I'll Remember You

40 years ago today, Elvis was in Los Angeles, quietly celebrating his birthday prior to flying to Honolulu the next day. With the support of Sonny West he had lost about 20 pounds on a stringent diet in preparation for his upcoming Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite TV special on January 14, 1973.

Elvis arrived in Honolulu looking great and eager to go. This is how Sonny West remembers it in his book Elvis: Still Taking Care Of Business (2007):

When we landed at the airport, so many leis were placed around Elvis’ neck that you could hardly see his face. We went by helicopter to the Hilton Hawaiian Village Hotel, where hundreds of fans welcomed Elvis. It was a thrill just to be part of it. He loved it, of course, but he was also a little tense. He would be performing live before an estimated billion and a half people around the world, and he wanted everything just right.

40 years later, I will celebrate the 78th anniversary of the birth of Elvis Presley by watching this historic event on DVD. 

Happy birthday, Elvis! 

Talking To The Mystery Train

Last month, Thomas Melin released a new book, The Elvis Today Blog: Volume 2. Available from Blurb, the paperback compiles 230 more Elvis Today Blog posts. It also features a foreword by Michael Jarrett, writer of “I’ll Be Home On Christmas Day” and “I’m Leavin’”, as well as a previously unreleased interview with DJ Fontana, Elvis’ first drummer. Melin recently took the time to chat about Elvis and the 328-page volume.

So begins a post by Troy Y. over at The Mystery Train Blog published a couple of days ago, on December 19. In it, I talk about why I am an Elvis fan, what my favorite post in the book is, the circumstances of my interview with DJ Fontana (featured as a bonus post in the book) and the story behind songwriter Michael Jarrett writing the foreword. Among other things. 

"The Elvis Today Blog Volume 2 author talks to The Mystery Train"

“Lots of standing and screaming”

One of the benefits from running an Elvis blog is that you get to hear from people who have their very own Elvis experiences. And sometimes those experiences can blow you away. Just the other week Mrs. Barbara Schoenburg e-mailed me about the FTD book A Moment In Time–4 Days in ’56, telling me she was at the Detroit concert on May 25, 1956, in the second row, middle.

The book includes some fantastic shots of Elvis driving the crowd wild at the Fox Theater in Detroit on that date (one of which was used on the cover of the Young Man With The Big Beat box set). So, firing away an e-mail in return, I asked Barbara if she would like to answer a couple of questions about her experiences that day. Imagine my excitement when I found her answers waiting for me in the mail the very next day. She began by telling me that she was in the picture on page 15 (the one from Young Man With The Big Beat). 

Barbara: I was 12 at the time. If you look at Elvis' right knee cap there is a girl and I am directly behind her, in front of the girl with the black shirt. Sorry to say I started losing interest in Elvis when he went into the army. I still have the early albums though. After that I never really was into his music.

Elvis Today: How come you went to the show?

Barbara: I loved Elvis' sound and thought he was so good looking, I collected magazines and stuff. All of which I threw out along the way to adulthood. Stupid me.

Elvis Today: What do you remember the most about Elvis’ performance?

Barbara: Just that I loved it. I was the only one of my friends that liked him so I went to the show alone. He was so good looking and moved in a way that I had never seen before. I remember screaming and wishing everyone would sit down so we could all see. I was short and it bothered me that people stood so I had trouble seeing some of the show. I do not remember any other acts. I do remember seeing him on the Ed Sullivan show and screaming as I watched and my grandmother demanding that I stop and arguing with her about turning off the TV. I won. I do not remember anything else about it.

Elvis Today: How did the crowd (yourself included) react when Elvis sang and moved?

Barbara: Lots of standing and screaming.

Elvis Today: Do you remember any particular song he sang?

Barbara: I do remember he sang “Heartbreak Hotel” which had been released just a few months previously. My husband and all his friends are impressed that I got to see him with his original band, Scotty Moore, Bill Black and DJ Fontana. I only had eyes for Elvis.

Elvis Today: Did you ever see Elvis live again?

Barbara: I saw him in April 1973 or November 1976 at the Anaheim CA Convention Center. He was into what I called the Liberace phase with the jump suits, and scarves. He had put on a lot of weight. He sounded good but it was not the same as seeing him for the first time. 

Thank you so much for your answers, Barbara, and for letting me share them with my readers!

