on several television soap operas and was star of the 1967 CBS sitcom, Good Morning, World.
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June Juanico
June Juanico (born 1938) is a former beauty queen and an Elvis Presley fan from Biloxi, Mississippi, whom the famous rock 'n' roll singer dated in 1955 and 1956, for instance, when he took three weeks of vacation after having recorded his songs "Hound Dog" and "Don't Be Cruel" in the studio in Memphis, Tennessee.
June Juanico had met Presley for the first time after one of his early concerts in Biloxi in 1955, when he was on the verge of the superstardom. Elvis didn't let this romance get too intimate. In a 1997 interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, she swears that she never had sex with Presley. "I was tempted to, oh, yeah. But I was a virgin and the times were different back then." In the same interview, she also "blames his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, for encouraging Presley to go out with beautiful women for the publicity." According to Elvis biographer Peter Guralnick, Juanico didn't doubt that Elvis loved her, but "she didn't know if she could ever get him back," because on one of their dates the singer was always talking about his best friend, actor Nick Adams. "He started telling her all about Nick and Nick's friends and Jimmy Dean, but she didn't want to hear." What really upset Juanico, though, was that Adams had started inviting himself to see Elvis, and Juanico felt that she was trying to compete for Elvis' attention. Adams would talk often about Natalie Wood to Elvis, constantly discussing her figure and her beauty, something else that caused Juanico to feel that she would soon lose Elvis to the glitz of Hollywood. Incidentally, Juanico's fears were not just a paranoia, as Elvis did have a short fling with Wood during his early days in Hollywood.
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Junkie XL
Tom Holkenborg (born December 8, 1967 in Lichtenvoorde, Gelderland, Netherlands), better known as Junkie XL or JXL, is a Dutch musician. He uses the name JXL in cases where the term "Junkie" might cause offense. XL is for "Xpanding Limits".
He discovered music by learning and playing many instruments, including guitar, bass, piano, and drums. Although he was classically trained by his mother (herself an accredited violin teacher), it was not long until he discovered synthesizers and joined the Dutch New Wave group Weekend at Waikiki as a multi-instrumentalist and producer. In 1993, Holkenborg then produced the second metal album Almost a Dance by Dutch band The Gathering. He then expanded his horizon further to form the industrial rock band Nerve with vocalist Phil Mills and released 2 full-length albums in 1994 and 1995. During this period, Holkenborg built his music repertoire by freelance producing and quickly landed projects for bands such as Sepultura, Fear Factory, and Dog Eat Dog, as well as for video games, movies, and TV spots.
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Ken Dodd
Kenneth Arthur Dodd OBE (born Liverpool, 8 November 1927) is a British comedian and singer-songwriter, famous for his frizzy hair or "fluff dom" and buck teeth or "denchers", his favourite cleaner, the feather duster (or "tickling stick") and his greeting of "How tickled I am!", as well as his send-off "Lots and Lots of Happiness!". He works mainly in the music hall tradition, although, in the past, has occasionally appeared in drama, including as Malvolio in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night on stage in Liverpool in 1971; on television in the cameo role of 'The Tollmaster' in the 1987 Doctor Who story Delta and the Bannermen; and as Yorick (in silent flashback) in Kenneth Branagh's film version of Shakespeare's Hamlet in 1996. In the 1960s his fame was such that he rivalled The Beatles as a household name.
Dodd's stand-up comedy style is fast and relies on the rapid delivery of one-liner jokes. He has claimed that his comic influences include other Liverpool comedians like Arthur Askey, Robb Wilton, Tommy Handley and the "cheeky chappy" from Brighton Max Miller. He intersperses the comedy with occasional songs, both serious and humorous, in an incongruously fine light baritone voice.
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Kirk Kerkorian
Kerkor "Kirk" Kerkorian (born June 6, 1917) is an American businessman who is the president/CEO of Tracinda Corporation, his private holding company based in Beverly Hills, California. Kerkorian is known as one of the important figures in shaping Las Vegas[citation needed] and, with architect Martin Stern, Jr. the "father of the mega-resort."
Kirk Kerkorian was born on June 6, 1917 in Fresno, California, to Armenian immigrant parents. Dropping out of school in 8th grade, he became a fairly skilled amateur boxer under the tutelage of his older brother, fighting under the name "Rifle Right Kerkorian" to win the Pacific amateur welterweight championship.
In 1939, he met Ted O'Flaherty, for whom he installed wall furnaces that heated water. O'Flaherty was taking flying lessons, and having taken no interest Kerkorian took a guest seat one day and was converted on the views of the Californian coast.
On sensing the oncoming World War II, and not wanting to join the infantry, he learned to fly at the Happy Bottom Riding Club in the Mojave Desert — adjacent to the USAF's Muroc Field, now Edwards Air Force Base. In exchange for flying lessons from pioneer aviatrix Pancho Barnes, he agreed to milk and look after her cattle.
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Kitty Kallen
Kitty Kallen (born May 25, 1922) is an American popular singer who performed with a number of big bands in the 1940s, and scored her biggest hit in 1954 with the song "Little Things Mean a Lot".
Born in Philadelphia to a Jewish family, she won an amateur contest as a child doing imitations of popular singers of the day. While still a child, she sang on The Children's Hour, a radio program sponsored by Horn & Hardart, an automat chain. As a pre-teen, she had her own radio program on Philadelphia's WCAU, and sang with the big bands of Jan Savitt in 1936, Artie Shaw in 1938, and Jack Teagarden in 1940. While with the Teagarden band, she married Clint Garvin, who played clarinet in Teagarden's band. When Teagarden fired Garvin, Kallen left as well. The marriage was annulled.
While still in her teens, she joined the Jimmy Dorsey band, replacing Helen O'Connell. In 1944, she performed the vocals for Dorsey's number-one hit "Besame Mucho". Most of her singing assignments were in duets with Bob Eberly, and when Eberly left to go into the service toward the end of 1943, she joined Harry James' band. Between January and November of 1945, Kitty Kallen had two songs recorded with the Harry James Orchestra in the top twenty, six in Top Ten, and two at the #1 spot -- "I'm Beginning To See the Light" and "It's Been a Long, Long Time" which remains deeply associated with the end of World War II and the returning troops.
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Kui Lee
Kuiokalani Lee (July 31, 1932 – December 3, 1966) was a singer-songwriter, and the 1960s golden boy artist of Hawaii. Lee achieved international fame when Don Ho began performing and recording Lee's compositions, with Ho promoting Lee as the songwriter for a new generation of Hawaiian music.
Lee was born in Shanghai, China. His entertainer parents Billy and Ethel Lee were of Scottish, Hawaiian and Chinese ancestry. Ethel died in 1936. Kui's widowed father took him back to Hawaii when he was five years old and enrolled him in Kamehameha Schools and later Roosevelt High School.
Lee worked as a knife dancer and choreographer in the Hawaiian Room of New York's Lexington Hotel.
There he met and married singer-hula dancer Rose Frances Naone Leinani, known to everyone as Nani. Nani returned to Hawaii with Kui and performed with him, as well as with Don Ho at Honey's. She also performed with Sterling Mossman, Tommy Sands, Sons of Hawaii and Zulu. Kui and Nani would have four children together - Wailana, Mahealani, Maile and Kimo
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Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein ( /ˈbɜrnstaɪn/ US dict: bûrn′·stīn; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American composer, conductor, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim. According to The New York Times, he was "one of the most prodigiously talented and successful musicians in American history."
His fame derived from his long tenure as the music director of the New York Philharmonic, from his conducting of concerts with most of the world's leading orchestras, and from his music for West Side Story, as well as Candide, Wonderful Town, On the Town and his own Mass.
Bernstein was also the first conductor to give numerous television lectures on classical music, starting in 1954 and continuing until his death. In addition, he was a skilled pianist, often conducting piano concertos from the keyboard.
As a composer he wrote in many styles encompassing symphonic and orchestral music, ballet, film and theatre music, choral works, opera, chamber music and pieces for the piano. Many of his works are regularly performed around the world, although none has matched the tremendous popular and commercial success of West Side Story.
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Leroy Anderson
Leroy Anderson (June 29, 1908 – May 18, 1975) was an American composer of short, light concert pieces, many of which were introduced by the Boston Pops Orchestra under the direction of Arthur Fiedler. John Williams described him as "one of the great American masters of light orchestral music."
Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts to Swedish parents, Anderson was given his first piano lessons by his mother, who was a church organist. He continued studying piano at the New England Conservatory of Music. In 1925 Anderson entered Harvard University, where he studied theory with Walter Spalding, counterpoint with Edward Ballantine, harmony with George Enescu, composition with Walter Piston and double bass with Gaston Dufresne.[citation needed] He also studied organ with Henry Gideon. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1929 and Master of Arts in 1930.
Anderson continued studying at Harvard, working towards a PhD in German and Scandinavian languages. (Anderson spoke English and Swedish during his youth but he eventually became fluent in Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, German, French, Italian, and Portuguese.) During this time he was also working as organist and choir director at the East Milton Congregational Church, leading the Harvard University Band, and conducting and arranging for dance bands around Boston. His arranging work came to the attention of Arthur Fiedler in 1936 and Anderson was asked to show Fiedler any original compositions. Anderson's first work was Jazz Pizzicato in 1938. Fiedler suggested that a companion piece be written and thus Anderson wrote Jazz Legato in 1938.
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Lester Bangs
Leslie Conway "Lester" Bangs (December 13, 1948 – April 30, 1982) was an American music journalist, author, and musician. He wrote for Creem and Rolling Stone magazines and was known for his leading influence in rock music criticism.
Bangs was born in Escondido, California, the son of Norma Belle (née Clifton) and Conway Leslie Bangs, a truck driver. His parents were both from Texas, his father from Enlow and his mother from Pecos County. His mother was a devout Jehovah's Witness; his father died in a fire when Bangs was young. In 1969, Bangs began writing freelance after reading an ad in Rolling Stone soliciting readers' reviews. His first piece was a negative review of the MC5 album, Kick Out The Jams, which he sent to Rolling Stone with a note requesting that if the magazine were to pass on publishing the review, that he receive a reason for their decision; however, no reply was forthcoming as the magazine did indeed publish the review.
Bangs wrote about Janis Joplin's death by drug overdose, "It's not just that this kind of early death has become a fact of life that has become disturbing, but that it's been accepted as a given so quickly". In 1973, Jann Wenner fired Bangs from Rolling Stone, a negative review of Canned Heat being the final event. He moved to Detroit to edit and write for Creem. After leaving Creem, he wrote for The Village Voice, Penthouse, Playboy, New Musical Express, and many other publications.
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Liberace
Wladziu (or Vładziu) Valentino Liberace (/lɪbərˈɑːtʃi/ lib-ər-AH-chee; May 16, 1919 – February 4, 1987), best known simply as Liberace, was a famous American pianist and vocalist.
In a career that spanned four decades of concerts, recordings, motion pictures, television and endorsements, Liberace became world-renowned. During the 1950s–1970s he was the highest-paid entertainer in the world and embraced a lifestyle of flamboyant excess both on and off the stage.
Liberace, known as "Lee" to his friends and "Walter" to family, was born in West Allis, Wisconsin, a Milwaukee suburb, to Frances Zuchowska (August 31, 1892 – November 1, 1980), who was of Polish descent, and Salvatore ("Sam") Liberace (December 9, 1885 – April 1, 1977), an emigrant from Formia, Italy. He had a twin who died at birth and he was born with a caul, which in his family, as in many societies, was taken as a sign of genius and an exceptional future. Liberace's father was a musician who played the French horn in bands and movie theaters but sometimes had to work as a factory worker or laborer. While his father encouraged music in the family, his mother was not musical and thought music lessons and a record player to be luxuries they couldn't afford, causing angry family disputes. Liberace later stated, "My dad's love and respect for music created in him a deep determination to give as his legacy to the world, a family of musicians dedicated to the advancement of the art".
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Lisa Marie Presley
Lisa Marie Presley (born February 1, 1968) is an American singer and songwriter, also known as the "Princess of Rock and Roll". She is the only child of Elvis Presley, and daughter of Priscilla Presley.
Lisa Marie Presley was born at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, exactly nine months after her parents' wedding. She lived at Graceland, Elvis' Memphis estate, until her parents separated in 1972. Following their separation and subsequent divorce, she divided her time between living at Graceland with her father and in Beverly Hills with her mother. This arrangement continued until her father died on August 16, 1977, after which she lived exclusively in Beverly Hills.
When her father died, Lisa Marie became joint-heir to his estate with her grandfather Vernon Presley, and her great grandmother Minnie Mae Presley. Following the deaths of Vernon in 1979 and Minnie Mae in 1980, Lisa became the sole heir and inherited Graceland. In 1993, on her 25th birthday, she inherited the estate, which had grown to an estimated $100 million.
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Little Richard
Richard Wayne Penniman (born December 5, 1932), known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist, and actor, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the mid-1950s. He was also the first artist to put the funk in the rock and roll beat and contributed significantly to the early development of soul music. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame website entry on Penniman states that:
He claims to be "the architect of rock and roll", and history would seem to bear out Little Richard’s boast. More than any other performer – save, perhaps, Elvis Presley, Little Richard blew the lid off the Fifties, laying the foundation for rock and roll with his explosive music and charismatic persona. On record, he made spine-tingling rock and roll. His frantically charged piano playing and raspy, shouted vocals on such classics as "Tutti Frutti", "Long Tall Sally" and "Good Golly, Miss Molly" defined the dynamic sound of rock and roll.
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Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey (born March 27, 1970) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. She made her recording debut in 1990 under the guidance of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola, and released her self-titled debut studio album, Mariah Carey. The album went multi-platinum and spawned four consecutive number one singles, on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. Following her marriage to Mottola in 1993, a series of hit records, including Emotions (1991), Music Box (1993) and Merry Christmas (1994), established her position as Columbia's highest-selling act. Daydream (1995), made music history when the second single, "One Sweet Day" a duet with Boyz II Men, spent a record sixteen weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100, and remains the longest running number one song in US chart history. During the recording of the album Carey began to deviate from her pop background, and slowly traversed into R&B and Hip-hop. After her separation from Mottola, this musical change was evident with the release of Butterfly (1997).
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Marjorie Garber
Marjorie B. Garber (born June 11, 1944) is a professor at Harvard University and the author of a wide variety of books, most notably ones about William Shakespeare and aspects of popular culture including sexuality.
She wrote Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing and Cultural Anxiety, a ground breaking theoretical work on transvestitism's contribution to culture. Other works include Sex and Real Estate:Why We Love Houses, Academic Instincts, Vice Versa: Bisexuality and the Eroticism of Everyday Life, Shakespeare After All, and Dog Love (which is not primarily about bestiality, except for one chapter titled "Sex and the Single Dog").
Her book Shakespeare After All (Pantheon, 2004) was chosen one of Newsweek's ten best nonfiction books of the year, and was awarded the 2005 Christian Gauss Book Award from Phi Beta Kappa
She was educated at Swarthmore College (B.A., 1966; L.H.D., 2004) and Yale University (Ph.D., 1969). Formerly the director of Harvard's Humanities Center, she is now the chair of its department of Visual and Environmental Studies and director of the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts. She continues to teach courses on Shakespeare and on modern culture in the department of English and American Literature and Language.
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Mark Feeney
Mark Feeney is a Pulitzer Prize-winning arts critic for The Boston Globe. Feeney graduated from Harvard in 1979 and has worked for the paper ever since, as a researcher, writer, and editor. Feeney is also the author of the book Nixon at the Movies. In addition, he has taught at Yale University, Brandeis, and Princeton. He won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism for his "penetrating and versatile command of the visual arts, from film and photography to painting."
In the Boston Globe
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Merle Travis
Merle Robert Travis (November 29, 1917 – October 20, 1983) was an American country and Western singer, songwriter, and musician born in Rosewood, Kentucky. His lyrics often discussed the life and exploitation of coal miners. Among his many well-known songs are "Sixteen Tons", "Re-Enlistment Blues" and "Dark as a Dungeon". However, it is his masterful guitar playing and his interpretations of the rich musical traditions of his native Muhlenberg County, Kentucky for which he is best known today. "Travis picking", a syncopated style of finger picking, is named after him. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970 and elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1977.
Travis was born and raised in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky which would inspire many of Travis' own original songs. (This is the same coal mining county mentioned in the John Prine song "Paradise") He became interested in the guitar early in life and originally played one made by his brother. Travis reportedly saved his money to buy a guitar that he had window-shopped for some time.
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Monty Python
Monty Python (sometimes known as The Pythons) was a British surreal comedy group who created Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series. The Python phenomenon developed from the television series into something larger in scope and impact, spawning touring stage shows, films, numerous albums, several books and a stage musical as well as launching the members to individual stardom. The group's influence on comedy has been compared to The Beatles' influence on music.
The television series, broadcast by the BBC from 1969 to 1974, was conceived, written and performed by members Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin. Loosely structured as a sketch show, but with an innovative stream-of-consciousness approach (aided by Gilliam's animation), it pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable in style and content. A self-contained comedy team responsible for both writing and performing their work, the Pythons' creative control allowed them to experiment with form and content, discarding rules of television comedy. Their influence on British comedy has been apparent for years, while in North America it has coloured the work of cult performers from the early editions of Saturday Night Live through to more recent absurdist trends in television comedy. "Pythonesque" has entered the English lexicon as a result.
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Mort Shuman
Mort Shuman (November 12, 1936 - November 2, 1991) was an American singer, pianist and songwriter, best known as co-writer of many 1960s rock and roll hits, including "Viva Las Vegas". He also wrote and sang many songs in French, such as "Le Lac Majeur", "Allo Papa Tango Charlie", "Sha Mi Sha", "Un Eté de Porcelaine", and "Brooklyn by the Sea" which became hits in France.
Shuman was born in Brooklyn, New York of Polish Jewish immigrants and went to Abraham Lincoln High School, subsequently studying music at the New York Conservatory. He became a fan of R&B music and after he met Doc Pomus the two teamed up to compose for Aldon Music at offices in New York City's Brill Building. Their songwriting collaboration saw Pomus write the lyrics and Shuman the melody, although occasionally they worked on both. Their compositions would be recorded by artists such as Dion, The Flamingos,Andy Williams, Bobby Darin, Fabian, The Drifters, and Elvis Presley, among others. Their most famous songs include "A Teenager in Love", "Turn Me Loose", "This Magic Moment", "Save The Last Dance For Me", "Little Sister", "Can't Get Used to Losing You", "(Marie's the Name) His Latest Flame", "Viva Las Vegas" and "Sweets for My Sweet".
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Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. He owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres. He was one of the first black Americans to host a television variety show, and has maintained worldwide popularity since his death.
Nathaniel Adams Coles was born in Montgomery, Alabama, on Saint Patrick's Day (March 17) in 1919. When he was 4, he and his family moved to Chicago, Illinois, where his father, Edward Coles, became a Baptist minister (Ruuth 31). Cole learned to play the organ from his mother, Perlina Coles, the church organist. His first performance, at age four, was of "Yes! We Have No Bananas". He began formal lessons at the age of 12, eventually learning not only jazz and gospel music but also European classical music, performing, as he said, "from Johann Sebastian Bach to Sergei Rachmaninoff".
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Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood (born Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko; Russian: Наталья Николаевна Захаренко; July 20, 1938 – November 29, 1981) was an American film and television actress best known for her screen roles in Miracle on 34th Street, Splendor in the Grass, Rebel Without a Cause, and West Side Story. After first working in films as a child, Wood became a successful Hollywood star as a young adult, receiving three Academy Award nominations before she was 25 years old.
Wood began acting in movies at the age of four and at age eight was given a co-starring role in the classic Christmas film Miracle on 34th Street. As a teenager, her performance in Rebel Without a Cause (1955) earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She starred in the musical films West Side Story (1961) and Gypsy (1962), and received Academy Award for Best Actress nominations for her performances in Splendor in the Grass (1961) and Love with the Proper Stranger (1963).
Her career continued with films such as Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969). After this she took a break from acting and had two children, appearing in only two theatrical films during the 1970s. She was married to actor Robert Wagner twice, and to producer Richard Gregson in between the marriages to Wagner. She had one daughter by each: Natasha Gregson and Courtney Wagner. Her younger sister, Lana Wood, is also an actress.
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Normans
The Normans (in French: Normands) were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock. Their identity emerged initially in the first half of the 10th century, and gradually evolved over succeeding centuries.
They played a major political, military, and cultural role in medieval Europe and even the Near East. They were famed for their martial spirit and eventually for their Christian piety. They quickly adopted the Romance language of the land they settled, their dialect becoming known as Norman or Norman-French, an important literary language. The Duchy of Normandy, which they formed by treaty with the French crown, was one of the great fiefs of medieval France. The Normans are famed both for their culture, such as their unique Romanesque architecture, and their musical traditions, as well as for their military accomplishments and innovations. Norman adventurers established a kingdom in Sicily and southern Italy by conquest, and a Norman expedition on behalf of their duke, William the Conqueror, led to the Norman Conquest of England. Norman influence spread from these new centres to the Crusader States in the Near East, to Scotland and Wales in Great Britain, and to Ireland.
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Pat Boone
Charles Eugene "Pat" Boone (born June 1, 1934) is an American singer, actor and writer. He was a successful pop singer in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s. Among his hit songs were cover versions of black R&B artists' songs (when parts of the country were segregated). He sold over 45 million albums, had 38 Top 40 hits and appeared in more than 12 Hollywood movies. Boone's talent as a singer and actor, combined with his old-fashioned values, contributed to his popularity in the early rock and roll era.
According to Billboard, Boone was the second biggest charting artist of the late 1950s, behind only Elvis Presley but ahead of Ricky Nelson and The Platters, and was ranked at No. 9—behind The Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney but ahead of artists such as Aretha Franklin and The Beach Boys—in its listing of the Top 100 Top 40 Artists 1955–1995. Boone still holds the Billboard record for spending 220 consecutive weeks on the charts with one or more songs each week.
At the age of twenty-three, he began hosting a half-hour ABC variety television series, The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, which aired for 115 episodes (1957–1960). Many musical performers, including Edie Adams, Andy Williams, Pearl Bailey and Johnny Mathis made appearances on the show. His cover versions of rhythm and blues hits had a noticeable effect on the development of the broad popularity of rock and roll. During his tours in the 1950s, Elvis Presley was one of his opening acts.
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Paul Anka
Paul Albert Anka, OC (born July 30, 1941 Ottawa) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and actor.
Anka first became famous as a teen idol in the late 1950s and 1960s with hit songs like "Diana", "Lonely Boy", and "Put Your Head on My Shoulder". He went on to write such well-known music as the theme for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and one of Tom Jones's biggest hits, "She's a Lady", and the English lyrics for Frank Sinatra's signature song, "My Way" (originally French song "Comme d'habitude").
In 1983, he co-wrote with Michael Jackson the song "I Never Heard", which was retitled and released in 2009 under the name "This Is It". An additional song that Jackson co-wrote with Anka from this 1983 session, "Love Never Felt So Good", has since been discovered, and will be released in the near future. The song was also released by Johnny Mathis in 1984.
Anka became a naturalized US citizen in 1990.
Anka was born in Ottawa, Ontario in Canada to Andy and Camelia Anka who owned a restaurant called The Locanda there. His parents are of Lebanese descent. He sang with the St. Elias Antiochian Orthodox Church choir under the direction of Frederick Karam, with whom he studied music theory. He also studied piano with Winnifred Rees.
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Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM (born 18 June 1942) is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of the Beatles (1960–1970) and Wings (1971–1981), he has been described by Guinness World Records as "The Most Successful Composer and Recording Artist of All Time", with 60 gold discs and sales of over 100 million albums and 100 million singles. With John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, he gained worldwide fame as a member of the Beatles, and with Lennon formed one of the most celebrated songwriting partnerships of the 20th century. After leaving the Beatles, he began a solo career and later formed the band Wings with his first wife, Linda Eastman, and singer-songwriter Denny Laine.
According to the BBC, his Beatles song "Yesterday" has been covered by over 2,200 artists—more than any other song. Wings' 1977 release, "Mull of Kintyre", became one of the best-selling singles ever in the UK, and he is "the most successful songwriter" in UK chart history, according to Guinness. As a songwriter or co-writer, he is included on thirty-one number one titles on the Billboard Hot 100, and as of 2012 he has sold over 15.5 million RIAA certified units in the United States.
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Pee Wee Hunt
Pee Wee Hunt (May 10, 1907, Mount Healthy, Ohio – June 22, 1979 in Plymouth, Massachusetts), born Walter Gerhardt Hunt, was a jazz trombonist, vocalist and band leader.
Hunt developed musical interest at an early age, since his mother played the banjo and his father played violin. The teenage Hunt was a banjoist with a local band while he was attending college at Ohio State University where he majored in Electrical Engineering, and during his college years he switched from banjo to trombone. he graduated from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. He joined Jean Goldkette's Orchestra in 1928.
Pee Wee Hunt was the co-founder and featured trombonist with the Casa Loma Orchestra, but he left the group in 1943 to work as a Hollywood radio disc jockey before joining the Merchant Marine near the end of World War II. He returned to the West Coast music scene in 1946. His "Twelfth Street Rag" was a number one hit in September 1948. He was satirized as Pee Wee Runt and his All-Flea Dixieland Band in Tex Avery's animated MGM cartoon Dixieland Droopy (1954).
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Percy Faith
Percy Faith (April 7, 1908 – February 9, 1976) was a Canadian-born American bandleader, orchestrator, composer and conductor, known for his lush arrangements of pop and Christmas standards. He is often credited[by whom?] with creating the "easy listening" or "mood music" format which became staples of American popular music in the 1950s and continued well into the 1960s. Though his professional orchestra-leading career began at the height of the swing era, Faith refined and rethought orchestration techniques, including use of large string sections, to soften and fill out the brass-dominated popular music of the 1940s.[citation needed]
Faith was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was the oldest of eight children. He played violin and piano as a child, and played in theatres and at Massey Hall. After his hands were badly burned in a fire, he turned to conducting, and his live orchestras utilized the new medium of radio broadcasting. Beginning with defunct stations CKNC and CKCL, Faith was a staple of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's live-music broadcasting from 1933 to 1940, when he resettled in Chicago. In 1945, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He made many recordings for Voice of America. After working briefly for Decca Records, he worked for Mitch Miller at Columbia Records, where he turned out dozens of albums and provided arrangements for many of the pop singers of the 1950s, including Tony Bennett, Doris Day, Johnny Mathis for Mathis' 1958 Christmas album titled Merry Christmas, and Guy Mitchell for whom Faith wrote Mitchell's number one single, "My Heart Cries for You".
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Perry Como
Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como (May 18, 1912 – May 12, 2001) was an American singer and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century he recorded exclusively for the RCA Victor label after signing with them in 1943. "Mr. C.", as he was nicknamed, sold millions of records for Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and pioneered a weekly musical variety television show, which set the standards for the genre and proved to be one of the most successful in television history. Como was seen weekly on television from 1949 to 1963, then continued hosting the Kraft Music Hall variety program on a monthly basis until 1967. His television shows and seasonal specials were broadcast throughout the world. Also a popular recording artist, Perry Como produced numerous hit records with record sales so high the label literally stopped counting at Como's behest. His combined success on television and popular recordings was not matched by any other artist of the time. Como's appeal spanned generations and he was widely respected for both his professional standards and the conduct in his personal life. In the official RCA Records Billboard magazine memorial, his life was summed up in these few words: "50 years of music and a life well lived. An example to all." Composer Ervin Drake said of him, "... [o]ccasionally someone like Perry comes along and won't 'go with the flow' and still prevails in spite of all the bankrupt others who surround him and importune him to yield to their values. Only occasionally."
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Peter Guralnick
Peter Guralnick (born December 15, 1943, in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American music critic, writer on music, and historian of US American popular music, who is also active as an author and screenwriter.
Guralnick's first two books, Almost Grown (1964) and Mister Downchild (1967), were short story collections published by Larry Stark, whose small press in Cambridge, Larry Stark Press, was devoted to stories and poems. Mona Dickson, writing in MIT's The Tech (May 13, 1964) gave Almost Grown a favorable review.
After Guralnick graduated from Boston University in 1971 with a master's degree in creative writing, he began writing books chronicling the history of blues, country, rock and roll and soul.
His two-volume biography of Elvis Presley, Last Train to Memphis in 1994, followed by Careless Love in 1999, placed the story of Presley's career into a rise and fall arc. Encompassing more than 1,300 pages (including 1,150 pages of text), the work countered earlier biographies such as Albert Goldman's Elvis from 1981 with an in-depth, scholarly examination of Presley's life and music. Guralnick had previously written on Presley in the The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll, starting with the first edition in 1976, said article having been reprinted for each subsequent edition. He also contributed the complete text for the 240-page hardcover book featured in the 2010 30-disc CD boxed set, "The Complete Elvis Presley Masters".
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Priscilla Presley
Priscilla Presley (born Priscilla Ann Wagner; May 24, 1945) is an American actress and businesswoman. She is the ex-wife of singer Elvis Presley, and the mother of singer-songwriter Lisa Marie Presley.
Priscilla was chairwoman of the board of Elvis Presley Enterprises from 1982 to 1998, helping to turn Graceland into a multi-million dollar tourist attraction. As an actress, Priscilla is best known for co-starring with Leslie Nielsen in the three successful Naked Gun films between 1988 and 1994, and for her five-year run playing the character Jenna Wade on the television series Dallas.
Priscilla's grandfather, Albert Henry Iversen, emigrated from Egersund in Norway to the United States in the beginning of the 1900s. He married Lorraine Davis, who was of Scots-Irish and English descent. They had three children: Albert Jr. (March 1922), James Richard (March 1924) and Anna Lillian Iversen (March 1926). Later she was called, or her name was changed to, Ann. She was called Rooney (short for Annie Rooney) as a child. At the age of 19 she gave birth to Priscilla. They both still have cousins in Norway. In a letter to the City Hall of Egersund, Ann asked for information about their relatives, and wrote that Priscilla was interested in knowing about them; Priscilla's parents then visited family members in Norway in 1992.
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Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004), known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records. He also helped racially integrate country and pop music during the 1960s with his crossover success on ABC Records, most notably with his Modern Sounds albums. While with ABC, Charles became one of the first African-American musicians to be given artistic control by a mainstream record company.Frank Sinatra called Charles “the only true genius in show business.”
The influences upon his music were mainly jazz, blues, rhythm and blues and country artists of the day such as Art Tatum, Nat King Cole, Louis Jordan, Charles Brown, Louis Armstrong. His playing reflected influences from country blues and barrelhouse, and stride piano styles.
Rolling Stone ranked Charles number ten on their list of "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" in 2004, and number two on their November 2008 list of "100 Greatest Singers of All Time". In honoring Charles, Billy Joel noted: "This may sound like sacrilege, but I think Ray Charles was more important than Elvis Presley. I don't know if Ray was the architect of rock & roll, but he was certainly the first guy to do a lot of things . . . Who the hell ever put so many styles together and made it work?"
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Red Foley
Clyde Julian Foley (June 17, 1910 – September 19, 1968), better known as Red Foley, was an American singer, musician, and radio and TV personality who made a major contribution to the growth of country music after World War II.
For more than two decades, Foley was one of the biggest stars of the genre, selling more than 25 million records. His 1951 hit, "Peace in the Valley", was among the first million-selling gospel records. A Grand Ole Opry veteran until his death, Foley also hosted the first popular country music series on network television, Ozark Jubilee, from 1955 to 1960.
