Early April 2004
- Portraits made star of fast-draw 'artrepreneur'
By DOUGLAS MARTIN
(Charlotte Observer / New York Times, April 4, 2004)
Denny Dent -- a performance artist who frenetically splashed, dabbed and spilled his way to quirky celebrity by lighting into 6-foot-high canvases with three paintbrushes in each hand to produce portraits of famous people -- died on Monday in Aurora, Colo. He was 55 and lived in Denver. ... Art critics, if they noticed Dent at all, were not uniformly dazzled. Randy Gragg, writing in The Oregonian in 1999, said Dent's works "wouldn't earn a C in any local art school's second-year painting class," and observed that Elvis Presley's mouth resembled "the entrance to a theme-park ride." ...
- Elvis is closer to our Hearts than you might think
By GARY SUTHERLAND
(Scotland on Sunday, April 4, 2004)
We were all shook up in Diaryland this past week to hear of Steven Pressley's familial connection with Elvis Presley. They ain't brothers, but they're closer than you and I, unless you're my brother, Herb, and you are reading this. Elvis is part of the Elvis family, and Elvis of Hearts explained away the different spellings of the surnames. "It's maybe due to education levels in early America, immigration paperwork and all that," said Elvis of Hearts with due consideration. A Scottish tabloid carried out its traditional April Fool wheeze with the exclusive news that Craig and Charlie Reid from the Proclaimers are not only not twins, but they are not even related. And one of them isn't even a Hibs fan. He supports Elvis's lot, Hearts. ...
- The Sweet Smell of Failure
By BOB MORRIS
(New York Times, April 4, 2004)
Lina Koutrakos came to New York 15 years ago to be a singing sensation. She's still working at it. "I'm so 'the real thing' that I still know I'll make it," she said. In a way she has. And in a way she hasn't. One of her rock songs is under consideration for the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics. She was a regular headliner at the Bottom Line when it was in business, sings at Fez downtown and just signed a publishing deal as a songwriter. Billboard has called her "a treasure." And The Village Voice asks, "Why isn't she a national name?" ... So maybe Lina Koutrakos needs a drubbing from critics, rather than more accolades. "When I started out, I planned on being the female Elvis Presley," she said. "Now I'm not even asking record producers for $100, just 10 cents. There's room for me too." She'll be singing her heart out at Joe's Pub at the end of the month.
- Ten years after death, legendary Cobain lives in memory
(Yahoo! News / AFP, April 4, 2004)
Ten years after his death, the memory of the legendary leader of the group Nirvana, Kurt Cobain, remains alive, fed by tragic revelations about his life and scandals involving his widow, singer Courtney Love. ... On April 5, 1994, Cobain shot himself in the head in his residence in Seattle, Washington, a few kilometers (miles) away from Aberdeen, where he was born. ... Nirvana is seen by experts as a group that changed the history of rock music in the 1990s, much like singer Elvis Presley did in the 1950s, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones in the 1960s and the Sex Pistols in the 1970s.
- Center to welcome visitors, residents Shared design clicks
By Yvonne Nelson
(Commercial Appeal, April 4, 2004)
The gateway to Whitehaven at Elvis Presley Boulevard and Brooks Road will become the home of the Whitehaven Visitor Center in August, thanks to a team effort between Self Tucker Architects and Archimania. ... The building features a simple design that faces east, extending south along Elvis Presley Boulevard. Some of the components of the project include a community meeting room, gathering area, retail center, offices and a reception area with a movable podium. ...
- A snip of celebrity
By Kathryn Grondin
(Daily Herald, April 3, 2004)
You too could own a clip of history - if you can afford to trim thousands from your bank balance. A suburban firm will offer what it's touting as the largest collection of celebrity hair up for sale at one time. The online auction by MastroNet Inc., which recently relocated from Oak Brook to Willowbrook, begins Monday and features memorabilia from politics, show business, sports and the military. The assortment of tresses include the largest known lock from George Washington, as well as clippings from Abraham Lincoln, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and Ted Williams.
Of course, you'll need 10,000 bills with Washington's picture - the highest minimum hair bid in the sale - just for a chance to buy his locks. ... Thousands of Elvis hairs sold for a record $115,120 in a MastroNet auction in 2002. While "The King's" locks yielded the highest price to date, collectors have paid five figures for other celebrities' samples, said John Reznikoff of University Archives, an authority on hair collecting. ... The science of DNA has catapulted the popularity of hair collecting by providing a new avenue for authentication. ...
