Late December 2004
- Linkin Park Launches Relief Fund for Tsunami Victims; Backstreet Boys to Release New Album
(2nd item)
By Mary Morningstar
(Voice of America, December 31, 2004)
To mark the 70th anniversary of Elvis Presley's birth on January 8, Sony/BMG plans to reissue 18 of his singles that hit Number One in the United Kingdom. They'll be released in chronological order, beginning with "All Shook Up" and "Jailhouse Rock," which both hit stores on January 3. The U.K.'s 1000th pop singles chart will soon be printed and some predict it will be Elvis who occupies the top spot in that issue.
Speaking of Elvis, a Presley fan has sold three tablespoons of water, allegedly taken from a cup used by Presley at a 1977 concert. It fetched more than $450 at an online EBay auction. 40-year-old North Carolinian Wade Jones attended Presley's 1977 concert in Charlotte and after the show went to the stage looking for a souvenir. Jones says a policeman gave him a plastic cup that Elvis drank from during the show. He kept the cup of water in his freezer until 1985, when he transferred the water to a vial and sealed it. Jones claims to have a photograph from the concert that proves its authenticity.
- Elvis tops hairstyle poll
(manchester news, December 31, 2004)
IT'S the King of the cuts... Elvis Presley's quiff and legendary sideburns have been voted the most iconic male hairstyle of all time. Presley shocked polite society in the early 50s but came to symbolise the rebelliousness of rock and roll. ... [ as below]
- Elvis is the mane man - Elvis quiff ... voted best hairstyle
By JOHN COLES
(Sun, December 31, 2004)
ELVIS is top of the crops for the most iconic hairstyle ever. The rock King's legendary quiff and sideburns shocked the 1950s. But the look of Elvis came to symbolise the rock 'n' roll revolution. David Beckham came runner-up in the poll of 1,500 blokes - though it was unclear whether the England soccer captain was praised for his shoulder-length hair, Mohican, cornrows or even his skinhead. ...
- Elvis: the king of lock 'n' roll
By ANGIE BROWN
(Scotsman, December 31, 2004)
IT'S the king of the cuts. Elvis Presley's quiff and legendary sideburns have been voted the most iconic male hairstyle of all time. The 1950s star's haircut, which at the time shocked polite society and later became the symbol of the rebellious rock 'n' roll years, beat those of footballer David Beckham, which came second in a poll of 1,500 men across the country.
Elvis's stylish crop of hair had such a following that when he eventually had his locks shorn off to enter the United States army in 1958, it made front-page news around the world. Now it is Beckham who sparks a nationwide rush to the hairdresser's every time he changes his look. ...
- Who's Who: Rocker Daltrey 'thrilled' with CBE award
By Arifa Akbar
(The Independent, December 31, 2004)
The rock legend, Roger Daltrey, 60, lead vocalist of The Who, was created a CBE for his services to music. He said: "I am so pleased. It is really great to be honoured by my country." Pete Waterman, the British record producer, songwriter and television presenter, was raised to the OBE for his uncanny ability to create a chart hit. He is said to have been behind more Number 1s than the Beatles and Elvis Presley. ...
- Variety of classes set for January at Vesper Hall
(The Examiner, December 30, 2004)
There's going to be a lot of rockin' going on Jan. 7 at Blue Springs Vesper Hall in celebration of the Jan. 8 birthday of Elvis Presley, the King of Rock 'n Roll. Seniors are invited to join the fun from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. And if they want to stay for lunch, they must register. Lunch is $2.50 for those 60 and older and $3.75 for those 59 and younger. Join the fun as one of Blue Springs' best impersonators performs some of Elvis' top songs. Adding to the enjoyment, is an Elvis trivia contest and an Elvis lip-sync contest. ...
- In Brief: Phish, Elvis - Phish's Trey sings for Tibet, Travolta sings Elvis
(Rolling Stone, December 30, 2004)
Former PHISH frontman TREY ANASTASIO, NELLIE MCKAY, PHILIP GLASS and CHOCOLATE GENIUS' MARC ANTHONY THOMPSON are set to perform at the Tibet House's fifteenth annual benefit concert at New York's Carnegie Hall on February 9th, hosted by UMA THURMAN ... JOHN TRAVOLTA sings "I Really Don't Want to Know," previously recorded by both ELVIS PRESLEY and DOLLY PARTON, on the soundtrack to A Love Song for Bobby Long, due January 11th ...
- Elvis, One for the Money: The King of Rock Sold His Soul for a Song
By David Segal
(Washington Post, December 30, 2004)
It's been two weeks since Elvis Presley was acquired in a cash and stock deal valued at $100 million, and still hardly anyone seems to have noticed, let alone gotten worked up about it. There were the obligatory mentions in the business pages. There were groans in the visitor forums of some Elvis Web sites -- "the seven deadly sins come to mind," sniped one fan. But not much more.
Sort of surprising, isn't it? We're talking about ownership of the preeminent icon of American pop culture, and like any icon, this one is in some important way our creation. A businessman named Robert Sillerman, who made a fortune buying and selling radio stations and concert venues, now owns the King and he's going to sell him -- or his likeness, anyway -- in markets he calls "under-Elvised." That means cities like Las Vegas and countries like Japan where, he said in interviews, images of Presley are surprisingly hard to find.
Sillerman has gobs to invest in all sorts of ventures, and he could slap Elvis on mugs, T-shirts and souvenir mini-bowling balls from here to Okinawa. Lots of Presley partisans will salute this international product rollout, and anything else that raises the profile of their hero. But that alone won't explain the silence that greeted the size of the King's ransom. No, to understand that you need to know this: Elvis is the greatest sellout in American history.
Not just in the history of rock-and-roll, mind you. He's the greatest sellout, period. You'd be hard pressed to find someone who sold out more, sold out earlier, sold out with greater regularity. Elvis started selling out almost as soon as he caught on and he didn't stop until -- well, he never stopped actually. Which is why the Sillerman purchase never raised anyone's dander. It makes perfect sense in the context of Elvis's entire life.
Actually, it makes perfect sense in the context of American history. We've always been a little ambivalent about selling out; we do it more often and more grandly than any nation on Earth. The first recorded use of the phrase, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, referred to "the proposed sell-out of the State of North Dakota to the infamous Louisiana Lottery Company." We can only imagine what that must have been about. The year was 1890.
The classic sellout, of course, involves trading your ideals for money, which Presley did. He was a celestial, once-in-a-century talent. Nonetheless, he ended up squandering his gifts singing cheesy bossa novas, acting in lousy movies and taking the easy money. While Presley was occasionally disgusted by the dreck he was asked to sing in the studio, and while he resented hack scripts like "Harum Scarum," perhaps the worst of his many movies, he was never bothered enough to make a fuss, at least not a fuss that would improve his material.
If your only goal is to sell, quality be damned, you have lots to sell and nothing to sell out. That's an ethos with legs, as it happens. If you want to understand Snoop Dogg or 50 Cent or any number of rap stars, you need to understand Elvis. Those guys owe the man.
Before we get to why, let's be clear that Elvis can't be entirely blamed -- or credited, if you prefer -- with his innumerable sellouts. Elvis was needled and psychologically badgered into nearly every deal that shaped his professional life by his manager, Col. Tom Parker. A former carny whose quick-money philosophy shadowed every dotted line that Elvis signed, Parker was notorious for two-bit schemes. He once charged admission to see a horse, billed as the world's smallest, that was actually just a pony, buried up to his knees.
But leave that aside. At the time that Elvis started selling out -- arguably when he all but gave up on rock in the early '60s -- the idea of a rock star selling out didn't exist. Rock then was just a type of music that was huge with the kids. The expectation was that something else would replace it, soon. Only later, when it was clear that rock wasn't going away -- when it took on the spiritual significance of a religion -- was the idea of "selling out" your rock-and-roll roots even possible.
By the mid-'60s, Elvis was basically a spectator at the revolution in pop. He spent most of his studio time on easy-listening soundtrack albums for a series of increasingly crummy films. He just couldn't turn down a big check, even if some of those decisions were stupendously ill-advised. In 1973, when they both were in need of a cash infusion, Elvis and Col. Parker sold to RCA the artist's royalty rights to all of Presley's back catalogue, for a measly $5 million. But for that notorious deal, the price tag on Elvis Presley Enterprises, which is the entity that Sillerman recently bought 85 percent of, would have been many times larger.
"Elvis died when he went into the Army," John Lennon said when Presley actually expired in 1977. It's a sentiment you'll hear from more than a few of his early and ardent fans. But the critics have always been outnumbered by the admirers. They don't fret much about how Presley is merchandised. It's one of the things that Elvis had in common with his audience.
"A handful of people wrote e-mails saying the sky is falling when the [Sillerman] deal was announced," Jack Soden, the CEO of Elvis Presley Enterprises, said Tuesday. "But a significant majority understand that this is a good thing. That this will allow the legacy of Elvis to grow and prosper."
Presley was rock music's first franchise and today he's as close to a one-man Wal-Mart as any artist will ever get. This is his legacy to today's performers.
Take Snoop Dogg. Right now, according to Rolling Stone magazine, the Dogg is getting paid by T-Mobile (for an ad) and Vital Toys (for an action figure), and XM Satellite Radio (for a monthly show), and Pony Sneakers (for the Doggy Biscuitz shoe line), by the makers of VSOP Passion Blend, a booze, and by the naughty lads behind "Girls Gone Wild" videos, who license his name for a "Doggy Style" line of tapes.
You hear anyone calling Snoop a sellout? Nah. He and every other platinum rapper are the true heirs to Elvis's brand-it-now, sell-it-soon approach. Songs beget films, films beget endorsements and endorsements beget more songs. It's the great shameless cycle of American commerce, and proof, if any were needed, that the King is gone but he's not forgotten.
- Thunderer: Tops? Elvis is rock bottom
By Tim Luckhurst
(Times Online, December 30, 2004)
ELVIS PRESLEY'S Jailhouse Rock will shortly compete for the honour of becoming Britain's 1,000th No 1 single. Given the adoration Elvis enjoys, the likelihood of the 1957 hit achieving this musical milestone is depressingly high. But, despite prayers of support from the First Presleyterian Church of Elvis the Divine, and unconvincing impersonators everywhere, there is time to stop it. Fans of quality rock music must try.
Elvis Presley is not the King. Neither is he the pure embodiment of rock 'n' roll that misty-eyed fanatics perceive. Presley was a "chav" before the term was invented and he continues to appeal to people of similar vacuity. Affection for his music is among the clearest indications of bad taste, almost as clear as the furry dice and "Elvisly Yours" stickers that appear in enthusiasts' rear windscreens.
Britain has produced better musicians in every decade since Sam Phillips, the founder of Sun Records, foisted Elvis on the world. For the nation that spawned the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, The Clash and the Smiths to reward this preening, drug-addicted interpreter of others' work would take self-loathing too far.
Granted, Elvis possessed a great voice and his early singles bridged the gap between rhythm and blues and the American mass market. But he did not write those songs, nor did he ever have anything significant to say. His lyrics have all the literary merit of chainstore greetings cards.
Most of his melodies were penned by musicians who could play and arrange with a finesse that he never acquired. He contributed less than nothing to the rich subculture generated by rock. Even the surly, rebellious persona that made him popular with repressed 1950s teenagers was a synthetic pose adopted for nakedly commercial reasons.
Like his fans, Presley was of very limited intellect and cannot be held responsible for the exploitation of his image. The cleverest thing he did was to die. It allowed his record company to depict him as he had looked before he became a blancmange. Now, with rereleases of his hits looming to mark the 70th anniversary of his birth, Britain has a chance to put him in context. American giants such as Bob Dylan and Frank Zappa merit our affection. If he had started singing after John Lennon, Presley would not even merit a place on I'm a Celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here!
Send your comments to: letters@thetimes.co.uk
- Pop Music: In My Day It Was Elvis Presley
By Judy T. Lloyd
(useless-knowledge.com, December 29, 2004)
You would almost think that given all the comments written about Britney Spears and that fellow Emimeim or M & M's that they are demon spawned children who just invented $ex. Not so I remember certain radio stations or television stations that did not want Elvis Presley on stage. The King of Rock and Roll made many a mother cringe with the swinging of his hips. Not to mention the curl of his lip when he sang. Aha but then Ed Sullivan invited him on his show nd the rest is history. Of course some radio personalties went to jail for playing hit music that did not fit in with the mainstream public.
Yes by now we have heard all the stories and seen the movies that he made several dozen times. A few years back some other famous hippie's of my generation tried singing some of his songs. Not that he would now be considered a paragon of virtue. That is no one associated with supplying him his daily fixes could be either. I suppose the rich and the powerful will always have access to most anything they want. Personally I have not heard Britney Spears but even with all his faults I loved Elvis's music. But then you had to grow up with American bandstand. ... Well so it goes that each generation has that celebrity that is the cause of a whole world's problems. With my generation it was Elvis and a few others. ...
- Concert in honour of Elvis's 70th
(canoe.ca / London Free Press, December 29, 2004)
It's being billed as the biggest 70th birthday party for the King north of Memphis -- and Roy LeBlanc is ready to pay royal tribute. On Jan. 8, LeBlanc, his band, and the International Symphony Orchestra will join forces to salute Elvis Presley on what would have been the late superstar's 70th birthday. The concert is set for Sarnia's Imperial Theatre. "We were planning a 'do' -- a large one," LeBlanc says. He thought about going to Memphis, where Elvis's "birthday" celebrations are an annual event and such birthday anniversaries as the 60th or 70th are even bigger than usual. LeBlanc decided to stay on his London-region home turf. That didn't keep the St. Thomas performer, who has won major titles on the Elvis tribute circuit, from making it a big party. ... The concert format calls for LeBlanc and the band to play the first set, including rocking hits from the 1950s and Presley's movies. Orchestral touches will help bring the set to a close with highlights taken from Presley's triumphant return to live performing in 1968, when a live TV show confirmed the King's raw power after he had spent years making mostly forgettable movies. The second set celebrates the Las Vegas extravaganzas of the last years of Presley's career. "We've got some topnotch musicians to back us up," LeBlanc says. ...
- First water, now cup in Elvis auctions
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer / ASSOCIATED PRESS, December 29, 2004)
Miss your chance to buy some water from a cup once used by Elvis Presley? Don't be disappointed - now you can bid on a chance to see, but not own, the cup that held the water. The North Carolina man who sold the water on eBay last week is now auctioning off a one-time appearance of the Styrofoam cup that originally held the water. Wade Jones retrieved the cup and water when he went to a Presley concert in Greensboro in 1977. He saw Presley drink from the cup while introducing his band, and later asked a security guard to give him the cup as a souvenir.
The water, sealed in a plastic vial, sold for $455 on the online auction site on Saturday. Jones doesn't want to sell the cup, but is willing to put it on display. He wanted a minimum bid of $300, plus travel expenses, for an appearance by the cup, preferably on Elvis's birthday Jan. 8. As of Wednesday morning, Jones had received one bid for $300.
- Hot Chilis Spice Up Chart
(Sky, December 29, 2004)
The Red Hot Chili Peppers have entered the record books to become one of the 100 most successful recording artists of all time. The Guinness British Hit Singles and Albums book ranks artists every year according to how many weeks they have spent in the UK singles and albums charts. The likes of Madonna, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles and Elvis Presley are already in the top 100. ... Elvis Presley still tops the list, having notched up 2,463 weeks in the UK singles and albums charts. ... Here are the top 10 acts:
1. Elvis Presley (2,463 weeks)
2. Cliff Richard (1,972 weeks)
3. The Beatles (1,742 weeks)
4. Queen (1,725 weeks)
5. Madonna (1,653 weeks)
6. Elton John (1,615 weeks)
7. The Shadows (1,578 weeks)
8. Michael Jackson (1,477 weeks)
9. David Bowie (1,459 weeks)
10. U2 (1,402 weeks)
- Elvis serves as the warm-up act for radio station's oldies format
By Carrie Seidman
(Albuquerque Tribune, December 28, 2004)
If you want to hear all-Elvis, all of the time, well, as the King himself might say, it's now or never. The playlist on KANM-AM (1600), purchased last week by Don Davis, consists entirely of Elvis Presley tunes. "It's Elvis when you drive to work and Elvis when you drive home," said Davis, who also owns KJJY-AM (1550). The temporary agenda will give way to a "real oldies" format, featuring hits from 1955 to 1964, beginning at noon Saturday, Davis said. "This is just something fun for a few days before we start our actual format," he said of the Elvis format. "If you can't have fun, what's the point?" ...
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