Grammy Award Songs

Elvis, the King of Rock 'n' Roll, won only 3 Grammy Awards for his music. All for Gospel. How can that be? 

The Grammys were founded in 1958. Elvis' heyday was from 1956-1957. Easy to see how he missed out on some possible major Rock 'n Roll Grammys. In total Elvis received 16 Grammy Nominations of which 6 were for Singles. 

If we dive into his Single Nominations, we found that he received two nominations each in the 50s, 60s and 70s, covering the R&B, Pop, Gospel and C&W genres. Once again, no Rock 'n Roll nominations in sight.

GRAMMY NOMINATED SINGLES

Elvis received the following Grammy Nominations for his Singles:

50s 

• A Fool Such As I: Record Of The Year
• A Big Hunk O' Love: Best R&B Performance / Best Top 40 Artist Performance.

60s 

• Are You Lonesome Tonight: Best Pop Single Performance / Best Male Vocal  Performance / Record Of The Year 
• You'll Never Walk Alone: Best Sacred Performance.

70s

• How Great Thou Art (Live, 1974): Best Inspirational Performance - WIN. 
• Softly, As I Leave You (Live, Posthumous): Best Male C&W Performance.

Elvis Live On CD (1971)

Via FTD we previously had two live 1971 Elvis concerts:

1. Dinner Show, 28-10-71, Las Vegas, NV, (The Impossible Dream) 
2. Evening Show, 28-11-71, Boston, MA, (Elvis As Recorded at Boston Garden)

As part of its ongoing live on tour series, FTD Records has released Elvis: Live In Vegas '71 as a 3-CD 5" digipak, featuring three 1971 shows recorded in Vegas, respectively on Jan 27-29.

FTD refer to this release as "having imperfections", but "the historic importance and rarity of these recordings were prioritized". Translated, it means "some of the sound quality might be poor."

To buy or not to buy...

CONS:

1. Some sound quality might ruin the listening experience.

PROS:

1. Directly from the original master tapes

2. Rare live songs are included

3. Elvis give the songs respectful treatments 

THE FINAL VERDICT might be a toss up between quality and rarity.

EVEN if these shows are of more historical importance than anything else, finally we have at least 5 concerts from 1971, making it no longer a "missing year!"

Thanks To Bill Porter

In November 2022 The Elvis Collector's label, FTD Records, released Elvis: Live In Vegas '71. Turns out the initial recording engineer was Bill Porter. 

CROSSING PATHS WITH ELVIS

After the '68 NBC-TV Special, Elvis recorded some songs at the beginning of 1969 to get into the charts again and cemented his comeback. There was a mixing problem on Suspicious Minds, around the unusual fade out. Elvis' record producer Felton Jarvis asked sound engineer Bill Porter to help. Bill helped and left.

A few months later Elvis returned to live performances in Vegas. Afterwards he called Porter and asked him to help fix the sound in the main showroom as he could not hear himself and a new Vegas run was scheduled for the beginning of the next year. 

When Elvis started rehearsals in January 1970 Porter attended and fixed the sound by replacing the stage monitors (that the hotel's engineers could not get working) with his own sound equipment and laying the column speakers on their sides on the lip of the stage, propping them up to aim at Elvis, who was very happy with the result.

FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER ELVIS COULD HEAR HIMSELF ON STAGE.

Elvis insisted that Porter mixed the sound of these January 1970 shows (even though Bill had no previous experience recording live sound). He quickly learned about acoustic feedback during the first song but backstage after the show film stars and musical artists kept complimenting Elvis that Porter's sound was "just like the album."

From then on Bill Porter mixed all of Elvis' live concerts.  

Jailhouse Rock

Last Saturday afternoon we got together to watch, listen and talk Elvis! We had great fun. The film Jailhouse Rock was spotlighted in our film series The Elvis Award Nominated Films. 

Did you know Jailhouse Rock has received an 

1. ASCAP for Most Performed Feature Film Standard for the title song (1991)
2. induction into the NATIONAL FILM ARCHIVES REGISTRY as a film of Cultural/Historical/Aesthetic significance (2004)

The Jordanaires

The book The Jordanaires: The Story of the World's Greatest Backup Vocal Group (as told by Gordon Stoker) is currently available online at Loot.

SYNOPSIS (PART)

The greatest backup group in the history of recorded music undoubtedly was The Jordanaires, a gospel group of mostly Tennessee boys, formed in the 1940s, that set the standard for studio vocal groups in the 50s, 60s, 70s, and beyond. In their 65-year career, from 1948 through 2013, the recordings they sang on have sold an estimated 8 billion copies.

They sang on about 260 Elvis recordings, including most of his biggest hits. They were in 3 of his best-known movies, appeared with him on most of his early nation-wide TV shows, and toured with him. Throughout Elvis' early career, they were his most trusted friends.

HOW DID THE JORDANAIRES COME TO SING BACKUP FOR ELVIS?

Well, one hot August night in 1955 The Jordanaires were in the Ellis Auditorium in Memphis appearing on a bill with Eddy Arnold. That night they were approached backstage by Elvis Presley, then a struggling singer, who had had some success and was hoping to make it big.

GORDON STOKER REMEMBERS:

I guess the first thing I remember about him was his shirt. Men just didn't wear pink shirts in those days. He also was a little dirty around the neck. He was polite and had a warm smile. So, when he approached me, I took the time to hear what he had to say.

What he said was, "I'm a big fan of y'all's. I'm a singer myself. I'm on the Sun label right now. That's a local Memphis label. I'm trying to get a deal with a major label. If I do, I'd like you guys, the Jordanaires, to sing with me on my records." 

