 E lvis Presley
Hound Dog After Elvis Presley rocked The Milton Berle Show with his bump-and-grind rendition of "Hound Dog," this gritty R&B tune became indelibly linked with his name. Yet, he was not the first to record a hit version of it, nor did he sing the original lyrics. The song was written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller in 1952 for blues singer Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton at the request of Johnny Otis, a hustling bandleader, producer, composer, and R&B deejay. Otis invited the team to watch Thornton rehearse in his garage-turned-studio. After watching the mighty singer belt out a few numbers, Leiber and Stoller composed "Hound Dog" -- a song about a gigolo -- in about ten minutes. Thornton growled the saucy lyrics to a hard-driving blues beat, and "Hound Dog" sold over half a million copies, climbed to number one on the R&B charts, and became a top-selling record in the R&B market during 1953. Memphis disc jockey Rufus Thomas recorded an answer song called "Bear Cat," which was released on Sam Phillips' Sun label.
May 21, 1956: Brenda Lee signs with Decca Records. September 17, 1956: Brenda Lee releases her first single, “Jambalaya” b/w “Bigelow 6-200.” She is eleven years old. May 8, 1958: Brenda Lee records with producer Owen Bradley at his Nashville studio for the first time. He will remain her producer for the next 18 years. October 19, 1958: Brenda Lee cuts the seasonal standard “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.” It fails to chart upon its initial release but does make the charts as a re-release in three subsequent Decembers: 1960 (#14), 1961 (#50) and 1962 (#59). February 18, 1959: Brenda Lees opens the first night of what will turn out to be an eight-week stand at Paris’s Olympia Music Hall, thereby introducing the fourteen-year-old singer to a rabid international audience. September 29, 1959: Brenda Lee’s first big hit, “Sweet Nothin’s,” is released. It will enter the Top Forty that December and peak at #4 in April 1960. July 18, 1960: “I’m Sorry,” by Brenda Lee, tops the singles chart for the first of three weeks. October 24, 1960: “I Want to Be Wanted,” by Brenda Lee, hits #1 – her second chart-topper in three months. April 6, 1963: Brenda Lee’s twelfth and final Top Ten pop hit, “Losin’ You,” enters the charts. March 31, 1973: “Nobody Wins,” by Brenda Lee, enters the Hot 100. It is the last time she’ll crack the pop chart, but the song becomes a #1 country hit. June 17, 1974: “Big Four Poster Bed,” the latest in a growing string of country hits, is released. Since 1957, Lee has charted hit singles in nearly every year – and is not yet 30 years old. May 23, 1988: ‘Shadowland,’ by k.d. lang, is released. It features the Grammy-nominated “Honky Tonk Angels’ Medley,” with vocal contributions from Brenda Lee, Loretta Lynn and Kitty Wells. September 3, 1997: Brenda Lee is inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame at age 52. March 18, 2002: Brenda Lee is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the seventeenth annual induction dinner. Jewel is her presenter.
I can remember the corner drugstore where you could get a chocolate Coke for a nickel. And a Malt for 20 cents. And get to sit next that pretty girl from Algebra class, at least for a while. And gunsmoke, rifleman, rin-tin-tin
Young women often tied their hair back in a ponytail and circled it with a pretty chiffon scarf. But this would have been for casual activities and rarely for evening.
The King Of Rock And Roll He Came And He Sang He Smiled, He Danced,And Forever Changed The Face Of Music.
Speedway is released nationally and doesn't do very well. The soundtrack album goes only as far up the chart as number 82. Mid-to-Late June, 1968 Elvis rehearses for the taping of his first television special. A press conference is held on June 25th. Videotaping is done June 27, 28, 29, and 30. Commonly referred to as The '68 Special or The ?68 Comeback. the actual name of this landmark television special is Elvis . The sixties have brought about great change in music and pop culture. Change for which Elvis helped pave the way over a decade earlier when he exploded onto the scene with his unique blending of pop, rock, country, R&B and gospel influences. Focusing on his Hollywood movie career in the sixties, Elvis has become less a part of the current pop cultural scene. He has been making one movie after another, and many of the records he has put out in these years have been movie soundtrack albums. In the fifties and early sixties, the films and film-related records were wonderfully successful, but as the sixties have worn on, the movies and records, though still profitable, have not been nearly so successful as they were before.
