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Wednesday, July 27, 2011

"They're White Chicks, But They Sound Black"

The last three years "The Original Elvis Tribute" has been touring Europe successfully. Arjan Deelen who produced and managed the show sent me the following e-mail a couple of days ago:
'The Original Elvis Tribute' will be back in Europe for April 2012 but the big news this time is that the tour will be even more special with Elvis' backing-vocalists Ginger and Mary Holladay joining the band in Europe for the first time ever! Elvis' other musicians Duke Bardwell, Bobby Wood and Jerome 'Stump' Monroe will still be there along with the outstanding lead presence of Robert Washington. The Holladay sisters were among the leading female backing vocalists in the 60s and 70s, and their powerful voiced are featured on countless hits & classics. Elvis lover their voices, and he always made sure that Felton would use the Holladays for his recording sessions. Ginger and Mary can be heard on hit-singles like 'Suspicious Minds", 'In The Ghetto', 'The Wonder Of You' and 'You Don't Have To Say You Love Me', as well as on numerous Elvis albums like 'From Elvis In Memphis', 'That's The Way It Is', the Grammy award-winning 'He Touched Me', 'Good Times', 'Promised Land' and 'Today'. Their voices were even overdubbed on live-recordings like the 'On Stage' album.
I for one like the idea to present original musicians that people haven’t seen, or at least those that haven’t been overexposed, and try to present them in a different context. That is, by combining musicians from different periods of Elvis' career, as well as live/studio musicians.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend the show when it visited Sweden in 2009, and in 2010 and 2011 it didn't play my country. Here's for hoping that the tour in 2012 will include Sweden. It would be great listening to sisters Mary and Ginger Holladay, who Elvis once described as, "They're white chicks, but they sound black."How about it, Arjan?


For more information, visit "The Original Elvis Tribute 2011" spotlight
over at the Elvis Information Network. There you'll find, among other things, the duet version of "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" between Ginger Holladay and Elvis. (Now why wasn't that one included on the Elvis Now classic album release by FTD?)

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