Ol' Daddy-O Dewey Phillips, host of "Red Hot and Blue" on WHBQ had no clue (or did he?) that a rough-edged adhesive-labeled 78rpm demonstration record he placed on his turntable was a grooved tool for a rebellious and flourishing music revolution. It's goal...
Tonight Memphis, Tomorrow the World
Powerful forces to be reckoned with were in play, on the air, one starry night in the height of the Summer of '54 as tuned-in teenagers cruised the main drag in Memphis. That oft-abused 'HBQ turntable was the circular launching pad for a new "That's All Right (Mama)" by a rising star destined to be the ultimate selling-charting artist like this world ain't never seen before. Bear in mind, the real common denominator of the whole onslaught that became the Elvis Presley Phenomena (still active in countless capacities to this day) was due to listener feedback: the public wanting it again and wanting more. "Dee-gaw, that's a hit record!" Dewey proclaimed to the heavens. Indeed it was. This airplay debut at 560 on the AM dial incited instant youth consumer-interest which created the first hit record (localized) in the unforgettable career of a high school graduate who was leaning towards becoming an electrician. ("I got wired the wrong way, baby.")
Radio
broadcasting also took his career a step further when on November 6, 1954,
KWKH in Shreveport signed Elvis and his bandmates, Scotty & Bill, to
a one-year contract with the Saturday night syndicated radio concert "Louisiana
Hayride." Elvis quit driving a truck for Crown Electric Co. because
of that radio station's belief in his ability to be a professional entertainer.
It was a vaildation that meant Elvis didn't need a dayjob. He never looked
back and moved ever forward, playing Shreveport nearly every Saturday night
in '55 and early '56, with screaming girls hot on his heels.
Radio
was the unsung instigator in developing the legendary Elvis Presley Repertoire.
Not only a medium to deliver Elvis' Sun records and RCA records to the masses,
it was a medium to deliver music to his ears, thus affecting his musical
legacy-in-progress. Thru the tinny-sounding dashboard speakers of Scotty
Moore's Bel-Air and then Elvis' own pink Cadillacs, Elvis heard R&B
songs like The Drifters' "Money Honey" and Ray Charles* "I
Got A Woman" and Roy Hamilton*s two hits of '55, "Hurt" and
"Unchained Melody." These songs, like thousands of records pressed
in the early 50s, would by default be forgotten and filed away with outdated
stacks of wax gathering dust, yet in the vibrant world of Elvis, most of
these songs lived on and thrived, reaching new generations as presented
by his voice and style. It goes without saying that two of those old '55
radio hits was a part of who Elvis is even to the very end.
There'll be a change in music/A change in rhythm/A change in dancing /But I'll be right with 'em
- Irving Berlin 1938.
Famed
American composer Irving Berlin apparently forgot what he wrote decades
ago about changing with the times. In November 1957, he reeked of hypocrisy
about accepting new music because he was busy contacting radio stations
across the U.S. and even Britain via letter in an effort to ban Presley's
rendition of Berlin's "White Christmas." Berlin didn't like Rock
and Roll at all and for Elvis The Pelvis to be doing a version of Berlin's
sacred Bing Crosby million-seller was too much. The controversial ban was
adopted at a few radio stations but one jock named Al Priddy was fired from
KEX in Portland, Oregon on December 12, 1957 for defying management in his
granting the airwaves to Presley's new (and first) yuletide product. When
it was all said and done, Elvis' Christmas Album didn't weaken the nation,
on air or off. But Berlin may have felt karma was at work in his favor,
because the pompadoured, sideburned, socially-polarizing radio/records/film
entertainer freshly-crowned "The King" was suddenly drafted into
the army. Goodbye gold lame. Hello green khaki. Goodbye blue suede shoes.
Hello combat boots.
During
his boot camp at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas, Elvis was able to escape pressures
of fame and the army by hanging out at the home of an older gentleman whom
he had met while touring Dallas in 1956. It was Eddie Fadal, a deejay at
Dallas' KRLD. In the Spring and Summer of '58, Elvis and his blonde beauty
queen girlfriend Anita Wood hung out at Eddie and LaNelle Fadal's home in
Waco quite often, playing piano and singing into Eddie's tape recorder.