Elvis has reached the supreme level of frustration with the state of his career and all its limitations on his creativity and artistic expression. He had hoped to become a serious actor, but Hollywood had other ideas and Elvis went along with them. His opportunities to show his true talents as an actor have been few. He is beyond ready for a change. By now, it has been more than seven years since Elvis has appeared in front of a live audience. Elvis has missed the closeness of his audience, the energy and excitement of live performing. The '68 Special opens with Elvis singing a hot new version of the gutsy "Trouble", from his 1958 film King Creole . This segues into Guitar Man, which, with its semi-autobiographical lyrics, becomes the underlying theme of the show. Then, Elvis is reunited with two of his original fifties band members, Fontana. (Bass player Bill Black has been deceased for several years by this time.) They sit together on stage in the round, along with several other friends and associates of Elvis for an informal session of singing, jamming, and swapping stories. Parts of this jam session are woven throughout the show. There are also sequences of Elvis taking the stage alone and performing many of his greatest hit rockers and ballads, and he introduces a new song, Memories. One can surmise that he pours out years of career frustration and pent-up creative energy into the performance of these songs. His natural talent, charisma, sensuality and stage presence have not been diminished by the years in Hollywood. In fact, he looks, sounds, moves and grooves better than he ever has. At 33, he is better than he has ever been. Better than anybody in the business. For the group jam session segments and solo stage performances Elvis wears a two-piece black leather outfit specially designed for the show by Bill Belew, who also designed all the other wardrobe Elvis and the cast wear in the show. The look evokes the era of James Dean and the Marlon Brando type motorcycle films of the fifties, the era when Elvis was first proclaimed the King of Rock 'n' Roll.
In one of the jam session segments, Elvis speaks of the gospel origins of rock and roll. This segues into the gospel music portion of the show, which has Elvis wearing a two-piece burgundy suit, singing "Where Could I Go But to the Lord," "Up Above My Head" and "I'm Saved," backed by the female vocal group, The Blossoms, and accompanied by a troupe of dancers - all of this for a rousing gospel production number. Toward the end of the special Elvis appears in a lengthy production number that, through song, dance, karate, and various situations, traces a young man's journey from a struggling guitar player, through the challenges, dangers and compromises on the path to his dreams of success and superstardom. Something is lost along the way. Once the dream is achieved, the man realizes that he remains unfulfilled, that he has abandoned his true self. He decides to return to his roots, doing what made him happiest, what he does best. He sings "I'll never be more than what I am... a swingin' little guitar man." The parallels to Elvis' own life are clear and deliberate, and his doing the ?68 special represents his own return to his true self, to his roots. Free from the confines of his Hollywood grind, this is Elvis the singer, the performer, the musician, the man - the real Elvis.
At the end of the special, Elvis appears alone wearing a simple white two-piece suit, standing in front of the towering backdrop of red lights that spell ELVIS. He sings a brand new song, "If I Can Dream," especially written for the show. The writers created the song based in part upon conversations with Elvis about his own thoughts on what was happening in the turbulent sixties. It seemed appropriate that he close the show with some sort of personal statement. His powerful and passionate performance of this song of hope for mankind is one of the most brilliant moments of his singing career. July/August, 1968 Elvis records the theme and does filming for his twenty-ninth movie, Charro! , a dramatic western, again a very different kind of role. Elvis grows a beard for this. The theme song will be heard over the opening credits, but there will be no other Elvis songs used. This will be the first and only film in which Elvis does not sing on camera. October-November 1968 Elvis records the soundtrack and does filming for his thirtieth movie, The Trouble with Girls (and How to Get into It . He sings in this one, but in very natural situations for a change. It is yet another film quite different from the typical Elvis films. Live a Little, Love a Little opens in the U.S. in October and doesn't do very well. "If I Can Dream," from the soon-to-be aired '68 special hits number 12 on the pop singles chart in November, making it Elvis' biggest single since 1965. December 3, 1968 Elvis, the 1968 TV special, first airs on NBC-TV and is one of this biggest television hits of the year, receiving rave reviews from the public and the critics alike. The soundtrack album goes to number eight on the pop chart. Reviewing the show, rock writer John Landau says: 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 from rock 'n' roll singers. Years later, rock writer Greil Marcus will remember it this way: It was the finest music of his life. If ever there was music that bleeds, this was it. Elvis, the 1968 TV special, is to become widely regarded as one of the truly great television moments in pop/rock music history. After this show everything changes for Elvis. He pours renewed creative energy into his recording work, is soon to wrap up his movie contract obligations and to return full-time to the concert stage, beginning a new and exciting era of his career. His superstardom is yet to reach its height. December 1968 Elvis wraps shooting on The Trouble with Girls.
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