This classic guide to the music of Elvis Presley is sure to please fans celebrating Elvis’ 70th birthday on January 8, 2005. Written by a rock ‘n roll expert, this complete guide examines every song in Elvis’ recorded repertoire, making it an invaluable guide for record collectors and fans alike.
FOR HIS EIGHTH birthday, Mark Alan Stamaty’s parents gave him his very own radio. Little did his mother realize that that innocent-looking plastic box would one day be the gateway for a new kind of sound that would “rock” her nearly out of her mind. . . .
Mark first heard the howling thunder of Elvis Presley singing “Hound Dog” on the radio one lazy day and his life was forever changed. Soon he was styling his hair like the King and practicing his dance moves with a tennis racket as his pretend guitar in front o f the mirror. But his mother lived in constant fear that her son’s new love of rock ’n’ roll would turn him into a juvenile delinquent. Could Mark’s performance at his Cub Scout talent show change her mind?
From the Hardcover edition.
Shake, Rattle & Turn That Noise Down!: How Elvis Shook Up Music, Me & Mom
Elvis Presley’s music in the 1970s is often dismissed as the bombastic, half-hearted hack work of an overweight, pill-addicted, badly dressed has-been. In the liner notes to this five-CD set, Dave Marsh argues that Presley, in fact, created a more impressive body of work in the ’70s than almost any other pop act. And the music on this massive anthology backs Marsh up. Stripping away all the garish live recordings and album filler, the package concentrates on a core of 120 songs–the A- and B-sides of every single Presley recorded in the ’70s, 46 other studio tracks (including 13 previously unreleased performances), and 27 live tracks (including another 13 unreleased tracks)–that feature a still-magnificent singer collaborating with one of the funkiest bands of its time. This body of work certainly doesn’t match Presley’s breakthroughs in the ’50s, nor does it equal the achievements of Al Green, Neil Young, and Van Morrison in the ’70s, but it does stack up well against the work of Bob Dylan and the ex-Beatles in the same decade. Even in his laziest moments, Presley was a master of intonation and phrasing, delivering his rich baritone with a disarming naturalness. And when he caught a spark from his great T.C.B. Band (anchored by guitarist James Burton and drummer Ron Tutt), Presley could still out-sing anyone in American pop. You can hear it here on inspired versions of Tony Joe White’s “Polk Salad Annie,” Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” Muddy Waters’ “Got My Mojo Working,” Wayne Carson’s “Always on My Mind,” Chuck Berry’s “Promised Land,” Paul McCartney’s “Lady Madonna,” Percy Mayfield’s “Stranger in My Own Hometown,” Dennis Linde’s “Burning Love,” and Joe South’s “Walk a Mile in My Shoes.” –Geoffrey Himes
Elvis Collectibles Love Me Tender Tape / Playing Cards / Pins / Poster
Elvis Memorabilia – Cloisonne Pin Set / 5 Mugs / 2 Ornaments / Lighter / Pen
Elvis Memorabilia – 1993 Stamps / 1993 Pin / 1995 Coin / First Day Covers
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.” 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 helped create Presley’s future stage act.
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. 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. At a press conference the following year, he proudly declared, “I know practically every religious song that’s ever been written.”
At RCA, Presley’s rock and roll sound grew distinct from rockabilly with group chorus vocals, more heavily amplified electric guitars and a tougher, more intense manner.
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”.
Special single CD featuring the best alternative versions of all the songs from ‘G.I. Blues’, includes for the first time, cuts taken from the movie (which aren’t on the Box Set). 26 total tracks
Orson is a young boy whose mother works at a U.S. Army base in Germany in the 1950s. There, he becomes a fan of a G.I. stationed at the base, one Elvis Presley, whose music is played over and over on the radio. When Orson is caught stealing recordings of Elvis’s tunes from the PX, the attendant publicity catches the star’s attention, and he comes to visit his young fan. Thus begins a lifelong friendship. As Elvis’s career rockets ever higher and his behavior becomes ever more erratic, the two share many adventures. The sixties explode, and Elvis becomes the icon of the nation, while Orson, a college demonstrator, drifts away from regular life while looking for something of substance to believe in. Each man is an emblem of his time, as social conventions crumble, barriers fall, and the cultural landscape changes forever.
A panorama of change and dissent, of the ability of friends to stay true despite distance and time, Elvis in the Morning portrays a nation in change and the effects of celebrity on innocence.
Weaving the story of the King’s personal and public life with detailed descriptions of the locations in Memphis that served as the setting for his musical education and evolution, this pop culture guide offers a refreshingly even-handed account of Elvis Presley’s life. Elvis came to Memphis as a 13-year-old boy, and within a few years, he was shocking and seducing the world with a mixture of moves and sounds he had first seen and heard in the city’s streets, churches, and bars. This comprehensive tour of places on which Elvis left his mark includes the Peabody Hotel, where he had his senior prom; Ellis Auditorium, where he played his first show; the Sun Studio, where he recorded his first singles; Lansky Brothers Clothiers, where he bought his suits; and Graceland, where he lived with his wife Priscilla and died in 1977. Anecdotes about each of the locations and how they shaped Elvis’s personal and musical identity enhance the travel information, while street maps and a handy size make this book an invaluable companion to Memphis visitors and lovers of rock and roll.