The Fadal house was a sanctuary-of-sorts to escape the barracks and try
to recreate the feeling of Graceland which was so far away. Eddie's wife
and Elvis' mother shopped together and Eddie and Elvis went to the movies
on occasion and the deejay acquired many candid photographs of Elvis there
and at a local diner when one afternoon, Elvis, in a biker cap, paused from
eating a bowl of chili, and held up a Coke bottle. Snap! A classic Elvis
image in that cool 50's vogue that was his own creation.
When
Elvis' mother Gladys passed away on August 14, 1958, Eddie Fadal was there
in Memphis to comfort the Presley family and he returned to Texas with Elvis
when the thirty-day emergency leave was over. An oak tree was planted in
the Fadal's front yard in memory of Gladys Presley. The tree still stands.
"Stay
tuned for updates about when The Elvis Train will be passing thru our area."
- Standard tease on radio stations in the seven-states worth of listening
areas where Elvis' army troop train was rolling along, for a four-day journey
from Fort Hood, Texas to Brooklyn, New York, with non-stop media coverage
all the way in September 1958.
During
that 1958-1960 Army hitch as Pvt. Presley earned Sgt., loyal fans kept the
Elvis momentum going without fail. A teenage deejay named Jacqueline Owens
at WEIC in Charleston, Illinois played Elvis records everyday after school
on her family-owned station. In Jacksonville, Florida, music publicist and
"Heartbreak Hotel" co-composer Mae Axton organized a huge Elvis
Party at a football field were his records were played as a marathon. "A
get together just to remember him and let him know that everybody still
cared," Axton would later explain, "Eight thousand people showed
up."
Meanwhile, Elvis was probably shivering and bundled up pulling guard duty
on the bleek West Germany base. He was by no means forgotten nor a has-been.
New RCA 45 releases during his overseas absense had garnered two more #1
hits, four Top Ten hits altogether, and three Grammy nominations in the
1959 inaugual founding year of the NARAS awards. (Of course people asked,
"What's a Grammy?" and being nominated and/or winning wasn't deemed
necessary as is the case nowadays.)
In
the 1960s, the music industry evolved radically. Mono was phased out by
the dual punch of stereo. 78rpm was dead and album art began to look cool.
AM eventually gave way to FM. Elvis, as a full-time three-films-a-year movie
star, wasn't hanging out with many deejays like those early days when radio
was necessary to get the word out. A motion picture career was determined
to be the best paying and best means of regulated exposure. Three films
a year. Three soundtrack releases a year. By 1965, Elvis, 30 years old,
was firmly established worldwide and his new reocrds, mainly soundtrack
material, was a cornerstone of the programming on BBC and Radio Luxembourg
in Europe where he had a fantastic following of fans. (The 1960s was the
Euro-Elvis Era where consistent sales achievements and intense RCA promotion
was concentrated although Elvis himself never went to Europe in a performance
capacity.)
In
August 1965, when Elvis was in Hawaii to shoot "Paradise Hawaiian Style"
and also present a wreath to the newly-completed USS Arizona Memorial, Tom
Moffat, disc jockey at Hawaii*s KPOI helped bridge the continents of this
Planet Elvis and bridge a generation gap as well when he arranged for 17-year-old
Herman's Hermits lead singer Peter Noone to meet The King at a bungalow
in Honolulu. "How was your show last night?" Elvis inquired as
a tape recorder captured this brief meeting as various Memphis Mafia chattered
in the background. "Who's your favorite group?" Noone fished around
for a compliment. Elvis replied with a laugh, "The Boston Pops."
The British Invasion, which had commandeered American teens and teen revenue, came and went. It died by '66 with a dayglow whimper and a radio ban on Beatles records in the Bible Belt of the U.S. ("Don't forget what The Beatles have said!" was the offended deejays chant.) Elvis remained King. Psychedelia swooped up like a backwards guitar lick and melted away in its own feedback. Elvis remained King. In 1967, Elvis married Priscilla Beaulieu in Las Vegas and incited bonus radio airplay just as a rite-of-passage tribute to the former eligible bachelor having taken the pludge. Elvis had two special radio events in 1967. First, an Easter Special featuring songs from his new Gospel LP "How Great Thou Art," the album that won Elvis his first Grammy. Then on December 3, 1967 a special hour-long Christmas special was broadcast on nearly 1,000 stations nationwide. (Col. Parker thought it so succesful he arranged to have a TV version on the same date in the next year.)