He is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, which called him "one of the most versatile and moving performers of all time" and "a giant influence during the formative years of contemporary Country music."
Foley was born June 17, 1910 on a 24-acre (97,000 m2) farm in Blue Lick, Kentucky, grew up in nearby Berea, and gained the nickname Red for his hair color. He was born into a musical family; and by the time he was nine, was giving impromptu concerts at his father's general store, playing French harp, piano, banjo, trombone, harmonica and guitar. At 17, he won first prize in a statewide talent show. He graduated from Berea High School, and later worked as a $2-a-show usher and singer at a theater in Covington, Kentucky.
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Red West
Red West (born 1936) is an American actor, film stuntman and songwriter.
West was born Robert Gene West in Memphis, Tennessee, the son of Lois and Newton Thomas West. He was a close high school friend of rock and roll singer Elvis Presley. An excellent athlete and former U.S. Marine, West played football for his high school and junior college teams and was a boxer in the Golden Gloves championships.
Today, he is probably best known to American film audiences for his role as Red in Road House, alongside Patrick Swayze.
In 1955, West was the driver for Presley and band members Scotty Moore, Bill Black, and later D. J. Fontana when they toured the U.S. South performing live concerts as the "Blue Moon Boys". In 1960, following Presley's discharge from the United States Army, Red West went to work for the singer as a bodyguard and became known as one of the media-dubbed Memphis Mafia.
In addition, West was a talented songwriter who wrote songs that not only Elvis Presley recorded but also were recorded by teen idols Ricky Nelson, Pat Boone and Johnny Rivers.
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Reno Gang
The Reno Brothers Gang, also known as the Reno Gang and The Jackson Thieves, were a group of criminals that operated in the Midwestern United States during and just after the American Civil War. Though short-lived, they carried out the first three peacetime train robberies in U.S. history. Most of the stolen money was never recovered.
The gang was broken with the lynchings of ten of its members by vigilante mobs in 1868. The murders created an international diplomatic incident with Canada and Great Britain, a general public uproar, and international newspaper coverage. No one was ever identified or prosecuted for the lynchings.
J. Wilkison (also known as Wilkinson or Wilkerson) Reno moved to Indiana in 1813 from the Salt River region of Kentucky, one of the Civil War border states. He married Julia Ann Freyhafer in 1835. Future gang members Franklin (Frank), John, Simeon (Sim), and William (Bill) Reno were born to the couple in Rockford, Jackson County, Indiana. There was also another son, Clinton ("Honest" Clint), and a daughter, Laura. In their early years, the siblings were raised in a strict, religious (Methodist) farming household and were required to read the Bible all day on Sunday, according to John Reno's 1879 autobiography. Neither Clint or Laura were involved in the gang's crime spree.
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Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961.
Nixon was born in Yorba Linda, California. After completing his undergraduate work at Whittier College, he graduated from Duke University School of Law in 1937, and returned to California to practice law. He and his wife, Pat Nixon, moved to Washington to work for the federal government in 1942. He subsequently served in the United States Navy during World War II. Nixon was elected to the House of Representatives in 1946 and to the Senate in 1950. His pursuit of the Hiss Case established his reputation as a leading anti-communist, and elevated him to national prominence. He was the running mate of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Republican Party presidential nominee in the 1952 election. Nixon served for eight years as vice president. He waged an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 1960, narrowly losing to John F. Kennedy, and lost a race for Governor of California in 1962. In 1968, he ran again for the presidency and was elected.
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Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau (born April 18, 1942) is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".
One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns. He also spent 37 years as music editor for The Village Voice, during which time he created the annual Pazz & Jop poll.
Christgau grew up in New York City, where he says he became a rock and roll fan when disc jockey Alan Freed moved to the city in 1954. He left New York for four years to attend Dartmouth College, graduating in 1962 with a B.A. in English. While at college Christgau's musical interests turned to jazz, but he quickly returned to rock after moving back to New York.
He initially wrote short stories, before giving up fiction in 1964 to become a sportswriter, and later, a police reporter for the Newark Star-Ledger. Christgau became a freelance writer after a story he wrote about the death of a woman in New Jersey was published by New York magazine. He was asked to take over the dormant music column at Esquire, which he began writing in early 1967. After Esquire discontinued the column, Christgau moved to The Village Voice in 1969, and he also worked as a college professor.
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Robert Hilburn
Robert Hilburn (born September 25, 1939) is a pop music critic and author. As critic and music editor of the Los Angeles Times from 1970 to 2005, his reviews, essays and profiles have appeared in hundreds of publications around the world. Hilburn reflects on those years in a memoir, “Corn Flakes with John Lennon (And Other Tales from a Rock ‘n’ Roll Life),” which was published on Oct. 13, 2009 by Rodale. He is a member of the nominating committee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and lives in Los Angeles.
Born in Natchitoches, Louisiana, and lived until he was 5 mostly on his grandfather’s cotton plantation in nearby Campti. During those years and when visiting his grandparents in later summers, he was exposed to the blues and country music styles that eventually gave birth to rock ‘n’ roll. After a few years in Dallas, Texas, he moved with his family to Southern California, where he graduated from Reseda High School in 1957 and California State University, Northridge (journalism degree) in 1961. His first musical hero was Elvis Presley. He worked as a news reporter on a suburban Los Angeles newspaper (the Valley Times TODAY) for two years, but tired of journalism and became a public information officer for the Los Angeles Unified School District in the mid-1960s. While there he began missing writing around the same time he fell in love with the work of Bob Dylan and the Beatles. Eager to write about music, Hilburn did a series of freelance pieces on such figures as Johnny Cash and Janis Joplin for the Los Angeles Times before being hired full-time by the paper.
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Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time. Mitchum rose to prominence for his starring roles in several major works of the film noir style, and is considered a forerunner of the anti-heroes prevalent in film during the 1950s and 1960s.
Mitchum was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, into a Methodist family. His mother, Ann Harriet (née Gunderson), was a Norwegian immigrant and sea captain's daughter, and his father, James Thomas Mitchum, was a shipyard and railroad worker. A sister, Annette, (known as Julie Mitchum during her acting career) was born in 1914. James Mitchum was crushed to death in a railyard accident in Charleston, South Carolina, in February 1919, when his son was less than 2 years old. After his death, Ann Mitchum was awarded a government pension, and soon realized she was pregnant. She returned to her family in Connecticut, and married a former British Army major who helped her care for the children. In September 1919 a second son, John, was born. When all of the children were old enough to attend school, Ann found employment as a linotype operator for the Bridgeport Post.
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Roy Acuff
Roy Claxton Acuff (September 15, 1903 – November 23, 1992) was an American country music singer, fiddler, and promoter. Known as the "King of Country Music," Acuff is often credited with moving the genre from its early string band and "hoedown" format to the star singer-based format that helped make it internationally successful.
Acuff began his music career in the 1930s, and gained regional fame as the singer and fiddler for his group, the Smoky Mountain Boys. He joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1938, and although his popularity as a musician waned in the late 1940s, he remained one of the Opry's key figures and promoters for nearly four decades. In 1942, Acuff co-founded the first major Nashville-based country music publishing company—Acuff-Rose Music—which signed acts such as Hank Williams, Roy Orbison, and The Everly Brothers. In 1962, Acuff became the first living inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Roy Acuff was born in Maynardville, Tennessee to Ida (née Carr) and Simon E. Neill Acuff, the third of five children. The Acuffs were a fairly prominent Union County family. Roy's paternal grandfather, Coram Acuff, had been a Tennessee state senator, and Roy's maternal grandfather was a local physician. Roy's father was an accomplished fiddler and a Baptist preacher, his mother was proficient on the piano, and during Roy's early years the Acuff house was a popular place for local gatherings. At such gatherings, Roy would often amuse people by balancing farm tools on his chin. He also learned to play harmonica and jaw harp at a young age.
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Roy Hamilton
Roy Hamilton (April 16, 1929 – July 20, 1969) was an American singer, who achieved major success in the US R&B and pop charts in the 1950s. He is best known for his recordings of "You'll Never Walk Alone", "Unchained Melody" and "You Can Have Her".
Born in Leesburg,Georgia, Hamilton moved to Jersey City in 1943, studied commercial art, had operatic and classical voice training, and was a heavyweight Golden Gloves boxer, before joining the gospel quartet, The Searchlight Singers.[citation needed] In 1947, he entered and won an amateur talent show at the Apollo Theater with his rendition of "You'll Never Walk Alone". However, he did not record commercially until 1953, when he was discovered singing in a New Jersey club by a local DJ Bill Cook, who became his manager.[citation needed]Columbia Records saw him as a possible "crossover" singer with a foothold in both pop and R&B, and signed him to their subsidiary label Epic.[citation needed] His first single, "You'll Never Walk Alone", became an R&B number 1 for eight weeks, and a national US Top 30 hit in 1954, and shot Hamilton to fame.[citation needed]
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Roy Orbison
Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer-songwriter, best known for his distinctive, powerful voice, complex compositions, and dark emotional ballads. Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly/country and western band in high school until he was signed by Sun Records in Memphis. His greatest success came with Monument Records between 1960 and 1964, when 22 of his songs placed on the Billboard Top Forty, including "Only the Lonely", "Crying", and "Oh, Pretty Woman". His career stagnated through the 1970s, but several covers of his songs and the use of "In Dreams" in David Lynch's Blue Velvet revived his career in the 1980s. In 1988, he joined the supergroup Traveling Wilburys with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne and also released a new solo album. He died of a heart attack in December that year, at the zenith of his resurgence. His life was marred by tragedy, including the death of his first wife and his two eldest sons in separate accidents.
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Rudolph Valentino
Rudolph Valentino (May 6, 1895 – August 23, 1926) was an Italian actor, known simply as "Valentino" and also an early pop icon. A sex symbol of the 1920s, Valentino was known as the "Latin Lover". He starred in several well-known silent films including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Sheik, Blood and Sand, The Eagle and Son of the Sheik. He had applied for American citizenship shortly before his death.
His sudden death at age 31 caused mass hysteria among his female fans, further propelling him into icon status. Though his films are not as well known today, his name is still widely known.
Valentino was born Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaello Pierre Filibert Guglielmi di Valentina D'Antonguolla in Castellaneta, Puglia, Kingdom of Italy. His mother, Marie Berta Gabrielle (née Barbin; 1856–1919), was French, born in Lure in Lorraine. His father, Giovanni Antonio Giuseppe Fedele Guglielmi di Valentina D'Antonguolla, was Italian; he was a veterinarian who died of malaria when Valentino was 11. He had an older brother, Alberto (1892–1981), a younger sister, Maria, and an older sister Beatrice who died in infancy.
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Rufus Thomas
Rufus Thomas, Jr. (March 27, 1917 – December 15, 2001) was an American rhythm and blues, funk and soul singer and comedian from Memphis, Tennessee, who recorded on Sun Records in the 1950s and on Stax Records in the 1960s and 1970s. He was the father of soul singer Carla Thomas and keyboard player Marvell Thomas. A third child, Vaneese, a former French teacher, has a recording studio in upstate New York and sings for television commercials.
Born a sharecropper's son in the rural community of Cayce, Mississippi, Thomas moved to Memphis with his family at age 2. His mother was “a church woman.” Thomas made his artistic debut at the age of 6 playing a frog in a school theatrical production. Much later in life, he would impersonate all kinds of animals: screeching cats, funky chickens and penguins, and mournful dogs. By age 10, he was a tap dancer, performing in amateur productions at Memphis' Booker T. Washington High School.
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Sam Phillips
Samuel Cornelius Phillips (January 5, 1923 – July 30, 2003), better known as Sam Phillips, was an American businessman, record executive, record producer and DJ who played an important role in the emergence of rock and roll as the major form of popular music in the 1950s. He was a producer, label owner, and talent scout throughout the '40s and '50s. He most notably founded Sun Studios and Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee. Through Sun, Phillips discovered such recording talent as Howlin' Wolf, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash. The height of his success culminated in his launching of Elvis Presley's career in 1954. He is also associated with several other noteworthy rhythm and blues and rock and roll stars of the period. Phillips sold Sun in 1969. He was an early investor in the Holiday Inn chain of hotels.
Phillips was the youngest of eight children, born on a farm near Florence, Alabama to poor tenant farmers. As a child he picked cotton in the fields with his parents alongside black laborers. The experience of the workers singing in the fields left a big impression on the young Phillips. Travelling through Memphis with his family in 1939 on the way to see a preacher in Dallas, he slipped off to look at Beale Street, at the time the heart of the city's music scene. "I just fell totally in love," he later recalled.
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Scottish people
The Scottish people (Scots Gaelic: Albannaich), or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse. Later the Normans also had some influence.
In modern use, "Scottish people" or "Scots" is used to refer to anyone whose linguistic, cultural, family ancestral or genetic origins are from within Scotland. The Latin word Scotti originally applied to a particular, 5th century, Goidelic tribe that inhabited Ireland. Though sometimes considered archaic or pejorative, the term Scotch has also been used for the Scottish people, though this usage is current primarily outside Scotland.
There are people of Scottish descent in many countries other than Scotland. Emigration, influenced by factors such as the Highland and Lowland Clearances, Scottish participation in the British Empire, and latterly industrial decline and unemployment, resulted in Scottish people being found throughout the world. Large populations of Scottish people settled the new-world lands of North and South America, Australia and New Zealand. There is a Scottish presence at a particularly high rate in Canada, which has the second largest population of descended Scots ancestry, after the United States. They took with them their Scottish languages and culture.
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Scotty Moore
Winfield Scott "Scotty" Moore III (born December 27, 1931) is an American guitarist. He is best known for his backing of Elvis Presley in the first part of his career, between 1954 and the beginning of Elvis' Hollywood years. He was ranked twenty-ninth in Rolling Stone magazine's list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time in 2011.
Scotty Moore was born near Gadsden, Tennessee. He learned to play the guitar from family and friends at eight years of age. Although underage when he enlisted, Moore served in the United States Navy between 1948 and 1952.
Moore's early background was in jazz and country music. A fan of guitarist Chet Atkins, Moore led a group called the "Starlite Wranglers" before Sam Phillips at Sun Records put him together with then teenage Elvis Presley. Phillips believed that Moore's lead guitar and Bill Black's double bass were all that was needed to augment Presley's rhythm guitar and lead vocals on their recordings. In 1954 Moore and Black accompanied Elvis on what would become the first legendary Presley hit, the Sun Studios session cut of "That's All Right (Mama)", a recording regarded as a seminal event in rock and roll history. Elvis, Black and Moore then formed the Blue Moon Boys. For a time, Moore served as Elvis's personal manager. They were later joined by drummer D.J. Fontana. Beginning in July 1954, the Blue Moon Boys toured and recorded throughout the American South and, as Presley's popularity rose, they toured the United States and made appearances in various Presley television shows and motion pictures. The Blue Moon Boys, including Moore, appear in the few 1955 home movie clips that survive of Elvis before he achieved national recognition. Moore, Black, and Fontana also appear on the Dorsey Brothers, Milton Berle, Steve Allen, and Ed Sullivan live TV shows of January 1956 to January 1957, and also reunite on the 1960 Timex TV special with Frank Sinatra welcoming Elvis' return from the Army.
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Slim Whitman
Ottis Dewey Whitman, Jr. (born January 20, 1924), known professionally as Slim Whitman, and early in his career as "The Smiling Starduster", is an American country music singer and songwriter, known for his yodelling abilities. He has sold in excess of 120 million albums in unit sales and has had numerous successful recordings. He is consistently more popular throughout Europe, and in particular Britain, than in his native America, particularly with his covers of pop standards and movie songs . His 1955 hit single "Rose Marie" held the Guinness World Record for the longest time at number 1 on the UK charts until Bryan Adams broke the record in 1991 after 36 years. In the U.S., his "Indian Love Call" (1952) and "Secret Love" (1953) reached number 2 on the Billboard country chart. Whitman had a string of hits from the mid 1960s and into the 1970s and became known to a new generation of fans through TV marketing in the 1980s. Throughout the 1990s and into the 21st century, he has continued to tour extensively around the world and release new material, and he was featured on the soundtrack of the 1996 film Mars Attacks!. In 2010 a new album, called Twilight on the Trail, was released featuring brand new material produced by his son Byron and featuring the single "Back in the Saddle Again."
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Steve Allen
Stephen Valentine Patrick William "Steve" Allen (December 26, 1921 - October 30, 2000) was an American television personality, musician, composer, actor, comedian, and writer. Though he got his start in radio, Allen is best known for his television career. He first gained national attention as a guest host on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. He graduated to become the first host of The Tonight Show, where he was instrumental in innovating the concept of the television talk show. Thereafter, he hosted numerous game and variety shows, including The Steve Allen Show, I've Got a Secret, The New Steve Allen Show, and was a regular panel member on CBS' What's My Line?
Allen was a "creditable" pianist, and a prolific composer, having penned over 14,000 songs,[citation needed] one of which was recorded by Perry Como and Margaret Whiting, others by Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, Les Brown, and Gloria Lynne. Allen won a Grammy award in 1963 for best jazz composition, with his song The Gravy Waltz. His vast number of songs have never been equaled. Allen wrote more than 50 books, has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a Hollywood theater named in his honor The Steve Allen Theater.
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Steve Binder
Steve Binder is an American producer and director. He found success behind the camera on influential TV shows showcasing music, like The T.A.M.I. Show and Hullabaloo (from the early 1960s, when Binder was only in his early 20s). He was also influential in creating music programs with racially and ethnically diverse casts, featuring a variety of musical styles.
Binder is arguably best known as director of The T.A.M.I. Show, Elvis Presley's '68 Comeback Special, and Star Wars Holiday Special. In addition to working with Petula Clark and Elvis, Binder also worked on numerous TV shows and specials with Steve Allen, Diana Ross, Chevy Chase, Patti LaBelle, Barry Manilow, Mac Davis, Liza Minnelli, and Pee-Wee Herman.
In 1968, Binder was working at NBC. Its executives invited Petula Clark—who had appeared on Hullabaloo—to host her own special. While singing a duet of "On the Path of Glory" with guest Harry Belafonte, she touched his arm, to the dismay of Chrysler, the show's sponsor. The car giant feared the brief moment would offend Southern viewers at a time when racial mixing was still a major issue of controversy in the US. Chrysler insisted "the touch" (as it became known) should be edited and substituted with a different take. However, director Binder, Clark and her husband/producer refused, destroyed all other takes of the song, and delivered the finished program to NBC with "the touch" intact. It aired on April 8, 1968 to high ratings and critical acclaim, and marked the first time a man and woman of different races exchanged physical contact on American television.
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Ted Daffan
Theron Eugene "Ted" Daffan (September 21, 1912 – October 6, 1996) was an American country musician noted for composing the seminal Truck Driver's Blues and the much covered Country anthem Born to Lose.
Daffan was born in Beauregard Parish, Louisiana. He lived in Texas in the 1930s, working in an instrument repair shop in Houston.
In the late 1930s Western Swing bandleader Milton Brown convinced Daffin to start performing. Soon after he scored his first success as a songwriter with "Truck Drivin' Blues", one of the first truck-driving songs, a motif which would come to dominate country music for decades.
Daffan wrote the seminal "Truck Drivers' Blues" after he stopped at a roadside diner and noticed that every time a trucker parked his rig and strolled into the cafe, the first thing he did, even before ordering a cup of coffee, was push a coin in the jukebox. He decided to write a song to capture some of the truck drivers' nickels and make himself rich and famous. Recorded by western swing artist Cliff Bruner (with Moon Mullican on lead vocal) in 1939, the song sold more than 100,000 copies, the best-selling record of that year. It was later featured in James Jones' best-selling novel, "From Here to Eternity."
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Teresa Brewer
Teresa Brewer (7 May 1931 – 17 October 2007) was an American pop singer whose style incorporated elements of country, jazz, R&B, musicals and novelty songs. She was one of the most prolific and popular female singers of the 1950s, recording nearly 600 songs.
Theresa Breuer grew up in Toledo, Ohio. Her father was an inspector of glass for the Libbey Owens Company (now Pilkington Glass); her mother was a housewife. At the age of two, Theresa was taken by her mother to audition for a radio program, "Uncle August's Kiddie Show" on Toledo's WSPD. She performed for cookies and cupcakes donated by the sponsor. Although she never took singing lessons, she took tap dancing lessons. From age five to twelve, she sang and danced on the "Major Bowes Amateur Hour," then a popular touring radio show. Her aunt Mary traveled with Theresa until 1949, when Theresa married. She was devoted to her aunt, who shared Brewer's home until her death in 1993.
At the age of 12, Theresa returned to Toledo and ceased touring in order to have a normal school life. She continued to perform on local radio. In January 1948, the 16 year-old won a local competition and (with three other winners) was sent to New York to appear on a talent show called "Stairway to the Stars", featuring Eddie Dowling. It was at about that time that she changed the spelling of her name from Theresa Breuer to Teresa Brewer. She won a number of talent shows and played night clubs in New York (including the famous Latin Quarter).
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The Famous Flames
The Famous Flames were an R&B vocal group founded by Bobby Byrd in 1953. Internationally renowned singer James Brown began his career as a member of The Famous Flames before becoming a solo artist. [1] On hit recordings such as "Please, Please, Please", "Try Me", "Think"," I Don't Mind ","Shout and Shimmy", "Bewildered", "Oh Baby, Don't You Weep", and "I'll Go Crazy" the group's smooth backing harmonies contrasted strikingly with Brown's own rough, impassioned delivery, and their synchronized dance steps were a prominent visual feature of his live shows. The Famous Flames performed with Brown on many of his live and studio albums, including his breakthrough Live at the Apollo, and appeared with him in the films The T.A.M.I. Show and Ski Party. They also made appearances on television programs including American Bandstand and Where the Action Is (both hosted by Dick Clark) and two episodes of The Ed Sullivan Show.
According to The Famous Flames' Rock and Roll Hall of Fame bio:
"The Famous Flames served as James Brown’s backup singers from their formation in 1953 until they disbanded in 1968. One of the Famous Flames, Bobby Byrd, remained with Brown through 1973, essentially serving as Brown’s right-hand man for 20 years. Brown’s years with the Famous Flames represent his greatest period of impact as a driving force in soul music and as a live performer. The Famous Flames not only sang but also were part of the stage choreography that made Brown’s shows so spectacular. Although James Brown was the undisputed leader, the Famous Flames ... played a significant role in his success. In fact, Brown himself was initially just one of the Flames before he busted out to become the Godfather of Soul." The Famous Flames were a singing group, not a backing band.
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Timi Yuro
Rosemary Timothy Yuro, professionally known as Timi Yuro (August 4, 1940 – March 30, 2004), was an American soul and R&B singer-songwriter. She is considered to be one of the first blue-eyed soul stylists of the rock era.
According to her record label, Liberty Records, Yuro moved with her family to Los Angeles. There, she sang in her parents' Italian restaurant and in local clubs before catching the eye and ear of record executives. Signed to Liberty, she had a U.S. Billboard No. 4 single in 1961 with "Hurt", an R&B ballad that had been an early success for Roy Hamilton. On "Hurt" and on her Billboard No. 12 follow-up in 1962, "What's a Matter Baby (Is It Hurting You?)", Yuro showed an emotional but elegant vocal style that owed a debt to Dinah Washington and other black jazz singers. Many listeners in the early 1960s thought Yuro was black. She opened for Frank Sinatra on his 1961 tour of Australia.
In 1963, Liberty released Make the World Go Away, an album of country and blues standards. The singer at her vocal peak, this recording includes the hit title song (later a bigger hit for Eddy Arnold, with whom the song is usually associated), a version of Willie Nelson's "Permanently Lonely", and two different blues takes of "I'm Movin' On". Yuro was also known for soulful reworkings of popular American standards, such as "Let Me Call You Sweetheart", "Smile", and "I Apologize".
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Tommy Dorsey
Thomas Francis "Tommy" Dorsey, Jr. (November 19, 1905 - November 26, 1956) was an American jazz trombonist, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader of the Big Band era. He was known as "The Sentimental Gentleman of Swing", due to his smooth-toned trombone playing. He was the younger brother of bandleader Jimmy Dorsey. After Dorsey broke with his brother in the mid-1930s, he led an extremely popular and highly successful band from the late 1930s into the 1950s.
Thomas Francis Dorsey, Jr. was born in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, the second of four children born to Thomas Francis Dorsey, Sr. and Theresa (née Langton) Dorsey. The Dorsey brothers' two younger siblings were Mary and Edward (who died young). At age 15, Jimmy Dorsey recommended his brother Tommy as the replacement for Russ Morgan in the germane 1920s territory band "The Scranton Sirens." Tommy and Jimmy worked in several bands, including those of Tal Henry, Rudy Vallee, Vincent Lopez, Nathaniel Shilkret, and especially Paul Whiteman. In 1929, the Dorsey Boys had their first hit with "Coquette" for OKeh records. The Dorsey Brothers band signed with Decca records in 1934, having a hit with "I Believe In Miracles". Future bandleader Glenn Miller was a member of the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra in 1934 and 1935, composing "Annie's Cousin Fanny" and "Dese Dem Dose" both recorded for Decca for the band. Ongoing acrimony between the brothers, however, led to Tommy Dorsey's walking out to form his own band in 1935, just as the orchestra was having a hit with "Every Little Moment."
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Vaughn Monroe
Vaughn Wilton Monroe (October 7, 1911 – May 21, 1973) was an American baritone singer, trumpeter and big band leader and actor, most popular in the 1940s and 1950s. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for recording and radio.
Monroe was born in Akron, Ohio on October 7, 1911. He graduated from Jeannette High School in Pennsylvania in 1929 where he was senior class president and voted "most likely to succeed." After graduation, he attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology, where he was an active member of the Sigma Nu fraternity. Monroe attended New England Conservatory for one semester in 1935, studying voice with Clarence B. Shirley.
He formed his first orchestra in Boston in 1940 and became its principal vocalist. He began recording for Victor's low-priced Bluebird label. That same year, Monroe built The Meadows, a restaurant and nightclub on Route 9 in Framingham, Massachusetts, west of Boston. He hosted the Camel Caravan radio program from there starting in 1946. It burned to the ground in December 1980.
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Wikipedia Persondata
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- The Wild Ones - Suede
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- Black Or Blue - Suede
- The Big Time - Suede
- Lost In TV - Suede
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- Untitled - Suede
- Hi-Fi - Suede
- These Are The Sad Songs - Suede
- The Power - Suede
- Street Life - Suede
- Stay Together - Suede
- One Hit To The Body - Suede
- Sound Of The Streets - Suede
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- She's In Fashion - Suede
- Oceans (Hidden Track) - Suede
- Positivity - Suede
- Pantomime Horse - Suede
- My Dark Star - Suede
- Moving - Suede
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- Killing Of A Freshboy - Suede
- Introducing The Band - Suede
- Indian Strings - Suede
- Have You Ever Been This Low? - Suede
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Suede
You always felt like suede
There are days I feel your twin
Peekaboo
Hiding underneath your skin
Jets are rewing
Yes rewing
From a central source
And this has power over me
Not becuase you feel something
Or don't feel something for me
But becuase
Mass so big it can swallow
Swallow her whole star intact
Call me 'evil' call me 'tide is on your side'
Anything that you want
Anybody knows you can conjure anything
By the dark of the moon
Boy and if you keep your silence
Silencer on you'll
Talk yourself right into a job
Out of a hole
Into my bayou
I'm sure that you've been briefed
My absorption lines
They are frayed
And I fear
My fear is greater than my faith
But I walk
The missionary way
You always felt like suede
There are days I am your twin
Peekaboo
Hinding underneath your skin
Juets are rewing
Yes rewing
From an ether twist
Call me 'evil' little sister
I guess i'd do the same
Little sister
Don't take your life cos your bicycle won't fly
You may be going to heaven tonight
Don't spoil the show for the love of some albino
You won't be going to heaven alone
I see her by the window waiting every night
So I wouldn't give a shit if your bicycle's in bits
I think I'm going to heaven on it
I see her by the window pour the poison from you
I'll go there through the window in my sixteen hole boots
And I'll sing to the birds here at my side
And I'll sing to the birds that will save my life...
Don't take your life cos your bicycle won't fly
You may be going to heaven tonight
I wouldn't give a shit if your bicycle's in bits
I think I'm going to heaven on it
I see her by the window and I see there's a day
We'll walk out through the traiffic and pour the poison away
So I'll sing to the birds there at my side
And I'll sing to the birds who will save my life
na na na na na na na
"She-rocker you're wasting your time,
Cos you're only a girl"
She'rocker sacked the factory line for a chance of a dance in a surreal world
She said, "come rescue, rescue me from this Hollywood life
come rescue, rescue me from this Hollywood life"
She'rocker hear the audience scream for the death of the king
But a hand-job is all the butchery brings
Cos fame ain't as easy as him (how sad)
Oh, come rescue, rescue me from this Hollywood life
come rescue, rescue me from this Hollywood life
There's a song playing on the radio
Sky high in the airwaves on the morning show
And there's a lifeline slipping as the record plays
And as I open the blinds in my mind I'm believing that you could stay
And oh if you stay I'll chase the rainblown fields away
We'll shine like the morning and sin in the sun
Oh if you stay
We'll be the wild ones, running with the dogs today
There's a song playing through another wall
All we see and believe is the D.J. and debts dissolve
And it's a shame the plane is leaving on this sunny day
Cos on you my tattoo will be bleeding and the name will stain
But oh if you stay we'll ride from disguised suburban graves
We'll go from the bungalows where the debts still grow every day
And oh if you stay I'll chase the rainblown fears away
We'll shine like the morning and sin in the sun oh if you stay
We'll be the wild ones running with the dogs today
She walks the streets of summer
Inside her there's no future
She walks the streets to pass the time
The cash machines are laughing
At plastic people passing
She walks the streets to pass the time
Sadie, Sadie in the sound of the streets
Insane as anything, ah ah
Sadie, Sadie kn-knows the sound of the streets
It's the same as anything, ah ah
She sees the midnight taxis
The toilets and the backstreets
She feels the wheels and needs a line
Outside there's crazy parties
There's dames in faces laughing
So many ways to pass the timeSadie...
She walks the streets of summer
Inside her there's no future
She walks the streets to pass the time
Inside she feels like winter
For the child that died within her
She walks the streets to pass the time
If I was the wife of an acrobat...
Could of had it all...Could of had it all...
Where's all the money gone? - I'm talking to you,
All up the whole in your arm,
is the needle a much better screw?
But oh, what will you do alone? Cos I have to go.
Where is this life of fun that you promised me?
Nothing here works but your works and I mean it
I have to leave
But oh, what will you do alone? Cos I have to go.
If I was the wife of an acrobat would I look like the living dead, boy?
You're on the wire and can't get back,Let's talk about the living dead
Could have had a car, could have had it all,
Could have walked in the sky but we stare at the wall.
I know where the money's gone - I know what you do
Cos I've seen the hole in your arm and the needle's a much better screw
I know a girl she walks the asphalt world
She comes to me and I supply her with Ecstasy
Sometimes we ride in a taxi to the ends of the city
Like big stars in the back seat like skeletons ever so pretty
I know a girl she walks the asphalt world
But where does she go?
And what does she do?
And how does she feel when she's next to you?
And who does she love in time-honoured fur?
Is it me or her?
I know a girl she walks the asphalt world
She's got a friend, they share mascara I pretend
Sometimes they fly from the covers to the winter of the river
For these silent stars of the cinema
It's in the blood stream, it's in the liver
I know a girl, she walks the arse felt world
But where does she go?
And what does she do?
And how does she feel when she's next to you?
And who does she love in time-honoured fur?
Is it me or is it her?
With ice in her blood
And a Dove in her head
Well how does she feel when she's in your bed?
When you're there in her arms
And there in her legs
Well I'll be in her head
Cos that's where I go
And that's what I do
And that's how it feels when the sex turns cruel
I'm so sorry to hear about the news,
Don't you worry,
I'll buy us a bottle and we'll drink in the petrol fumes,
I'm so sorry to hear about your world,
Don't you worry,
There's a gap in the fence down by the nature reserve,
Hey, such a lovely day, such a lovely day,
Such fun, looking at the lovers in a lay-by with my little one.
I'm so sorry to hear the news today,
Don't you worry,
There's been a speeding disaster so we'll go to the motorway,
I'm so sorry to hear about the scene,
Don't you worry,
Just put on your trainers and get out of it with me,
Hey, such a lovely day, such a lovely day,
Such fun, looking at the lovers in a lay-by with my little one.
Hey, such a lovely day, such a lovely day,
Such fun, looking at the lorries in the litter with my lovely one,
We could go dancing, we could go walking,
we could go shopping, we could keep talking,
we could go drinking, we could sit thinking,
All the people in your life say you're down
And the strangers in the night say you're down
And the loonies on the right say you're down and you're down
And the ambulances sigh that you're down
And the traffic speeding by says you're down
And the people in your life say you're down and you're down
Hey you chase the day away
Hey you draw the blinds and blow your mind away
And there's a sadness in your style
And there's a blankness in your smile
And the people in the park say you're down
And the strangers in the dark say you're down
And the pissheads in the bars say you're down
And the audiences cry that you're down
And the ambulances sigh that you're down
And the boyfriends in your life say you're down and you're down
Hey you chase the day away
Hey you draw the blinds and blow your mind away
And there's a sadness in your style
And there's a blankness in your smile
Hey you chase the day away
Hey you draw the blinds and blow your mind away
And there's a sadness in your style
Whiplash caught the silver son
Took the film to No. I
Crashed the car and left us here
Broken glass for teenage boys trapped in steel and celluloid
Crashed the car and left us here.
And daddy burned a million eyes
Dared the dogs to criticise
He crashed the car and I was born
And daddy turned a million heads
Took the teenage dream to bed
He crashed the car and left us here
With dreams of gasoline drying our eyes
Green fields of destiny high in the sky
But oh can you see him?
Oh Daddy's speeding
Whiplash caught the silver son
Killed the sad American
Crashed the car and left us here
And sorrow turns his eyes to mine
Come with me now it's your time
Let's crash the car and I'll be born
And sorrow breaks the silent day
Takes the teenage boys away
They crash the cars and leave us here
With dreams of gasoline drying our eyes
Green fields and death machines high in the sky
But oh can you see him?
Back where the dogs bark
where still life bleeds the concrete white
try not to go too far inside your mind
back where the cars decide
where the lame star limps an endless mile
have I gone too far inside my mind?
oh if you were the one would I even notice now my mind has gone?
oh if you were the one, would I even notice?
Back where the car was parked
Where the canine in the A-line stole your time
you can only go so far for womankind
oh if you were the one, would I even notice now that he has come?
oh, if you were the one, would I even notice?
There was a girl who flew the world from a lonely shore
Through southern snow to Heathrow to understand the law
There was a boy who loved the noise of the underground
He left the coast and overdosed on that London sound
He said,
"I don't care if you're black or blue,
me and the stars stay up for you
I don't care who's wrong or right
and I don't care for the U.K. tonight so stay, stay"
And then one day she moved away from those garden walls
She left some flowers, he smoked for hours
She understood the law
I don't care if you're black or blue
Me and the stars stay up for you
I don't care who's wrong or right
And I don't care for the U.K. tonight
So stay, stay, stay, stay.........
I watch the slow hand
Kill the day,I see my starring mode
take away,
I watch the skyline,for him to come
And when he comes alone,we'll be gone.
And we'll go into the city,into the light
We'll be there in the headlines,
in care of the night
Cause this is the big time
this is the way
Now he's in the big time
he'll show you the way
This is the big time
This is the way
Now he's in the big time
I see you in my life, I see you on the screen
An ascending socialite, orbiting the scene
And everybody wants you now
Everybody wants to be a part of your crowd, ooh
Baby it seems
Sometimes you're lost in TV
Lost in a dream
(Instant sunshine)
Baby
We wandered through our minds with images and scenes
And with animated lives, rehearsing for our dreams
And everybody wants it now
Everybody wants to be a face in the crowd, ooh
Baby it seems
Sometimes we're lost in TV
Trapped in a screen
Lost in a scene
Lost in TV
(Instant sunshine)
Baby
Everybody wants it now
(Sunshine)
Everybody wants to be a face in the crowd, ooh
Baby it seems sometimes we're lost in TV
Lost in a dream
(Instant sunshine)
Come out tonight in the puddles
Splash some love across the sky
Just you and I bursting bubbles
As the sky is about to cry
When the rain falls
There's magic in our lives
When the rain falls
We're happy deep inside
When the rain falls
It cleans away the corners of our minds
When all the world looks like Atlantis
And the cars rusting in the drives
Just step outside & hit the concrete pavement
As the rain falls down for you and I
When the rain falls
The pretty people run
When the rain falls
The colours cloud the sun
When the rain falls
We'll sit and watch the children hurry home
One, two!
And when everything is blue or green or green or blue or grey
I cross the street
to catch the beat of my heart
And I watch it all
'cause there's nothing else to do today
And I watch it all fall so hard
Well the church bells are calling
Police cars on fire
And as they call you to the eye of the storm
All the people say "Stay at home tonight"
I say we are the pigs, we are the swine
We are the stars of the firing line
And as the smack cracks at your window
You wake up with a gun in your mouth
Oh let the nuclear wind blow away my sins
And I'll stay at home in my house
I say, we are the pigs
we are the swine
we are the stars of the firing line
But deceit can't save you so
Dressed as a cowboy on top of a hill it's sadder than it probably sounds
He gets lovely the more he's ill don't o.d. on him now
Dressed as a woman with horrible hair and singing to the birds in town
Who goes walking through traffic out there don't o.d. on her now
Oh is it true what they say about you?
Oh is it true what they say about you two?
Married to me is a hungry son who wants to push me from the 2nd floor
We're so disco we can't get on in this world anymore
Oh, is it true what they say about you?
Oh, is it true what they say about you two?
Dressed as a cowboy in a permanent gag it's sadder than it probably sounds
So fucking what if he's licking the bag, don't o.d. on him now
Oh, is it true what they say about you?
Will you be my lover?
Will you be the one?
Will you be like no other?
For how long?
Yes, I'll be your wild flower
Grown through the concrete
And born to the back beats of the stars
Yes, I am just a stupid guy
Crushed like a, a butterfly
Dead eye at the drive by in a car
And I flies on a windscreen
Like insects in glue
We could stick together
If you wanted to
Yes, I'll be your wild flower
Grown through the concrete streets
And born to the back beat of the stars
Yes, I am just a stupid guy
Crushed like a, a butterfly
Dead eye at the drive by in a car
Yeah, just a stupid guy
Crushed like a, a butterfly
Slipping through the city sliding train to train
Sulking on the subway music in our brain
She and me together in the city sounds
Me and mona lisa on the underground
Hi-fi in the white city yeah yeah
Hi-fi in the white city yeah yeah
Slipping through the city sliding brain to brain
Sulking on the subway listening to the train
She and me together speed through space and time
Grafitti in our eyes and music in our mind
Hi-fi in the white city yeah yeah
Hi-fi in the white city yeah yeah
Hi-fi in the white city yeah yeah
Hi-fi in the white city yeah yeah
Lay Lady Lay and Band of Gold
A Day in the Life, And Dream of Sheep
Seasong and Vincent and Death Disco
Listen to the music in your sleep
These are the sad songs, the broken words
These are the sad songs, the lies you've heard
These are the good times you keep inside
These are the good things that you can have if you try
Venus in Furs and An Occasional Dream
Sign o the Times and Bill is Dead
and Lazyitis and Big Louise
Listen to the music in your head
These are the sad songs, the broken words
These are the sad songs, the lies you've heard
These are the good times you keep inside
Through endless Asia, through the fields of Cathay
or enslaved in pebble-dash grave with a kid on the way
If you're far over Africa on the wings of youth
or if you're down in some satellite town and there's nothing you can do
Just give me, give me, give me the power
And I'll make them bleed
Give me, give me the power
(Although I'm just the common breed)
You might live in a screen kiss, it's a glamorous dream
Or belong to a world that's gone, it's the English disease
But give me, give me the power
And I'll make them bleed
Give, give me, give me the power
Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh, ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh, check it out!
Street life into the night with the syncopated melodies
Street life look left to right
she got the lips from a magazine
Cheap sound that comes from the underground communicates to everyone
Street life fits so right
she gets your tips from a popular song
It's the beat of the concrete street
that you'll love for a million years
It's the sound that comes from underground
ThatÅ got you clapping, got you shaking your rears
Street life, ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
Street life step to the night with your sexual equality
Street life look left to right
she got the lips from a magazine
Cheap sound that comes from the underground
Is like a bass drum kicking along
Street life sweet life cheap life
It's street life going on and on
To the beat of the concrete street
you can live for a million years
Dumb sound that comes from underground
ThatÅ got you clapping, got you shaking your rears
Street life, ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
It's all you know
It's all you see
It's all you follow
It's all you believe
Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
Move your feet to the concrete beat
and you can live for a million years
To the sound that comes from underground
clap your hands, get shaking your rears
Street life, ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
Street life, ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
Come to my house tonight,
We can be together in the nuclear sky.
We wildance in the poison rain,
We can stay a while in heaven today.
Stay together
And say, these days ??
Stay together
Two hearts under the skies remain.
There's a time bomb in the high ?life?
There's a blue suburban dream.
Will I see you up in paradise?
Or have you come to touch me?
Come to my arms tonight,
You and me together on electric light.
She will dance in the poisoned air,
Just you and me forever by the motorway ??
Come to my arms or not,
Just you and me together in the year of the hawk.
Single file in the nuclear night,
Is it my imagination or is that a cardboard sky?
Is it just a situation
that made me lose my mind?
I don't need you to be sorry
I just wanted you to know
That this is one hit to the body
One hit to the soul
It's one hit to the body
That won't show
It's a million constellations
up in the make-believe sky
And a million dead-end situations
you could leave behind
And the lights and the lorries
will show you which way to go
And this is one hit to the body
It's one hit to the soul
It's one hit to the body
That won't show
It's something in the air that you breathe
It's something in the books that you read
It's something in the things that you do
It's something in the words that you use
Cos the lights and the lorries
Will show you where you want to go
And this is one hit to the body
It's one hit to the soul
It's one hit to the body
That won't show
Well I don't really need anybody
I just wanted you to know
That this is one hit to the body
That won't show
That won't show
She walks the streets of summer
Inside her there's no future
She walks the streets to pass the time
The cash machines are laughing
At plastic people passing
She walks the streets to pass the time
Sadie Sadie hear the sound of the streets
Insane as anything ah
Sadie Sadie knows the sound of the streets
It's insane as anything ah
She sees the midnight taxis
The toilets and the backstreets
She feels the wheels and needs a line
Outside there's crazy parties
There's painted faces laughing
So many ways to pass the time
Sadie, Sadie hear the sound of the streets
Insane as anything, ah
Sadie, Sadie knows the sound of the streets
It's insane as anything, ah
She walks the streets of summer
Inside here there's no future
She walks the streets to pass the time
Inside she feels like winter
For the child that died within her
She walks the streets to pass the time
Sadie, Sadie hear the sound of the streets
Insane as anything, ah ah
Sadie, Sadie knows the sound of the streets
It's insane as anything, ah
Angel, don't take those sleeping pills, you don't need them
Though it's just time they kill
Angel, give me your sleeping pills, you don't need them
Give me the time they kill
You're a water sign, I'm an air sign
Gone gone to Valium, can you get me some?
You're a water sign, and I'm an air sign
Too Siamese to catch the leaves from those trees
Angel, don't take those sleeping pills, you don't need them
though it's just time they kill
you're a water sign, I"m an air sign
Pumped up with Valium, could you get me some?
You're a water sign, I'm an air sign
With sweet F.A. to do today, with sweet F.A. to do today...
She's the face on the radio
She's the body on the morning show
She's there shaking it out on the scene
And she's the colour of a magazine
And she's in fashion
Ouh Ouh Ouh
And she's in fashion
Ouh Ouh Ouh
She's employed where the sun don't set
And she's the shape of a cigarette
And she's the shake of a tambourine
And she's the colour of a magazine
Ah Ah
And if she tells you two is one
Then two is one my love
Ah Ah
And if she tells you you should know
Then you should know my love
She is strung out on a TV dream
And she's the taste of the gasoline
And she's as similar as you can get
To the shape of a cigarette
The sunshine will blow my mind
We sit in silence
A marriage license
Is all you know
All you know, all you know
We sit and chew gum
Watch television
And you know
And you know, and you know
But there's oceans between us
Light years that screen us
Oceans that drift away
Oceans that fade to grey
We sit and rot here
Resenting each year
Will you go?
Will you go, will you go?
We sing the old songs
The beat box plays on
And you know
And you know, and you know
But there's oceans between us
Light years that screen us
Like oceans we drift away
[Like] oceans we fade to grey
Between us there's oceans
There's life in slow motion
Quietly we drift away
Quietly we fade to grey
you say what you want to say
your diamonds are drops of rain
your smile is ypur credit card
and your currency is your love
and the morning is for you
and the air is free
and the birds sing for you
and your positivity
watch out
so you play where you want to play
on the main streets where the creeps all pray
and you can feel like you're in dynasty
and you can be what you want to be
and the morning is for you
and the air is free
and the birds sing for you
and your positivity
and the car crash for you
and the sunshine is free
and the sirens call you
yes the morning is for you
yes the air is free
and yes the world spins for you
and your positivity
I was born as a pantomine horse
ugly as the sun when he falls to the floor
I was cut from the wreckage one day
this is what I get for being that way
Well did you ever, did you ever go round with them?
Well did you ever, did you ever go round the bend?
I was conned by a circus hand
Tragic as the son of a superman
"I would die for the stars" she said
This is what I get for my beautiful head
Well did you ever, did you ever go round with them?
well did you ever, did you ever go round the bend?
In a hired car she will come to England from the sea
And as the tide flows the London snows will come.
And from the skyline shines the lies of the government's singular history
So in a hired world she will buy a gun
And she will come from India with a love in her eyes
That say oh how my dark star will rise
In rented gear 2000 years we waited for a man
But with a tattoed tit she'd die for us all tonight.
And she will come from India with a gun at her side,
Or she will come from Argentina
With her cemetery eyes that say
Oh, how my dark star will rise,
shame on me well I had the beast you see
and if he can take it I can take him home with me
shame on her she's a lovely little number
and when we go lassoing you get lassoed, all of you
If you can take it, I can take it
And we're moving, so moving, so we are a boy, we are a girl
so moving, so moving...
shame on the girl, she's got a big black dog in her
and while tough kids sing about tough kids she just skins the world
we'll never never play the harp, and we'll stick like sick on the stars
and if you can take it I can take these stones from my heart
if you can take it, I can take it
and we're moving, so moving, so we are a boy we are a girl
so moving, so moving....
If you can take it, I can take it, all of me
If you can take it, I can take it all
If you can take it, I can take it, all of me
come unto me my winter son
we could lie on the rails
and when the morning comes
we'll be miles away, miles away
slipping away while the city sleeps
running away from this cruel disease
miles away, miles away
modern boys, modern boys
hand in hand
sick of the fear
chasing away all the hungry years
we're the modern boys
come unto me my sickly thing
we could lie on the rails
but to really win
we'll just drive away, drive away
yes the world calls my international
so let the decades die
let the parties fall
and we'll be miles away, miles away
'cos we'll be living like
modern boys, modern boys
hand in hand
sick of the fear
chasing away all the hungry years
we're the modern boys, modern boys
into the night, under the stars
jumping the lights in the silent cars
he's on your left
i'm on your right
well she's show showing it off then
the glitter in her lovely eyes
show show showing it off then
and all the people shake their money in time
she sells heart, she sells meat
oh dad, she's driving me mad, come see
we shake shake to the trumpet
and through the slippery city we ride
skyline swine on the circuit
where all the people shake their money in time
she sells heart, she sells meat
All the white kids shuffle to the heavy metal stutter
And go shaking on the scene like killing machines
And they know that when she's stacked up top
She'll be a sucker for the shotgun show
Shaking obscene like killing machines here we go
It's the same old show he's a killer he's a flash boy oh
He's a killer he's a flash boy oh
Oh if you shake your fake tan thru aerosol land you'll know
That you'll suffer your sex by the caravenettes oh no
And that shitter with the pout won't be putting it about no more
Or shaking obscene like a killing machine here we go
It's the same old show, he's a killer he's a flash boy oh
He's a killer he's a flash boy oh...
...oh and Athena loves your body
So think of the sea my darling
Think of the sea as you murder me, murder me, murder me,
murder me, murder me...
It's the same old show, he's a killer, he's a flash boy oh
This is the killing of a flash boy oh.
Dog man star took a suck on a pill
And stabbed a cerebellum with a curious quill
Europe, America, Winterland
Introducing the band
Chic thug stuttered through a stereo dream
A fifty knuckle shuffle heavy metal machine
The tears of suburbia drowned the land
Introducing the band
So steal me a savage, subservient son
Get him shacked-up, bloodied-up and sucking on a gun
I want the style of a woman, the kiss of a man
Introducing the band
And as the sci-fi lullaby starts to build
See them whipping all the women, cracked governments killed
Oh let the century die to violent hands
Open up my heart and see what's inside
Take a look inside me, inside my mind
And you'll see my heart is broken in two
Cos I've seen the real you
Images of violence fill up my mind
And you see the silence, feel it inside
And you'll see my heart is broken in two
Cos I've seen the real you
So sad we seem, so far we've been
She knows the scene
And I see your heart is broken too
Cos we've seen the real you
Have you ever been this low?
The taxis take you where you wanna go
Broken windows, endless television shows
I haven't ever been so low
I am the one, I sing the song
My lights are on but there's nobody home
So much happening today
A thousand people come and go and stay and fade away
They draw the blinds and watch the show
Have you ever been so low?
I am the one, I sing the song
My lights are on but there's nobody home
Oh when you and I
Watch the planes go by, silver in the sky,
Do whatever we like,
Oh you and me
See the birds in the sea
People on the streets, do whatever we please
But every Monday morning comes,
Every Monday morning, yeah
Oh every Monday morning comes
Every Monday morning, yeah
Oh, when you and I
Watch the London sky, Traffic rolling by
Do whatever we like,
So we chase the day away
Feel the morning rain
Piss our money down the drain
Draw the blinds and watch the show
Heard it on the radio
Saw it on the news today
Heard the lonely people say
There's a great big crack in the union jack
There's a great big crack in the union jack
Another day, another low
Another midday TV show
I saw it on the news today
I heard the lonely people say
There's a great big crack in the union jack
There's a great big crack in the union jack
When you're high on diesel nightly
And the traffic starts to roll
You smoke a cigarette and watch the black girls
In a white boys world
Anything is possible for the Bentswood boys
Where the karma comes with the kids and the cat food
You see Tina push the pram
'Cos she was on her back in his estate car
And in the back of his van
Anything is possible for the Bentswood boys
For the Bentswood boys (things are happening)
For the Bentswood boys (mmm... tell it like it is!)
Don't take me down
Don't take me down
You belong among the wild flowers
picked at the side of the road,
You belong among the silent hours
and broken telephones,
You belong among the TV screens
with sound turned down again,
You belong where there's CCTV
watching you every day,
Well you beautiful loser,
You beautiful lay,
You beautiful loser,
you're coming down the hard way,
You belong under electric lights
with the hand me down surrounds,
You belong out in the countryside
with your hands deep down in the ground,
Well you beautiful loser,
You beautiful lay,
You beautiful loser,
you're coming down the hard way,
Your brain is drip connected to the satellite,
Your heart is not a part of your brain,
Aesthetics and inventions
well they pass you by
And complicate your day....
You belong sat on a motorbike
doing 161 in the rain,
50cc thru the wild life
getting trashed in the slow lane,
You beautiful loser,
You beautiful lay,
You beautiful loser
I said you're coming down the hard way...
I see you're moving, see you're moving, moving in with her
You'll pierce your right ear, pierce your heart there
This skinny boy is one of the girls
cos around my neck and around her neck hangs everything you are
I know you've been inside but what were you in for?
Animal lover, animal lover, animal lover?
I see you're moving, see you're moving like wildlife from the waist
But when your name's scratched in on a shiny ring your waist is my resting place
And around my neck and around her neck hangs everything you are
I know you've been inside but what were you in for?
Sleepy head get out of bed
Big bad world is calling
Step in your shoes and catch the news
It's another morning
Morning,
It's morning
Morning,
It's morning again
Rub your eyes as nature sighs
The population's yawning
Just step in your shoes there's so much to do
It's a brand new morning
Morning,
It's morning
Morning,
ItÅ morning again
And all around this cardboard town
The cops are crawling
The sirens scream and break your dreams
It's morning
It's morning
It's morning
High on diesel and gasoline
Psycho for drum machine
Shaking their bits to the hits
Drag acts, drug acts, suicides
In your dad's suits you hide
Staining his name again
Cracked up, stacked up, 22
Psycho for sex and glue
Lost it to Bostik, yeah
Shaved heads, rave heads
On the pill, got too much time to kill
Get into bands and gangs
Oh, here they come
The beautiful ones, the beautiful ones
Loved up, doved up
Oh, here they come
The beautiful ones, the beautiful ones
Loved up, doved up
Loved up, doved up
Hung around, stoned in a lonely town
Shaking their meat to the beat
High on diesel and gasoline
Psycho for drum machine
Shaking their bits to the hits
Oh, here they come
The beautiful ones, the beautiful ones
Loved up, doved up
Here they come
The beautiful ones, the beautiful ones
Loved up, doved up
You don't think about it
You don't do without it
Because you're beautiful
And if your baby's going crazy
That's how you made me
La, la, la
And if your baby's going crazy
That's how you made me
Whoa, whoa
And if your baby's going crazy
That's how you made me
La, la, la
La, la, la
La, la, la
La, la, la
Sat on the metro with love on her mind
Intimate details of every kind
Opening doorways to secret rooms
Her emptiness calling to you
She give a little bit of attitude
Give a little bit of something new
Give a little bit of attitude
Get a little bit tacky too
Give a little bit of attitude
Give a little bit of something rude
Give a little bit of attitude
Get a little bit tacky too
A dangerous daughter in a leopard print skirt
A Polaroid camera recording the dirt
Intimate details of every scene
Opening doorways for me
She give a little bit of attitude
Give a little bit of something new
Give a little bit of attitude
Get a little bit tacky too
Give a little bit of attitude
Give a little bit of something rude
Give a little bit of attitude
Get a little bit tacky too
She give a little bit of attitude
Give a little bit of something new
Give a little bit of attitude
Get a little bit tacky too
Give a little bit of attitude
Give a little bit of subterfuge
Give a little bit of attitude
Watching all the women shaking slimming
Walking down the road again
Looking at the lovers under covers come in and let's be friends
Watching all the schoolgirls shaking the rules
Coming on and having sex
Watching all the women shaking slimming
Come in an cash the cheques
The suburban girls and they're making noise
And they're making eyes at suburban boys
Watching all the lovers under cover
Watching all the roads that bend
Listening to lulu, amazula
Come in and let's pretend
Watching all the women shaking slimming
Walking down the road again
Scheming like a schoolboy watching you boy
Come in and let's pretend
The suburban girls and they're making noise
And they're making eyes at suburban boys
Suburban girls and they're making noise
And they're making eyes at suburban boys
At suburban boys
At suburban boys
At suburban boys
The suburban girls and they're making noise
And they're making eyes at suburban boys
Suburban girls and they're making noise
And they're making eyes at suburban boys
At suburban boys
At suburban boys
She takes the blame, takes the pain but the world smiles
'Cos outside is just a taxi ride to drive away
So she packs her bags, calls a cab and the world smiles
And inside well she feels all right and turns to say:
"Yes it's the end, the final showdown
Yes it's the end of our small love
You'll have to find another no one to take the shit like I have
Well I guess this is the end, I guess this is the end."
She feels the sun, phones her mum and the world smiles
'Cos outside in the morning light it's another day
So she packs her bag, smokes a fag and the world smiles
'Cos inside well she feels all right, and turns to say:
"Yes it's the end, the final showdown
Yes it's the end of our small love
You'll have to find another no one to take the shit like I have
Coast to coast
Side to side
Shines the minds of fine enlightend
minds coast to coast
We are only youngbut we style our future with a cattle gun
We are idle rich
so we smile for tomorrow with a bitch of an itch
Cause when the fire light shocks like a cop shop pyre
we'll jack the politics for premonition and fire
and we'll move like Nuryev at night
Coast to coast
Side to side
Shines the light of fine enlightened minds
Coast to coast
We are only young
but we style out future in the shadow of guns
We are not idle rich
so we smile for tomorrow with a bitch of an itch
cause when the stylized kick of the filmstar whip,
cracks down on the millions, cracks the kids on the hips
we'll be moving like Nuryev at night
Coast to coast
Side to side
shines the light of fine enlightened minds
Coast to coast
Side to side
feel the steel that shines outside the blinds
Coast to coast
Side to side
blades engraved with babies' nameswhile pylons hide the suicide
Coast to coast
Side to sideshines the light of fine enlightened minds
Coast to coastSide to side
feel the steel that shines outside the blinds
Coast to coast
Side to side
Oh, day after day, every morning
The city sighs and cars collide
Oh we take the train
Through the winter hinterlands and garage bands
An we wash it away, we wash it away this grey
Wash it away
Oh, cos this time is yours and mine
Oh hear the city sound, see the lonely crowds
This scene is you and me
Oh in the lazy sun, we're the lonely ones
Oh, day after day, every morning
The roundabouts will take us out
Past every train in every station
Traffic signs and circle lines
Oh we wash it away, we wash it away this grey
Wash it away
Oh, cos this time is yours and mine
Oh hear the city sound, see the lonely crowds
This scene is you and me
see you in your next life when we'll fly away for good
stars in our own car we can drive away from here
far away, so far away, down to Worthing and work there
far away, we'll go far away and flog ice creams til the company's on its knees
Won't someone give me a gun?
oh well it's for my brother
well he writes the line wrote down my spine
It says "Oh do you believe in love there?"
So slow down, slow down, you're taking me over
And so we drown, sir we drown, stop taking me over
Won't someone give me some fun?
(and as the skin flies all around us)
We kiss in his room to a popular tune
Oh, real drowners
slow down, slow down, you're taking me over
And so we drown, sir we drown,
And maybe we're just kids who've grown, and maybe not,
And maybe when we're on our own, we don't have much,
But oh, we are young and not tired of it,
Oh, we are young and easily lead,
Oh, with all the kids getting out of their heads.
Oh, Class A, Class B, is that the only chemistry?
Oh, Class A, Class B, is that the only chemistry between us?
And maybe were just Streatham trash, and maybe not,
And maybe we're just capital flash in a stupid love,
But oh, we are young and not tired of it,
Oh we are young and easily lead,
Oh, by all the kids getting out of our heads.
Oh, Class A, Class B, is that the only chemistry?
All the white kids shuffle to the heavy metal stutter
And go shaking on the scene like killing machines
And they know that when she's stacked up top
She'll be a sucker for the shotgun show
Shaking obscene like the killing machines here we go
It's the same old show, He's a killer of a flash boy oh
He's a killer he's a killer he's a flashboy oh
Oh if you shake your fake tan thru aerosol land you'll know
That you'll suffer for your sex by the caravanettes oh no
And that sh*tter with the pout won't be putting it about no more
oh shaking obscene like a killing machine he we go
It's the same old show, he's a killer he's a flash boy oh
He's a killer he's a flash boy oh...oh and Athena loves your body
So think of the sea my darling
Think of the sea as you murder me
It's the same old show, he's a killer, he's a flash boy oh
Lonely skies
Empty minds
We walk by to the rock and rhyme
I said, oh come on do it again
City signs
Business minds
We walk by with head hi-fi
You know oh I wanna do it again
And we lose it to the music
And we lose it to the beat
And get stupid, come on lose it
Cos it all means nothing to me
So give me head, give me head, give me head music instead
You know, oh is it all in the mind
So give me head, give me head, give me head music instead
You know, oh yes it's all in the mind
Kids get high
Cities die
We just smile cos it's all inside
You know, oh yes it's all in the mind
So come on lose it to the music
And lose it to the beat
And get stupid, come on lose it
Cos this all means nothing to me
Come on come on and
Give me head, give me head, give me head music instead
You know, of cos it's all in the mind
Come on come on and
Give me head, give me head, give me head music instead
You know, of cos it's all in the mind
Run with me baby, let your hair down
through every station, through every town
run with me baby, let's take a chance
from Heathrow to Hounslow, from the Eastern Block to France
Europe is our playground, London is our town
so run with me baby now
Run with me baby, let your hair down
through every station, through every town
run with me baby, let's make a stand
from peepshow to disco, from Spain to Camber Sands
Europe is our playground, London is our town
She can walk out anytime, anytime she wants to walk out, that's fine,
She can walk out anytime, anytime she feels that life has passed her by,
And when I start my new life I won't touch the ground,
I'm gonna try hard this time not to touch the ground.
He can walk out anytime, anytime he wants to walk out, that's fine,
He can walk out anytime, across the sand, into the sea, into the brine,
And when I start my new life I won't touch the ground,
I1m gonna try hard this time not to touch the ground.
So we sold the car and quit the job
and shook some hands and wiped the make-up right off,
And we said our good-byes to the bank
left Seven Sisters for a room in a seaside shack,
And when I start my new life I won't touch the ground,
I'm gonna try hard this time not to touch the ground?
...it's by the sea we'll breed
Like his dad you know that he's had
Animal nitrate in mind
Oh in your council home he jumped on your bones
now you're taking it time after time
oh it turns you on, on, on, now he has gone
oh what turns you on, on, on, now your animal's gone?
Well he said he'd show you his bed
and the delights of his chemical smile
so in your broken home he broke all of your bones
now you're taking it time after time
oh it turns you on, on, on, now he has gone
oh what turns you on, on, on, now yor animal's gone?
what does it take to turn you on, on
now he has gone?
now you're over 21?
now your animal's gone?
Out in the sticks, out in the stickiness
They're chasing round in stolen ice cream vans
They're sparking up with someone, oh
They're covering up their jumpers in roses, oh
Where pigs don't fly, oh
Out over there, out in the sticky wire fire,
Your royal stickiness your highness
I've heard there's someone saying I do
And banging at the old piano tune
Where the pigs don't fly, I do
Where the pigs don't fly, I do
I do...