- Maybe Rock 'n' Roll does forget
By Michael S. Miller
(Leewanee Online, April 3, 2004)
David Frownfelder lived through The Beatles. I experienced them long after they had gone their separate ways. I was part of the first American generation to live with the consequences of The Beatles' brilliance -- an odd feeling that they had raised the bar for their successors, but their successors were falling short.
Pop music has never recovered from the giddy heights The Beatles reached. Neo-folkies, singer-songwriters, disco, new wave, punk, metal, grunge, rap, hip-hop. It's all rock 'n' roll to me, as Billy Joel says, but it's never been as exciting, creative and revolutionary as the music The Beatles made.
In this space on Monday, Frownfelder wrote about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions, and expressed a commonly held belief that today's music doesn't have the same soul, to borrow a phrase. ... "I was struck by the lack of much listenable mainstream Rock 'n' Roll today. ... The music business is now firmly in the hands of executives and marketers with the music becoming just another commodity to be packaged and sold," he wrote.
... In a time when the hottest influence on the pop music charts is a television show, "American Idol," it would be foolish to argue against Frownfelder's "Rock as product" argument. That's been a sad truth since Col. Parker discovered people would buy anything with Elvis Presley's name or face on it. But that doesn't mean the music itself is without merit. When people like Frownfelder say much of modern music is "unlistenable," what they mean is, "it lacks melody and tune." ... Of course, to people who grew up on The Andrew Sisters and Bing Crosby, Elvis and The Beatles sounded like kids screaming while banging pots and pans together; when it comes to taste, generational context trumps historical perspective. ...
- Gospel CD First of Several New Elvis Releases
By Sarah Han
(Yahoo! News / Reuters / Billboard, April 3, 2004)
Elvis is back, baby -- and this time he's found religion. BMG Strategic Marketing Group/RCA Music Group has released "Elvis Ultimate Gospel," the first greatest-hits collection of Elvis Presley's gospel recordings. The 24-track compilation hit stores March 23 at a retail price of [US] $18.98. It features such classic Elvis gospel tunes as "How Great Thou Art," "Amazing Grace," "Crying in the Chapel" and "(There'll Be) Peace in the Valley (For Me)." The tracks were mastered from original mastering tapes using direct stream digital for premium sound quality.
While Elvis has long been known as the king of rock 'n' roll, he also has sold more than 250 million gospel recordings in the United States, according to BMG/RCA. This week, "Elvis Ultimate Gospel" debuts on the Billboard Top Contemporary Christian chart at No. 9 and on the Top Country Albums chart at No. 30.
Within the BMG Strategic Marketing Group, an "Elvis Team" was formed two years ago to concentrate solely on the Elvis Presley franchise. Joe DiMuro, the group's executive VP, says the team is dedicated to catalog and product management, A&R development, marketing and promotion. The Elvis Team is taking a multi-pronged marketing approach to promoting the album, including working with NASCAR's fan list (which fits the record's demographic) to initiate e-mail blasts through Elvis Presley Enterprises' (EPE) Web site at elvis.com. BMG has its own Web site to promote the CD, elvisultimategospel.com. And beginning in April, a track from the album will be featured in 900 movie theaters, including selected Regal and United Artists venues, under a deal with Cinema Sounds.
The Elvis Team has been working on radio promotions, with key gospel and crossover stations offering promotional trips to Graceland, prize packages and content giveaways, DiMuro says. The team currently is preparing projects around July 5, the 50-year anniversary of the birth of rock 'n' roll.
BMG and EPE is scheduled to release "The '68 Comeback" deluxe-edition DVD June 22. The three-disc set contains seven hours of content showcasing never-before-seen performances, the original unedited TV special as it aired and all the outtakes from the skits. "Aloha From Hawaii" will be released at the same time. The double-DVD will have special packaging with three to four hours of previously unreleased material and content. Another Elvis project to look out for is "Elvis at Sun," a compilation of Elvis' greatest recordings at Sun Studios, DiMuro says. The Elvis Team says there is a possibility that this will include a previously unreleased track.
