In a comment to my last music video post Bwan (Brandy – http://bransblahg.wordpress.com/ ) reminded me I have been neglecting “The King” Elvis Aaron Presley,
What was the first Elvis song you can remember hearing and what did you think of it at the time?
What is your favorite Elvis song?
Many singers have made a major contribution to the development of Roll and Rock. However with the release of “Heart Break Hotel” in 1956 there is only BE (Before Elvis) and AE (After Elvis).
Rock, blues, gospel, pop and country Elvis had hit records in all these genres. In 1956 his “Don’t Be Cruel” was the first record to top the charts in the three Billboard catergories pop, rhythm & blues, and country & western,
It is hard for young people today to understand what an impact Elvis had. He terrified white parents even as him music was capturing the hearts of their children.
From Wikipedia – “In 1956, a critic for the New York Daily News wrote that popular music “has reached its lowest depths in the ‘grunt and groin’ antics of one Elvis Presley” and the Jesuits denounced him in its weekly magazine, America. Even Frank Sinatra opined: “His kind of music is deplorable, a rancid smelling aphrodisiac. It fosters almost totally negative and destructive reactions in young people.”.
I think when hearing “You Ain’t Nothing But A Hound Dog” white parents instinctively know the Apocalypse was coming. Elvis’s music appealed to both black and white youths. In the rhythm and blues #1 hits chart for 1956 his is the only white name on the list, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_number-one_rhythm_and_blues_hits_(United_States)#1956 .
White kids dancing with blacks kids leds to whites dating blacks. That scared the beejesus out of white parents. It also scared the beejesus out of black parents.
Elvis’s voice drips sexual tension. From Kansas to Hong Kong female hearts just melt listening to him. If there are girls on Mars they would go crazy over Elvis.
Love Is Tender
I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You
I prefer ‘early’ Elvis and these are my favorite songs by “The King”:
That’s All Right Mama
Heartbreak Hotel
I Want You, I need You, I Love You
Don’t Be Cruel
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June 21, 2008 at 9:38 pm
tam
I love “cant help falling in love with you”…but there is also another one i remember listening to at night when i was kindergarten. while i lay in bed, my mom would play it over and over and i would fall asleep to it.
im gonna go search for it then come back when i find it!
June 21, 2008 at 9:59 pm
tam
dang. i have some of the melody in my head – but that’s it.
but here a few of my ALL time faves…
In The Ghetto
Devil In Disguise
Little Sister
Suspicious Minds
Burning Love
June 22, 2008 at 7:42 pm
Brandy
Oh Ed!! You don’t know how much I LOOOOVE Elvis! Jake thinks I’m crazy.
My grandpa introduced me to Elvis when I was little little little. I don’t remember NOT knowing who Elvis was. In fact, I was surprised that not EVERYONE loved Elvis. Seriously?
My grandpa would always be singing Elvis songs and he sounded JUST like him. Even his speaking voice sounds like Elvis. And the hair…. my grandpa did his hair JUST like that. In his younger years, he looked very much like him. I wish I had a scanner so I could get a picture up for you. It’s amazing. Whenever I hear/see Elvis it always makes me think of my grandpa.
I also LOVE all of his movies. Oh my!
Elvis could sing me my last rights and I’d still swoon. Is it weird to think a dead guy is still hot? HAHAHA!!!! 
Seriously though, I ♥ Elvis.
heehee
June 22, 2008 at 7:43 pm
Brandy
I should clarify….
I love YOUNGER Elvis. Not old Elvis. Not right before he died. That was just sad.
June 22, 2008 at 9:58 pm
edfromct
Tam, you listen to him in kindergarten! Brandy, your grandpa introduced you to Elvis!
You guys you are really making me feel old.
I guess he could charmed women from kindergarten to the old folks home.
Brandy, it would be very cool to have a grandpa who looked like Elvis.
A lot of guys said they hated Elvis because their girl friends went crazy over him, but we all wanted to be Elvis. In the 1950’s when fathers watched their little darlings swooning over Elvis it gave them a heart attack!
I think of Elvis’s career as being three stages, the raw energy, and sexuality, of early Elvis, the more profession, polished Elvis and Las Vegas Elvis. He had that same great voice but his material and act changed. He could sing gospel songs with great reverence then turn on the heat. He never lost that raw, sexual energy in his voice, even at the end of his life when he could no longer remember the words to his songs.
I prefer early, 1950’s, Elvis, blues, gospel and rock & roll, the raw emotions. Tam, during the period of the songs you listed he had the best song writers in the business sending him their music. His act became more polished, but the energy was still their. He could probably read from a phone book and it would still sound sexy and make the girls swoon.
Yes Brandy, I can’t think of a sadder transformation than comparing the picture of 1955 Elvis to “the King” at just 42 years of age. Anyone thinking about trying drugs should look at those two pictures.
June 24, 2008 at 10:12 am
tam
Elvis was a hunk of burning love. im not ashamed to admit it!
um Ed my dear…you are being requested over at my blog by a few commenter’s. i asked everyone when their birthday is – and a few of the “older” folk are wanting your company. im sorry…im just relaying the messages.
June 24, 2008 at 11:26 pm
Walwala Videos
Keep good work guys… thanks for these videos…..
June 25, 2008 at 12:46 am
edfromct
Walwala, thanks for stopping by. I hope you will find other interesting topics and videos in my future post.
July 1, 2008 at 6:22 am
ric booth
I like to sing Can’t Help Falling in Love with You. I think Elvis must have been deeply in touch with God. I bet he was (is?) a student of of Song of Solomon.