All the white kids shuffle to the heavy metal stutter
And go shaking on the scene like killing machines
And they know that when she's stacked up top
She'll be a sucker for the shotgun show
Shaking obscene like the killing machines here we go
It's the same old show, He's a killer of a flash boy oh
He's a killer he's a killer he's a flashboy oh
Oh if you shake your fake tan thru aerosol land you'll know
That you'll suffer for your sex by the caravanettes oh no
And that sh*tter with the pout won't be putting it about no more
oh shaking obscene like a killing machine he we go
It's the same old show, he's a killer he's a flash boy oh
He's a killer he's a flash boy oh...oh and Athena loves your body
So think of the sea my darling
Think of the sea as you murder me
It's the same old show, he's a killer, he's a flash boy oh
This is the killing of a flash boy oh...
Lying in my bed, I think of you
That song goes through my head, the one we both knew
In each line lies another line full of sacred sound
But you're outside where the companies dream and the money goes round
Lying in my bed.
Watching my mistakes,
I listen to the band they said that it could be the 2 of us
The snow might fall and write the lines on the silent page
But you're outside making permanent love to the nuclear age
Two silhouettes by the cash machine make a lovers dance
It's a tango for the lonely wives of the business class
Lying in my bed
Watching my mistakes
I listen to the band
Lying in my bed
With nothing much to say so I listen to the man
He said that it could be the 2 of us
I heard you call from across the city through the stereo sound
And so I crawled there sickeningly pretty as the money went round
Lying in my head watching my mistakes
I listen to the band
And the drums beat in my head
Pianos chime the sound in this prison of the house
And as the illness comes again can you hear me through the rain
As I listen to the band?
As I sing the silent song
Mime each lonely word
Please listen to the man he said that it could be the 2 of us
Alone but not lonely, you and me
Alone but loaded.........
Dog man star took a suck on a pill
And stabbed a cerebellum with a curious quill
Europe, America, Winterland
Introducing the band
Chic thug stuttered through a stereo dream
A fifty knuckle shuffle heavy metal machine
The tears of suburbia drowned the land
Introducing the band
So steal me a savage, subservient son
Get him shacked-up, bloodied-up and sucking on a gun
I want the style of a woman, the kiss of a man
Introducing the band
And as the sci-fi lullaby starts to build
See them whipping all the women, cracked governments killed
Oh let the century die to violent hands
Introducing the band
I love that deafening, thundering sound
That sounds like buildinggs tumbling down
And people wish that they weren't around
When we all rock and roll into town
We hear those fearful, piercing screams
The kind you find on cinema screens
And if they're fit to burst at the seams
If they could say what all of this means
I am, I am the elephant man
It is incredible how I can
Look just like an elephant, man,
Just like, just like my elephant fans
We love that satisfying, rattling crash
The sound of registers full of cash
We'll be all over your town like a rash
We'll steal your children and smoke all your hash
I am, I am the elephant man
It is incredible how I can
Look just like an elephant, man,
Just like, just like my elephant fans
I love that deafening, thundering sound
The sounds like buildings tumbling down
And people wish that they weren't around
When we all rock and roll into town
I am, I am the elephant man
It is incredible how I can
Look just like an elephant, man,
Just like, just like my elephant fans
We are, we are the elephant men
Take heed, we'll be stampeding again
Look out all of you fairweather friends
Because elephants never forget
Watch the early morning sun
Drip like blood from the day
See the crazy people run
So many games to play
See the blue suburban dream
Under the jet plane sky
Sleep away and dream a dream
Life is just a lullaby
Ah Ah Ah
And everything will flow
Watch the day begin again
Whispering into the night
See the crazy people play
Hurrying under the light
A million cars, a million trains
Under the jet plane sky
Nothing lost and nothing gained
Life is just a lullaby
The neon lights in the night tonight will say
Everything will flow
The stars that shine in the open sky will say
Everything will flow
The lovers kissed with an openness will say
Everything will flow
The cars parked in the hypermarket know
She walks the streets of summer
Inside her there's no future
She walks the streets to pass the time
The cash machines are laughing
At plastic people passing
She walks the streets to pass the time
Sadie, Sadie in the sound of the streets
Insane as anything, ah ah
Sadie, Sadie kn-knows the sound of the streets
It's the same as anything, ah ah
She sees the midnight taxis
The toilets and the backstreets
She feels the wheels and needs a line
Outside there's crazy parties
There's dames in faces laughing
So many ways to pass the timeSadie...
She walks the streets of summer
Inside her there's no future
She walks the streets to pass the time
Inside she feels like winter
For the child that died within her
She walks the streets to pass the time
Sadie...
Maybe, maybe it's the clothes we wear,
The tasteless bracelets and the dye in our hair,
Maybe it's our kookiness,
Or maybe, maybe it's our nowhere towns,
Our nothing places and our cellophane sounds,
Maybe it's our looseness,
But we're trash, you and me,
We're the litter on the breeze,
We're the lovers on the streets,
Just trash, me and you,
It's in everything we do,
It's in everything we do...
Maybe, maybe it's the things we say,
The words we've heard and the music we play,
Maybe it's our cheapness,
Or maybe, maybe it's the times we've had,
The lazy days and the crazes and the fads,
Maybe it's our sweetness,
But we're trash, you and me,
We're the litter on the breeze,
We're the lovers on the street,
Just trash, me and you,
It's in everything we do,
She, walking like a killer,
She, another night another pillow.
Nowhere places, nowhere faces, no one wants to see,
No education, it's the arse of the nation,
She is bad, she is bored, she is bony, she is...
She, sh-shaking up the karma,
She, 3injecting marijuana2,
Nowhere places, nowhere faces, no one wants to see,
No education it's the arse of the nation,
She is bad, she is bored, she is bony, she is...
she...
Nowhere faces, nowhere places, no one wants to be,
No stimulation in this privatisation,
It's the way you pick your clothes off the floor
It's the way you scratch your skin when you yawn
It's the T-shirts that you choose like you're in the Air Force
Yeah, the language that you use reacts like chemicals
Obsessions in my head
Don't connect with my intellect
It's called obsession
Can you handle it?
It's connected to the hip sounds
And it moves with the underground
It's called obsession
When you're around
It's the way you close the doors of my car
It's the stupid things you bought with my credit card
It's the way you don't read Camus or Brett Easton Ellis
Yeah, the TCP you use, it stings when we kiss
Obsessions in my head
Don't connect with my intellect
It's called obsession
Can you handle it?
It's connected to the hip sounds
And it moves with the underground
It's called obsession
When you're around
Obsessions is like sex
It's simple and complex
It's called obsession
Can you handle it?
It's connected to the hip sounds
And it moves with the underground
It's called obsession
Oh when you and I
Watch the planes go by
Silver in the sky
We do whatever we like
Oh when you and me
See the birds and the sea
The people on the streets
We do whatever we please
But every Monday morning comes
Every Monday morning yeah yeah
Oh every Monday morning comes
Every Monday morning yeah
Oh when you and I
Watch the London sky
The traffic rolling by
We do whatever we like
So we chase the day away
And feel the morning rain
Piss our money down the drain
And do whatever they say
But every Monday morning comes,
Every Monday morning, yeah, yeah
Oh every Monday morning comes,
Every Monday morning, yeah
I feel real now walking like a woman and talking like a stone age man
I feel real now talking like buddha and doing it again
I get kick I rip it up kick it up take it like a teenage tough
I feel real now talking like sugar and shaking that stuff
Singing I can't get enough
Singing I can't get enough
I feel schizo every so psycho kicking at an old tin can
I feel real like a man like a woman like a woman like a man
I make dead space feel like a headcase take it like a teenage tough
And feel real now watching those wheels and shaking that stuff
Singing I can't get enough
Singing I can't get enough
Singing I can't get enough
Singing I can't get enough
I feel real now walking like a woman and talking like a stone age man
I feel real now talking like buddha and doing it again
So give me this and give me that smother me and give me some of that bad stuff
I feel real now talking like sugar and shaking that stuff
Singing I can't get enough
Singing I can't get enough
Singing I can't get enough
A strange relationship has started
A strange relationship indeed
It's like a watercolor forming
Between the pages of a dream
And it's calling you
It's calling me
It's calling everyone to be
In a future world with an astrogirl
One on one is all you need
In a future world with an astrogirl
One on one is all you need
A strange experience has started
Between her molecules and me
It's like two seas between us forming
From obsolete technology
And it's calling you
It's calling me
It's calling everyone to be
In a future world with an astrogirl
One on one is all you need
In a future world with an astrogirl
The sky goes on and on for you and me
The sky goes on and on for you and me
The sky goes on and on for you and me
In a future world with an astrogirl
There'll be no obstacles, you'll see
'Cos we'll be making friends with the supermen
The sky goes on and on for you and me
The sky goes on and on for you and me
The sky goes on and on for you
Tony only reads Asian Babes
Danny's doing doves down the raves
Terry drinks his money away
Oh god, and his sons play drums all day
On the scene, on the dole, in your eyes, in your soul, the young men
You are the ones, are the scene, are the sons, are the young men
Young men, here we, here we go again
Les says punk isn't dead
Mick is not impeccably bred
Paul he just can't get out of bed
Oh god, and Phil's still off his head
On the scene, on the dole, in your eyes, in your soul, the young men
You are the ones, are the system, are the sons, are the young men
Young men, here we, here we go again
On the scene, on the dole, in your eyes, in your soul, the young men
You are the ones, are the scene, are the young men
Cheating on the wives, all shiny suits and lazy lies, the young men
Insulting everyone, picked up your sister, kicked your son, the young men
Fighting in the clubs, flash on the streets, cash in the pubs, the young men
Out in the sticks, out in the stickiness
They're chasing round in stolen ice cream vans
They're sparking up with someone, oh
They're covering up their jumpers in roses, oh
Where pigs don't fly, oh
Out over there, out in the sticky wire fire,
Your royal stickiness your highness
I've heard there's someone saying "I do"
And banging at the old piano tune
Where the pigs don't fly, I do
Where the pigs don't fly, I do
Lying in my bed, I think of you
That song goes through my head, the one we both knew
In each line lies another line full of sacred sound
But you're outside where the companies dream and the money goes round
Lying in my bed.
Watching my mistakes,
I listen to the band they said that it could be the 2 of us
The snow might fall and write the lines on the silent page
But you're outside making permanent love to the nuclear age
Two silhouettes by the cash machine make a lovers dance
It's a tango for the lonely wives of the business class
Lying in my bed
Watching my mistakes
I listen to the band
Lying in my bed
With nothing much to say so I listen to the man
He said that it could be the 2 of us
I heard you call from across the city through the stereo sound
And so I crawled there sickeningly pretty as the money went round
Lying in my head watching my mistakes
I listen to the band
And the drums beat in my head
Pianos chime the sound in this prison of the house
And as the illness comes again can you hear me through the rain
As I listen to the band?
As I sing the silent song
Mime each lonely word
Please listen to the man he said that it could be the 2 of us
Alone but not lonely, you and me
This still life is all I ever do
There by the window quietly killed for you
In the glass house my insect life
Crawling the walls under electric lights
I'll go into the night, into the night
She and I into the night
Is this still life all I'm good for too?
There by the window quietly killed for you
And they drive by like insects do
They think they don't know me
They hired a car for you
To go into the night, into the night
She and I into the night
And this still life is all I ever do
There by the window quietly killed for you
And this still life is all I ever do
But it's still, still life
But it's still, still life
She's star, starcrazy, electric-shock-bog-brush-hair,
Flat on her back in the 80's, in the 90's going nowhere,
Star, starcrazy, got a kicking transistor inside,
A heavy metal stutter that brains me,
and an electric love in her eyes,
Oh, she don't want education,
She got nothing to say,
She got no imagination (so they say)
Why does she feel this way?
Cos she's star, starcrazy, getting stupid on the streets tonight,
and shaking like a mechanical thing
with an electric love in her eyes,
Oh, she don't want education,
She got nothing to say,
She got no imagination (so they say)
Because we're young, because we're gone
we'll take the tide's electric mind, oh yeah? oh yeah
we're so young and so gone, let's chase the dragon, oh
Because we're youn, because we're gone
We'll scare the skies with tiger's eyes, oh yeah? oh yeah
we're so young and so gone, let's chase the dragon, oh
let's chase the dragon...
...from our home high in the city where the skyline
stained the snow, I fell for a servant who kept me on the boil
she'll come to her end locked in a car somewhere with exhaust in her hair
What's she called? I dunno, she's fucking with a slip of a man while the engine ran
And he said "She's not dead, she's gone away, gone away" he said
He said "She's not dead, just go away go away" he said
In the car he couldn't afford they found his made up name on her ankle chain
so don't call, don't call her at home
she's fucking with a slip of a man while the engine ran
and he said "she's not dead, she's gone away gone away" he said
he said "she's not dead, she's gone away gone away"
he said "just gone away, gone away" he said
She lives in a house she's stupid as a mouse
And she going where the lights are on
She shaking obscene like a fucking machine
And she gone gone gone
She cooking crack giving us heart attack
And she living in a kooky show
She open your mind for the millionth time
And then go go go
She got everything she needs
She got pretty pretty feet
And she got flowers in her hair yeah yeah
Today she's been working, she's been talking, she's been smoking,
but it'll be alright,
Cos tonight we'll go dancing, we'll go laughing, we'll get car sick,
and it'll be okay like everyone says, it'll be alright and ever so nice,
We're going out tonight, out and about tonight.
Oh, whatever makes her happy on a Saturday night,
Oh whatever makes her happy, whatever makes it alright.
Today she's been sat there, sat there in a black chair, office furniture,
but it'll be alright,
Cos tonight we'll go drinking we'll do silly things,
and never let the winter in,
And it'll be okay like everyone says, it'll be alright and ever so nice,
We're going out tonight, out and about tonight.
Oh, whatever makes her happy on a Saturday night,
Oh, whatever makes her happy, whatever makes it alright.
we'll go to peepshows and freak shows,
we'll go to discos, casinos,
we'll go where people go and let go
Inside her is the suburbs, in the sodium lights and the streets
In the parked cars and the pretty parks, and in every disease
In the new loves under covers, in the cold touch of the right
In the dead flowers and the silent hours
Cold, cold as the night, high as the trees, slow as you like
Oh you know she's cold, cold as the night
High as the trees, slow as you like... Sadie
Inside her is the suburbs, in the old front rooms in the rain
In all the bad days and the music that plays
In the bored kids and their games
In the new loves under covers, and all the young mums and their worlds
Who are left at home when all the kids have grown watching the pretty young girls
Cold, cold as the night, high as the trees, slow as you like
Oh you know she's cold, cold as the night
High as the trees, slow as you like... Sadie
Oh and I've got to take it, and I've got to fake it
And I've got use her, and I've got to choose her
And I've got to feel it, and I've got steal it
I wake up every day to see her back again
Screaming my name through the astral plane
And in this catalogue town she takes me down
Down through the platinum spires
Down through the telephone wires
And we shake it around in the underground
And like a new generation rise
And like all the boys in all the cities
I take the poison, take the pity
But she and I, we soon discovered
we'd take the pills to find each other
Oh but when she is calling here in my head
Can you hear her calling
And what she has said?
Oh but when she is calling here in my head
It's like a new generation calling
Can you hear it call?
And I'm losing myself, losing myself to you
I wake up every day, to find her back again
Breeding disease on her hands and knees
While the styles turn and the books still burn
Yes it's there in the platinum spires
It's there in the telephone wires
And we spread it around to a techno sound
But like a new generation rise
Cos like all the boys in all the cities
I take the poison, take the pity
But she and I we soon discover
We take the pills to find each other
Oh but when she is calling here in my head
Can you hear her calling?
And what she has said?
Oh but when she is calling here in my head
It's like a new generation calling
Can you hear her call?
In the high life, I've got this feeling now
I've got this horrible feeling
on the escalator they took it out on him
as the ridiculous world went...oh
oh he is gone
he's my insatiable one
oh he is gone
he's my insatiable one...oh
On the high wire, dressed in a leotard
there wobbles one hell of a retard
on the escalator
we shit paracetemol
as the ridiculous world goes...by
oh he is gone
he's my insatiable one
oh he is gone
he's my insatiable one
oh he is gone
he's my insatiable one
oh he is gone
You thought you'd come and amaze me honey
You thought you'd come on and amaze me with your money
You thought you'd come and amaze me honey
Get flash get cash get phoney
You thought you'd come and amaze me honey
You thought you'd come on and amaze me with your money
You thought you'd come and amaze me honey
Get rich get stitched get lonely
So come and amaze me so come and amaze me
It takes everyone every son, every dad and every mum
Some find a one and a one turns them on, it's money
You thought you'd come and amaze me honey
You thought you'd come on and amaze me with your money
You thought you'd come and amaze me honey
Get wheels, get heels, get sloaney
You thought you'd come and amaze me honey
You thought you'd come on and amaze me with your money
You thought you'd come and amaze me honey
Get fucked, pissed up, get loaded
So come and amaze me, so come and amaze me
It takes everyone, every son, every dad and every mum
She was standing smoking counting stolen change
Don't someone have the guts to complain?
Said "superman I'm a big fan
Let's get something straight
Well you don't have the guts to complain"
Now your son's coming out to play
Your son's coming out to play
When you're on your own
Standing by the phone
We should get together
Got a supermarket stance
Just taking it hand in hand
We should get together
Just think of the life you'll save
Not stuck in your early grave
We should get together
I saw you standing smoking counting stolen change
But I don't have the guts to complain
Well I picked you up, got mixed up with you,
That's OK
'Cos now I've got the guts to complain
And now your son's coming out to play
Your son's coming out to play
When you're on your own
Standing by the phone
We should get together
Got a supermarket stance
Just taking it hand-in-hand
We should get together
Just think of the life you'll save
Not stuck in your early grave
Here they come with their make-up on
as lovely as the clouds, come and see them,
Boys and girls and their mums and their words
and their romances and jobs and their sons,
Barking mad kids, lonely dads
who drug it up to give it some meaning,
From the raves to the council estates
they're reminding us there's things to be done.
But you and me, all we want to be is lazy,
you and me, so lazy...
Here they come gone 7am
getting satellite and Sky getting cable,
Bills and Bens and their mums and their friends
who just really, really want to be loved,
Uncle Teds and their legendary vests
helping out around the disabled,
From the flats and the maisonettes
they're reminding us there's things to be done.
But you and me, all we want to be is lazy,
you and me, so lazy...
Oh, jumble sale mums, what are they on?
Kids just sit hanging round the street
And they've got somebody else's clothes on
Jumble sale dads, boil in the bag
Says some things that I can't repeat, and he swears...
Oh, this ain't the highlife
This ain't the highlife
This ain't the highlife
This ain't the highlife
Oh, jumble sale mums, what are they on?
Kids just sit hanging round the street
And they've got somebody else's clothes on
Jumble sale dads, now she's packed her bags
Says some things that I can't repeat, and he swears...
Oh, this ain't the highlife
This ain't the highlifeThis ain't the highlife
You'll hide among the covers and wave as the aeroplanes go by
There's nothing to say when you sleep all day but "bye bye".
Your mind will find another and that's where the days have gone
And all you can hear is a stereo somewhere playing a pig of a song
And you'll know her know her when she comes.
When you turn the light out light out she'll come.
She called you from across the city you hired a car to crawl,
But with the high rise still in your eyes you wonder who's out there at all.
And you'll know her, know her, when she comes.
When you turn the light out, light out, she'll come.
When you turn the light out, she'll come.
She walks in beauty like the night
Discarding her clothes in the plastic flowers
Pornographic and tragic in black and white
My Marilyn come to my slum for an hour
I'm aching to see my heroine
I'm aching been dying for hours and hours
She walks in the beauty of a magazine
Complicating the boys in the office towers
Rafaella or Della the silent dream
My Marilyn come to my slum for an hour
I'm aching to see my heroine
I'm aching been dying for hours and hours,
been dying for hours and hours
She walks in beauty like the night
Hypnotising the silence with her powers
Armageddon is bedding this picture alright
My Marilyn come to slum for an hour
I'm aching to see my heroine
Aching, been dying for hours and hours
I'm 18, I need my heroines
Aching, been dying for hours
Oh and I'm never alone now
Tears on a pillow
Eyes on the phone
You pour all the love that you keep inside
Into a song
Like 'He's Gone'
And these are the thoughts that you keep inside
You smile from your window
And stand all alone
And pour all the love that you keep inside
Into the phone
Into the phone
And like the leaves on the trees
Like the Carpenters song
Like the planes and the trains and they lives that were young
He's gone
And it feels like the words to a song
With the style of a widow
And the place of your own
You pour all the words that you keep inside
Into the phone
And sit alone
And these are the thoughts that you keep inside
And smile from your window
And stand all alone
And pour all the love that you keep inside
Into a song
into a song
And like the leaves on the trees
Like the Carpenters song
Like the planes and the trains and they lives that were young
He's gone
And it feels like the words to a song
And like the stains on the names of the lives of the young
He's gone
And it feels like the words to a song
And like the leaves on the trees
Like the Carpenters song
Like the planes and the trains and they lives that were young
He's gone
And it feels like the words to a song
And like the stains on the names of the lives of the young
He's gone
And it feels like the words to a song
So gone
I wake up every day,
But I don't want it that way
I take my thoughts to the round about
Cause me and them we like to get out
Oh what you do in your head,
You do in your head
Oh if he is dead
He said he had a horrible house
I looked in it and learnt to shut my mouth
He said I had the luck of a son
With all the love and poison of London
Oh what you do in your head
You do in your head
Oh if he is dead
Oh what you do in your head
You do in your head
Graffiti women draw pictures on the wall
Graffiti slogans and situations fall
Just made up people who wander through the rain
Graffiti people got nothing got no name
And you sleep but they'll find you
And they'll carve their number in your minds
And they steal what they want from who they want, from time to time
Graffiti women swap stories in the dark
Graffiti women take photos at the dark
And tenement people who wander through the day
Graffiti people got nothing got no name
And you sleep but they'll find youGra
And they'll carve their number in your minds
And they'll steal what they want from who they want, from time to time
And you sleep but they'll find you
And they carve their number in your minds
And they steal what they want from who they want, from time to time
And you'll sleep but they'll find you
And they carve their number in your minds
Filmstar, propping up the bar, driving in a car, it looks so easy,
Filmstar, propping up the bar, driving in a car tonight,
Filmstar, giving it class, living it fast, it looks so easy,
Filmstar, giving it class, living it fast tonight.
What to believe in, it's impossible to say?
What to believe in when they change your name,
wash your brain, play the game again, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Filmstar, elegance, a terylene shirt, it looks so easy,
Filmstar, an elegant sir in a terylene shirt tonight,
Filmstar, propping up the bar, driving in a car, it looks so easy,
Filmstar, propping up the bar, driving in a car tonight.
What to believe in, it's impossible to say?
What to believe in when they change your name,
wash your brain, play the game again,
I love that deafening, thundering sound
That sounds like buildinggs tumbling down
And people wish that they weren't around
When we all rock and roll into town
We hear those fearful, piercing screams
The kind you find on cinema screens
And if they're fit to burst at the seams
If they could say what all of this means
I am, I am the elephant man
It is incredible how I can
Look just like an elephant, man,
Just like, just like my elephant fans
We love that satisfying, rattling crash
The sound of registers full of cash
We'll be all over your town like a rash
We'll steal your children and smoke all your hash
I am, I am the elephant man
It is incredible how I can
Look just like an elephant, man,
Just like, just like my elephant fans
I love that deafening, thundering sound
The sounds like buildings tumbling down
And people wish that they weren't around
When we all rock and roll into town
I am, I am the elephant man
It is incredible how I can
Look just like an elephant, man,
Just like, just like my elephant fans
We are, we are the elephant men
Take heed, we'll be stampeding again
Look out all of you fairweather friends
We got a love that's cold as stone
We got a love from our violent homes
We got a love and it got no name
We kiss our love with lips like pain
We got a lotta electricity
We got a love like AC/DC
We got a love and it got no shame
We kiss our love with lips like pain
Oh it's bigger than the universe
It's bigger than the universe
It's bigger than the 2 of us
Oh it's bigger than you and me
We got a love between us and it's like electricity
We got a love like a violent mind
We get our love from white white lines
We got a love and it got no name
We kiss our love with lips like pain
We got a love from nowhere towns
We got a love like electric sounds
We got a love and it got no shame
We kiss our love with lips like pain
I said, oh it's bigger than the universe
It's bigger than the universe
It's bigger than the 2 of us
Oh it's bigger than you and me
We got a love between us and it's like electricity
Oh it's bigger than the universe
It's bigger than the universe
It's bigger than the 2 of us
Oh it's bigger than you and me
You've had your fun
Your money's gone
Your only friend is the telephone
Oh duchess, now you're one of us
You stay at home
And light the lights
It make you smile in the empty night
Oh duchess, now you're one of us
Well she knows Latinos, and she knows Mexicans
And she sits alone by the telephone but they won't call back again
You count the bands, you cut your hair
And someone saying you're a millionaire
Oh duchess, now you're one of us
You've friends to see, a car to drive
You go to bars but you're much too shy
Oh duchess, now you're one of us
Well she knows Latinos and she knows Mexicans
And she sits alone over thirteen stone
And they won't come back again
oh li-da-di-da-dioh li-da-di-da-dioh li-da-di-da-dioh oh
Well she knows Latinos and she knows Mexicans
But nothing sad stuff and they've had enough
And they won't come back again
You've had your fun
Your money's gone
Stephanie stares at the posters on the wall
Tina sits and waits for a telephone call
Maxine mixes alcohol
With polythene and paint
Sylvia stays in bed on her own
She can hear the cars outside
And wonders where they go
And if you call her answer phone
She'll get back to you one day
And lonely girls
Lonely girls fill the world
Oh, Julia dreams while she's typing away
Jackie kills time while the company pays
Tracy still hears 808 ringing in her brain
Jane slaps paints on the walls of her home
Lydia sings when she thinks she's alone
Jean gets drunk and wonders home
Through the car parks that need her change
Yeah, lonely girls
Lonely girls fill the world
And they smile through the summer
And laugh in the rain
And singing through the winter
But never show the pain
Oh, sometimes our lives are not what they seem
Sometimes things aren't like they are in lifestyle magazines
We see what we want to see
In this miracle of clay
Well, lonely girls
RELEASE
ALBUMS
- Leaving
- Popstar
- Killer
- Implement Yeah!
- Waterloo
- See That Girl
- Bored
- Pieces of My Mind
- Jubilee
- God's Gift
- Seascape
- Crackhead
- Let Go
- Since You Went Away
- Situations
- Read My Mind
- Poor Little Rich Girl (feat. Raissa)
- Heroin
- Music Like Sex (previously unreleased)
- Trash
- Filmstar
- Lazy
- By the Sea
- She
- Beautiful Ones
- Starcrazy
- Picnic by the Motorway
- The Chemistry Between Us
- Saturday Night
- She (Greenhouse demo)
- Lazy (Greenhouse demo)
- Dead Leg (Beautiful Ones - four track demo)
- Filmstar (Church demo)
- Pisspot (Trash - four track demo)
- Ballad Idea (Saturday Night - Church demo)
- Tiswas (Starcrazy - four track demo)
- Asda Town
- Together
- Bentswood Boys
- Simon
- Cheap
- One Love
- Superstar
- Colours
- Campfire Song
- Cool Thing
- Instant Sunshine
- UFO
- Rainy Day Girl
- Hard Candy
- ABC Song
- You Belong to Me
- Love the Way You Love
- Attitude
- Golden Gun
- Oxygen
- Golden Gun (Z One demo)
- Love the Way You Love (Brett's original 4 track demo)
- Refugees
- Introducing the Band
- We Are the Pigs
- Heroine
- The Wild Ones
- Daddy's Speeding
- The Power
- New Generation
- This Hollywood Life
- The 2 of Us
- Black or Blue
- The Asphalt World
- Still Life
- Squidgy Bun (Introducing the Band) (four track demo)
- Ken (The Wild Ones) (four track demo)
- A Man's Song (Heroine) (four track demo)
- Banana Youth (The Power) (four track demo)
- The 2 of Us (four track demo)
- My Insatiable One
- To the Birds
- He's Dead
- Where the Pigs Don't Fly
- Painted People
- The Big Time
- High Rising
- Dolly
- My Insatiable One (piano version)
- Brass in Pocket
- Diesel (instrumental) [previously unreleased studio outtake]
- Stars on 45 [previously unreleased rehearsal room recording]
- Just a Girl [early demo feat. Justine Frischmann]
- Sleeping Pills [strings]
- Animal Nitrate
- Beautiful Ones
- Trash
- Filmstar
- Metal Mickey
- New Generation
- So Young
- Wild Ones
- Drowners
- Stay Together
- Lazy
- Everything Will Flow
- We Are the Pigs
- Can't Get Enough
- Electricity
- Obsessions
- She's in Fashion
- Saturday Night
- Wonderful Sometimes
- Be My God
- Art
- He's Dead (live Glastonbury Festival, UK 25-06-1993)
- Brass In Pocket
- Painted People
- My Insatiable One (alternative Piano version)
- Stay Together (edit)
- Dolly
- My Insatiable One (live Glastonbury Festival, UK 25-06-1993)
- Stay Together
- The Wild Ones (radio edit)
- This World Needs A Father
- Eno's Introducing The Band
- She (strings)
- Elaine Paige
- La Puissance
- Lazy (demo)
- By the Sea (acoustic version)
- Indian Strings (protocol demo)
- She's in Fashion (protocol demo)
- Simon (demo)
- Beautiful Loser (Parkgate demo)
- When the Rain Falls (Stanbridge demo)
- Untitled (Stanbridge demo)
- Attitude (Mick Jones remix) / Still Life (strings)
- Beautiful Ones
- Animal Nitrate
- Trash
- Metal Mickey
- So Young
- The Wild Ones
- Obsessions
- Filmstar
- Can't Get Enough
- Everything Will Flow
- Stay Together
- Love the Way You Love
- The Drowners
- New Generation
- Lazy
- She's in Fashion
- Attitude
- Electricity
- We Are the Pigs
- Positivity
- Saturday Night
- My Insatiable One
- To the Birds
- Where the Pigs Don't Fly
- He's Dead
- The Big Time
- High Rising
- The Living Dead
- My Dark Star
- Killing of a Flash Boy
- Whipsnade
- Modern Boys
- Together
- Bentswood Boys
- Europe Is Our Playground
- Pantomime Horse
- Trashy
- We Are the Pigs
- Animal Nitrate
- My Heroine
- My Insatiable One
- He's Dead
- Metal Mickey
- Losing Myself
- She's Not Dead
- Sleeping Pills
- Stay Together
- So Young
- The Next Life
- My Insatiable One
- Puddle of Love
- A Measure of Sadness
- My Foolish Heart
- Miss Celie's Blues (Sister)
- If I Ever Say I'm Over You
- Barely Blue
- Promises
- Scotch and Soda
- Song With the Violins
- Love Me Like They Do in the Movies
- No Illusion (It Won't Go Away)
- Kairos
- Animal Lover
- Moving
- Metal Mickey
- Pantonime Horses
- The Drowners
- Sleeping Pills
- To the Birds
- Dolly
- The Drowners
- Painted People
- Metal Mickey
- Moving
- Pantonime Horses
- Animal Lover
- To the Birds
- The Drowners
- Animal Lover
- Sleeping Pills
- Brass in Pocket
- The Next Life
- Moving
- Animal Nitrate
- Metal Mickey
- Pantomime Horse
- She's Not Dead
- So Young
- To the Birds
- So Young
- Animal Nitrate
- Moving
- The Drowners
- Sleeping Pills
- Metal Mickey
- We Are the Pigs
- The Wild Ones
- New Generation
- This Hollywood Life
- The 2 of Us
- Trash
- Filmstar
- Lay
- By the Sea
- Beautiful Ones
- Saturday Night
- Stay Together
- Brass in Pocket
- Wonderful Sometimes
- Be My God
- Art
- Painted People
- Dolly
- Stay Together
- This World Needs a Father
- Asda Town
- Shipbuilding
- Europe Is Our Playground
- Sam
- Feel
- Digging a Hole
- My Insatiable One
- Lazy
- Rent
- Perfect Day
- Introducing the Band
- We are the Pigs
- Heroine
- The Wild Ones
- Daddy's Speeding
- The Power
- New Generation
- This Hollywood Life
- The 2 of Us
- Black or Blue
- The Asphalt World
- Still Life
- The Living Dead
- Attitude
- My Dark Star
- Killing of a Flashboy
- Obsessions
- Can't Get Enough
- Everything Will Flow
- Down
- Indian Strings
- He's Gone
- Trash
- Lazy
- Beautiful Ones
- We Are the Pigs
- Heroine
- The Power
- New Generation
- The 2 of Us
- My Dark Star
- Killing of a Flash Boy
- Modern Boys
- W.S.D.