- Forum looks over Whitehaven's horizon: Major hotel, business loans get discussion
By Linda A. Moore
(Go Memphis, April 3, 2004)
Could Whitehaven support a convention center hotel? Maybe. "My own personal commitment is we want to build a convention hotel at Graceland," said Jack Soden, president and chief executive officer of Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc. "Could it give us a growth track like the Opryland Hotel in Nashville?" Soden said. "I never would predict a 2,000-room hotel on Elvis Presley Boulevard, but we can be a force." Soden was addressing about 200 Whitehaven residents who attended the Why Whitehaven? Business Forum, held Thursday at Bishop Byrne High School and sponsored by The Whitehaven Economic Development Corp. and Leadership Memphis.
The same factors that make Graceland a happy Whitehaven resident make the location of a hotel a possibility, Soden said. Soden was one of seven panel members who discussed why Whitehaven is a good place to do business. ...
- It's rock 'n' blues for Aerosmith
By Jim Abbott
(Alibene Reporter News, April 2, 2004)
Joe Perry is mesmerized by the art in his room at a Holiday Inn in Tupelo, Miss. "Every picture on the wall is a velvet Elvis," Perry says. "He's got Lisa Marie with him in one of them, and he has one of those fancy shirts on. It's really cool. All of Tupelo is proud of their native son." Aerosmith, which performs with Cheap Trick on Monday at the TD Waterhouse Centre, recently absorbed the vibe of the King's hometown on its tour behind the new Honkin' on Bobo.
... A visit to Presley's childhood home left the guitarist with a renewed sense of the singer's legacy. "People can come out of nowhere," he says. "That's one of the things about the American dream. It's fascinating to see Elvis' shotgun shack and realize that was one of thousands lived in by fathers and mothers just trying to keep body and soul together. "The miracle that one of those kids running around in the yard actually grew up to be Elvis Presley is an amazing thing. Say what you want about America, it's a pretty good advertisement for what can happen here." ...
- Wanda Jackson reveals her rockin' side ... again
By BAKER MAULTSBY
(tennessean.com, April 2, 2004)
It was one thing for Elvis to shake it, for Jerry Lee to make a riotous noise on the keys, for Bill Haley to sing suggestive lyrics. But for a ''girl'' to do all was beyond the pale. ''It was all right if you were Connie Francis or Connie Stevens or Brenda Lee. But they would not play me (on the radio). They would not accept a woman singing the way I sang.'' That's how Wanda Jackson - one of the most audacious rock 'n' roll performers, male or female, of the 1950s - remembers the way things were. ... A performer since her childhood in Oklahoma, Jackson had become an established country singer by the mid-'50s, landing on a tour with Elvis Presley in 1956. Influenced by ''my generation of music,'' as she puts it, and encouraged by Elvis, Jackson also wanted to play rock 'n' roll. ...
- Teens honored for anti-drug ads
By ERIN SNELGROVE
(News-Review, April 2, 2004)
... Despite the differences in their attire and demeanor, each of the select Douglas County teenagers shared the same mission -- to educate the public about the dangers of drug use. ... McCarty was one of about 80 local youths involved in the "Truth, Lies and Videotapes" project, a collection of public service announcements aired at Umpqua Community College's Jacoby Auditorium Thursday night. ... The Oscar-style affair included appetizers, live music and comedy. Hordes of students, parents and community members were in attendance, as were teen members of the Baily Day Foundation -- a Roseburg-based organization dedicated to educating teens about the dangers of experimental drug use. It's named for a Roseburg teenager who died of a drug overdose, and the group's teen representatives dressed as Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and other icons who lost their lives because of substance abuse.
- Famed Downtown Las Vegas Casino Reopens Under Old Name, New Management
By Rod Smith
(Miami Herald / Las Vegas Review-Journal Knight Ridder / Tribune Business News, April 2, 2004)
With all the hoopla downtown Las Vegas could muster, Binion's Horseshoe reopened Thursday, 3 1/2 months after being closed by deputy U.S. marshals in a raid on its cash cage. Showgirls from the Rio and Harrah's Las Vegas pranced, The Keystone State Boys Choir from Philadelphia sang, and Mayor Oscar Goodman and Harrah's Entertainment Western Division President Tom Jenkin cut a ribbon to let a thousand-plus customers rush in to play the slots and tables. ... Customers didn't go to Binion's for Frank Sinatra or Elvis Presley, but to gamble. ...