The rest is history.

Girls! Girls! Girls!

Last Saturday we got together to watch, listen and talk Elvis! What a great afternoon we had. The film Girls! Girls! Girls! was spotlighted in our series The Award Nominated Films. 

Did you know this film received a total of 4 award nominations? In 1963 the Elvis musical/comedy Girls! Girls! Girls! was nominated for a:

1. Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Musical

2. Laurel Award for Top Male Star

3. Laurel Award for Top Musical (3rd Place WIN)

4. Laurel Award for Top Male Musical Performance (2nd Place WIN)

The Genesis Of Elvis

From the Netherlands comes a new Elvis book by Bart Eikema van Hommes, The Genesis of Elvis, first written in Dutch in 2016 but recently translated into English.

Synopsis:

This biography aims to uncover Elvis’s cultural roots and identify the sources he drew from on the path to his world-changing sound. The musical history surrounding the pop icon is excessive and this book takes an analytical approach to try and shed some light on Elvis’s world. Where did he live and which churches and schools did he attend with his friends? Which artists and radio stations influenced him at an impressionable age? Where did he perform in the early days and first commit his voice to the eternal grooves of vinyl? All these questions and more must be asked to begin to understand Presley’s sound and it’s invaluable influence on Rock and Roll. As John Lennon once put it: “Before Elvis there was nothing!”

For more info and an inside look at the book, have a look at Amazon here. At the time of writing the book is also available at Loot and Takealot.

Aloha From Hawaii

In 2023 we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1st worldwide satellite concert by ONE man. 

Some interesting tidbits surrounding this historical broadcast:

1. There were other satellite concerts before and after Elvis. 
2. The satellite transmitting the concert signal belonged to NBC and was very costly to hire.  
3. The stage was made in L.A. and shipped to Hawaii.  
4. When Nani Lee, the wife of Kui Lee, heard of Elvis' concert for her charity foundation, she went  straight to the doctor for tranquilizers.
5. No money is to be charged for a TV audience, so donations were asked for each ticket.        
6. Aloha From Hawaii via Satellite was the most expensive TV concert of its time at $2,5 million.
7. The rehearsal concert would be recorded at 20h30 on January 12, 1973 but by 19h00 6,000 fans had already stormed the venue and crammed into the available 5,300 seats. 
8. Elvis wanted a suit that said America. Ideas included the outline of a map or the star-spangled banner, but eventually the decision went to the national bird. 
9. The live broadcast had to be shy of 1 hour, after which the satellite feed would be cut off, so Elvis organised for Joe Esposito to be at the side of the stage with a flashlight to indicate when 10 minutes were left.
10. The sound equipment of NBC and RCA combined overloaded the power. Two hours before the rehearsal concert the lights flickered on and off and the sound engineers went to borrow extra equipment from the Navy. A few minutes before the start of the show, there was a hum in the sound system, caused by the stage lights, and lead plates were obtained, again from the Navy, to counteract this.

There are many more fun facts, especially the 1.5 billion people having watched the broadcast, amongst others South Africa. (NOT!) At this point in time? Sure! The Parker marketing machine did the trick, though, and it's all now part of Elvis lore.

Elvis Songs With Spoken Segments

In the 1950s, talking over the music was big, especially on slow songs. The question is, what qualifies as a spoken segment in a song? The answer is, any of the following: a good poetry or dramatic reading, some idle chatter or everyday speech. Shout outs and cheering instructions to the crowd or band do not qualify.  

The goal of the spoken segment of a song is to give the singer a chance to take a step back and offer a type of director's commentary on proceedings. 

Quite a few Elvis songs feature spoken segments. Obvious ones are That's When Your Heartaches Begin, Are You Lonesome Tonight and I'm Yours. 

Let's have a closer look another few Elvis songs with spoken parts:

1. U.S. MALE

In 1965 Elvis recorded movie songs ONLY. In 1966 he recorded a Grammy Award-winning gospel album. In my opinion that's when his "comeback" started. From 1966-1968 it seems Elvis experimented different ways to go musically, but no one took notice. This talking blues was one of those early "comeback" songs. I bet Elvis was eager to cut his teeth on this one.

2. MAMA LIKED THE ROSES  

This one was recorded early in 1969 at the American Sound Studio in Memphis. According to accounts, Elvis loved this song but had laryngitis, so a backing track was laid down and Elvis overdubbed his vocal at a later stage. 

3. ONLY THE STRONG SURVIVED

Another one recorded at American. One time during the sessions they had to stop as the engineer heard a strange buzzing sound on the tape. Turns out it was a car idling outside. It seems Elvis found the song difficult to record as he reprimanded himself throughout but he prevailed and did 29 takes, of which the last take was seemingly used.

4. POLK SALAD ANNIE

This song, only recorded live on stage, is about the lifestyle of a poor girl and her family. Elvis introduced the showstopper at his 2nd Vegas season in Jan/Feb 1970. 

5. ARE YOU SINCERE

The July 1973 Stax Studio recording session had sound problems. One evening after noticing that his mic was gone, Elvis left and the band laid down tracks to be later overdubbed at Elvis' home in Palm Springs via RCA mobile truck. 

Also present at the dubbing session was VOICE, Elvis' new personal backing group. Elvis, excited to get the group on record, allocated most of his recording time to their demos. Resultantly, Elvis overdubbed only 1 of his required backing tracks and recorded 2 VOICE suggested songs, of which this was one. Parker was furious and ordered these tracks to be released as is, with no strings and horns overdubs.