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Suede - The Beautiful Ones
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:41
- Updated: 30 Jan 2013
All Suede iTunes LPs / Deluxe Editions are available to pre-order from iTunes now! Suede: bit.ly Dog Man Star: bit.ly Coming Up: bit.ly Head Music: bit.ly A New Morning: bit.ly
http://wn.com/Suede_The_Beautiful_Ones
All Suede iTunes LPs / Deluxe Editions are available to pre-order from iTunes now! Suede: bit.ly Dog Man Star: bit.ly Coming Up: bit.ly Head Music: bit.ly A New Morning: bit.ly
Suede - Trash
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:07
- Updated: 31 Jan 2013
All Suede iTunes LPs/Deluxe Editions are available to pre-order from iTunes now! Suede: bit.ly Dog Man Star: bit.ly Coming Up: bit.ly Head Music: bit.ly A New Morning: bit.ly
http://wn.com/Suede_Trash
All Suede iTunes LPs/Deluxe Editions are available to pre-order from iTunes now! Suede: bit.ly Dog Man Star: bit.ly Coming Up: bit.ly Head Music: bit.ly A New Morning: bit.ly
- published: 26 May 2010
- views: 1162166
- author: SuedeVideo
Suede - Animal Nitrate
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:23
- Updated: 31 Jan 2013
All Suede iTunes LPs / Deluxe Editions are available to pre-order from iTunes now! Suede: bit.ly Dog Man Star: bit.ly Coming Up: bit.ly Head Music: bit.ly A New Morning: bit.ly
http://wn.com/Suede_Animal_Nitrate
All Suede iTunes LPs / Deluxe Editions are available to pre-order from iTunes now! Suede: bit.ly Dog Man Star: bit.ly Coming Up: bit.ly Head Music: bit.ly A New Morning: bit.ly
- published: 26 May 2010
- views: 827911
- author: SuedeVideo
Suede - Barriers (Rehearsal Room Video)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:24
- Updated: 01 Feb 2013
Rehearsal room footage of Suede playing their first new track for over ten years. Audio available for free download here: suedebarriers.viinyl.com www.suede.co.uk www.facebook.com/suede www.twitter.com/suedehq
http://wn.com/Suede_Barriers_Rehearsal_Room_Video
Rehearsal room footage of Suede playing their first new track for over ten years. Audio available for free download here: suedebarriers.viinyl.com www.suede.co.uk www.facebook.com/suede www.twitter.com/suedehq
- published: 07 Jan 2013
- views: 86944
- author: SuedeVideo
Suede - Stay Together
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:06
- Updated: 30 Jan 2013
All Suede iTunes LPs / Deluxe Editions are available to pre-order from iTunes now! Suede: bit.ly Dog Man Star: bit.ly Coming Up: bit.ly Head Music: bit.ly A New Morning: bit.ly
http://wn.com/Suede_Stay_Together
All Suede iTunes LPs / Deluxe Editions are available to pre-order from iTunes now! Suede: bit.ly Dog Man Star: bit.ly Coming Up: bit.ly Head Music: bit.ly A New Morning: bit.ly
- published: 26 May 2010
- views: 273206
- author: SuedeVideo
Suede - Saturday Night
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:21
- Updated: 31 Jan 2013
All Suede iTunes LPs / Deluxe Editions are available to pre-order from iTunes now! Suede: bit.ly Dog Man Star: bit.ly Coming Up: bit.ly Head Music: bit.ly A New Morning: bit.ly
http://wn.com/Suede_Saturday_Night
All Suede iTunes LPs / Deluxe Editions are available to pre-order from iTunes now! Suede: bit.ly Dog Man Star: bit.ly Coming Up: bit.ly Head Music: bit.ly A New Morning: bit.ly
- published: 26 May 2010
- views: 744182
- author: SuedeVideo
Suede - Wild Ones
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:31
- Updated: 29 Jan 2013
All Suede iTunes LPs/Deluxe Editions are available to pre-order from iTunes now! Suede: bit.ly Dog Man Star: bit.ly Coming Up: bit.ly Head Music: bit.ly A New Morning: bit.ly
http://wn.com/Suede_Wild_Ones
All Suede iTunes LPs/Deluxe Editions are available to pre-order from iTunes now! Suede: bit.ly Dog Man Star: bit.ly Coming Up: bit.ly Head Music: bit.ly A New Morning: bit.ly
- published: 26 May 2010
- views: 403658
- author: SuedeVideo
Suede - Everything Will Flow
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:38
- Updated: 31 Jan 2013
All Suede iTunes LPs / Deluxe Editions are available to pre-order from iTunes now! Suede: bit.ly Dog Man Star: bit.ly Coming Up: bit.ly Head Music: bit.ly A New Morning: bit.ly
http://wn.com/Suede_Everything_Will_Flow
All Suede iTunes LPs / Deluxe Editions are available to pre-order from iTunes now! Suede: bit.ly Dog Man Star: bit.ly Coming Up: bit.ly Head Music: bit.ly A New Morning: bit.ly
- published: 26 May 2010
- views: 443134
- author: SuedeVideo
Suede - Stay Together [1994]
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:07
- Updated: 27 Jan 2013
The Stay Together video was shot at Riverside Studios in London. In one part, we can actually see Bernard hanging upside down, playing his guitar. And Brett gagged. The band despise this video for too many empty symbolisms. The whole video doesn't fit the song, though, I think. Source: essentialsuede.com
http://wn.com/Suede_Stay_Together_1994_
The Stay Together video was shot at Riverside Studios in London. In one part, we can actually see Bernard hanging upside down, playing his guitar. And Brett gagged. The band despise this video for too many empty symbolisms. The whole video doesn't fit the song, though, I think. Source: essentialsuede.com
- published: 09 Jan 2006
- views: 558800
- author: electricringo
Suede - She's In Fashion
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:19
- Updated: 31 Jan 2013
All Suede iTunes LPs / Deluxe Editions are available to pre-order from iTunes now! Suede: bit.ly Dog Man Star: bit.ly Coming Up: bit.ly Head Music: bit.ly A New Morning: bit.ly
http://wn.com/Suede_She's_In_Fashion
All Suede iTunes LPs / Deluxe Editions are available to pre-order from iTunes now! Suede: bit.ly Dog Man Star: bit.ly Coming Up: bit.ly Head Music: bit.ly A New Morning: bit.ly
- published: 26 May 2010
- views: 812470
- author: SuedeVideo
Suede - So Young
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:40
- Updated: 31 Jan 2013
All Suede iTunes LPs / Deluxe Editions are available to pre-order from iTunes now! Suede: bit.ly Dog Man Star: bit.ly Coming Up: bit.ly Head Music: bit.ly A New Morning: bit.ly
http://wn.com/Suede_So_Young
All Suede iTunes LPs / Deluxe Editions are available to pre-order from iTunes now! Suede: bit.ly Dog Man Star: bit.ly Coming Up: bit.ly Head Music: bit.ly A New Morning: bit.ly
- published: 26 May 2010
- views: 452407
- author: SuedeVideo
Suede - The 2 of us
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:46
- Updated: 31 Jan 2013
http://wn.com/Suede_The_2_of_us
Suede - Filmstar
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:26
- Updated: 31 Jan 2013
All Suede iTunes LPs/Deluxe Editions are available to pre-order from iTunes now! Suede: bit.ly Dog Man Star: bit.ly Coming Up: bit.ly Head Music: bit.ly A New Morning: bit.ly
http://wn.com/Suede_Filmstar
All Suede iTunes LPs/Deluxe Editions are available to pre-order from iTunes now! Suede: bit.ly Dog Man Star: bit.ly Coming Up: bit.ly Head Music: bit.ly A New Morning: bit.ly
- published: 25 Jan 2011
- views: 90309
- author: SuedeVideo
![Suede - The Drowners UK [1992]](http://web.archive.org./web/20130201063233im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LDyKYlMunQk/default.jpg "Suede - The Drowners UK [1992]")
Suede - The Drowners UK [1992]
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:45
- Updated: 28 Jan 2013
The UK video for The Drowners is ace, the band looked cute and awfully young. Featuring the band performing the song, and a young girl who walks around with Brett, whose head comes off in Brett's hands. Source: essentialsuede.com
http://wn.com/Suede_The_Drowners_UK_1992_
The UK video for The Drowners is ace, the band looked cute and awfully young. Featuring the band performing the song, and a young girl who walks around with Brett, whose head comes off in Brett's hands. Source: essentialsuede.com
- published: 08 Jan 2006
- views: 284056
- author: electricringo
Suede - Beautiful Ones
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:39
- Updated: 31 Jan 2013
From Coming Up - 1996 ilmiolibro.kataweb.it
http://wn.com/Suede_Beautiful_Ones
Suede - Lazy
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:29
- Updated: 30 Jan 2013
All Suede iTunes LPs / Deluxe Editions are available to pre-order from iTunes now! Suede: bit.ly Dog Man Star: bit.ly Coming Up: bit.ly Head Music: bit.ly A New Morning: bit.ly
http://wn.com/Suede_Lazy
All Suede iTunes LPs / Deluxe Editions are available to pre-order from iTunes now! Suede: bit.ly Dog Man Star: bit.ly Coming Up: bit.ly Head Music: bit.ly A New Morning: bit.ly
- published: 26 May 2010
- views: 282228
- author: SuedeVideo
Suede - We Are The Pigs
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:01
- Updated: 31 Jan 2013
All Suede iTunes LPs/Deluxe Editions are available to pre-order from iTunes now! Suede: bit.ly Dog Man Star: bit.ly Coming Up: bit.ly Head Music: bit.ly A New Morning: bit.ly
http://wn.com/Suede_We_Are_The_Pigs
All Suede iTunes LPs/Deluxe Editions are available to pre-order from iTunes now! Suede: bit.ly Dog Man Star: bit.ly Coming Up: bit.ly Head Music: bit.ly A New Morning: bit.ly
- published: 26 May 2010
- views: 174195
- author: SuedeVideo
Suede - My Dark Star
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:26
- Updated: 28 Jan 2013
One of my favourite songs, from one of my favourite bands for one of my favourite people..
http://wn.com/Suede_My_Dark_Star
One of my favourite songs, from one of my favourite bands for one of my favourite people..
- published: 05 Oct 2008
- views: 106771
- author: ukKidA
Suede - Europe Is Our Playground
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:36
- Updated: 28 Jan 2013
Directed By: Simon Gilbert All Suede iTunes LPs / Deluxe Editions are available to pre-order from iTunes now! Suede: bit.ly Dog Man Star: bit.ly Coming Up: bit.ly Head Music: bit.ly A New Morning: bit.ly
http://wn.com/Suede_Europe_Is_Our_Playground
Directed By: Simon Gilbert All Suede iTunes LPs / Deluxe Editions are available to pre-order from iTunes now! Suede: bit.ly Dog Man Star: bit.ly Coming Up: bit.ly Head Music: bit.ly A New Morning: bit.ly
- published: 26 May 2010
- views: 73805
- author: SuedeVideo
Suede - Barriers
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:43
- Updated: 31 Jan 2013
The Song is from the Album 'Bloodsports' which will be released on March 18, 2013. © All Rights Belong to Suede.
http://wn.com/Suede_Barriers
The Song is from the Album 'Bloodsports' which will be released on March 18, 2013. © All Rights Belong to Suede.
- published: 08 Jan 2013
- views: 12699
- author: FreeRetroFM
elvis presley blue suede shoes color
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:09
- Updated: 31 Jan 2013
blue suede shoes color FAN CLUB OFFICIEL GENE VINCENT gene.vincent.fanclub.voila.net Forum gene-vincent-forum.niceboard.com blog musical www.20six.fr www.20six.fr Lee-Loo ANNEES VINYL
http://wn.com/elvis_presley_blue_suede_shoes_color
blue suede shoes color FAN CLUB OFFICIEL GENE VINCENT gene.vincent.fanclub.voila.net Forum gene-vincent-forum.niceboard.com blog musical www.20six.fr www.20six.fr Lee-Loo ANNEES VINYL
- published: 22 Aug 2006
- views: 10738434
- author: anneesvinyl
Suede Trash + lyrics
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:08
- Updated: 29 Jan 2013
Maybe maybe it's the clothes we wear The tasteless bracelets and the dye in our hair Maybe it's our kookiness Or maybe maybe it's our nowhere towns Our nothing places and our cellophane sounds Maybe it's our looseness But we're trash you and me We're the litter on the breeze We're the lovers on the streets Just trash me and you It's in everything we do It's in everything we do... Maybe maybe it's the things we say, The words we've heard and the music we play, Maybe it's our cheapness, Or maybe, maybe it's the times we've had, The lazy days and the crazes and the fads, Maybe it's our sweetness, But we're trash, you and me, We're the litter on the breeze, We're the lovers on the street, Just trash, me and you, It's in everything we do, It's in everything we do... Band : Suede Album : Coming Up (1996)
http://wn.com/Suede_Trash_+_lyrics
Maybe maybe it's the clothes we wear The tasteless bracelets and the dye in our hair Maybe it's our kookiness Or maybe maybe it's our nowhere towns Our nothing places and our cellophane sounds Maybe it's our looseness But we're trash you and me We're the litter on the breeze We're the lovers on the streets Just trash me and you It's in everything we do It's in everything we do... Maybe maybe it's the things we say, The words we've heard and the music we play, Maybe it's our cheapness, Or maybe, maybe it's the times we've had, The lazy days and the crazes and the fads, Maybe it's our sweetness, But we're trash, you and me, We're the litter on the breeze, We're the lovers on the street, Just trash, me and you, It's in everything we do, It's in everything we do... Band : Suede Album : Coming Up (1996)
- published: 10 Feb 2009
- views: 47541
- author: SisiAyu
Suede - Beautiful Ones - Live in Munich 1997 Part9
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:55
- Updated: 27 Jan 2013
Munich 27 March 1997. Live at Schlachthof.
http://wn.com/Suede_Beautiful_Ones_Live_in_Munich_1997_Part9
Munich 27 March 1997. Live at Schlachthof.
- published: 15 Apr 2008
- views: 114709
- author: purplelazystarshine
photo: AP / Ariel Schalit
31 Jan 2013
Zeenews Bureau. Damascus. The Syrian Army has confirmed that Israeli Air Force fighter planes carried out strikes in its territory, but denied reports of a convoy carrying weapons to Lebanon was bombed. The Syrian Army statement says that the IAF jet fighters’ target was a military research centre near the border with Lebanon. Two people have been reported to be dead and five others injured in the attack ... First Published ... ....(size: 2.6Kb)
photo: AP / Aleppo Revolution Against Assad Regime
29 Jan 2013
By Alexander Dziadosz and Oliver Holmes. BEIRUT, Jan 29 (Reuters) - At least 65 people were found shot dead with their hands bound in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Tuesday in a "new massacre" in the near two-year revolt against President Bashar al-Assad, activists said. Opposition campaigners blamed the government but it was impossible to confirm who was responsible ... The U.N ... State media did not mention the incident ... STALEMATE ... ....(size: 9.0Kb)
photo: AP / ESPN Images, Eric Lards Bakke
31 Jan 2013
A freestyle snowmobile rider hurt in a crash at last week's Winter X Games in Colorado has died at the age of 25. Caleb Moore was attempting a backflip when his snowmobile caught the edge of a landing area, sending him over the handlebars. The 450-lb (204-kg) snowmobile rolled over him ... 'Deeply saddened' ... ....(size: 1.7Kb)
photo: AP / Korea Aerospace Research Institute
30 Jan 2013
Launch of 140-tonne rocket likely to anger North Korea, which incurred tougher UN sanctions after December launch. The rocket takes off from its launchpad at Naro, south of Seoul. South Korea has twice before failed to put a satellite into space. Photograph. Kari/AFP/Getty Images ... Relief greeted the Naro rocket's flawless liftoff from a space centre on the south coast at 4pm local time ... ....(size: 3.1Kb)
photo: AP / David Guttenfelder
30 Jan 2013
SEOUL - Until Tuesday, North Korea appeared on Google Maps as a near-total white space -- no roads, no train lines, no parks and no restaurants. The only thing labeled was the capital city, Pyongyang. This all changed when Google, on Tuesday, rolled out a detailed map of one of the world's most secretive states ... Similar processes were used in other once-unmapped countries like Afghanistan and Myanmar ... ....(size: 2.4Kb)
Irish Times
01 Feb 2013
Conor Biggs is about to embark on a complete Schubert cycle of 577 songs – and he’s looking to Elvis for inspiration, writes MICHAEL DERVAN . Conor Biggs’s current obsession is so unusual that you might be tempted to regard him as a bit soft in the head, an unusual attention-seeker, or perhaps even a singer who’s got his sights set on a place in the Guinness Book of Records ... He comes from a musical family ... ....(size: 6.1Kb)
Wall Street Journal
01 Feb 2013
Enlarge Image. Close. New York fashion week is almost upon us and we should ready ourselves for the visual parade of sunglass-wearing, blow-dried, barelegged soignée New Yorkers picking through mounds of snow on towering heels on their way to Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Rodarte, et al ... The truth is, though, that's not how New Yorkers really dress ... Enlarge Image. Close ... navy, taupe, brown and gray ... Manolo Blahnik blue suede 'BB' heel, £440 ... ....(size: 14.9Kb)
The Daily Telegraph
01 Feb 2013
Ahead of her London Fashion Week debut, 6ft 3in L'Wren Scott tells Luke Leitch about her journey from model to designer. BY Luke Leitch . 01 February 2013. L'Wren Scott Photo. Andrew Crowley. For the first four years of her relationship with Mick Jagger, L'Wren Scott stayed discreetly clear of the red carpet. Then, she says ... And it was scary ... Related articles. L'Wren Scott ... Matthew Williamson Swarovski crystal-embellished suede clutch £850 ... ....(size: 19.6Kb)
San Francisco Chronicle
31 Jan 2013
The First All-in-One Suede-Fleece Waterproof Palm Package ... AX Suede™ materials have begun revolutionizing gloves for the top brands in almost every glove category, from work to moto-cross to tactical gloves. Now AX Suede is simplifying the manufacturing process by offering all-in-one performance packages. AX Suede Slim-Fleece WP Pack features the softest waterproof glove package on the market ... AX Suede Slim + DWR ... About AX Suede™....(size: 2.2Kb)
Boston Herald
31 Jan 2013
Democratic insiders want U.S. Rep. Ed Markey to run for Senate against, most likely, our own new Hamlet, Scott Brown. I’m betting on South Boston’s Steve Lynch instead ... “It’s canvas,” said his wife, Margaret ... He bought it for “48 bucks at Sears,” Lynch himself recently told some Plymouth Democrats, adding that Brown’s suede barn coat “cost about 1,600 bucks at Saks.” ... ....(size: 2.9Kb)
The Daily Telegraph
31 Jan 2013
Bernstock Speirs White Candy Cashmere Veil Beanie£95.00. Buy Love Share No loves. Beirnstock Spiers are the king of fabulous headwear like this chic veiled beenie. A bit Raf Simons - j'adore!. I SPIED by. Frankie Graddon. Published. 31 January 2013. Tweet. Share. OTHER PRODUCTS FROM THE FASHION SHOP. Buy Love Share. bliss Glamour Gloves £36.00. No loves. Buy Love Share ... No loves ... Matthew Williamson Swarovski crystal-embellished suede clutch £850 ... ....(size: 12.4Kb)
m&c;
31 Jan 2013
Have we got your attention? Excellent ... Fascia is overlooked in exercise and pain management and often times the culprit in our slow decline into decrepitude ... . Jill Miller discovered all of this the hard way ... Key techniques include Sustained Compression, resting still on the balls (the covering has a grippy sueded feel, nothing like a tennis ball) Stripping, where you roll the balls the same direction of the muscle fiber ... Buy. ....(size: 4.3Kb)
The Daily Telegraph
31 Jan 2013
With just nine main line collections to date, Victoria Beckham isn't wasting any time in trawling through her archives for a new range called 'Icon'. BY Olivia Bergin . 31 January 2013. The Body Shop founder, Anita Roddick, photographed in store in 1989. Photo. PA ... Related articles. Hug it like Beckham. how to carry your handbag this season. Victoria Beckham ... New York Fashion Week ... IN PICTURES ... Christian Louboutin Particule 100 suede pumps £425....(size: 13.6Kb)
PR Newswire
31 Jan 2013
Google. Download image. Download image. LONDON, January 31, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --. What's hot in John Lewis? Find out more about some of the electricals you should get your hands on. (Photo. http.//photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130131/591273-a ). (Photo. http.//photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130131/591273-b ) ... Also available in Antique Suede, £59.95 ... John Lewis customer enquiries ... ....(size: 7.9Kb)
San Francisco Chronicle
30 Jan 2013
WaterField Designs, an innovative leader in locally- manufactured custom laptop bags and cases for digital gear, announces a new Nexus 4 case—the minimalist and custom-fitted Suede Jacket. WaterField’s custom-fitted Suede Jackets are svelte, minimalist sleeves constructed of soft, scratch-free Ultrasuede® that protect from scratches and bumps ... Suede Jacket Nexus 4 Case ... Nexus 4 Suede Jacket Case....(size: 2.5Kb)
Ohio
30 Jan 2013
It might not feel like prom time, but Kent State graduate and former Project Runway contestant Suede aims to change that Saturday with a spring style show ... Stephen “Suede” Baum turned his appearance on Project Runway in 2008 and on Project Runway All Stars in 2012 into something of a fashion empire ... “I was thrilled and scared at the same time,” Suede said....(size: 5.0Kb)
The Examiner
30 Jan 2013
Are you a “Project Runway” fan? If so, you’re most likely familiar with designer Stephen Baum, who is better known as Suede ... Suede, a Kent State alumnus, and Cleveland native, will return to his alma mater this Saturday to put on two entertaining fashion shows and partake in a meet and greet with fans ... As a bonus to fashion fans, in between the two fashion show presentations, Suede will host a meet and greet. Source.. Morgan Jupina ... ....(size: 5.8Kb)
The Daily Telegraph
30 Jan 2013
Before they were cool. Nicholas Kirkwood wins Vogue's Fashion Fund 2013. Britain's brightest young designer of fantastic footwear - and the new winner of Vogue's prestigious Fashion Fund - tells Luke Leitch about life in his shoes. Meet the costume designer behind Anna Karenina's fabulous wardrobe ... Trending. Biker jackets ... Christian Louboutin Particule 100 suede pumps £425 ... Matthew Williamson Swarovski crystal-embellished suede clutch £850....(size: 14.4Kb)
For the English rock band, see Suede (band). For other uses, see Suede (disambiguation).
- Not to be confused with swede roots.
Suede /ˈsweɪd/ is a type of leather with a napped finish, commonly used for jackets, shoes, shirts, purses, furniture and other items. The term comes from the French "gants de Suède", which literally means "Swedish gloves".[1]
Suede leather is made from the underside of the skin, primarily lamb, although goat, pig, calf and deer are commonly used. Splits from thick hides of cow and deer are also sueded, but, due to the fiber content, have a shaggy nap. Because suede does not include the tough exterior skin layer, suede is less durable but softer than standard ("full-grain") leather. Its softness, thinness, and pliability make it suitable for clothing and delicate uses; suede was originally used for women's gloves. Suede leather is also popular in upholstery, shoes, bags, and other accessories, and as a lining for other leather products. Due to its textured nature and open pores, suede may become dirty and absorb liquids quickly.
Alternatives to suede[link]
Fabrics are often manufactured with a brushed or napped finish to resemble suede leather. These products often provide a similar look and feel to suede, but have advantages such as increased liquid or stain resistance, and may appeal to consumers who prefer a non-animal product.
Sueded silk, sueded cotton and similar sueded fabrics are brushed, sanded or chemically treated for extra softness. 'Suede' yarns are generally thick and plush.
Alcantara and Ultrasuede are trademarked terms for a microfiber plush with a hand resembling the soft suede, but more durable, resistant to liquid, stains and crushing and can be used in upholstery, accessories, clothing or shoes.
Microsuede is a microfiber knit blend fabric with a soft finish, but is easily distinguishable from actual suede leather. It has a great deal of stretch, and is very popular in upholstery as well as garments.
References[link]
- ^ Suede at Dictionary.com
- American Leather Chemists Association ALC (1906). The Journal of the American Leather Chemists Association. American Leather.
- Bredenberg, Jeff (1999). Clean It Fast, Clean It Right: The Ultimate Guide to Making Absolutely Everything You Own Sparkle & Shine (New Ed ed.). Rodale Books. pp. 544. ISBN 1-57954-019-8.
- Burch, Monte (2002). The Ultimate Guide to Skinning and Tanning: A Complete Guide to Working with Pelts, Fur, and Leather (First edition ed.). The Lyons Press. pp. 240. ISBN 1-58574-670-3.
- Churchill, James E. (1983). The Complete Book of Tanning Skins and Furs. Stackpole Books. pp. 197. ISBN 0-8117-1719-4.
- Goldstein-Lynch, Ellen; Sarah Mullins, Nicole Malone (2004). Making Leather Handbags and Other Stylish Accessories. Quarry Books. pp. 128. ISBN 1-59253-076-1.
- Kite, Marion; Roy Thomson (2005). Conservation of Leather and Related Materials. Butterworth-Heinemann. pp. 240. ISBN 0-7506-4881-3.
- Michigan Historical Reprint Series (2005). The art of Tanning Leather. Scholarly Publishing Office, University of Michigan Library. pp. 266. ISBN 1-4255-2365-X.
- O'Flaherty, Fred; Roddy Lollar (1956). The Chemistry and Technology of Leather. American Chemical Society, ACS Monograph 134, Krieger Publishing Co., 1956, reprint 1978.
- Parker, Sybil P (1992). McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology: an international reference work. New York; St Louis; San Francisco: McGraw-Hill. p. 508. ISBN 0-07-909206-3.
See also[link]
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This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suede
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
For other uses, see Elvis Presley (disambiguation).
"Elvis" redirects here. For other people with this name, see Elvis (given name).
| Elvis Presley | |
|---|---|
 Publicity photo for Jailhouse Rock (1957) |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Elvis Aaron Presley |
| Born | (1935-01-08)January 8, 1935 Tupelo, Mississippi, U.S. |
| Died | August 16, 1977(1977-08-16) (aged 42) Memphis, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Genres | Rock and roll, pop, rockabilly, country, blues, gospel, R&B |
| Occupations | Musician, actor |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar, piano |
| Years active | 1953–77 |
| Labels | Sun, RCA Victor |
| Associated acts | The Blue Moon Boys, The Jordanaires, The Imperials |
| Website | elvis.com |
Elvis Aaron Presleya (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King".
Born in Tupelo, Mississippi, Presley moved to Memphis, Tennessee, with his family at the age of 13. He began his career there in 1954, working with Sun Records owner Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African American music to a wider audience. Accompanied by guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, Presley was the most important popularizer of rockabilly, an uptempo, backbeat-driven fusion of country and rhythm and blues. RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, who would manage the singer for over two decades. Presley's first RCA single, "Heartbreak Hotel", released in January 1956, was a number one hit. He became the leading figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll with a series of network television appearances and chart-topping records. His energized interpretations of songs, many from African American sources, and his uninhibited performance style made him enormously popular—and controversial. In November 1956, he made his film debut in Love Me Tender.
Conscripted into military service in 1958, Presley relaunched his recording career two years later with some of his most commercially successful work. He staged few concerts however, and guided by Parker, proceeded to devote much of the 1960s to making Hollywood movies and soundtrack albums, most of them critically derided. In 1968, after seven years away from the stage, he returned to live performance in a celebrated comeback television special that led to an extended Las Vegas concert residency and a string of profitable tours. In 1973 Presley staged the first concert broadcast globally via satellite, Aloha from Hawaii, seen by approximately 1.5 billion viewers. Prescription drug abuse severely compromised his health, and he died suddenly in 1977 at the age of 42.
Presley is regarded as one of the most important figures of 20th-century popular culture. He had a versatile voice and unusually wide success encompassing many genres, including country, pop ballads, gospel, and blues. He is the best-selling solo artist in the history of popular music.[1][2][3][4] Nominated for 14 competitive Grammys, he won three, and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36. He has been inducted into multiple music halls of fame.