- George Jones' staying power still in evidence
By Dru Willis
(Alibene Reporter News, April 2, 2004)
"The Possum" ain't playing dead. On the contrary, 72-year-old country singer George Jones is alive and kicking with television appearances and a full-fledged concert tour with bookings through November. Jones will perform his legendary country music tonight at the Taylor County Coliseum, 1700 Highway 36. ... Since Jones first emerged, in the 1950s, he has had 164 singles on the music charts, more than any other artist in the history of recorded music. Those 164 records have given him hit singles in every decade since the 1950s. ... 127 different songs that Jones has placed in the Billboard magazine country music Top 40, according to allmusic.com. By comparison, Elvis Presley had "only" 108 pop Top 40 hits. ...
- In Brief: Toots, Roots
(2nd paragraph)
(rollingstone.com, April 1, 2004)
... The Oxygen Network will halt its regular programming for eight hours on May 18th to follow ALANIS MORISSETTE around New York City during promotional duty for her new album, So Called Chaos . . . ELVIS PRESLEY drummer D.J. FONTANA and JOHNNY CASH drummer W.S. HOLLAND are auctioning off drum sets at the Rockabilly Festival 2004 in Jackson, Tennessee, in August . . .
- Travelling Each And Every Highway, "My Way" Takes Over The Airwaves
(chartattack.com, April 1, 2004)
Whether you love the song or, like many ChartAttack staffers, despise it, it's hard to deny the impact of the song "My Way," as made classic by Frank Sinatra. "My Way" is one of the most played, covered and performed song in pop music history. Next month the song is celebrating its 35th anniversary and its publisher, Warner Chappell Music is trying to convince radio stations to join in a huge worldwide simultaneous "My Way" play.
The "My Way" anniversary will take place on April 12. Radio stations will be able to download their choice version of "My Way," and believe us, there are plenty to pick. Warner Chappell is offering up 35 versions of the song in all. Some stations might play it safe with the original Paul Anka version or the Frank Sinatra standby, others may cool it up with Nina Simone or Tom Jones and the truly masochistic can choose the Sid Vicious or Shane McGowan covers. Other artists on the list include Elvis Presley, Julio Iglesias, Joan Baez and The Gypsy Kings, Kayne West and Robbie Williams. ...
- Past to present: ASB presidents prepare for future
By Marquita Brown
(Daily Mississippean, April 1, 2004)
Before he was Associated Student Body president, Gordon Fellows was a football player and wrestling fan. ... Regardless of what career path he chooses, Fellows said he would return home to Tupelo. Until then, he has a quasi-shrine dedicated to the town in his office. To the left of his desk hangs artwork of the Lyceum, the Square, and of course Tupelo. He also has artwork of Elvis Presley, a homegrown rock'n'roll legend ranging from a picture to a bust -- things few Tupelo natives would be caught without. On the wall opposite the Elvis paraphernalia, Fellows has pictures of himself with state Senators Thad Cochran and Trent Lott, and above them all, a picture of President George W. Bush. ...
- Elvis: First Known Gmail User
By Garrett French
(webpronews.com, April 1, 2004)
Google announced a new free email service at the end of their West Coast day yesterday, ensuring a media blitz on the holiest of hoaxter holidays - April Fools Day. Is this upcoming service the real deal? ...
- Getting it straight
(Detroit Free Press, April 1, 2004)
The Free Press corrects all errors of fact. If you know of an error, please call John X. Miller, public editor, at 313-222-2441 or 800-678-7771 anytime, write him at 600 W. Fort, Detroit 48226, or send e-mail to miller@freepress.com.
...
* An item in Wednesday's Locally Speaking in the Local News section about Elvis Presley had the incorrect year for his first appearance in Detroit. It was 1956, not 1957.