In
1968, Elvis became a father to the most-famous newborn baby girl in the
world, and he was preparing a "comeback" NBC TV special. As his
personal life took on new meaning, Elvis lost two men instrumental in his
success: RCA producer Steve Sholes, and Memphis deejay Dewey Phillips. Even
Sun Records had closed its doors and newer studios were springin up in Memphis.
1968 was was the end of an Era punctuated by the arrival of the 8-track
tape cartridge and FM radio, and yet is was more importantly the dawn of
a new era as Elvis lay back in the silence of the room and felt the heartbeat
of his daughter Lisa sleeping on his chest. "If only Mama had lived
to see her granddaughter."
In 1969, a dark and disturbing year which was far from Aquarius, only four men had reason to be optimistic and proud: the three astronauts who landed on the moon...and Elvis Presley who after 29 pictures, walked away from his movie career and cut a groundbreaking studio album From Elvis In Memphis and then played live - for the first time in eight years - in a celebrity-filled showroom event in Vegas that summer. His '69 #1 hit "Suspicious Minds" (with its mature subject matter and fade-out with unexpected fade-back-in) announced the arrival of a brand new broadcasting format: Adult Contemporary. Elvis became the first real pioneer of this new outlet with his dramatic million-sellers "In The Ghetto," "Kentucky Rain," "Don't Cry Daddy" and tracks like "Any Day Now" and "Gentle On My Mind" from his new album. In his wake, AC artists like James Taylor and Carly Simon emerged as the 1970s arrived, as did a denim-clad new generation of Country artists as well as Country-Rock hybrids like The Eagles. There was also a new and unavoidable branch on the music tree and it was Hard Rock. The most succesful act/forefathers of this power-chording genre was a quartet of admitted Elvis fans, Led Zeppelin, signed to Atlantic Records, the label that offered an unsuccesful $25,000 bid for Elvis' contract way back in the fifties.
As
the worlds most-athletic and most-handsome and most-dynamic superstar began
touring again, flanked by his powerhouse TCB Band, selling out arenas and
civic centers all over the country, it was a nostalgic season for reflecting
back on how this truckdriver from Tennessee had made it this far. Elvis
had proven his spectacular gift to command the world's attention and consistent
devotion and his ability to spark a fire inside so many young men to want
to be a rock star like him. No one wanted to President anymore. Everyone
wanted to be Elvis.
In
1971, Ron Jacobs, a disc jockey at Hawaii's KKAU who knew Elvis since his
1960s Hawaii visits, co-created American Top 40 Hosted By Casey Kasem, and
launched Watermark Inc. to produce a twelve-hour radio documentary (on vinyl)
entitled THE ELVIS PRESLEY STORY. He enlisted the writing skills of Jerry
Hopkins who wrote the 1970 best-selling biography "Elvis." Former
Memphis morningman Wink Martindale signed on to narrate, and 150 Elvis songs
were featured in this ambitious radio presentation. It was, in Jacob's own
words, "the first Rockumentary. "It also required a professional
research pilgramage to nearly all Elvis landmarks of his past: Tupelo, Memphis,
his schools, etc and many voices from his youth - people who knew Elvis
as he grew up - were personally incorporated into the audio story.
"Why
would anyone want to do twelve hours about me?"
-
Elvis' reported comment when learning about the syndicated program.
His
amazing life at that time and certainly now is worthy of being told no matter
how many hours it takes. The life of Elvis Presley is eligible for The Modern
Greatest Story Ever Told.
A
story that began with the arrival of the lone-survivor of twin sons in the
wee hours of a cold Tupelo night. Did the story end in the sweltering heat
of 1977?
No.
Not
as long as there are Elvis fans and his music still fills the airwaves....somewhere....right
now.
ELVIS'
CAREER ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Sun
Records Era:
(Sun
209) That's All Right/Blue Moon of Kentucky #1 Top-Seller of 1954 according
to Memphis record retailers. "Blue Moon of KY" peaked at #3 on
Billboard Territorial Best-Sellers in Oct. 1954.
You're
A Heartbreaker (Sun 215) Most Promising Record in Arkansas/Louisiana/Texas/Oklahoma
according to Country Song Roundup magazine in April 1955.