Life and career[link]
Early years (1935–53)[link]
Childhood in Tupelo[link]
Elvis Presley was born on January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi, to 18-year-old Vernon Elvis and 22-year-old Gladys Love Presley.[5] In the two-room shotgun house built by his father in readiness for the birth, Jesse Garon Presley, his identical twin brother, was delivered 35 minutes before him, stillborn. As an only child, Presley became close to both parents and formed an unusually tight bond with his mother. The family attended an Assembly of God church where he found his initial musical inspiration.[6]
Presley's ancestry was primarily a Western European mix: On his mother's side, he was Scots-Irish, with some French Norman; one of Gladys's great-great-grandmothers was Cherokee.[7]b His father's forebears were of Scottish[8] or German[9] origin. Gladys was regarded by relatives and friends as the dominant member of the small family. Vernon moved from one odd job to the next, evidencing little ambition.[10][11] The family often relied on help from neighbors and government food assistance. In 1938, they lost their home after Vernon was found guilty of altering a check written by the landowner. He was jailed for eight months, and Gladys and Elvis moved in with relatives.[12]
In September 1941, Presley entered first grade at East Tupelo Consolidated, where his instructors regarded him as "average".[13] He was encouraged to enter a singing contest after impressing his schoolteacher with a rendition of Red Foley's country song "Old Shep" during morning prayers. The contest, held at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show on October 3, 1945, saw his first public performance: dressed as a cowboy, the ten-year-old Presley stood on a chair to reach the microphone and sang "Old Shep". He recalled placing fifth.[14] A few months later, Presley received his first guitar for his birthday; he had hoped for something else—by different accounts, either a bicycle or a rifle.[15][16] Over the following year, he received basic guitar lessons from two of his uncles and the new pastor at the family's church. Presley recalled, "I took the guitar, and I watched people, and I learned to play a little bit. But I would never sing in public. I was very shy about it."[17]
Entering a new school, Milam, for sixth grade in September 1946, Presley was regarded as a loner. The following year, he began bringing his guitar in on a daily basis. He played and sang during lunchtime, and was often teased as a "trashy" kid who played hillbilly music. The family was by then living in a largely African American neighborhood.[18] A devotee of Mississippi Slim's show on the Tupelo radio station WELO, Presley was described as "crazy about music" by Slim's younger brother, a classmate of Presley's, who often took him in to the station. Slim supplemented Presley's guitar tuition by demonstrating chord techniques.[19] When his protégé was 12 years old, Slim scheduled him for two on-air performances. Presley was overcome by stage fright the first time, but succeeded in performing the following week.[20]
Teenage life in Memphis[link]
In November 1948, the family moved to Memphis, Tennessee. After residing for nearly a year in rooming houses, they were granted a two-bedroom apartment in the public housing complex known as the Courts.[21] Enrolled at Humes High School, Presley received only a C in music in eighth grade. When his music teacher told him he had no aptitude for singing, he brought in his guitar the next day and sang a recent hit, "Keep Them Cold Icy Fingers Off Me", in an effort to prove otherwise. A classmate later recalled that the teacher "agreed that Elvis was right when he said that she didn't appreciate his kind of singing."[22] He was generally too shy to perform openly, and was occasionally bullied by classmates who viewed him as a "mama's boy".[23] In 1950, he began practicing guitar regularly under the tutelage of Jesse Lee Denson, a neighbor two-and-a-half years his senior. They and three other boys—including two future rockabilly pioneers, brothers Dorsey and Johnny Burnette—formed a loose musical collective that played frequently around the Courts.[24] That September, he began ushering at Loew's State Theater.[25] Other jobs followed during his school years: Precision Tool, Loew's again, and MARL Metal Products.[26]
During his junior year, Presley began to stand out more among his classmates, largely because of his appearance: he grew out his sideburns and styled his hair with rose oil and Vaseline. On his own time, he would head down to Beale Street, the heart of Memphis's thriving blues scene, and gaze longingly at the wild, flashy clothes in the windows of Lansky Brothers. By his senior year, he was wearing them.[27] Overcoming his reticence about performing outside the Courts, he competed in Humes's Annual "Minstrel" show in April 1953. Singing and playing guitar, he opened with "Till I Waltz Again with You", a recent hit for Teresa Brewer. Presley recalled that the performance did much for his reputation: "I wasn't popular in school ... I failed music—only thing I ever failed. And then they entered me in this talent show ... when I came onstage I heard people kind of rumbling and whispering and so forth, 'cause nobody knew I even sang. It was amazing how popular I became after that."[28]
Presley, who never received formal music training or learned to read music, studied and played by ear. He frequented record stores with jukeboxes and listening booths. He knew all of Hank Snow's songs[29] and he loved records by other country singers such as Roy Acuff, Ernest Tubb, Ted Daffan, Jimmie Rodgers, Jimmie Davis, and Bob Wills.[30] The Southern Gospel singer Jake Hess, one of his favorite performers, was a significant influence on his ballad-singing style.[31][32] He was a regular audience member at the monthly All-Night Singings downtown, where many of the white gospel groups that performed reflected the influence of African American spiritual music.[33] He adored the music of black gospel singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe.[30] Like some of his peers, he may have attended blues venues—of necessity, in the segregated South, only on nights designated for exclusively white audiences.[34] He certainly listened to the regional radio stations that played "race records": spirituals, blues, and the modern, backbeat-heavy sound of rhythm and blues.[35] Many of his future recordings were inspired by local African American musicians such as Arthur Crudup and Rufus Thomas.[36][37] B.B. King recalled that he knew Presley before he was popular when they both used to frequent Beale Street.[38] By the time he graduated high school in June 1953, Presley had already singled out music as his future.[39][40]
First recordings (1953–55)[link]
Sam Phillips and Sun Records[link]
See also: Elvis Presley's Sun recordings
In August 1953, Presley walked into the offices of Sun Records. He aimed to pay for a few minutes of studio time to record a two-sided acetate disc: "My Happiness" and "That's When Your Heartaches Begin". He would later claim he intended the record as a gift for his mother, or was merely interested in what he "sounded like", though there was a much cheaper, amateur record-making service at a nearby general store. Biographer Peter Guralnick argues that he chose Sun in the hope of being discovered. Asked by receptionist Marion Keisker what kind of singer he was, Presley responded, "I sing all kinds." When she pressed him on whom he sounded like, he repeatedly answered, "I don't sound like nobody." After he recorded, Sun boss Sam Phillips asked Keisker to note down the young man's name, which she did along with her own commentary: "Good ballad singer. Hold."[41] Presley cut a second acetate in January 1954—"I'll Never Stand In Your Way" and "It Wouldn't Be the Same Without You"—but again nothing came of it.[42]
Not long after, he failed an audition for a local vocal quartet, the Songfellows. He explained to his father, "They told me I couldn't sing."[43] Songfellow Jim Hamill later claimed that he was turned down because he did not demonstrate an ear for harmony at the time.[44] In April, Presley began working for the Crown Electric company as a truck driver.[45] His friend Ronnie Smith, after playing a few local gigs with him, suggested he contact Eddie Bond, leader of Smith's professional band, which had an opening for a vocalist. Bond rejected him after a tryout, advising Presley to stick to truck driving "because you're never going to make it as a singer."[46]
Phillips, meanwhile, was always on the lookout for someone who could bring the sound of the black musicians on whom Sun focused to a broader audience. As Keisker reported, "Over and over I remember Sam saying, 'If I could find a white man who had the Negro sound and the Negro feel, I could make a billion dollars.'"[47] In June, he acquired a demo recording of a ballad, "Without You", that he thought might suit the teenaged singer. Presley came by the studio, but was unable to do it justice. Despite this, Phillips asked Presley to sing as many numbers as he knew. He was sufficiently affected by what he heard to invite two local musicians, guitarist Winfield "Scotty" Moore and upright bass player Bill Black, to work something up with Presley for a recording session.[48]
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Presley transformed not only the sound but the emotion of the song, turning what had been written as a "lament for a lost love into a satisfied declaration of independence."[49]
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The session, held the evening of July 5, proved entirely unfruitful until late in the night. As they were about to give up and go home, Presley took his guitar and launched into a 1946 blues number, Arthur Crudup's "That's All Right". Moore recalled, "All of a sudden, Elvis just started singing this song, jumping around and acting the fool, and then Bill picked up his bass, and he started acting the fool, too, and I started playing with them. Sam, I think, had the door to the control booth open ... he stuck his head out and said, 'What are you doing?' And we said, 'We don't know.' 'Well, back up,' he said, 'try to find a place to start, and do it again.'" Phillips quickly began taping; this was the sound he had been looking for.[50] Three days later, popular Memphis DJ Dewey Phillips played "That's All Right" on his Red, Hot, and Blue show.[51] Listeners began phoning in, eager to find out who the singer was. The interest was such that Phillips played the record repeatedly during the last two hours of his show. Interviewing Presley on-air, Phillips asked him what high school he attended in order to clarify his color for the many callers who had assumed he was black.[52] During the next few days the trio recorded a bluegrass number, Bill Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky", again in a distinctive style and employing a jury-rigged echo effect that Sam Phillips dubbed "slapback". A single was pressed with "That's All Right" on the A side and "Blue Moon of Kentucky" on the reverse.[53]
Early live performances and signing to RCA[link]
The trio played publicly for the first time on July 17 at the Bon Air club—Presley still sporting his child-size guitar.[54] At the end of the month, they appeared at the Overton Park Shell, with Slim Whitman headlining. A combination of his strong response to rhythm and nervousness at playing before a large crowd led Presley to shake his legs as he performed: his wide-cut pants emphasized his movements, causing young women in the audience to start screaming.[55] Moore recalled, "During the instrumental parts he would back off from the mike and be playing and shaking, and the crowd would just go wild".[56] Black, a natural showman, whooped and rode his bass, hitting double licks that Presley would later remember as "really a wild sound, like a jungle drum or something".[56] Soon after, Moore and Black quit their old band to play with Presley regularly, and DJ and promoter Bob Neal became the trio's manager. From August through October, they played frequently at the Eagle's Nest club and returned to Sun Studio for more recording sessions,[57] and Presley quickly grew more confident on stage. According to Moore, "His movement was a natural thing, but he was also very conscious of what got a reaction. He'd do something one time and then he would expand on it real quick."[58] Presley made what would be his only appearance on Nashville's Grand Ole Opry on October 2; after a polite audience response, Opry manager Jim Denny told Phillips that his singer was "not bad" but did not suit the program.[59] Two weeks later, Presley was booked on Louisiana Hayride, the Opry's chief, and more adventurous, rival. The Shreveport-based show was broadcast to 198 radio stations in 28 states. Presley had another attack of nerves during the first set, which drew a muted reaction. A more composed and energetic second set inspired an enthusiastic response.[60] House drummer D.J. Fontana brought a new element, complementing Presley's movements with accented beats that he had mastered playing in strip clubs.[61] Soon after the show, the Hayride engaged Presley for a year's worth of Saturday-night appearances. Trading in his old guitar for $8 (and seeing it promptly dispatched to the garbage), he purchased a Martin instrument for $175, and his trio began playing in new locales including Houston, Texas, and Texarkana, Arkansas.[62]
By early 1955, Presley's regular Hayride appearances, constant touring, and well-received record releases had made him a substantial regional star, from Tennessee to West Texas. In January, Neal signed a formal management contract with Presley and brought the singer to the attention of Colonel Tom Parker, whom he considered the best promoter in the music business. Parker—Dutch-born, though he claimed to be from West Virginia—had acquired an honorary colonel's commission from country singer turned Louisiana governor Jimmie Davis. Having successfully managed top country star Eddy Arnold, he was now working with the new number one country singer, Hank Snow. Parker booked Presley on Snow's February tour.[63][64] When the tour reached Odessa, Texas, a 19-year-old Roy Orbison saw Presley for the first time: "His energy was incredible, his instinct was just amazing. ... I just didn't know what to make of it. There was just no reference point in the culture to compare it."[29] Presley made his television debut on March 3 on the KSLA-TV broadcast of Louisiana Hayride. Soon after, he failed an audition for Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts on the CBS television network. By August, Sun had released ten sides credited to "Elvis Presley, Scotty and Bill"; on the latest recordings, the trio were joined by a drummer. Some of the songs, like "That's All Right", were in what one Memphis journalist described as the "R&B idiom of negro field jazz"; others, like "Blue Moon of Kentucky", were "more in the country field", "but there was a curious blending of the two different musics in both".[65] This blend of styles made it difficult for Presley's music to find radio airplay. According to Neal, many country music disc jockeys would not play it because he sounded too much like a black artist and none of the rhythm and blues stations would touch him because "he sounded too much like a hillbilly."[66] The blend came to be known as rockabilly. At the time, Presley was variously billed as "The King of Western Bop", "The Hillbilly Cat", and "The Memphis Flash".[67]
Presley renewed Neal's management contract in August 1955, simultaneously appointing Parker as his special adviser.[68] The group maintained an extensive touring schedule throughout the second half of the year.[69] Neal recalled, "It was almost frightening, the reaction that came to Elvis from the teenaged boys. So many of them, through some sort of jealousy, would practically hate him. There were occasions in some towns in Texas when we'd have to be sure to have a police guard because somebody'd always try to take a crack at him. They'd get a gang and try to waylay him or something."[70] The trio became a quartet when Hayride drummer Fontana joined as a full member. In mid-October, they played a few shows in support of Bill Haley, whose "Rock Around the Clock" had been a number one hit the previous year. Haley observed that Presley had a natural feel for rhythm, and advised him to sing fewer ballads.[71]
At the Country Disc Jockey Convention in early November, Presley was voted the year's most promising male artist.[72] Several record companies had by now shown interest in signing him. After three major labels made offers of up to $25,000, Parker and Phillips struck a deal with RCA Victor on November 21 to acquire Presley's Sun contract for an unprecedented $40,000.[73]c Presley, at 20, was still a minor, so his father signed the contract.[74] Parker arranged with the owners of Hill and Range Publishing, Jean and Julian Aberbach, to create two entities, Elvis Presley Music and Gladys Music, to handle all of the new material recorded by Presley. Songwriters were obliged to forego one third of their customary royalties in exchange for having him perform their compositions.[75]d By December, RCA had begun to heavily promote its new singer, and before month's end had reissued many of his Sun recordings.[76]
Commercial breakout and controversy (1956–58)[link]
First national TV appearances and debut album[link]
File:Elvispresleydebutalbum.jpeg
The "iconic cover" of Presley's 1956 debut album[77] featuring a photo taken July 31, 1955, in Tampa, Florida[78]
On January 10, 1956, Presley made his first recordings for RCA in Nashville.[79] Extending the singer's by now customary backup of Moore, Black, and Fontana, RCA enlisted pianist Floyd Cramer, guitarist Chet Atkins, and three background singers, including Gordon Stoker of the popular Jordanaires quartet, to fill out the sound.[80] The session produced the moody, unusual "Heartbreak Hotel", released as a single on January 27.[79] Parker finally brought Presley to national television, booking him on CBS's Stage Show for six appearances over two months. The program, produced in New York, was hosted on alternate weeks by big band leaders and brothers Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey. After his first appearance, on January 28, Presley stayed in town to record at RCA's New York studio. The sessions yielded eight songs, including a cover of Carl Perkins' rockabilly anthem "Blue Suede Shoes". In February, Presley's "I Forgot to Remember to Forget", a Sun recording initially released the previous August, reached the top of the Billboard country chart.[81] Neal's contract was terminated and, on March 2, Parker became Presley's manager.[82]
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Presley exhorts guitarist Scotty Moore during his break. "Let's go, cat!" was in the Perkins original. "Aw, walk the dog!" is all Elvis.
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RCA Victor released Presley's self-titled debut album on March 23. Joined by five previously unreleased Sun recordings, its seven recently recorded tracks were of a broad variety. There were two country songs and a bouncy pop tune. The others would centrally define the evolving sound of rock and roll: "Blue Suede Shoes"—"an improvement over Perkins' in almost every way", according to critic Robert Hilburn—and three R&B numbers that had been part of Presley's stage repertoire for some time, covers of Little Richard, Ray Charles, and The Drifters. As described by Hilburn, these "were the most revealing of all. Unlike many white artists ... who watered down the gritty edges of the original R&B versions of songs in the '50s, Presley reshaped them. He not only injected the tunes with his own vocal character but also made guitar, not piano, the lead instrument in all three cases."[83] It became the first rock and roll album to top the Billboard chart, a position it held for 10 weeks.[79] While Presley was not an innovative instrumentalist like Moore or contemporary African American rockers Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry, cultural historian Gilbert B. Rodman argues that the album's cover image, "of Elvis having the time of his life on stage with a guitar in his hands played a crucial role in positioning the guitar...as the instrument that best captured the style and spirit of this new music."[84]
[edit] Milton Berle Show and "Hound Dog"
Presley made the first of two appearances on NBC's Milton Berle Show on April 3. His performance, on the deck of the USS Hancock in San Diego, prompted cheers and screams from an audience of sailors and their dates.[85] A few days later, a flight taking Presley and his band to Nashville for a recording session left all three badly shaken when an engine died and the plane almost went down over Arkansas.[86] Twelve weeks after its original release, "Heartbreak Hotel" became Presley's first number one pop hit. In late April, Presley began a two-week residency at the New Frontier Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. The shows were poorly received by the conservative, middle-aged hotel guests—"like a jug of corn liquor at a champagne party", wrote a critic for Newsweek.[87] Amid his Vegas tenure, Presley, who had serious acting ambitions, signed a seven-year contract with Paramount Pictures.[88] He began a tour of the Midwest in mid-May, taking in 15 cities in as many days.[89] He had attended several shows by Freddie Bell and the Bellboys in Vegas, and was struck by their cover of "Hound Dog", a hit in 1953 for blues singer Big Mama Thornton by songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. It became the new closing number of his act.[90] After a show in La Crosse, Wisconsin, an urgent message on the letterhead of the local Catholic diocese's newspaper was sent to FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. It warned that "Presley is a definite danger to the security of the United States. ... [His] actions and motions were such as to rouse the sexual passions of teenaged youth. ... After the show, more than 1,000 teenagers tried to gang into Presley's room at the auditorium. ... Indications of the harm Presley did just in La Crosse were the two high school girls ... whose abdomen and thigh had Presley's autograph."[91]
The second Milton Berle Show appearance came on June 5 at NBC's Hollywood studio, amid another hectic tour. Berle persuaded the singer to leave his guitar backstage, advising, "Let 'em see you, son."[92] During the performance, Presley abruptly halted an uptempo rendition of "Hound Dog" with a wave of his arm and launched into a slow, grinding version accentuated with energetic, exaggerated body movements.[92] Presley's gyrations created a storm of controversy.[93] Television critics were outraged: Jack Gould of The New York Times wrote, "Mr. Presley has no discernible singing ability. ... His phrasing, if it can be called that, consists of the stereotyped variations that go with a beginner's aria in a bathtub. ... His one specialty is an accented movement of the body ... primarily identified with the repertoire of the blond bombshells of the burlesque runway."[94] Ben Gross of the New York Daily News opined that popular music "has reached its lowest depths in the 'grunt and groin' antics of one Elvis Presley. ... Elvis, who rotates his pelvis ... gave an exhibition that was suggestive and vulgar, tinged with the kind of animalism that should be confined to dives and bordellos".[95] Ed Sullivan, whose own variety show was the nation's most popular, declared him "unfit for family viewing".[96] To Presley's displeasure, he soon found himself being referred to as "Elvis the Pelvis", which he called "one of the most childish expressions I ever heard, comin' from an adult."[97]
[edit] Steve Allen Show and first Sullivan appearance
The Berle shows drew such high ratings that Presley was booked for a July 1 appearance on NBC's Steve Allen Show in New York. Allen, no fan of rock and roll, introduced a "new Elvis" in a white bow tie and black tails. Presley sang "Hound Dog" for less than a minute to a basset hound wearing a top hat and bow tie. As described by television historian Jake Austen, "Allen thought Presley was talentless and absurd... [he] set things up so that Presley would show his contrition".[98] Allen, for his part, later wrote that he found Presley's "strange, gangly, country-boy charisma, his hard-to-define cuteness, and his charming eccentricity intriguing" and simply worked the singer into the customary "comedy fabric" of his program.[99] Presley would refer back to the Allen show as the most ridiculous performance of his career.[100] Later that night, he appeared on Hy Gardner Calling, a popular local TV show. Pressed on whether he had learned anything from the criticism to which he was being subjected, Presley responded, "No, I haven't, I don't feel like I'm doing anything wrong. ... I don't see how any type of music would have any bad influence on people when it's only music. ... I mean, how would rock 'n' roll music make anyone rebel against their parents?"[95]
The next day, Presley recorded "Hound Dog", along with "Any Way You Want Me" and "Don't Be Cruel". The Jordanaires sang harmony, as they had on The Steve Allen Show; they would work with Presley through the 1960s. A few days later, the singer made an outdoor concert appearance in Memphis at which he announced, "You know, those people in New York are not gonna change me none. I'm gonna show you what the real Elvis is like tonight."[101] In August, a judge in Jacksonville, Florida, ordered Presley to tame his act. Throughout the following performance, he largely kept still, except for wiggling his little finger suggestively in mockery of the order.[102] The single pairing "Don't Be Cruel" with "Hound Dog" ruled the top of the charts for 11 weeks—a mark that would not be surpassed for 36 years.[103] Recording sessions for Presley's second album took place in Hollywood during the first week of September. Leiber and Stoller, the writers of "Hound Dog", contributed "Love Me".[104]
Allen's show with Presley had, for the first time, beaten CBS's Ed Sullivan Show in the ratings. Sullivan, despite his June pronouncement, booked the singer for three appearances for an unprecedented $50,000.[105] The first, on September 9, 1956, was seen by approximately 60 million viewers—a record 82.6 percent of the television audience.[106] Actor Charles Laughton hosted the show, filling in while Sullivan recuperated from a car accident.[96] Presley appeared in two segments that night from CBS Television City in Los Angeles. According to Elvis legend, Presley was shot only from the waist up. Watching clips of the Allen and Berle shows with his producer, Sullivan had opined that Presley "got some kind of device hanging down below the crotch of his pants–so when he moves his legs back and forth you can see the outline of his cock. ... I think it's a Coke bottle. ... We just can't have this on a Sunday night. This is a family show!"[107] Sullivan publicly told TV Guide, "As for his gyrations, the whole thing can be controlled with camera shots."[105] In fact, Presley was shown head-to-toe in the first and second shows. Though the camerawork was relatively discreet during his debut, with leg-concealing closeups when he danced, the studio audience reacted in customary style: screaming.[108][109] Presley's performance of his forthcoming single, the ballad "Love Me Tender", prompted a record-shattering million advance orders.[110] More than any other single event, it was this first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show that made Presley a national celebrity of barely precedented proportions.[96]
Accompanying Presley's rise to fame, a cultural shift was taking place that he both helped inspire and came to symbolize. Igniting the "biggest pop craze since Glenn Miller and Frank Sinatra ... Presley brought rock'n'roll into the mainstream of popular culture", writes historian Marty Jezer. "As Presley set the artistic pace, other artists followed. ... Presley, more than anyone else, gave the young a belief in themselves as a distinct and somehow unified generation—the first in America ever to feel the power of an integrated youth culture."[111]
Crazed crowds and movie debut[link]
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Presley's definition of rock and roll included a sense of humor—here, during his second Sullivan appearance, he introduces one of his signature numbers.
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The audience response at Presley's live shows became increasingly fevered. Moore recalled, "He'd start out, 'You ain't nothin' but a Hound Dog,' and they'd just go to pieces. They'd always react the same way. There'd be a riot every time."[112] At the two concerts he performed in September at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show, 50 National Guardsmen were added to the police security to prevent crowd trouble.[113] Elvis, Presley's second album, was released in October and quickly rose to number one. Assessing the musical and cultural impact of Presley's recordings from "That's All Right" through Elvis, rock critic Dave Marsh wrote that "these records, more than any others, contain the seeds of what rock & roll was, has been and most likely what it may foreseeably become."[114]
Presley returned to the Sullivan show at its main studio in New York, hosted this time by its namesake, on October 28. After the performance, crowds in Nashville and St. Louis burned him in effigy.[96] His first motion picture, Love Me Tender, was released on November 21. Though he was not top billed, the film's original title—The Reno Brothers—was changed to capitalize on his latest number one record: "Love Me Tender" had hit the top of the charts earlier that month. To further take advantage of Presley's popularity, four musical numbers were added to what was originally a straight acting role. The movie was panned by the critics but did very well at the box office.[88] Presley would receive top billing on every subsequent film he made.
On December 4, Presley dropped into Sun Records where Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis were recording and jammed with them. Though Phillips no longer had the right to release any Presley material, he made sure the session was captured on tape. The results became legendary as the "Million Dollar Quartet" recordings—Johnny Cash was long thought to have played as well, but he was present only briefly at Phillips' instigation for a photo opportunity.[115] The year ended with a front-page story in The Wall Street Journal reporting that Presley merchandise had brought in $22 million on top of his record sales,[116] and Billboard's declaration that he had placed more songs in the top 100 than any other artist since records were first charted.[117] In his first full year on RCA, one of the music industry's largest companies, Presley had accounted for over 50 percent of the label's singles sales.[110]
Leiber and Stoller collaboration and draft notice[link]
Presley made his third and final Ed Sullivan Show appearance on January 6, 1957—on this occasion indeed shot only down to the waist. Some commentators have claimed that Parker orchestrated an appearance of censorship to generate publicity.[109][118] In any event, as critic Greil Marcus describes, Presley "did not tie himself down. Leaving behind the bland clothes he had worn on the first two shows, he stepped out in the outlandish costume of a pasha, if not a harem girl. From the make-up over his eyes, the hair falling in his face, the overwhelmingly sexual cast of his mouth, he was playing Rudolph Valentino in The Sheik, with all stops out."[96] To close, displaying his range and defying Sullivan's wishes, Presley sang a gentle black spiritual, "Peace in the Valley". At the end of the show, Sullivan declared Presley "a real decent, fine boy".[119] Two days later, the Memphis draft board announced that Presley would be classified 1A and would probably be drafted sometime that year.[120]
Each of the three Presley singles released in the first half of 1957 went to number one: "Too Much", "All Shook Up", and "(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear". Already an international star, he was attracting fans even where his music was not officially released. Under the headline "Presley Records a Craze in Soviet", The New York Times reported that pressings of his music on discarded X-ray plates were commanding high prices in Leningrad.[121] Between film shoots and recording sessions, the singer also found time to purchase an 18-room mansion eight miles (13 km) south of downtown Memphis for himself and his parents: Graceland.[122] Loving You—the soundtrack to his second film, released in July—was Presley's third straight number one album. The title track was written by Leiber and Stoller, who were then retained to write four of the six songs recorded at the sessions for Jailhouse Rock, Presley's next movie. The songwriting team effectively produced the Jailhouse sessions and developed a close working relationship with Presley, who came to regard them as his "good-luck charm".[123] The title track was yet another number one hit, as was the Jailhouse Rock EP.
Presley undertook three brief tours during the year, continuing to generate a crazed audience response.[124] A Detroit newspaper suggested that "the trouble with going to see Elvis Presley is that you're liable to get killed."[125] Villanova students pelted him with eggs in Philadelphia,[125] and in Vancouver, the crowd rioted after the end of the show, destroying the stage.[126] Frank Sinatra, who had famously inspired the swooning of teenaged girls in the 1940s, condemned the new musical phenomenon. In a magazine article, he decried rock and roll as "brutal, ugly, degenerate, vicious. ... It fosters almost totally negative and destructive reactions in young people. It smells phoney and false. It is sung, played and written, for the most part, by cretinous goons. ... This rancid-smelling aphrodisiac I deplore."[127] Asked for a response, Presley said, "I admire the man. He has a right to say what he wants to say. He is a great success and a fine actor, but I think he shouldn't have said it. ... This is a trend, just the same as he faced when he started years ago."[128]
Leiber and Stoller were again in the studio for the recording of Elvis' Christmas Album. Toward the end of the session, they wrote a song on the spot at Presley's request: "Santa Claus Is Back In Town", an innuendo-laden blues.[129] The holiday release stretched Presley's string of number one albums to four and would eventually become the best selling Christmas album of all time.[130][131] After the session, Moore and Black—drawing only modest weekly salaries, sharing in none of Presley's massive financial success—resigned. Though they were brought back on a per diem basis a few weeks later, it was clear that they had not been part of Presley's inner circle for some time.[132] On December 20, Presley received his draft notice. He was granted a deferment to finish the forthcoming King Creole, in which $350,000 had already been invested by Paramount and producer Hal Wallis. A couple of weeks into the new year, "Don't", another Leiber and Stoller tune, became Presley's tenth number one seller. It had been only 21 months since "Heartbreak Hotel" had brought him to the top for the first time. Recording sessions for the King Creole soundtrack were held in Hollywood mid-January. Leiber and Stoller provided three songs and were again on hand, but it would be the last time they worked closely with Presley.[133] A studio session on February 1 marked another ending: it was the final occasion on which Black was to perform with Presley. He died in 1965.
Military service and mother's death (1958–60)[link]
On March 24, Presley was inducted into the U.S. Army as a private at Fort Chaffee, near Fort Smith, Arkansas. His arrival was a major media event. Hundreds of people descended on Presley as he stepped from the bus; photographers then accompanied him into the base.[134] Presley announced that he was looking forward to his military stint, saying he did not want to be treated any differently from anyone else: "The Army can do anything it wants with me."[135]
Soon after Presley commenced basic training at Fort Hood, Texas, he received a visit from Eddie Fadal, a businessman he had met on tour. According to Fadal, Presley had become convinced his career was finished—"He firmly believed that."[136] During a two-week leave in early June, Presley cut five sides in Nashville. In early August, his mother was diagnosed with hepatitis and her condition swiftly worsened. Presley, granted emergency leave to visit her, arrived in Memphis on August 12. Two days later, she died of heart failure, aged 46. Presley was devastated;[137] their relationship had remained extremely close—even into his adulthood, they would use baby talk with each other and Presley would address her with pet names.[138]
After training, Presley joined the 3rd Armored Division in Friedberg, Germany, on October 1.[139] Introduced to amphetamines by a sergeant while on maneuvers, he became "practically evangelical about their benefits"—not only for energy, but for "strength" and weight loss, as well—and many of his friends in the outfit joined him in indulging.[140] The Army also introduced Presley to karate, which he studied seriously, later including it in his live performances.[141] Fellow soldiers have attested to Presley's wish to be seen as an able, ordinary soldier, despite his fame, and to his generosity. He donated his Army pay to charity, purchased TV sets for the base, and bought an extra set of fatigues for everyone in his outfit.[142]
While in Friedberg, Presley met 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu. They would eventually marry after a seven-and-a-half-year courtship.[143] In her autobiography, Priscilla says that despite his worries that it would ruin his career, Parker convinced Presley that to gain popular respect, he should serve his country as a regular soldier rather than in Special Services, where he would have been able to give some musical performances and remain in touch with the public.[144] Media reports echoed Presley's concerns about his career, but RCA producer Steve Sholes and Freddy Bienstock of Hill and Range had carefully prepared for his two-year hiatus. Armed with a substantial amount of unreleased material, they kept up a regular stream of successful releases.[145] Between his induction and discharge, Presley had ten top 40 hits, including "Wear My Ring Around Your Neck", the best-selling "Hard Headed Woman", and "One Night" in 1958, and "(Now and Then There's) A Fool Such as I" and the number one "A Big Hunk o' Love" in 1959.[146] RCA also generated four albums compiling old material during this period, most successfully Elvis' Golden Records (1958), which hit number three on the LP chart.[147]
Focus on movies (1960–67)[link]
[edit] Elvis Is Back
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Presley broke new stylistic ground and displayed his vocal range with this number one hit. The quasi-operatic ballad ends with Presley "soaring up to an incredible top G sharp."[148]
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Presley returned to the United States on March 2, 1960, and was honorably discharged with the rank of sergeant on March 5.[149] The train that carried him from New Jersey to Tennessee was mobbed all the way, and Presley was called upon to appear at scheduled stops to please his fans.[150] On the night of March 20, he entered RCA's Nashville studio to cut tracks for a new album along with a single—"Stuck on You" was rushed into release and swiftly became a number one hit.[151] Another Nashville session two weeks later yielded a pair of his best-selling singles, the ballads "It's Now or Never" and "Are You Lonesome Tonight?", along with the rest of Elvis Is Back! The album features several songs described by Greil Marcus as full of Chicago blues "menace, driven by Presley's own super-miked acoustic guitar, brilliant playing by Scotty Moore, and demonic sax work from Boots Randolph. Elvis's singing wasn't sexy, it was pornographic."[152] As a whole, the record "conjured up the vision of a performer who could be all things", in the words of music historian John Robertson: "a flirtatious teenage idol with a heart of gold; a tempestuous, dangerous lover; a gutbucket blues singer; a sophisticated nightclub entertainer; [a] raucous rocker".[153] Released only days after recording was complete, it reached number two on the album chart.