- Of pot pies and pantyhose
By Deirdre Donahue
(Yahoo! News / USATODAY, April 1, 2004)
Some books, whether compelling novels or serious non-fiction, demand the reader's full attention for a sustained period. Others work best when placed on a bedside table or a kitchen counter to be picked up while the reader languishes on hold on the telephone. Poplorica, by Martin Smith and Patrick Kiger, is the perfect book for those who feel as if their attention spans have become as fractured as a bad MTV video. The book devotes a chapter each to 20 sometimes weird, sometimes wonderful inventions, from air conditioning to pantyhose to rehab centers to black velvet paintings to Big Bertha golf clubs. ... Another chapter celebrates the American appetite for black velvet paintings. Elvis Presley treasured one of a peacock with the tail outlined with tiny colored lights. "Velvises" - black velvet paintings of Elvis - are now rare because his estate considers them copyright violations. Lawyers, the enemies of great bad taste.
- Actor Jack Black blows into Tokyo to promote film
(Yomiuri Shimbun, April 1, 2004)
Funnyman Jack Black blew into Tokyo's Hard Rock Cafe like a comedic typhoon on Monday, high-fiving reporters and causing widespread laughter wherever he went. The pudgy 34-year-old actor is currently in Japan to promote School of Rock, a comedy about a failed rock musician named Dewey Finn who poses as a substitute teacher at a prestigious private school to pay the bills. He quickly discovers his reserved fifth graders are talented musicians and secretly enters them into a battle of the bands contest. ... Amid all the chaos and excitement at the overflowing restaurant, Black, who also makes up one half of comedic rock duo Tenacious D, asked "Am I here to do a concert?...Is this a press conference or a rock concert?" before breaking into an energetic version of Elvis Presley's "Viva Las Vegas." ...
- Pop culture, Round 3: Elvis gyrates past Lucy; royals rule Woodstock
By JAMES A. FUSSELL
(Kansas City Star, April 1, 2004)
Elvis Presley may have defeated Lucille Ball in the Sweet 16, but next he's heading for a big contest against the Beatles. To see our bracket filled in day by day, go to kansascity.com and click on entertainment. We'll reveal the scores of each contender on Saturday.
Elvis Presley continued to swivel through the entertainment category and advanced into the third round of our pop-culture madness tournament. Recently we pitted 64 of the most memorable pop-culture moments of the last 50 years in four categories: news, sports, entertainment and advertisements. We asked you to vote for your favorites by filling in our bracket.
In the latest round, Presley's appearance on "Ed Sullivan" won over Lucille Ball's grape-stomping episode. In the next round, the Elite Eight, he'll face another "Sullivan" moment: the Beatles, who knocked down Marilyn Monroe's billowing skirt. ...
- Eyesore bridge up for a paint job
By JOSEPH GERTH
(Courier-Journal, April 1, 2004)
[Kentucky] -- The last time the Kennedy Bridge was painted, Elvis Presley was alive and Muhammad Ali was boxing's heavyweight champion. In the 27 years since, the bridge's steel framework has turned into a rusting eyesore, and the bridge itself, which carries Interstate 65 across the Ohio River, has become a lightning rod for controversy. ...
- R&B Star Usher Tops Charts with 'Confessions'
By Steve Gorman
(Yahoo! News / Reuters, March 31, 2004)
R&B star Usher topped the U.S. pop charts on Wednesday as his new CD, "Confessions," posted the biggest album debut so far this year and became only the second 2004 release to sell more than 1 million copies in its first week in stores. .. In a footnote to the latest charts, a new collection of gospel songs recorded by Elvis Presley, "Elvis Ultimate Gospel," fell short of the Top 200 but landed at No. 37 on the country album chart on first-week sales of 5,900 albums.
- Book Review: How Show Business Took Over the White House
By Gregory McNamee
(Yahoo! News / Reuters, March 31, 2004)
On Dec. 21, 1970, Elvis Presley approached the gates of the White House and asked to see President Nixon. He was soon ushered into the Oval Office and half an hour later walked out with an appointment as a "special assistant" in the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, along with some presidential trinkets.
One of the stranger moments in the history of chemical-induced weirdness, the episode has been enshrined in pop history: The President meets the King. Nixon, always one for a rationalization when it suited him, would later observe that Presley could still be a good example for the youth of America: "He never used illegal drugs. It was always drugs prescribed by his physician."
An example for the kids, an audience Nixon was always trying to court. But more, that strange blip in time is just one of the many instances that Alan Schroeder provides in his entertaining and thoughtful book "Celebrity-in-Chief: How Show Business Took Over the White House" of the many uses American presidents have made of entertainers -- and sometimes vice versa. ...
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