Press Release: The Elvis Today Blog Volume 2

The second volume of The Elvis Today Blog is now available, collecting 230 posts from January 8, 2010 to August 16, 2012. A special bonus post features a previously unreleased interview with Elvis’ first drummer D.J. Fontana. The foreword is written by Michael Jarrett, who wrote “I’m Leavin’” and “I’ll Be Home On Christmas Day” for Elvis. 

“When I started the Elvis Today Blog on August 16, 2007, I had no idea it would result in a book. And certainly not in two,” says author Thomas Melin, a public relations officer living in Sweden.

The most common reaction Thomas gets from friends and colleagues when they learn that he runs an Elvis blog is, “What is there to tell?” And it’s a justified question. After all, Elvis has been gone for 35 years now.

“So I start to explain. I tell them about all the albums with unreleased material that the official collectors label Follow That Dream Records keeps pouring out. I also mention the shows touring Europe with former members of Elvis’ band members. And I talk about the books that continue to be written.”

That’s the stuff Thomas writes about. And he tells it from his perspective, what he thinks of a certain album, a concert or a book. He also uses the blog to share some of the many Elvis memories he’s had over the years. And every time he has to explain his reasons for blogging, it hits him how lucky he is to be an Elvis fan, and not only because of the great legacy Elvis left behind.

“The interest in Elvis is as high as ever, certainly as big as when I became an Elvis fan over 30 years ago. And being a fan is as fun today as it was then. So was writing the posts that ended up becoming The Elvis Today Blog Volume 2, running from post number 271 right up to post number 500. I hope that fans have as much fun reading it,” says Thomas Melin.

The Elvis Today Blog Volume 2 (328 pages) is available on blurb.com for US $14.45 http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/3723394

Praise for the first volume of The Elvis Today Blog

“Thomas Melin crafts a unique volume that follows the triumphs and trials of being an Elvis fan in the post-1977 era.”
Troy Y., The Mystery Train Blog 

“Melin ponders issues as diverse as Elvis in the shop window and archival media reports to new bootleg releases, the need for an FTD (Follow That Dream) website and the album that never was. All in all it makes for interesting reading.”
Nigel Patterson, Elvis In Print:
The Definite Reference And Price Guide

A Fool Such As I

Earlier this fall, my work took me to The University of Manchester, located in Manchester, United Kingdom. The night before my plane left, I browsed my favorite Elvis websites, and was surprised to learn that there was an Elvis festival going on in–yes, you guessed it–Manchester.

Studying the schedule a bit closer I noticed that the festival ended on the very same day we would be arriving, on a Sunday, and that we could probably manage to attend the Midnight Wrap Party, starting at 7:00 PM, as our flight would be landing sometime in the afternoon.

Not knowing how the colleagues that I was traveling with would react, I nevertheless printed out the schedule together with a map of Manchester, showing the location of the festival.

Sometime during the flight I mentioned the Elvis festival to a colleague sitting in the seat next to me, telling him that the wrap party promised a “final opportunity to socialize with the ETAs [Elvis Tribute Artists] and fans while enjoying more karaoke.” His eyes immediately lit up. “That sounds like fun. Let's go there after we have eaten dinner tonight,” he said.

Arriving in Manchester on time, we found our hotel and then went out looking for something to eat. After a meal at an Italian restaurant, two of my colleagues decided to join me when I asked if they were still interested in visiting the Elvis festival. “Of course,” one of them said, “I've been thinking about all those Elvis impersonators all day, let's go.”

So I hailed a cab, and told the driver to take us to the Elvis festival. Receiving a blank look in the rear mirror I handed him the map I had printed the day before. “There it is,” I said helpfully. “On the other side of the river.” Looking at the map and then shaking his head, he mumbled something about not understanding where we wanted to go. “It's at the Radisson Hotel,” I clarified. “Why didn't you say so,” the driver fired back. “Why hand me a map?”

Finally on our way, I calculated that the drive would take at least 10 minutes. Imagine my surprise when the cab stopped after only a couple of hundred meters, not having passed a river at all. “Radisson Hotel,” the driver announced, and looking out the window I could see he was right. But where was the Elvis festival? From where I was looking, the lobby looked pretty much deserted.

“What was the name of that hotel restaurant where the festival was taking place,” one of the colleagues in the cab with me, asked. Glancing at the schedule that I held in my hand together with the map, I answered, “JD's Tavern.” My colleague took out his iPhone, accessed the internet and punched in the name.

“JD's Tavern is located at the Radisson Hotel in Manchester all right,” he said after a while, looking at me with a smug smile on his face. ”Only we're talking about Manchester in the U.S state of New Hampshire.”

Right there, right then, I felt incredible foolish. There I was, in a cab in Manchester, having convinced my colleagues we were going to an Elvis festival to enjoy a drink or two while watching lots of impersonators in action, realizing I was in the wrong country, even on the wrong continent for heaven's sake!

“Ah, well,” the colleague with the iPhone said. “Let's go inside for a drink anyway.” Nodding my head, I started to get out of the cab, handing the driver a bill, but completely forgetting to wait for the change.

A few minutes later, the three of us were sitting in the bar, nursing beers and listening to music that was as far from Elvis as it could get. And although the evening turned out OK in the end, it wasn't exactly what I had imagined the day before, sitting in front of my computer, looking at the schedule for the 2012 New England Elvis Festival. Sigh!

Treat Me Nice

Ten years ago, on August 16, 2002, an one hour radio program titled Treat Me Nice was aired on nationwide radio in Sweden. Having produced and recorded the program a couple of days earlier, I remember how excited and proud I felt reading about it in one of the biggest newspapers in the morning (the text was a shortened version of the press release) and it read something like this:

On August 16 it is 25 years since Elvis Presley died. Still, Elvis is more alive today than ever. No one has more organized fans and Graceland is the most visited private home in the USA after the White House. Elvis records are selling like never before and this summer he has been number one in the charts [with the JXL remix of “A Little Less Conversation”]. More about this can be heard in the program Treat Me Nice, where Thomas Melin takes a closer look at the phenomenon of Elvis.

Listening to the program today (I have a copy of it on CD, of course), it hit me how much of what I included in it still holds true. Ernst Jorgensen is still searching for unreleased Elvis material and the demand for alternate takes, home recordings and live versions is as high as ever. Books about Elvis continues to be written and Elvis Week only seems to be getting bigger and bigger every year. And Elvis keeps performing “live on screen” accompanied by his old band members (although it might be for the last time during tonight's Elvis 35th Anniversary Concert in Memphis).

At the end of the program, I asked Ernst Jorgensen how big he thought the interest in Elvis would be in another 25 years. His answer was that Elvis will probably sell fewer albums as the music gets older, but that he will not be forgotten.

Ten years later, it is still great times to be an Elvis fan. The official collectors label Follow That Dream Records continues to serve us with unreleased material and their latest release, the book and 3 cd set A Boy From Tupelo : The Complete 1953-55 Recordings is truly remarkable. And then there is the Sony October release Prince From Another Planet 40th Anniversary Madison Square Garden 2 CD/1 DVD set to look forward to.

On a completely different level, this marks my 500th post since I started the Elvis Today Blog exactly five years ago, on August 16, 2007. Something that would have never been possible without the support of my readers. To all of you I express my gratitude. But most of all, thank you Elvis, for always being there for me with your music. It means the world.

With this post I'm taking an indefinite break from blogging. There is so much going on in my life at the moment, at the top of the list is my two year old daughter, I simply haven't got either the time or energy to write about Elvis. But I will continue to listen to the man who, like Troy Y. over at The Mystery Train Blog puts it so well, provides the soundtrack to my life.

From Hawaii To The Rest Of The World

What if the previously unreleased cassette recording of Elvis rehearsing the day before his opening show at the Las Vegas Hilton on January 26, 1973 had been a rehearsal for an upcoming world tour instead? In an alternate universe, a review of the recently released From Hawaii To Las Vegas album from FTD would have sounded a bit different. To borrow a phrase from fellow blogger Troy Y: You've just crossed over into ... the edge of reality. 

Fortunately Elvis didn't return for another routine engagement in Las Vegas after his triumphal Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite show. As you all know, he went on a highly successful world tour instead, starting in Europe. The recent From Hawaii To The Rest Of The World release from Follow That Dream Records provides an unique “fly-on-the-wall” experience of Elvis rehearsing for his opening show in London. Captured on a personal tape recorder, the sonic quality is below normal standards, but historical significance more than compensates for its audio limitations.

The first two songs on the cassette recording are “Something” and “You Gave Me A Mountain,” both sounding very much like their counterparts from the satellite show. As Aloha From Hawaii served more or less as a blueprint for the song list included on the world tour, Elvis probably rehearsed “See See Rider” and “Burning Love” as well, before someone pressed the “record” button.

The third song, “Steamroller Blues,” is the extended version we know so well from the first world tour. Elvis sings the “I'm a napalm bomb” verse two times, first time low and bluesy right after the guitar solo, the second time in the same exploding style as the last “I'm a steamroller baby” verse. No wonder this became a firm fan favorite during the tour. 

“My Way” is again very similar to the version from Hawaii, except for some clowning around with Charlie Hodge during the first verse. Then it's time for “Love Me” and “It's Over.” “Love me till it's over,” Elvis jokingly says before delivering a straight forward “Love Me” that ends with the orchestra playing a few bars of “The Star-Sprangled Banner,” evoking laughter from the band and musicians. “It's Over” is a nice version, every bit as beautiful as the one from the Aloha concert. 

“Blue Suede Shoes” is a one minute throw away version, involving some uninspired singing from Elvis part. Thankfully, it always sounded much more full of energy when performed during the shows abroad. A far better rehearsal is “I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry” featuring the additional verse heard on the world tour as well. One of the highlights on the CD.

Listening to the rehearsal of “Welcome To My World” took me back to the time I saw Elvis perform in Paris for the first time (the soundboard from that concert was made available by FTD on the album Paris '77 a few years ago), the giant pictures of Graceland projected behind Elvis as he was singing the song. I remember it sent shivers up my spine.

Elvis then discusses the order of some of the songs to be performed on the opening show, among them “Hound Dog,” “What Now My Love,” “Fever” and “Suspicious Minds,” neither of which are rehearsed. (But listening to them on the Elvis Recorded Live On Stage In London album, it's obvious they turned out all right all the same.)

The ending of “I'll Remember You” causes the orchestra some problems. “I thought that was bad enough,” Elvis mutters after an abandoned attempt. After they finally get it right, Elvis launches himself into a driven and rockin' medley of “Long Tall Sally”/Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On.” Not only is this version one minute longer than the one from Hawaii, it's also much better, sounding very much like the one found on the Live On Stage In London album (although that one of course lasts for about five minutes). 

“An American Trilogy” always evoked great response, not only in the southern states, but also when performed all throughout Europe and then the rest of the world during 1973. Listening to the powerhouse version on From Hawaii To The Rest Of The World it's easy to understand why. Similarly, the rehearsal of “A Big Hunk O' Love” gives you an idea of why everyone stood up and clapped their hands when this rock 'n' roll oldie was belted out by Elvis in arenas all around the world.

The catchy “I'm Leavin It Up To You” was always a highlight during the first world tour, but the rehearsal reveals that the song almost didn't make it to the set list. Lasting only for about 43 seconds, Elvis cuts it short with the words “That's all. Let's do 'Faded Love'.” Someone then asks him why he stopped, receiving the answer, “It was written with a pen. I couldn't read it.” Thankfully, someone must have produced typed written lyrics and convinced Elvis to rehears it again (after the cassette tape ended).

Just like “I'm Leavin' It Up Top You,” “Faded Love” wasn't performed on the Aloha From Hawaii show. But luckily Elvis choose to retrieve this number from his 1971 Elvis Country album. It was then regularly performed during the following world tour, the rehearsal reminding me of the version recently released on the FTD treatment of Live In Australia.

The rehearsal of “I Can't Stop Loving You” is a near copy of the version found on Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite. Not bad, but far more interesting are the two versions of “Separate Ways,” one with just the band and the other with band and orchestra. Always an emotional moment when performed during the first world tour, one can hardly dare to think about what a loss it would have been if Elvis had chosen not to try the song in front of an audience. Just listen to the heartbroken version included on the Elvis Recorded Live On Stage In London album and you'll understand what I'm talking about.

Another highlight during Elvis' first world tour was of course “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” and it's nice to listen to a rehearsal of it, even if the live versions available all sound much more exciting. “Let's do 'Can't Help Falling In Love' and we can call it off,” Elvis then tells the band before the From Hawaii To The Rest Of The World release ends with an (incomplete) version of the show closer we all know so well. To think that Elvis didn't change that one until 1977!

To sum it up – From Hawaii To The Rest Of The World is an essential release. Granted, the sound quality leaves a lot to be desired, but as a historical document it's priceless. This is how Elvis worked with his repertoire up to the last moment before leaving for his opening show in London.

Back in this universe, I'd like to recommend From Hawaii To Las Vegas as well. It's certainly not everyday a rehearsal turns up like this. But what a strange experience it must have been for Elvis to return to doing routine shows in Las Vegas after the Aloha From Hawaii success just a few weeks earlier. What if the satellite show had been followed by a world tour instead. One can only dream.

This post is dedicated to Troy Y. who runs The Mystery Train Blog.