Presley returned to television on May 12 as a guest on The Frank Sinatra Timex Special—ironic for both stars, given Sinatra's not-so-distant excoriation of rock and roll. Also known as Welcome Home Elvis, the show had been taped in late March, the only time all year Presley performed in front of an audience. Parker secured an unheard-of $125,000 fee for eight minutes of singing. The broadcast drew an enormous viewership.[154]
G.I. Blues, the soundtrack to Presley's first film since his return, was a number one album in October. His first LP of sacred material, His Hand in Mine, followed two months later. It reached number 13 on the U.S. pop chart and number 3 in Great Britain, remarkable figures for a gospel album. In February 1961, Presley performed two shows for a benefit event in Memphis, on behalf of 24 local charities. During a luncheon preceding the event, RCA presented him with a plaque certifying worldwide sales of over 75 million records.[155] A 12-hour Nashville session in mid-March yielded nearly all of Presley's next studio album, Something for Everybody.[156] As described by John Robertson, it exemplifies the Nashville sound, the restrained, cosmopolitan style that would define country music in the 1960s. Presaging much of what was to come from Presley himself over the next half-decade, the album is largely "a pleasant, unthreatening pastiche of the music that had once been Elvis's birthright."[157] It would be his sixth number one LP. Another benefit concert, raising money for a Pearl Harbor memorial, was staged on March 25, in Hawaii. It was to be Presley's last public performance for seven years.[158]
Lost in Hollywood[link]
See also: Elvis Presley filmography
Parker had by now pushed Presley into a heavy moviemaking schedule, focused on formulaic, modestly budgeted musical comedies. Presley at first insisted on pursuing more serious roles, but when two films in a more dramatic vein—Flaming Star (1960) and Wild in the Country (1961)—were less commercially successful, he reverted to the formula. Among the 27 movies he made during the 1960s, there were few further exceptions.[159] His films were almost universally panned; one critic dismissed them as a "pantheon of bad taste".[160] Nonetheless, they were virtually all profitable. Hal Wallis, who produced nine of them, declared, "A Presley picture is the only sure thing in Hollywood."[161]
Of Presley's films in the 1960s, 15 were accompanied by soundtrack albums and another 5 by soundtrack EPs. The movies' rapid production and release schedules—he frequently starred in three a year—affected his music. According to Jerry Leiber, the soundtrack formula was already evident before Presley left for the Army: "three ballads, one medium-tempo [number], one up-tempo, and one break blues boogie".[162] As the decade wore on, the quality of the soundtrack songs grew "progressively worse".[163] Julie Parrish, who appeared in Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966), says that he hated many of the songs chosen for his films.[164] The Jordanaires' Gordon Stoker describes how Presley would retreat from the studio microphone: "The material was so bad that he felt like he couldn't sing it."[165] Most of the movie albums featured a song or two from respected writers such as the team of Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman. But by and large, according to biographer Jerry Hopkins, the numbers seemed to be "written on order by men who never really understood Elvis or rock and roll."[166] Regardless of the songs' quality, it has been argued that Presley generally sang them well, with commitment.[167] Critic Dave Marsh heard the opposite: "Presley isn't trying, probably the wisest course in the face of material like 'No Room to Rumba in a Sports Car' and 'Rock-a-Hula Baby.'"[114]
In the first half of the decade, three of Presley's soundtrack albums hit number one on the pop charts, and a few of his most popular songs came from his films, such as "Can't Help Falling in Love" (1961) and "Return to Sender" (1962). ("Viva Las Vegas", the title track to the 1964 film, was a minor hit as a B-side, and became truly popular only later.) But, as with artistic merit, the commercial returns steadily diminished. During a five-year span—1964 through 1968—Presley had only one top ten hit: "Crying in the Chapel" (1965), a gospel number recorded back in 1960. As for non-movie albums, between the June 1962 release of Pot Luck and the November 1968 release of the soundtrack to the television special that signaled his comeback, only one LP of new material by Presley was issued: the gospel album How Great Thou Art (1967). It won him his first Grammy Award, for Best Sacred Performance. As Marsh described, Presley was "arguably the greatest white gospel singer of his time [and] really the last rock & roll artist to make gospel as vital a component of his musical personality as his secular songs."[168]
Shortly before Christmas 1966, more than seven years since they first met, Presley proposed to Priscilla Beaulieu. They were married on May 1, 1967, in a brief ceremony in their suite at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas.[169] The flow of formulaic movies and assembly-line soundtracks rolled on. It was not until October 1967, when the Clambake soundtrack LP registered record low sales for a new Presley album, that RCA executives recognized a problem. "By then, of course, the damage had been done", as historians Connie Kirchberg and Marc Hendrickx put it. "Elvis was viewed as a joke by serious music lovers and a has-been to all but his most loyal fans."[170]
Comeback (1968–73)[link]
[edit] Elvis: the '68 Comeback Special
Main article: Elvis (1968 TV program)
File:Elvis Presley 68 Comeback Special.jpg
The '68 Comeback Special produced "one of the most famous images" of Presley.[171] Taken on June 29, 1968, it was adapted for the cover of Rolling Stone in July 1969.[171][172]
Presley's only child, Lisa Marie, was born on February 1, 1968, during a period when he had grown deeply unhappy with his career.[173] Of the eight Presley singles released between January 1967 and May 1968, only two charted in the top 40, and none higher than number 28.[174] His forthcoming soundtrack album, Speedway, would die at number 82 on the Billboard chart. Parker had already shifted his plans to television, where Presley had not appeared since the Sinatra Timex show in 1960. He maneuvered a deal with NBC that committed the network to both finance a theatrical feature and broadcast a Christmas special.[175]
Recorded in late June in Burbank, California, the special, called simply Elvis, aired on December 3, 1968. Later known as the '68 Comeback Special, the show featured lavishly staged studio productions as well as songs performed with a band in front of a small audience—Presley's first live performances since 1961. The live segments saw Presley clad in tight black leather, singing and playing guitar in an uninhibited style reminiscent of his early rock and roll days. Director and coproducer Steve Binder had worked hard to reassure the nervous singer and to produce a show that was far from the hour of Christmas songs Parker had originally planned.[176] The show, NBC's highest rated that season, captured 42 percent of the total viewing audience.[177] Jon Landau of Eye magazine remarked, "There is something magical about watching a man who has lost himself find his way back home. He sang with the kind of power people no longer expect of rock 'n' roll singers. He moved his body with a lack of pretension and effort that must have made Jim Morrison green with envy."[178] Dave Marsh calls the performance one of "emotional grandeur and historical resonance."[179]
By January 1969, the single "If I Can Dream", written for the special, reached number 12. The soundtrack album broke into the top ten. According to friend Jerry Schilling, the special reminded Presley of what "he had not been able to do for years, being able to choose the people; being able to choose what songs and not being told what had to be on the soundtrack. ... He was out of prison, man."[177] Binder said of Presley's reaction, "I played Elvis the 60-minute show, and he told me in the screening room, 'Steve, it's the greatest thing I've ever done in my life. I give you my word I will never sing a song I don't believe in.'"[177]
[edit] From Elvis In Memphis and the International
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Beginning with his American Sound recordings, soul music became a central element in Presley's fusion of styles. Here, he revels in lyrics full of sexual innuendo.[180]
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Buoyed by the experience of the Comeback Special, Presley engaged in a prolific series of recording sessions at American Sound Studio, which led to the acclaimed From Elvis in Memphis. Released in June 1969, it was his first secular, non-soundtrack album from a dedicated period in the studio in eight years. As described by Dave Marsh, it is "a masterpiece in which Presley immediately catches up with pop music trends that had seemed to pass him by during the movie years. He sings country songs, soul songs and rockers with real conviction, a stunning achievement."[181] The album featured the hit single "In the Ghetto", issued in April, which reached number three on the pop chart—Presley's first non-gospel top ten hit since "Bossa Nova Baby" in 1963. Further hit singles were culled from the American Sound sessions: "Suspicious Minds", "Don't Cry Daddy", and "Kentucky Rain".
Presley was keen to resume regular live performing. Following the success of the Comeback Special, offers came in from around the world. The London Palladium offered Parker $28,000 for a one-week engagement. He responded, "That's fine for me, now how much can you get for Elvis?"[182] In May, the brand new International Hotel in Las Vegas, boasting the largest showroom in the city, announced that it had booked Presley. He was scheduled to perform 57 shows over four weeks beginning July 31. Moore, Fontana, and the Jordanaires declined to participate, afraid of losing the lucrative session work they had in Nashville. Presley assembled new, top-notch accompaniment, led by guitarist James Burton and including two gospel groups, The Imperials and Sweet Inspirations.[183] Nonetheless, he was nervous: his only previous Las Vegas engagement, in 1956, had been dismal. Parker, who intended to make Presley's return the show business event of the year, oversaw a major promotional push. For his part, hotel owner Kirk Kerkorian arranged to send his own plane to New York to fly in rock journalists for the debut performance.[184]
Presley took to the stage without introduction. The audience of 2,200, including many celebrities, gave him a standing ovation before he sang a note and another after his performance. A third followed his encore, "Can't Help Falling in Love" (a song that would be his closing number for much of the 1970s).[185] At a press conference after the show, when a journalist referred to him as "The King", Presley gestured toward Fats Domino, who was taking in the scene. "No," Presley said, "that's the real king of rock and roll."[186] The next day, Parker's negotiations with the hotel resulted in a five-year contract for Presley to play each February and August, at an annual salary of $1 million.[187] Newsweek commented, "There are several unbelievable things about Elvis, but the most incredible is his staying power in a world where meteoric careers fade like shooting stars."[188] Rolling Stone called Presley "supernatural, his own resurrection."[189] In November, Presley's final non-concert movie, Change of Habit, opened. The double album From Memphis To Vegas/From Vegas To Memphis came out the same month; the first LP consisted of live performances from the International, the second of more cuts from the American Sound sessions. "Suspicious Minds" reached the top of the charts—Presley's first U.S. pop number one in over seven years, and his last.
Cassandra Peterson, later television's Elvira, met Presley during this period in Las Vegas, where she was working as showgirl. She recalls of their encounter, "He was so anti-drug when I met him. I mentioned to him that I smoked marijuana, and he was just appalled. He said, 'Don't ever do that again.'"[190] Presley was not only deeply opposed to recreational drugs, he also rarely drank. Several of his family members had been alcoholics, a fate he intended to avoid.[191]
Back on tour and meeting Nixon[link]
Presley returned to the International early in 1970 for the first of the year's two month-long engagements, performing two shows a night. Recordings from these shows were issued on the album On Stage.[192] In late February, Presley performed six attendance-record–breaking shows at the Houston Astrodome.[193] In April, the single "The Wonder of You" was issued—a number one hit in Great Britain, it topped the U.S. adult contemporary chart, as well. MGM filmed rehearsal and concert footage at the International during August for the documentary Elvis: That's the Way It Is. Presley was by now performing in a jumpsuit, which would become a trademark of his live act. During this engagement, he was threatened with murder unless $50,000 was paid. Presley had been the target of many threats since the 1950s, often without his knowledge.[194] The FBI took the threat seriously and security was stepped up for the next two shows. Presley went onstage with a Derringer in his right boot and a .45 pistol in his waistband, but the concerts went off without incident.[195][196]
The album That's the Way It Is, produced to accompany the documentary and featuring both studio and live recordings, marked a stylistic shift. As music historian John Robertson notes, "The authority of Presley's singing helped disguise the fact that the album stepped decisively away from the American-roots inspiration of the Memphis sessions towards a more middle-of-the-road sound. With country put on the back burner, and soul and R&B left in Memphis, what was left was very classy, very clean white pop—perfect for the Las Vegas crowd, but a definite retrograde step for Elvis."[197] After the end of his International engagement on September 7, Presley embarked on a week-long concert tour, largely of the South, his first since 1958. Another week-long tour, of the West Coast, followed in November.[198]
On December 21, 1970, Presley engineered a meeting with President Richard Nixon at the White House, where he expressed his patriotism and his contempt for the hippie drug culture. He asked Nixon for a Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs badge, to add to similar items he had begun collecting and to signify official sanction of his patriotic efforts. Nixon, who apparently found the encounter awkward, expressed a belief that Presley could send a positive message to young people and that it was therefore important he "retain his credibility". Presley told Nixon that The Beatles, whose songs he regularly performed in concert during the era,[199] exemplified what he saw as a trend of anti-Americanism and drug abuse in popular culture.[200] (Presley and his friends had had a four-hour get-together with The Beatles five years earlier.) On hearing reports of the meeting, Paul McCartney later said that he "felt a bit betrayed. ... The great joke was that we were taking [illegal] drugs, and look what happened to him", a reference to Presley's death, hastened by prescription drug abuse.[201]
The U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce named Presley one of its annual Ten Most Outstanding Young Men of the Nation on January 16, 1971.[202] Not long after, the City of Memphis named the stretch of Highway 51 South on which Graceland is located "Elvis Presley Boulevard". The same year, Presley became the first rock and roll singer to be awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award (then known as the Bing Crosby Award) by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Grammy Award organization.[203] Three new, non-movie Presley studio albums were released in 1971, as many as had come out over the previous eight years. Best received by critics was Elvis Country, a concept record that focused on genre standards.[204] The biggest seller was Elvis Sings the Wonderful World of Christmas, "the truest statement of all", according to Greil Marcus. "In the midst of ten painfully genteel Christmas songs, every one sung with appalling sincerity and humility, one could find Elvis tom-catting his way through six blazing minutes of 'Merry Christmas, Baby,' a raunchy old Charles Brown blues. ... If [Presley's] sin was his lifelessness, it was his sinfulness that brought him to life".[205]
[edit] Marriage breakdown and Aloha from Hawaii
See also: Aloha from Hawaii
MGM again filmed Presley in April 1972, this time for Elvis on Tour, which went on to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Documentary Film that year. His gospel album He Touched Me, released that month, would earn him his second Grammy Award, for Best Inspirational Performance. A 14-date tour commenced with an unprecedented four consecutive sold-out shows at New York's Madison Square Garden.[206] The evening concert on July 10 was recorded and issued in LP form a week later. Elvis: As Recorded at Madison Square Garden became one of Presley's biggest-selling albums. After the tour, the single "Burning Love" was released—Presley's last top ten hit on the U.S. pop chart. "The most exciting single Elvis has made since 'All Shook Up'", wrote rock critic Robert Christgau. "Who else could make 'It's coming closer, the flames are now licking my body' sound like an assignation with James Brown's backup band?"[207]
File:ElvisPresleyAlohafromHawaii.jpg
Presley in Aloha From Hawaii, broadcast live via satellite on January 14, 1973. The singer himself came up with his famous outfit's eagle motif, as "something that would say 'America' to the world."[208]
Presley and his wife, meanwhile, had become increasingly distant, barely cohabiting. In 1971, an affair he had with Joyce Bova resulted—unbeknownst to him—in her pregnancy and an abortion. He often raised the possibility of her moving in to Graceland, saying that he was likely to leave Priscilla.[209] The Presleys separated on February 23, 1972, after Priscilla disclosed her relationship with Mike Stone, a karate instructor Presley had recommended to her. Priscilla relates that when she told him, Presley "grabbed ... and forcefully made love to" her, declaring, "This is how a real man makes love to his woman."[210] Five months later, Presley's new girlfriend, Linda Thompson, a songwriter and one-time Memphis beauty queen, moved in with him.[211] Presley and his wife filed for divorce on August 18.[212] According to Joe Moscheo of the Imperials, the failure of Presley's marriage "was a blow from which he never recovered."[213]
In January 1973, Presley performed two benefit concerts for the Kui Lee Cancer Fund in connection with a groundbreaking TV special, Aloha from Hawaii. The first show served as a practice run and backup should technical problems affect the live broadcast two days later. Aired as scheduled on January 14, Aloha from Hawaii was the first global concert satellite broadcast, reaching approximately 1.5 billion viewers live and on tape delay.[214][215][216] Presley's costume became the most recognized example of the elaborate concert garb with which his latter-day persona became closely associated. As described by Bobbie Ann Mason, "At the end of the show, when he spreads out his American Eagle cape, with the full stretched wings of the eagle studded on the back, he becomes a god figure."[217] The accompanying double album, released in February, went to number one and eventually sold over 5 million copies in the United States.[218] It proved to be Presley's last U.S. number one pop album during his lifetime.
At a midnight show the same month, four men rushed onto the stage in an apparent attack. Security men leapt to Presley's defense, and the singer's karate instinct took over as he ejected one invader from the stage himself. Following the show, he became obsessed with the idea that the men had been sent by Mike Stone to kill him. Though they were shown to have been only overexuberant fans, he raged, "There's too much pain in me ... Stone [must] die." His outbursts continued with such intensity that a physician was unable to calm him, despite administering large doses of medication. After another two full days of raging, Red West, his friend and bodyguard, felt compelled to get a price for a contract killing and was relieved when Presley decided, "Aw hell, let's just leave it for now. Maybe it's a bit heavy."[219]
Health deterioration and death (1973–77)[link]
Medical crises and last studio sessions[link]
Presley's divorce took effect on October 9, 1973.[220] He was now becoming increasingly unwell. Twice during the year he overdosed on barbiturates, spending three days in a coma in his hotel suite after the first incident. Toward the end of 1973, he was hospitalized, semicomatose from the effects of Demerol addiction. According to his main physician, Dr. George C. Nichopoulos, Presley "felt that by getting [drugs] from a doctor, he wasn't the common everyday junkie getting something off the street."[221] Since his comeback, he had staged more live shows with each passing year, and 1973 saw 168 concerts, his busiest schedule ever.[222] Despite his failing health, in 1974 he undertook another intensive touring schedule.[223]
Presley's condition declined precipitously in September. Keyboardist Tony Brown remembers the singer's arrival at a University of Maryland concert: "He fell out of the limousine, to his knees. People jumped to help, and he pushed them away like, 'Don't help me.' He walked on stage and held onto the mike for the first thirty minutes like it was a post. Everybody's looking at each other like, Is the tour gonna happen?"[224] Guitarist John Wilkinson recalled, "He was all gut. He was slurring. He was so fucked up. ... It was obvious he was drugged. It was obvious there was something terribly wrong with his body. It was so bad the words to the songs were barely intelligible. ... I remember crying. He could barely get through the introductions".[225] Wilkinson recounted that a few nights later in Detroit, "I watched him in his dressing room, just draped over a chair, unable to move. So often I thought, 'Boss, why don't you just cancel this tour and take a year off...?' I mentioned something once in a guarded moment. He patted me on the back and said, 'It'll be all right. Don't you worry about it.'"[225] Presley continued to play to sellout crowds. As cultural critic Marjorie Garber describes, he was now widely seen as a garish pop crooner: "in effect he had become Liberace. Even his fans were now middle-aged matrons and blue-haired grandmothers."[226]
On July 13, 1976, Vernon Presley—who had become deeply involved in his son's financial affairs—fired "Memphis Mafia" bodyguards Red West (Presley's friend since the 1950s), Sonny West, and David Hebler, citing the need to "cut back on expenses".[227][228][229] Presley was in Palm Springs at the time, and some suggest the singer was too cowardly to face the three himself. Another associate of Presley's, John O'Grady, argued that the bodyguards were dropped because their rough treatment of fans had prompted too many lawsuits.[230] However, Presley's stepbrother David Stanley has claimed that the bodyguards were fired because they were becoming more outspoken about Presley's drug dependency.[231] Presley and Linda Thompson split in November, and he took up with a new girlfriend, Ginger Alden.[232] He proposed to Alden and gave her an engagement ring two months later, though several of his friends later claimed that he had no serious intention of marrying again.[233]
RCA, which had enjoyed a steady stream of product from Presley for over a decade, grew anxious as his interest in spending time in the studio waned. After a December 1973 session that produced 18 songs, enough for almost two albums, he did not enter the studio in 1974.[234] Parker sold RCA on another concert record, Elvis: As Recorded Live on Stage in Memphis.[235] Recorded on March 20, it included a version of "How Great Thou Art" that would win Presley his third and final competitive Grammy Award.[236] (All three of his competitive Grammy wins—out of 14 total nominations—were for gospel recordings.) Presley returned to the studio in Hollywood in March 1975, but Parker's attempts to arrange another session toward the end of the year were unsuccessful.[237] In 1976, RCA sent a mobile studio to Graceland that made possible two full-scale recording sessions at Presley's home.[238] Even in that comfortable context, the recording process was now a struggle for him.[239]
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An R&B hit for Roy Hamilton in 1955 and a pop hit for blue-eyed soul singer Timi Yuro in 1961, Presley's deep soul version was picked up by country radio in 1976.[240]
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For all the concerns of his label and manager, in studio sessions between July 1973 and October 1976, Presley recorded virtually the entire contents of six albums. Though he was no longer a major presence on the pop charts, five of those albums entered the top five of the country chart, and three went to number one: Promised Land (1975), From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee (1976), and Moody Blue (1977).[241] The story was similar with his singles—there were no major pop hits, but Presley was a significant force in not just the country market, but on adult contemporary radio as well. Eight studio singles from this period released during his lifetime were top ten hits on one or both charts, four in 1974 alone. "My Boy" was a number one AC hit in 1975, and "Moody Blue" topped the country chart and reached the second spot on the AC in 1976.[242] Perhaps his most critically acclaimed recording of the era came that year, with what Greil Marcus described as his "apocalyptic attack" on the soul classic "Hurt".[243] "If he felt the way he sounded", Dave Marsh wrote of Presley's performance, "the wonder isn't that he had only a year left to live but that he managed to survive that long."[244]
Final year and death[link]
Journalist Tony Scherman writes that by early 1977, "Elvis Presley had become a grotesque caricature of his sleek, energetic former self. Hugely overweight, his mind dulled by the pharmacopoeia he daily ingested, he was barely able to pull himself through his abbreviated concerts."[245] In Alexandria, Louisiana, the singer was on stage for less than an hour and "was impossible to understand".[246] Presley failed to appear in Baton Rouge; he was unable to get out of his hotel bed, and the rest of the tour was cancelled.[246] Despite the accelerating deterioration of his health, he stuck to most touring commitments. In Rapid City, South Dakota, "he was so nervous on stage that he could hardly talk", according to Presley historian Samuel Roy, and unable to "perform any significant movement."[247] Guralnick relates that fans "were becoming increasingly voluble about their disappointment, but it all seemed to go right past Elvis, whose world was now confined almost entirely to his room and his spiritualism books."[248] A cousin, Billy Smith, recalled how Presley would sit in his room and chat for hours, sometimes recounting favorite Monty Python sketches and his own past escapades, but more often gripped by paranoid obsessions that reminded Smith of Howard Hughes.[249] "Way Down", Presley's last single issued during his lifetime, came out on June 6. His final concert was held in Indianapolis at the Market Square Arena, on June 26.
The book Elvis: What Happened?, cowritten by the three bodyguards fired the previous year, was published on August 1.[250] It was the first exposé to detail Presley's years of drug misuse. He was devastated by the book and tried unsuccessfully to halt its release by offering money to the publishers.[251] By this point, he suffered from multiple ailments: glaucoma, high blood pressure, liver damage, and an enlarged colon, each aggravated—and possibly caused—by drug abuse.[221]
Presley was scheduled to fly out of Memphis on the evening of August 16, 1977, to begin another tour. That afternoon, Alden discovered him unresponsive on his bathroom floor. Attempts to revive him failed, and death was officially pronounced at 3:30 pm at Baptist Memorial Hospital.[252]
President Jimmy Carter issued a statement that credited Presley with having "permanently changed the face of American popular culture".[253] Thousands of people gathered outside Graceland to view the open casket. One of Presley's cousins, Billy Mann, accepted $18,000 to secretly photograph the corpse; the picture appeared on the cover of the National Enquirer's biggest-selling issue ever.[254] Alden struck a $105,000 deal with the Enquirer for her story, but settled for less when she broke her exclusivity agreement.[255] Presley left her nothing in his will.[256]
Presley's funeral was held at Graceland, on Thursday, August 18. Outside the gates, a car plowed into a group of fans, killing two women and critically injuring a third.[257] Approximately 80,000 people lined the processional route to Forest Hill Cemetery, where Presley was buried next to his mother.[258] Within a few days, "Way Down" topped the country and UK pop charts.[242][259] Following an attempt to steal the singer's body in late August, the remains of both Elvis Presley and his mother were reburied in Graceland's Meditation Garden on October 2.[255]
Since 1977[link]
Between 1977 and 1981, six posthumously released singles by Presley were top ten country hits.[242] Graceland was opened to the public in 1982. Attracting over half a million visitors annually, it is the second most-visited home in the United States, after the White House.[260] It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2006.[261]
Presley has been inducted into four music halls of fame: the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1986), the Country Music Hall of Fame (1998), the Gospel Music Hall of Fame (2001), and the Rockabilly Hall of Fame (2007). In 1984, he received the W. C. Handy Award from the Blues Foundation and the Academy of Country Music's first Golden Hat Award. In 1987, he received the American Music Awards' Award of Merit.[262]
A Junkie XL remix of Presley's "A Little Less Conversation" (credited as "Elvis Vs JXL") was used in a Nike advertising campaign during the 2002 FIFA World Cup. It topped the charts in over 20 countries, and was included in a compilation of Presley's number one hits, ELV1S, that was also an international success. In 2003, a remix of "Rubberneckin'", a 1969 recording of Presley's, topped the U.S. sales chart, as did a 50th-anniversary re-release of "That's All Right" the following year.[263] The latter was an outright hit in Great Britain, reaching number three on the pop chart.
In 2005, another three reissued singles, "Jailhouse Rock", "One Night"/"I Got Stung", and "It's Now or Never", went to number one in Great Britain. A total of 17 Presley singles were reissued during the year; all made the British top five. For the fifth straight year, Forbes named Presley the top-earning deceased celebrity, with a gross income of $45 million.[264] He placed second in 2006,[265] returned to the top spot the next two years,[266][267] and ranked fourth in 2009.[268] The following year, he was ranked second, with his highest annual income ever—$60 million—spurred by the celebration of his 75th birthday and the launch of Cirque du Soleil's Viva Elvis show in Las Vegas.[269] In November 2010, Viva Elvis: The Album was released, setting his voice to newly recorded instrumental tracks.[270][271] As of mid-2011, there were an estimated 15,000 licensed Presley products.[272] He was again the second-highest-earning deceased celebrity.[273]
Presley holds the records for most songs charting in Billboard's top 40 and top 100: chart statistician Joel Whitburn calculates the respective totals as 104 and 151;[274] Presley historian Adam Victor gives 114 and 138.[275] Presley's rankings for top ten and number one hits vary depending on how the double-sided "Hound Dog/Don't Be Cruel" and "Don't/I Beg of You" singles, which precede the inception of Billboard's unified Hot 100 chart, are analyzed.e According to Whitburn's analysis, Presley and Madonna share the record for most top ten hits with 38;[276] per Billboard's current assessment, he ranks second with 36.[277] Whitburn and Billboard concur that The Beatles hold the record for most number one hits with 20 and that Mariah Carey is second with 18. Whitburn has Presley also with 18 and thus tied for second;[276] Billboard has him third with 17.[278] Presley retains the record for cumulative weeks at number one: alone at 80, according to Whitburn and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame;[279][280] tied with Carey at 79, according to Billboard.[281][282] He holds the records for most British number one hits, with 21, and top ten hits, with 76.[283][284]
Musical style[link]
Influences[link]
Presley's earliest musical influence came from gospel. His mother recalled that from the age of two, at the Assembly of God church in Tupelo attended by the family, "he would slide down off my lap, run into the aisle and scramble up to the platform. There he would stand looking at the choir and trying to sing with them."[285] In Memphis, Presley frequently attended all-night gospel singings at the Ellis Auditorium, where groups such as the Statesmen Quartet led the music in a style that, Guralnick suggests, sowed the seeds of Presley's future stage act:
The Statesmen were an electric combination ... featuring some of the most thrillingly emotive singing and daringly unconventional showmanship in the entertainment world ... dressed in suits that might have come out of the window of Lansky's. ... Bass singer Jim Wetherington, known universally as the Big Chief, maintained a steady bottom, ceaselessly jiggling first his left leg, then his right, with the material of the pants leg ballooning out and shimmering. "He went about as far as you could go in gospel music," said Jake Hess. "The women would jump up, just like they do for the pop shows." Preachers frequently objected to the lewd movements ... but audiences reacted with screams and swoons.[286]
As a teenager, Presley's musical interests were wide-ranging, and he was deeply informed about African American musical idioms as well as white ones (see "Teenage life in Memphis"). Though he never had any formal training, he was blessed with a remarkable memory, and his musical knowledge was already considerable by the time he made his first professional recordings in 1954 at the age of 19. When Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller met him two years later, they were astonished at his encyclopedic understanding of the blues.[287] At a press conference the following year, he proudly declared, "I know practically every religious song that's ever been written."[126]
Genres[link]
Presley was a central figure in the development of rockabilly, according to music historians. "Rockabilly crystallized into a recognizable style in 1954 with Elvis Presley's first release, on the Sun label", writes Craig Morrison.[288] Paul Friedlander describes the defining elements of rockabilly, which he similarly characterizes as "essentially ... an Elvis Presley construction": "the raw, emotive, and slurred vocal style and emphasis on rhythmic feeling [of] the blues with the string band and strummed rhythm guitar [of] country".[289] In "That's All Right", the Presley trio's first record, Scotty Moore's guitar solo, "a combination of Merle Travis–style country finger-picking, double-stop slides from acoustic boogie, and blues-based bent-note, single-string work, is a microcosm of this fusion."[289]
At RCA, Presley's rock and roll sound grew distinct from rockabilly with group chorus vocals, more heavily amplified electric guitars[290] and a tougher, more intense manner.[291] While he was known for taking songs from various sources and giving them a rockabilly/rock and roll treatment, he also recorded songs in other genres from early in his career, from the pop standard "Blue Moon" at Sun to the country ballad "How's the World Treating You?" on his second LP to the blues of "Santa Claus Is Back In Town". In 1957, his first gospel record was released, the four-song EP Peace in the Valley. Certified as a million seller, it became the top-selling gospel EP in recording history.[292] Presley would record gospel periodically for the rest of his life.
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From How Great Thou Art (1967), a traditional song popular in the black gospel tradition. The arrangement evokes "the percussive style of the 1930s Golden Gate Quartet."[293][294]
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After his return from military service in 1960, Presley continued to perform rock and roll, but the characteristic style was substantially toned down. His first post-Army single, the number one hit "Stuck on You", is typical of this shift. RCA publicity materials referred to its "mild rock beat"; discographer Ernst Jorgensen calls it "upbeat pop".[295] The modern blues/R&B sound captured so successfully on Elvis Is Back! was essentially abandoned for six years until such 1966–67 recordings as "Down in the Alley" and "Hi-Heel Sneakers".[296] The singer's output during most of the 1960s emphasized pop music, often in the form of ballads such as "Are You Lonesome Tonight?", a number one in 1960. While that was a dramatic number, most of what Presley recorded for his movie soundtracks was in a much lighter vein.[297]
While Presley performed several of his classic ballads for the '68 Comeback Special, the sound of the show was dominated by aggressive rock and roll. He would record few new straight-ahead rock and roll songs thereafter; as he explained, they were "hard to find".[298] A significant exception was "Burning Love", his last major hit on the pop charts. Like his work of the 1950s, Presley's subsequent recordings reworked pop and country songs, but in markedly different permutations. His stylistic range now began to embrace a more contemporary rock sound as well as soul and funk. Much of Elvis In Memphis, as well as "Suspicious Minds", cut at the same sessions, reflected his new rock and soul fusion. In the mid-1970s, many of his singles found a home on country radio, the field where he first became a star.[299]
Vocal style and range[link]
Music critic Henry Pleasants observes that "Elvis Presley has been described variously as a baritone and a tenor. An extraordinary compass ... and a very wide range of vocal color have something to do with this divergence of opinion."[300] He identifies Presley as a high baritone, calculating his range as two octaves and a third, "from the baritone low G to the tenor high B, with an upward extension in falsetto to at least a D-flat. Presley's best octave is in the middle, D-flat to D-flat, granting an extra full step up or down."[300] In Pleasants' view, his voice was "variable and unpredictable" at the bottom, "often brilliant" at the top, with the capacity for "full-voiced high Gs and As that an opera baritone might envy."[300] Scholar Lindsay Waters, who figures Presley's range as two and a quarter octaves, emphasizes that "his voice had an emotional range from tender whispers to sighs down to shouts, grunts, grumbles and sheer gruffness that could move the listener from calmness and surrender, to fear. His voice can not be measured in octaves, but in decibels; even that misses the problem of how to measure delicate whispers that are hardly audible at all."[301] Presley was always "able to duplicate the open, hoarse, ecstatic, screaming, shouting, wailing, reckless sound of the black rhythm-and-blues and gospel singers," writes Pleasants, and also demonstrated a remarkable ability to assimilate many other vocal styles.[300]
Questions over cause of death[link]
"Drug use was heavily implicated" in Presley's death, writes Guralnick. "No one ruled out the possibility of anaphylactic shock brought on by the codeine pills ... to which he was known to have had a mild allergy." A pair of lab reports filed two months later each strongly suggested that polypharmacy was the primary cause of death; one reported "fourteen drugs in Elvis' system, ten in significant quantity."[302] Forensic historian and pathologist Michael Baden views the situation as complicated: "Elvis had had an enlarged heart for a long time. That, together with his drug habit, caused his death. But he was difficult to diagnose; it was a judgment call."[303]
The competence and ethics of two of the centrally involved medical professionals were seriously questioned. Before the autopsy was complete and toxicology results known, medical examiner Dr. Jerry Francisco declared the cause of death as cardiac arrhythmia, a condition that can be determined only in someone who is still alive.[304] Allegations of a cover-up were widespread.[303] While Presley's main physician, Dr. Nichopoulos, was exonerated of criminal liability for the singer's death, the facts were startling: "In the first eight months of 1977 alone, he had [prescribed] more than 10,000 doses of sedatives, amphetamines and narcotics: all in Elvis's name." His license was suspended for three months. It was permanently revoked in the 1990s after the Tennessee Medical Board brought new charges of over-prescription.[221]
In 1994, the Presley autopsy was reopened. Coroner Dr. Joseph Davis declared, "There is nothing in any of the data that supports a death from drugs. In fact, everything points to a sudden, violent heart attack."[221] Whether or not combined drug intoxication was in fact the cause, there is little doubt that polypharmacy contributed significantly to Presley's premature death.[304]
Racial issues[link]
When Dewey Phillips first aired "That's All Right" on Memphis radio, many listeners who contacted the station by phone and telegram to ask for it again assumed that its singer was black.[52] From the beginning of his national fame, Presley expressed respect for African American performers and their music, and disregard for the norms of segregation and racial prejudice then prevalent in the South. Interviewed in 1956, he recalled how in his childhood he would listen to blues musician Arthur Crudup—the originator of "That's All Right"—"bang his box the way I do now, and I said if I ever got to the place where I could feel all old Arthur felt, I'd be a music man like nobody ever saw."[36] The Memphis World, an African American newspaper, reported that Presley, "the rock 'n' roll phenomenon", "cracked Memphis's segregation laws" by attending the local amusement park on what was designated as its "colored night".[36] Such statements and actions led Presley to be generally hailed in the black community during the early days of his stardom.[36] By contrast, many white adults, according to Billboard's Arnold Shaw, "did not like him, and condemned him as depraved. Anti-negro prejudice doubtless figured in adult antagonism. Regardless of whether parents were aware of the Negro sexual origins of the phrase 'rock 'n' roll', Presley impressed them as the visual and aural embodiment of sex."[305]
Despite the largely positive view of Presley held by African Americans, a rumor spread in mid-1957 that he had at some point announced, "The only thing Negroes can do for me is buy my records and shine my shoes." A journalist with the national African American weekly Jet, Louie Robinson, pursued the story. On the set of Jailhouse Rock, Presley granted him an interview, though he was no longer dealing with the mainstream press. He denied making such a statement or holding in any way to its racist view. Robinson found no evidence that the remark had ever been made, and on the contrary elicited testimony from many individuals indicating that Presley was anything but racist.[36][306] Blues singer Ivory Joe Hunter, who had heard the rumor before he visited Graceland one evening, reported of Presley, "He showed me every courtesy, and I think he's one of the greatest."[307] Though the rumored remark was wholly discredited at the time, it was still being used against Presley decades later.[308] The identification of Presley with racism—either personally or symbolically—was expressed most famously in the lyrics of the 1989 rap hit "Fight the Power", by Public Enemy: "Elvis was a hero to most / But he never meant shit to me / Straight-up racist that sucker was / Simple and plain".[309]
The persistence of such attitudes was fueled by resentment over the fact that Presley, whose musical and visual performance idiom owed much to African American sources, achieved the cultural acknowledgment and commercial success largely denied his black peers.[306] Into the 21st century, the notion that Presley had "stolen" black music still found adherents.[308][309] Notable among African American entertainers expressly rejecting this view was Jackie Wilson, who argued, "A lot of people have accused Elvis of stealing the black man's music, when in fact, almost every black solo entertainer copied his stage mannerisms from Elvis."[310] And throughout his career, Presley plainly acknowledged his debt. Addressing his '68 Comeback Special audience, he said, "Rock 'n' roll music is basically gospel or rhythm and blues, or it sprang from that. People have been adding to it, adding instruments to it, experimenting with it, but it all boils down to [that]." Nine years earlier, he had said, "Rock 'n' roll has been around for many years. It used to be called rhythm and blues."[311]
Influence of Colonel Parker and others[link]
Parker and the Aberbachs[link]
Further information: Colonel Tom Parker
Once he became Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker insisted on exceptionally tight control over his client's career. Early on, he and his Hill and Range allies, the brothers Jean and Julian Aberbach, perceived the close relationship that developed between Presley and songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller as a serious threat to that control.[312] Parker effectively ended the relationship, deliberately or not, with the new contract he sent Leiber in early 1958. Leiber thought there was a mistake—the sheet of paper was blank except for Parker's signature and a line on which to enter his. "There's no mistake, boy, just sign it and return it", Parker directed. "Don't worry, we'll fill it in later." Leiber declined, and Presley's fruitful collaboration with the writing team was over.[313] Other respected songwriters lost interest in or simply avoided writing for Presley because of the requirement that they surrender a third of their usual royalties.[314]
By 1967, Parker's contracts with Presley gave him 50 percent of most of the singer's earnings from recordings, films, and merchandise.[315] Beginning in February 1972, he took a third of the profit from live appearances;[316] a January 1976 agreement entitled him to half of that as well.[317] Priscilla Presley noted that "Elvis detested the business side of his career. He would sign a contract without even reading it."[318] Presley's friend Marty Lacker regarded Parker as a "hustler and a con artist. He was only interested in 'now money'—get the buck and get gone."[319]
Lacker was instrumental in convincing Presley to record with Memphis producer Chips Moman and his handpicked musicians at American Sound Studio in early 1969. The American Sound sessions represented a significant departure from the control customarily exerted by Hill and Range. Moman still had to deal with the publisher's staff on site, whose song suggestions he regarded as unacceptable. He was on the verge of quitting, until Presley ordered the Hill and Range personnel out of the studio.[320] Although RCA executive Joan Deary was later full of praise for the producer's song choices and the quality of the recordings,[321] Moman, to his fury, received neither credit on the records nor royalties for his work.[322]
Throughout his entire career, Presley performed in only three venues outside the United States—all of them in Canada, during brief tours there in 1957. Rumors that he would play overseas for the first time were fueled in 1974 by a million-dollar bid for an Australian tour. Parker was uncharacteristically reluctant, prompting those close to Presley to speculate about the manager's past and the reasons for his apparent unwillingness to apply for a passport. Parker ultimately squelched any notions Presley had of working abroad, claiming that foreign security was poor and the venues unsuitable for a star of his magnitude.[323]
Parker arguably exercised tightest control over Presley's movie career. In 1957, Robert Mitchum asked Presley to costar with him in Thunder Road, on which Mitchum was writer and producer.[324] According to George Klein, one of his oldest friends, Presley was offered starring roles in West Side Story and Midnight Cowboy.[325] In 1974, Barbra Streisand approached Presley to star with her in the remake of A Star is Born.[326] In each case, any ambitions the singer may have had to play such parts were thwarted by his manager's negotiating demands or flat refusals. In Lacker's description, "The only thing that kept Elvis going after the early years was a new challenge. But Parker kept running everything into the ground."[319] The operative attitude may have been summed up best by the response Leiber and Stoller received when they brought a serious film project for Presley to Parker and the Hill and Range owners for their consideration. In Leiber's telling, Jean Aberbach warned them to never again "try to interfere with the business or artistic workings of the process known as Elvis Presley".[162]
Memphis Mafia[link]
Main article: Memphis Mafia
In the early 1960s, the circle of friends with whom Presley constantly surrounded himself until his death came to be known as the "Memphis Mafia".[327] "Surrounded by the[ir] parasitic presence", as journalist John Harris puts it, "it was no wonder that as he slid into addiction and torpor, no-one raised the alarm: to them, Elvis was the bank, and it had to remain open."[328] Tony Brown, who played piano for Presley regularly in the last two years of the singer's life, observed his rapidly declining health and the urgent need to address it: "But we all knew it was hopeless because Elvis was surrounded by that little circle of people ... all those so-called friends".[329] In the Memphis Mafia's defense, Marty Lacker has said, "[Presley] was his own man. ... If we hadn't been around, he would have been dead a lot earlier."[330]
Larry Geller became Presley's hairdresser in 1964. Unlike others in the Memphis Mafia, he was interested in spiritual questions and recalls how, from their first conversation, Presley revealed his secret thoughts and anxieties: "I mean there has to be a purpose...there's got to be a reason...why I was chosen to be Elvis Presley. ... I swear to God, no one knows how lonely I get. And how empty I really feel."[331] Thereafter, Geller supplied him with books on religion and mysticism, which the singer read voraciously.[332] Presley would be preoccupied by such matters for much of his life, taking trunkloads of books with him on tour.[221]
Sex symbol[link]
Presley's physical attractiveness and sexual appeal were widely acknowledged. "He was once beautiful, astonishingly beautiful", in the words of critic Mark Feeney.[333] Television director Steve Binder, no fan of Presley's music before he oversaw the '68 Comeback Special, reported, "I'm straight as an arrow and I got to tell you, you stop, whether you're male or female, to look at him. He was that good looking. And if you never knew he was a superstar, it wouldn't make any difference; if he'd walked in the room, you'd know somebody special was in your presence."[334] His performance style, as much as his physical beauty, was responsible for Presley's eroticized image. Writing in 1970, critic George Melly described him as "the master of the sexual simile, treating his guitar as both phallus and girl."[335] In his Presley obituary, Lester Bangs credited him as "the man who brought overt blatant vulgar sexual frenzy to the popular arts in America."[336] Ed Sullivan's declaration that he perceived a soda bottle in Presley's trousers was echoed by rumors involving a similarly positioned toilet roll tube or lead bar.[337]
While Presley was marketed as an icon of heterosexuality, some cultural critics have argued that his image was ambiguous. In 1959, Sight and Sound's Peter John Dyer described his onscreen persona as "aggressively bisexual in appeal".[338] Brett Farmer places the "orgasmic gyrations" of the title dance sequence in Jailhouse Rock within a lineage of cinematic musical numbers that offer a "spectacular eroticization, if not homoeroticization, of the male image".[339] In the analysis of Yvonne Tasker, "Elvis was an ambivalent figure who articulated a peculiar feminised, objectifying version of white working-class masculinity as aggressive sexual display."[340]
Reinforcing Presley's image as a sex symbol were the reports of his dalliances with various Hollywood stars and starlets, from Natalie Wood in the 1950s to Connie Stevens and Ann-Margret in the 1960s to Candice Bergen and Cybill Shepherd in the 1970s. June Juanico of Memphis, one of Presley's early girlfriends, later blamed Parker for encouraging him to choose his dating partners with publicity in mind.[190] Presley, however, never grew comfortable with the Hollywood scene, and most of these relationships were insubstantial.[341]
Legacy[link]
Further information: Cultural impact of Elvis Presley; Cultural depictions of Elvis Presley
His music and his personality, fusing the styles of white country and black rhythm and blues, permanently changed the face of American popular culture. His following was immense, and he was a symbol to people the world over of the vitality, rebelliousness, and good humor of his country.
Presley's rise to national attention in 1956 transformed the field of popular music and had a huge effect on the broader scope of popular culture.[4] As the catalyst for the cultural revolution that was rock and roll, he was central not only to defining it as a musical genre but in making it a touchstone of youth culture and rebellious attitude.[342] With its racially mixed origins—repeatedly affirmed by Presley—rock and roll's occupation of a central position in mainstream American culture facilitated a new acceptance and appreciation of black culture.[343] In this regard, Little Richard said of Presley, "He was an integrator. Elvis was a blessing. They wouldn't let black music through. He opened the door for black music."[344] Al Green agreed: "He broke the ice for all of us."[345] Presley also heralded the vastly expanded reach of celebrity in the era of mass communication: at the age of 21, within a year of his first appearance on American network television, he was one of the most famous people in the world.[346]
Presley's name, image, and voice are instantly recognizable around the globe.[347] He has inspired a legion of impersonators.[348] In polls and surveys, he is recognized as one of the most important popular music artists and influential Americans.f "Elvis Presley is the greatest cultural force in the twentieth century", said composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein. "He introduced the beat to everything and he changed everything—music, language, clothes. It's a whole new social revolution—the sixties came from it."[349] Bob Dylan described the sensation of first hearing Presley as "like busting out of jail".[345]
A New York Times editorial on the 25th anniversary of Presley's death observed, "All the talentless impersonators and appalling black velvet paintings on display can make him seem little more than a perverse and distant memory. But before Elvis was camp, he was its opposite: a genuine cultural force. ... Elvis's breakthroughs are underappreciated because in this rock-and-roll age, his hard-rocking music and sultry style have triumphed so completely."[350] Not only Presley's achievements, but his failings as well, are seen by some cultural observers as adding to the power of his legacy, as in this description by Greil Marcus:
Elvis Presley is a supreme figure in American life, one whose presence, no matter how banal or predictable, brooks no real comparisons. ... The cultural range of his music has expanded to the point where it includes not only the hits of the day, but also patriotic recitals, pure country gospel, and really dirty blues. ... Elvis has emerged as a great artist, a great rocker, a great purveyor of schlock, a great heart throb, a great bore, a great symbol of potency, a great ham, a great nice person, and, yes, a great American.[351]
Discography[link]
Main articles: Elvis Presley albums discography and Elvis Presley singles discography
A vast number of recordings have been issued under Presley's name. The total number of his original master recordings has been variously calculated as 665[275] and 711.[333] His career began and he was most successful during an era when singles were the primary commercial medium for pop music. In the case of his albums, the distinction between "official" studio records and other forms is often blurred. For most of the 1960s, his recording career focused on soundtrack albums. In the 1970s, his most heavily promoted and best-selling LP releases tended to be concert albums. This summary discography lists only the albums and singles that reached the top of one or more of the following charts: the main U.S. Billboard pop chart; the Billboard country chart, the genre chart with which he was most identified (there was no country album chart before 1964); and the official British pop chart.g In the United States, Presley also had five or six number one R&B singles and seven number one adult contemporary singles;h in 1964, his "Blue Christmas" topped the Christmas singles chart during a period when Billboard did not rank holiday singles in its primary pop chart.[241][352] He also had number one hits in many countries beside the United States and United Kingdom.
Number one albums[link]
| Year | Album | Type | Chart positions | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US[353] | US Country[354] | UK[259][355] | |||
| 1956 | Elvis Presley | studio/comp. | 1 | n.a. | 1 |
| Elvis | studio | 1 | n.a. | 3 | |
| 1957 | Loving You | sound./studio | 1 | n.a. | 1 |
| Elvis' Christmas Album | studio | 1 | n.a. | 2 | |
| 1960 | Elvis Is Back! | studio | 2 | n.a. | 1 |
| G.I. Blues | soundtrack | 1 | n.a. | 1 | |
| 1961 | Something for Everybody | studio | 1 | n.a. | 2 |
| Blue Hawaii | soundtrack | 1 | n.a. | 1 | |
| 1962 | Pot Luck | studio | 4 | n.a. | 1 |
| 1964 | Roustabout | soundtrack | 1 | — | 12 |
| 1969 | From Elvis in Memphis | studio | 13 | 2 | 1 |
| 1973 | Aloha from Hawaii: Via Satellite | live | 1 | 1 | 11 |
| 1974 | Elvis: A Legendary Performer Volume 1 | compilation | 43 | 1 | 20 |
| 1975 | Promised Land | studio | 47 | 1 | 21 |
| 1976 | From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee | studio | 41 | 1 | 29 |
| 1977 | Elvis' 40 Greatest | compilation | — | — | 1 |
| Moody Blue | studio/live | 3 | 1 | 3 | |
| Elvis in Concert | live | 5 | 1 | 13 | |
| 2002 | ELV1S: 30 #1 Hits | compilation | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2007 | Elvis the King | compilation | — | — | 1 |
Number one singles[link]
Filmography[link]
Main article: Elvis Presley filmography
See also[link]
 |
Book: Elvis Presley |
| Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print. | |
- Elvis Presley Enterprises
- Honorific nicknames in popular music
- List of artists by total number of UK number one singles
- List of best-selling music artists
- Personal relationships of Elvis Presley
Notes[link]
- ^ Note a: Although some pronounce his surname "PREZ-lee", Presley himself used the pronunciation of the American South, "PRESS-lee", as did his family and those who worked with him.[357] The correct spelling of his middle name has long been a matter of debate. The physician who delivered him wrote "Elvis Aaron Presley" in his ledger.[358] The state-issued birth certificate reads "Elvis Aron Presley". The name was chosen after the Presleys' friend and fellow congregation member Aaron Kennedy, though a single-A spelling was probably intended by Presley's parents in order to parallel the middle name of Presley's stillborn brother, Jesse Garon.[138] It reads Aron on most official documents produced during his lifetime, including his high school diploma, RCA record contract, and marriage license, and this was generally taken to be the proper spelling.[359] In 1966, Presley expressed the desire to his father that the more traditional biblical rendering, Aaron, be used henceforth, "especially on legal documents."[358] Five years later, the Jaycees citation honoring him as one of the country's Outstanding Young Men used Aaron. Late in his life, he sought to officially change the spelling to Aaron and discovered that state records already listed it that way. Knowing his wishes for his middle name, Aaron is the spelling his father chose for Presley's tombstone, and it is the spelling his estate has designated as official.[359]
- ^ Note b: According to a third cousin of Presley's, one of Gladys's great-grandmothers was Jewish.[360] There is no evidence that Presley or his mother shared this belief in a Jewish heritage. Syndicated columnist Nate Bloom has challenged the cousin's account, which he calls a "tall tale".[361]
- ^ Note c: Of the $40,000, $5,000 covered back royalties owed by Sun.[73]
- ^ Note d: In 1956–57, Presley was also credited as a cowriter on several songs where he had no hand in the writing process: "Heartbreak Hotel"; "Don't Be Cruel"; all four songs from his first film, including the title track, "Love Me Tender"; "Paralyzed"; and "All Shook Up".[362] He received credit on two other songs to which he did contribute: he provided the title for "That's Someone You Never Forget" (1961), written by his friend Red West; Presley and West collaborated with another friend, guitarist Charlie Hodge, on "You'll Be Gone" (1962).[363]
- ^ Note e: Whitburn follows actual Billboard history in considering the four songs on the "Don't Be Cruel/Hound Dog" and "Don't/I Beg of You" singles as distinct. He tallies each side of the former single as a number one (Billboard's sales chart had "Don't Be Cruel" at number one for five weeks, then "Hound Dog" for six) and reckons "I Beg of You" as a top ten, as it reached number eight on the old Top 100 chart. Billboard now considers both singles as unified items, ignoring the historical sales split of the former and its old Top 100 chart entirely. Whitburn thus analyzes the four songs as yielding three number ones and a total of four top tens. Billboard now states that they yielded just two number ones and a total of two top tens, voiding the separate chart appearances of "Hound Dog" and "I Beg of You".
- ^ Note f: VH1 ranked Presley #8 among the "100 Greatest Artists of Rock & Roll" in 1998.[364] The BBC ranked him as the #2 "Voice of the Century" in 2001.[365] Rolling Stone placed him #3 in its list of "The Immortals: The Fifty Greatest Artists of All Time" in 2004.[366] CMT ranked him #15 among the "40 Greatest Men in Country Music" in 2005.[367] The Discovery Channel placed him #8 on its "Greatest American" list in 2005.[368] Variety put him in the top ten of its "100 Icons of the Century" in 2005.[369] The Atlantic Monthly ranked him #66 among the "100 Most Influential Figures in American History" in 2006.[370]
- ^ Note g: (1) The year given is the year the record first reached number one, rather than its original year of release. For instance, in 1974, Elvis' 40 Greatest, a compilation on the budget Arcade label, was the fourth highest selling album of the year in the United Kingdom; at the time, the main British chart did not rank such compilations, relegating them to a chart for midpriced and TV-advertised albums, which Elvis' 40 Greatest topped for 15 weeks.[371] The policy was altered in 1975, allowing the album to hit number one on the main chart in 1977, following Presley's death.[372] (2) Before late 1958, rather than unified pop and country singles charts, Billboard had as many as four charts for each, separately ranking records according to sales, jukebox play, jockey spins (i.e., airplay), and, in the case of pop, a general Top 100. Billboard now regards the sales charts as definitive for the period. Widely cited chart statistician Joel Whitburn accords historical releases the highest ranking they achieved among the separate charts. Presley discographer Ernst Jorgensen refers only to the Top 100 chart for pop hits. All of the 1956–58 songs listed here as number one U.S. pop hits reached the top of both the sales and, with three exceptions, the Top 100 charts: "I Want You, I Need You, I Love You" (three), "Hound Dog" (two, behind its flip side, "Don't Be Cruel"), and "Hard Headed Woman" (two). (3) Several Presley singles reached number one in the United Kingdom as double A-sides; in the United States, the respective sides of those singles were ranked separately by Billboard.
- ^ Note h: Whitburn calculates a total of six number one R&B singles, including "Don't Be Cruel", released as a double A-side with "Hound Dog";[352] Billboard's Keith Caulfield excludes "Don't Be Cruel".[241]
Citations[link]
- ^ Reaves 2002.
- ^ Victor 2008, pp. 438–39.
- ^ Semon & Jorgensen 2001.
- ^ a b Collins 2002.
- ^ Guralnick & Jorgensen 1999, p. 3.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 13–14.
- ^ Dundy 2004, pp. 13, 16, 20–22, 26.
- ^ Dundy 2004, p. 60.
- ^ Kamphoefner 2009, p. 33.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 11–12, 23–24.
- ^ Victor 2008, p. 419.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 12–14.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 15–16.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 17–18.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, p. 19.
- ^ Dundy 2004, p. 101.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, p. 23.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 23–26.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 19–21.
- ^ Dundy 2004, pp. 95–96.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 32–33.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, p. 36.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 35–38.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 40–41.
- ^ Stanley & Coffey 1998, p. 20.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 43, 44, 49.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 44, 46, 51.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 52–53.
- ^ a b Guralnick 1994, p. 171.
- ^ a b Matthew-Walker 1979, p. 3.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 46–48, 358.
- ^ Wadey 2004.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 47–48, 77–78.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, p. 51.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 38–40.
- ^ a b c d e Guralnick 2004.
- ^ Bertrand 2000, p. 205.
- ^ Szatmary 1996, p. 35.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, p. 54.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, p. 8.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 62–64.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, p. 65.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, p. 77.
- ^ Cusic 1988, p. 10.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, p. 80.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, p. 83.
- ^ Miller 2000, p. 72.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, pp. 10–11.
- ^ Marcus 1982, p. 174.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 94–97.
- ^ Ponce de Leon 2007, p. 43.
- ^ a b Guralnick 1994, pp. 100–1.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 102–4.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 105, 139.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 106, 108–11.
- ^ a b Guralnick 1994, p. 110.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 117–27, 131.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, p. 119.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 128–30.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 127–28, 135–42.
- ^ Burke & Griffin 2006, pp. 61, 176.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 152, 156, 182.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 144, 159, 167–68.
- ^ Nash 2003, pp. 6–12.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, p. 163.
- ^ Bertrand 2000, p. 104.
- ^ Hopkins 2007, p. 53.
- ^ Guralnick & Jorgensen 1999, p. 45.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, p. 29.
- ^ Rogers 1982, p. 41.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 217–19.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, p. 31.
- ^ a b Stanley & Coffey 1998, pp. 28–29.
- ^ Escott 1998, p. 421.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, pp. 36, 54.
- ^ Stanley & Coffey 1998, p. 29.
- ^ Guffey 2006, p. 127.
- ^ Miles et al. 2008, p. 32.
- ^ a b c Stanley & Coffey 1998, p. 30.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 235–36.
- ^ Slaughter & Nixon 2004, p. 21.
- ^ Guralnick & Jorgensen 1999, pp. 50, 54, 64.
- ^ Hilburn 2005.
- ^ Rodman 1996, p. 28.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 262–63.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, p. 267.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, p. 274.
- ^ a b Victor 2008, p. 315.
- ^ Guralnick & Jorgensen 1999, pp. 72–73.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 273, 284.
- ^ Fensch 2001, pp. 14–18.
- ^ a b Burke & Griffin 2006, p. 52.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, p. 49.
- ^ Gould 1956.
- ^ a b Guralnick & Jorgensen 1999, p. 73.
- ^ a b c d e Marcus 2006.
- ^ Marsh 1982, p. 100.
- ^ Austen 2005, p. 13.
- ^ Allen 1992, p. 270.
- ^ Keogh 2004, p. 73.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, p. 51.
- ^ Guralnick & Jorgensen 1999, pp. 80–81.
- ^ Whitburn 1993, p. 5.
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- Slaughter, Todd; Anne E. Nixon. The Elvis Archives. Omnibus Press; 2004. ISBN 1-84449-380-6.
- Stanley, David; Coffey, Frank. The Elvis Encyclopedia. Virgin Books; 1998. ISBN 0-7535-0293-3.
- Stein, Ruthe. "Girls! Girls! Girls!" San Francisco Chronicle. August 3, 1997 [cited December 29, 2009].
- Szatmary, David. A Time to Rock: A Social History of Rock 'n' Roll. Schirmer Books; 1996. ISBN 0-02-864670-3.
- Tasker, Yvonne. "Cowgirl Tales". In: Codell, Julie F., editor. Genre, Gender, Race, and World Cinema: An Anthology. Blackwell; 2007. ISBN 1-4051-3232-9.
- Trust, Gary. "Chart Beat". Billboard. June 2, 2010 [cited July 22, 2010].
- Turner, John Frayn. Frank Sinatra. Taylor Trade Publications; 2004. ISBN 1-58979-145-2.
- 100 Icons of the Century. Variety. 2005 [cited December 29, 2009].
- VH1. 100 Greatest Artists of Rock & Roll; 1998 [cited December 29, 2009].
- Victor, Adam. The Elvis Encyclopedia. Overlook Duckworth; 2008. ISBN 1-58567-598-9.
- Wadey, Paul. "Jake Hess". The Independent. January 8, 2004 [cited December 28, 2009].
- Warwick, Neil; Kutner, Jon; Brown, Tony. The Complete Book of the British Charts: Singles & Albums. 3rd ed. Omnibus Press; 2004. ISBN 1-84449-058-0.
- Waters, Lindsay. "Come Softly, Darling, Hear What I Say: Listening in a State of Distraction—A Tribute to the Work of Walter Benjamin, Elvis Presley, and Robert Christgau". Boundary 2. Spring 2003.
- Whitburn, Joel. Billboard Top 1000 Singles 1955–1992. Billboard Books; 1993. ISBN 0-7935-2072-X.
- Whitburn, Joel. The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits. 8th ed. Billboard Books; 2004. ISBN 0-8230-7499-4.
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- Whitburn, Joel. Joel Whitburn Presents the Billboard Albums. 6th ed. Record Research; 2007. ISBN 0-89820-166-7.
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- Wolfe, Charles. Amazing Grace: His Greatest Sacred Performances. CD Booklet RCA/BMG. UPC 7863664212; 1994.
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Further reading[link]
- Allen, Lew (2007). Elvis and the Birth of Rock. Genesis. ISBN 1-905662-00-9.
- Ann-Margret and Todd Gold (1994). Ann-Margret: My Story. G.P. Putnam's Sons. ISBN 0-399-13891-9.
- Cantor, Louis (2005). Dewey and Elvis: The Life and Times of a Rock 'n' Roll Deejay. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-02981-X.
- Dickerson, James L. (2001). Colonel Tom Parker: The Curious Life of Elvis Presley's Eccentric Manager. Cooper Square Press. ISBN 0-8154-1267-3.
- Finstad, Suzanne (1997). Child Bride: The Untold Story of Priscilla Beaulieu Presley. Harmony Books. ISBN 0-517-70585-0.
- Goldman, Albert (1981). Elvis. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-023657-7.
- Goldman, Albert (1990). Elvis: The Last 24 Hours. St. Martin's. ISBN 0-312-92541-7.
- Klein, George (2010). Elvis: My Best Man: Radio Days, Rock 'n' Roll Nights, and My Lifelong Friendship with Elvis Presley. Virgin Books. ISBN 978-0-307-45274-0
- Marcus, Greil (1999). Dead Elvis: A Chronicle of a Cultural Obsession. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-19422-5.
- Marcus, Greil (2000). Double Trouble: Bill Clinton and Elvis Presley in a Land of No Alternative. Picador. ISBN 0-571-20676-X.
- Nash, Alanna (2010). Baby, Let's Play House: Elvis Presley and the Women Who Loved Him. It Books. ISBN 0-06-169984-5.
- West, Red, Sonny West, and Dave Hebler (as told to Steve Dunleavy) (1977). Elvis: What Happened? Bantam Books. ISBN 0-345-27215-3.
External links[link]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Elvis Presley |
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Elvis Presley |
- Elvis Presley at the Internet Movie Database
- Elvis Presley at AllRovi
- Elvis Presley discography at Discogs
- Elvis Presley Enterprises official site of the Elvis Presley brand
- Elvis The Music official record label site
- Elvis Presley Interviews on officially sanctioned Elvis Australia site
- Elvis Presley at the Open Directory Project
- Elvis Presley Ancestry at Genealogy.com
- Elvis Presley 1955 interview material on Pop Chronicles
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Presley, Elvis Aaron |
| Alternative names | Presley, Elvis Aaron |
| Short description | American singer, song producer and actor; "The King of Rock'n'Roll" |
| Date of birth | (1935-01-08)January 8, 1935 |
| Place of birth | Tupelo, Mississippi, U.S. |
| Date of death | August 16, 1977(1977-08-16) |
| Place of death | Memphis, Tennessee, USA |
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