Baby,
Let's Play House (Sun 217) peaked at #10 on Billboard C&W Singles
in August 1955.
Mystery
Train (Sun 223) peaked at #15 on Cash Box C&W Singles in November
1955.
I
Forgot To Remember To Forget
(Sun 223/RCA 47-6357) reached #1 on Billboard C&W Singles in Feb. 1956
and #1 on Cash Box C&W Singles in March. Technically, Elvis' very first
#1 ever.
1955
Billboard Country & Western Record Of The Year
Elvis
Presley's recording of "I Forgot To Remember To Forget"
(by Charlie Feathers & Stan Kesler, BMI) The recipient of this award
is always the composer(s), not the recording artist.
#1 RCA 45rpm singles: (17)
Heartbreak
Hotel (56) Billboard TripleCrown Award (#1 Pop/R&B/C&W)... Don't
Be Cruel/Hound Dog (56) double-sided hit... Love Me Tender (56)...
Too Much (57)... All Shook Up (57)... (Let Me Be Your)
Teddy Bear (57)... Jailhouse Rock (57)... Don't (58)...
Hard Headed Woman (58)... Big Hunk O' Love (59)... Stuck
on You (60)... It*s Now Or Never (60)... Are You Lonesome
Tonight? (60)... Surrender (61)... Good Luck Charm (62)...
Suspicious Minds (69)
#1
RCA (EP) Extended-Plays:
(5)
Loving
You Vol. 1
(57)... Elvis Sings Christmas Songs (57)... Jailhouse Rock (57)...
King Creole Vol. 1 (58)... King Creole Vol. 2 (58)...
#1
RCA (LP) Long-Playing Albums:
(9)
Elvis Presley (56)... Elvis (56)... Loving You (57)... Elvis' Christmas Album (57)... G.I. Blues (60)... Something For Everybody (61)... Blue Hawaii (61)... Roustabout (64)... Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite (73)
Came-Close
In the Top 3 45s/EPs/LPs:
I
Want You, I Need You, I Love You (56) #3... Just For You EP (56)
#2... Love Me (56) #2... Elvis' Golden Records LP (58) #3...
Wear My Ring Around Your Neck (58) #3... King Creole LP (58)
#2... Elvis Sails EP (58) #2... A Fool Such As I (59) #3...
Elvis Is Back LP (60) #2... Can*t Help Falling In Love (61)
#2... Return To Sender (62) #2... Devil In Disguise (63) #3...
Girls! Girls! Girls! LP (62) #3... Fun In Acapulco LP (63)
#3... Crying In The Chapel (65) #3... In The Ghetto (69) #3...
Burning Love (72) #2... Moody Blue LP (77) #3.
Elvis
had fourteen Grammy Award nominations and three wins:
A
Fool Such As I (1959 - Record Of The Year.)
A Big Hunk O' Love (1959 - Best Performance By Top 40 artist/Best
R&B Performance)
Are You Lonesome Tonight? (1960 - ROTY/Best Male Vocal/Best By Pop
Singles Artist)
G.I. Blues (1960 - Best Album by Male Vocal/Best Soundtrack LP)
Blue Hawaii (1961 - Best Soundtrack LP)
How Great Thou Art (1967 - Best Sacred Performance) * WINNER *
You*ll Never Walk Alone (1968 - Best Sacred Performance)
He Touched Me (LP) (1972 - Best Inspirational Performance) * WINNER
*
How Great Thou Art (live recording) (1974 - Best Inspirational Performance)
* WINNER *
Softly As I Leave You (live recording) (1978 - Best Country Vocal
Performance)
Thirty-three major motion pictures (1956-1969)
Elvis was the highest-paid star in history with his signing on to do "Jailhouse Rock" in 1957. He ranked #1 box-office star of the 1960s
One
hundred and thirty-four Gold and/or Platinum Records
Certified
by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)
Gold = 500,000 units Platinum = 1,000,000 units (2x = 2mil, 4x = 4mil, etc)
(Only domestic accounting, and over twice as many as the second-place record-holder)
39 new certifications and upgrades were presented to the Elvis Presley Estate
during
Elvis Week 1999. Three new CD gold certifications were presented in August
2002.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |