Mid September 2003
- Getting their hooks in you
(New York Daily News, September 21, 2003)
Many of the new TV series on the schedule this fall will be using hit music to get viewers to tune in.
- ABC's "Karen Sisco" starts off with the Isley Brothers' "It's Your Thing."
- NBC's "Las Vegas" opens with "A Little Less Conversation" from Elvis Presley.
- CBS' "Joan of Arcadia" kicks in with "One of Us" by Joan Osborne.
- ABC's "I'm With Her" uses a Sugar Ray version of the Joe Jackson rock staple "Is She Really Going Out With Him?"
It's a trend that began to gain momentum in recent years, when pulsating music from the Who played over the opening credits of two top crime shows - "CSI" ("Who Are You?") and "CSI: Miami" ("Won't Get Fooled Again").
Why use hit songs on TV shows? Producers say the struggle for a new series to break through the prime-time clutter is so tough these days, they need all the help they can get. Having a song that viewers know can lure them in. "You have 20 seconds to grab people," said Chris Henchy, executive producer of "I'm With Her." "If it's something people are aware of and it's popular, maybe they will give it a second look." ...
- B.B. King: 3rd 'Greatest Guitarist in History'
By Billy Watkins
(Clarion-Ledger, September 21, 2003)
B.B. King has heard something about some poll in Rolling Stone magazine, but he isn't sure what the fuss is all about. So a reporter from King's home state of Mississippi gives him the news: In a Sept. 18 special collector's issue, King was named the third-best guitar player in history, behind only Jimi Hendrix and Duane Allman, ahead of everybody else who ever struck a chord. "Mmmmmph," he says by telephone from his Las Vegas office. "I think they made a mistake. I mean, I would think maybe I belong in the top 50. But in the top three? I'm grateful to them, but I wouldn't have put me there."
... You can hardly name a music legend whom King hasn't met or performed with.
- Janis Joplin. "Met her in the early '60s," he says. "I was playing in (Greenwich) Village in New York, and Janis was playing there with Big Brother and The Holding Company. She became one of my best friends."
- Elvis Presley. "My record company would book studio time down at Sun Records in Memphis, and Elvis would be in there rehearsing," King recalls. "I didn't know much about him. He was handsome, and he could sing and play. But I didn't think too much about it."
...
- Presley Gives Speech About Teen Drug Use
(NewsDay.com / Associated Press, September 21, 2003)
Priscilla Presley, who endured the drug addictions of her husband and daughter, says parents need to realize children as young as elementary school age are using drugs. "I have a 16-year-old son so I'm around teenagers a lot and I see what they're going through," Presley said Saturday before speaking in McAlester. "More than half of our nation's youth have tried illegal drugs before they finish high school."
Presley said she has heard of children as young as 8 and 10 using drugs, and noted that the drug culture has changed since the '60s and '70s. "I never heard about that in my earlier years," she said. "Drinking beer was about it for me." She said people then didn't understand the dangers of prescribed drugs in particular. "I feel they were and have been given in excess," said Presley, 58, who was married to Elvis from 1967 to 1973. "We're seeing repercussions of that today." Besides Elvis, who died of drug abuse and heart disease in 1977, and her daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, who dabbled in drugs as a teen, Presley says she has several friends with cocaine and heroin habits. "Throughout my life, I've had the heartbreaking experiences of family and friends fall the victim of alcohol and drugs," she said.
- Elvis rocks Yuba County
By Munira Syeda
(Appeal-Democrat, September 21, 2003)
Tom Tresler of Yuba City remembers the moment well when the king of rock 'n' roll, Elvis Presley, died 26 years ago on Aug. 16.
It just seems like yesterday, he said. He was at a television store in Chico that day. "It was unbelievable," said Tresler, 68. "It still is. You sometimes wonder, did he?" On Saturday night, Tresler and other Elvis fans got a treat. They saw Elvis live, not the actual Elvis, though.
The "Ultimate Tribute" concert, starring Mike Albert as Elvis, was the kickoff event marking the monthlong Pink October campaign, Yuba-Sutter's version of the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
- Trio of Organizations Change the Valley for the Better
By CHARLENE KOSKI
(Yakima Herald-Republic, September 21, 2003)
In the summer of 1966, Elvis Presley beach movies played at Yakima's drive-in, a gallon of gas cost about 32 cents and the United States had just failed for the seventh time to have a satellite orbit the moon. Instead of rushing from Yakima to Sunnyside on the interstate, drivers had to meander along the Yakima Valley Highway. ...
- Knickknack, bric-a-brac, barter to the bone
By Jody Callahan
(Go Memphis, September 21, 2003)
The mission: armed with $25, visit the annual Countrywood garage sale to find the wackiest and tackiest items possible. We're talking about things worse than a Velvet Elvis or a painting of Dogs Playing Poker. We're looking for anything outrageous or outlandish, farcical or fanciful, bizarre or just plain weird. ...
- Elvis impersonator held in machete murder
By Phoebe Sweet
(The Daily Item of Lynn, September 20, 2003)
A Revere Elvis impersonator is being held without bail after allegedly hacking a man to death with a machete early Friday morning. Robert Daigle, 67 of 4 Frye St. in Revere, was arraigned in Chelsea District court Friday for allegedly murdering James Surette, 39, of Revere, in his apartment after hours spent drinking beer. Daigle called police at approximately 3:54 a.m. Friday to report an altercation saying, "Someone may be dead," according to Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney Tim Bradl. ...
- See Texans in a new light
By DALE ROBERTSON
(Houston Chronicle, September 20, 2003)
IN Miami, the Texans were a work of art. In New Orleans, they were back to being a work in progress -- say four parts Elvis on black velvet to one part Adam on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Who can guess what we'll get today in Houston, although our inclination, with the Chiefs in town, is to again fear the worst. A couple of miles north of Reliant Stadium, however, the Texans will be displayed in a different light, and certainly via a different medium. They have become the subject of a remarkable photo exhibition, the rare to the point of being unprecedented result of a synergistic collaboration between the NFL team's arts-patron owner and the visionary ex-jock who runs our Museum of Fine Arts. ...
- King Dom Cum
[Theatre review]
By Joyce McMillan
(Scotsman, September 20, 2003)
THE ARCHES, GLASGOW
ELVIS Presley, so they say, was a man who died because, like a giant baby, he couldn't stop stuffing his mouth with food. Hypertension Theatre's contribution to this week's Arches Live! season is a sharp, haunting 70-minute show about the forces that produced this strange, brilliant, yet infantilised man.
Neil Francis is a big, big actor who looks a bit like Elvis, and sounds very like him; Lucy Gaizely is a tiny actress, cast here as his ever-loving mother. Between them, with the help of some old newsreel footage and a simple, fragmentary domestic set, they conjure up a powerful sense of the mixture of hysterical old-time religion, rampant racism, sentimental patriotism and pathologically intense mother-love that shaped Elvis's irresistible, self-destructive genius.
In the end, the show slides away into a overlong series of competing endings, as if it can't quite decide on its purpose. But its use of classic Elvis songs chillingly mixed with harsher, darker sounds from the Sixties and Seventies is haunting.
- Graceland sends Elvis goodies to go with replacement bear
By Clay Foutz
(Beacon News, September 19, 2003)
Today's Naperville United Way auction will include a little bit of Graceland, even though Elvis left the Riverwalk long ago. An Elvis-inspired bear sculpture by artist Carolyn Lauing-Finzer was taken from its display on the Riverwalk in June. But in the weeks since then, Lauing-Finzer has continued to contribute to her bear's cause. "I Want to be Your Teddy Bear" has been replaced with a white "Ghost of Elvis" bear, which Lauing-Finzer has adorned with a safari scarf, vintage record necklace and guitar - all of which will be included at auction. Early this week, Lauing-Finzer received a cache of other trinkets to dress up the plain fiberglass bear. A box came in the mail from Graceland - a stash of Elvis paraphernalia from Memphis, Tenn. ...
- Wal-Mart plans store for Whitehaven in '04
By Pamela Perkins
(gomemphis.com, September 19, 2003)
Construction of a Wal-Mart Supercenter on Elvis Presley near Holmes in Whitehaven could begin as early as spring. Almost a year ago, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced its search for a site in Whitehaven to build a Wal-Mart Supercenter. The retailer settled on 5255 Elvis Presley, current site of a Royal Discount Furniture store and warehouse and former site of a Treasury Department Store. ...
- Abba beat Elvis in tributes chart
(gomemphis.com, September 19, 2003)
Abba tribute acts have overtaken Elvis impersonators in the battle of British covers singers, according to a survey. The Swedish quartet jumped from third most tributed act in 2001 to top in 2002 with imitators like Abba Fever and Voulez Vous putting on Abba shows. Elvis was pushed to number two while the Beatles dropped to three, with covers bands like The Helter Skelters. ...
- Elvis Presley remix tops singles sales chart
(abs-cbnnews.com / Reuters, September 18, 2003)
Twenty-six years after his death, the King of Rock 'n' Roll returned to the top of the pop singles charts on Wednesday (Thursday in Manila) with another remix of one of his lesser-known songs. Elvis Presley's 1969 recording of "Rubberneckin,"' given a contemporary update by leading DJ Paul Oakenfold, sold 11,000 copies in the United States in its first week in release, making it the No. 1 commercial single for the week ended Sept. 14, according to sales tracker Nielsen SoundScan.
That was a relatively anemic opening compared with the debut of last year's remix of the obscure 1968 song "A Little Less Conversation," which sold 26,000 U.S. copies its first week and shot to No. 1 on both sides of the Atlantic. But the release of "Rubberneckin"' by RCA Records, a unit of Bertelsmann AG, was strong enough to bump American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken from the top of SoundScan's singles sales chart. Aiken, who has had the best-selling single for 11 of the past 15 weeks with his double recording of "This is the Night/Bridge Over Troubled Water," slipped to No. 2 on sales of 7,000 copies. Still, Aiken has logged a healthy tally of 891,000 copies sold during his run on the charts.
The "Rubberneckin"' remix will be featured on the upcoming RCA release "Elvis 2nd to None," a follow-up to last year's compilation album ELVIS 30 #1 Hits, which topped the sales charts in the United States and 26 other countries. The new album, due out October 7, will also include a never-before-released song recorded by Presley nearly 40 years ago, "I'm a Roustabout."
- No more Elvis grub on Beale St.
(kptv.com / Associated Press, September 16, 2003)
The restaurant that served only foods that Elvis would love has closed. Elvis Presley's Memphis on Beale Street has been shut down. Elvis Presley Enterprises says it'll open up something else on the site. The restaurant sold dishes like fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches. A pool table that Elvis once played on with the Beatles was upstairs.
- Five Questions With . . . British Beat Corps, band
By Rebecca Swain Vadnie
(Orlando Sentinel, September 14, 2003)
How did the BBC come to be? The short version is that Les and Jeff (who both run the Guitar Den in Edgewood and are devout Beatle-heads) thought we'd have a bash at some Beatles songs on acoustic guitars with vocal harmonies. It sounded so good that we decided to electrify, so we added Brett on bass and, after a series of drummers, Will (Jeff's son) on drums.
Why the Fab Four? Frank Sinatra's a good type. He's very clean [!!!!????]. But we couldn't sing like him. Elvis is the King, but none of us were big enough for '70s Elvis or good-looking enough for '60s Elvis. But really, after all, why not the Beatles? Has there ever been another vocal/rock group to be as popular and, more important, written so many wonderful tunes? ...
- Bubba Ho Tep (2003)
(Hollywood.com, September 14, 2003)
Synopsis:Elvis Presley is still alive, now in his late sixties, but confined to a rest home in Texas. Here, he recounts how he escaped fame with the help of an impersonater--now left to wonder what could have been, all while trying to battle the "soul-sucking" mummy, Bubba Ho-tep, who enters the rest home at night and consumes souls.
- Music loses voice of the common man
By ROBERT HILBURN
(Duluth News Tribune / LOS ANGELES TIMES, September 13, 2003)
OBITUARY:Cash's career spanned from his days at Sun Records with Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis to his recent award from MTV.
Because Johnny Cash had been in and out of the hospital with such regularity in recent years, we should have been ready for the news of his death Friday morning. Still, it hit hard. This voice of the American experience for half a century seemed as indestructible as a national monument. He certainly was a national treasure who set a standard of excellence in pop music.
... Cash, whose deep baritone had overwhelming character and authority, arrived at Sam Phillips' Sun Records studio in Memphis, Tenn., during a remarkable time in the '50s when the roster also included Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison and Charlie Rich. No one did more to shape American pop music in the past half a century than Presley, who toured with Cash during their days on the label. But pure artistry? "Man, you gotta know it was Johnny Cash," Phillips once said. "He wasn't just trying to make hit records. He was trying to tell the story of the common man. And he never stopped doing it."
- Johnny Cash: An American icon and beacon of integrity, he was a country musician who was too big for country music
By Adam Sweeting
(Guardian Unlimited, September 12, 2003)
Country music has grown from humble origins into one of the largest sectors in the American entertainment industry, but none of its current superstars will ever attain the mythic aura of Johnny Cash who has died of complications from diabetes aged 71.
... While at Sun [Records], Cash also wrote You're My Baby for Roy Orbison and Get Rhythm for Elvis Presley, though Cash described how, when Sam Phillips sold his interest in Presley to RCA, he wouldn't allow Elvis to take Get Rhythm with him, and put it on the B side of Cash's I Walk The Line instead. "The Elvis I knew was a kid full of fun," said Cash. "He loved his work, loved his music, loved his guitar, loved gospel music and loved his mother." ...
- ELVIS IS AN INVESTMENT
(Western Daily Press, September 12, 2003)
Merchant banker Emma Cutter spent almost £7,000 on a pair of Elvis Presley's gold-rimmed sunglasses. Miss Cutter, 29, from Cambridgeshire, paid £6,800 to a TV auction for the glasses.
She also paid £16,700 for a set of conveyancing documents signed by Elvis when he bought his Graceland mansion in Memphis in 1957. "I bought the items because I think they will be good investments, especially the legal documents which are very rare, " she said.
- In The Northwest: Clinton is a) Elvis b) Bubba c) coming to Seattle
By JOEL CONNELLY
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer, September 12, 2003)
After watching Bill Clinton visit the Northwest 13 times in his presidency, and drop by on a couple occasions since, I'm not about to get all shook up at next Tuesday's "Elvis sighting" in Seattle. Chronic Clinton-haters can direct their heavy sarcasm at the Foolproof Performing Arts appearance. I think the cult is privately energized by prospects of a Hillary run for the White House and, with it, renewed venom-spewing opportunities. Around here, most of us remember the Clinton years as a time when folks were working, and our region was an object of national envy.
The president dropped by often in quest of both money and adulation. But Bubba wasn't alone. Republicans like George W. Bush staged photo-ops at Boeing and made Mecca-like pilgrimages to Microsoft. We've seen so much of Clinton, in fact, that what follows is a trivia quiz on past Elvis sightings. [trivia quiz follows].
- Richards All Shook Up for 'Elvis'
(zap2it.com, September 12, 2003)
Denise Richards has come aboard Capitol Films' "Elvis Has Left the Building." She joins a cast that includes John Corbett and Kim Basinger, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "Elvis" centers on a Mary Kay Cosmetics consultant (Basinger) whose life seems to continually coincide with Elvis. After accidentally killing a few Elvis impersonators, she goes on the run. ...
- De La Hoya finally has matured into star whom boxing can bank on
By Tim Kawakami
(Mercury News / Reuters, September 11, 2003)
LAS VEGAS - Elvis and Sinatra are gone, Mike Tyson has been sent away, and Celine Dion falls short in the testosterone/silicone double-demographic. But Oscar De La Hoya is here at the MGM Grand, and he is here to fight. Suddenly, that means everything for this town and this sport. ...
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