January 8, 2005: Happy Birthday, Elvis! If Elvis Presley were alive today, he'd be 70 years old. And weigh 800 pounds! Or, as the ever-quotable Yogi Berra might say, "If Elvis were alive today, he'd be dead!"
Elvis didn't invent rock and roll but he spread the message across America. And the world. It's hard to say which was the first rock and roll record; some believe it was Jackie Brentson's 'Rocket 88' from 1951. (It certainly has the correct elements - it was about a car - a 1950 Oldsmobile 88 with a high-compression, overhead-valve Rocket V-8 engine - and featured Ike Turner on keyboards.) Others claim that 'Shake, Rattle and Roll' (a remake of a Thirties R&B song) by Bill Haley and his Comets in 1954 was the first rock and roll song. Little Richard claimed he invented it, screaming, "I am the architect of Rock and Roll!" Still others credit Chuck Berry.
Regardless of who the inventor was, the credit for the mass-popularization of this new music must be given to Elvis Presley, who flew onto the scene in 1956 with the number one hit, 'Heartbreak Hotel.' For 25 of the next 37 weeks, Elvis held the absolute top of the charts with no less than seven single, million-seller hits. RCA couldn't keep up with record demand. And there was demand for everything related to Elvis. Incredibly, in 1957 alone, over $25 million in Elvis non-record merchandise was sold. (Even now, Elvis Presley is first on Forbes's list of top-earning deceased celebrities, earning an estimated $40 million.)
Many consider Elvis' early Sun Records his best work. I'm less impressed; it seems to me that Elvis' was still trying to find his "voice" while at Sun. Elvis' best music, in my view, was his early RCA stuff - pre-Army. Steve Sholes produced much of it. The most-real, most-memorable Elvis was the raw-but-talented, 1956 rocker in the loud clothes, belting out 'Heartbreak Hotel' on the Dorsey Brothers' TV show. (One of the best early Elvis songs is 'I Was The One' from recorded in February, 1956. It was Elvis' only do-wop recording. Unfortunately, the song became the B side of 'Heartbreak Hotel' and has never received its due.) Elvis came on the scene when I was thirteen; he has become an icon for people who are my age, encompassing everything cool and vulgar of that era - giant tailfins, pink-and-black color schemes, gold-flecked boomerang-patterned Formica, turquoise appliances, sputnik lamps, etc.
While songwriters Mike Lieber and Jerry Stoller are best known for some of their work for the Coasters and other black artists, they wrote and studio-produced many of the songs for Elvis' hit records ... and his early movies - 'Loving You', 'King Creole' and 'Jailhouse Rock.' In fact, it's the royalties from Elvis' songs ('Hound Dog,' 'Don't,' 'Santa Claus Is Back In Town,' 'Love Me,' 'Treat Me Nice,' 'Trouble' and more) that have kept them in a plush lifestyle. Lieber and Stoller steadfastly refused to make split royalty-deals with Elvis' manager, Colonel Tom Parker, who demanded a 50% kickback from all songwriters. As a result, they basically stopped writing songs for Elvis (post-Army) and his musical career started downhill because the quality of song material declined.
On the occasion of Elvis' death in 1977, John Lennon quipped, "Elvis died when he went into the Army." Lennon may have been a jerk but he was right about Elvis' music. He also said, regarding rock-and-roll, "Before Elvis there was nothing." Sadly, Elvis gradually evolved into a joke - except for a few shining moments, like his '68 Comeback Special.
I never met Elvis or saw him perform in person but I've eaten at the Krispy Kreme shop right down the street from Graceland - where Elvis used to get 'em. (I bet he used to buy 100 dozen at a time. Just sent a fleet of Caddys and said, "Put 'em in the trunk, boys. Thank yew. Thank yew vurrah much.") Graceland is south of Memphis, less than a mile from the Mississippi border. The Krispy Kreme is on the same street as Graceland (Highway 51) but it's actually in Mississippi.
It's a little known fact, but there are some remarkable parallels between Elvis and Abe Lincoln:
