mid January, 2006
- 'Elvis Lives on fabric by Cranston
(Home Textiles Today, January 19 2006)
V.I.P by Cranston is launching a new fabric collection called Elvis Lives in partnership with Elvis Presley Enterprises of Memphis. The new Elvis line targets fabric stores and retail fabric departments worldwide Patterns mix photo-realistic and graphic images on graphic-patch backgrounds in both bright and muted colorways. Fabrics are 100% cotton, printed in the USA, and consist of four designs in two different colorways. According to Cranston, the Elvis Lives collection is suitable for apparel, crafting and home décor uses. ³It has been years since Elvis Presley Enterprises authorized a fabric release,² said Carol Butler, director of Worldwide Licensing for EPE.
- 'Hound Dog' begs to be bought at SPCA auction
(Buffalo News, January 19 2006)
An original 1956 RCA single of Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog," with "Don't Be Cruel" on the flip side, will be among the items to be auctioned at the fourth annual "Art Unleashed" benefit for SPCA Serving Erie County at 5:30 p.m. Jan. 27 in the Terrace Room of Statler Towers. Complimentary cocktails will be served from 5:30 to 6:30, when a silent auction of more than 120 items will be conducted. Items include jewelry, pottery, photography, quilts, bags, gift baskets, music packages and paintings. ...
- Elvis Goes To Number One
By Paul Cashmere
(Undercover, January 19 2006)
Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel" is the number one single in America this week.
Presley's classic was recorded in 1956, just two days before his 21st birthday.
He recorded the song on January 10th, 1956 and released on January 27th, 1956 It reached number one and stayed atop the US chart for 8 weeks. The song recently turned 50 years old. This year marks a series of 50th anniversaries for Presley including the anniversary of his first album, his first movie and his first television appearance.
- Studio Where Presley Recorded to Be Razed
(Yahoo! News / AP, January 19 2006)
The studio where Elvis Presley recorded "Heartbreak Hotel" is being torn down. And some say it's just heartbreaking. "I'm disappointed that the studio is being torn down," Gordon Stoker of the Jordanaires, Presley's primary background vocalists from 1956 to 1968, told the daily newspaper The Tennessean. "But you can't hang on to everything your whole life."
The studio at 1525 McGavock St. near Nashville's Music Row was purchased in 1999 by auto-dealership owner Lee Beaman, who had been leasing the half-acre property until recently, when he decided the dealership needed more customer parking. Doug McClanahan, president of Beaman Automotive Group, said the area will be paved over within the next 60 days. The studio, used by RCA in the mid-1950s, isn't the city's oldest or most famous, but it played a part in the recording of many hits. During Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel" session on Jan. 10, 1956, Presley also recorded Ray Charles' "I Got A Woman," according to John Rumble, senior historian at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. In 1957, Jim Reeves cut one of his biggest hits there, "Four Walls." Chet Atkins, the Everly Brothers and Hank Snow also recorded at the McGavock Street studio. The studio's success led RCA in the late '50s to open its famed Studio B, where Presley, Roy Orbison, Dolly Parton, Charlie Pride and others recorded. That studio, in the heart of Music Row, has been preserved as a popular cultural and tourism attraction.
- 12 DVDs help enhance the experience of some of pop's pivotal moments
By ROBERT HILBURN
(LOS ANGELES TIMES, January 18 2006)
For a record industry in a frightful slump, there should be a lesson in the 30th anniversary edition of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run" album. The original 1975 recording was one of the most thrilling rock-and-roll works ever -- a series of passionate, enthralling songs about finding the inspiration and hope to pursue your grandest dreams. And it has been remastered in this deluxe edition to offer state-of-the-art sound. But the only thing I hear Springsteen fans talking about are the two DVDs in the three-disc package: one a documentary on the making of the album, the other a historic concert at London's Hammersmith Odeon just weeks after the album came out. The reaction underscores how much video components can increase the pop experience, and record executives need to be more aggressive in including them in new releases, not just reissues.
The good news is that pop fans needn't wait on the execs to swing into action. You can build an impressive video library of live rock performances through DVDs. Here are 12 that capture some of the pivotal moments of the last half-century.
* "Elvis '56" (Lightyear, $20). The ideal would be seeing Elvis Presley's raw performances in Southern clubs and ballrooms before he became a national sensation with "Heartbreak Hotel" in 1956. But there is no comprehensive footage from that period, so this is the next best thing. This disc enables us to discover rock's greatest star the same way most fans did -- via a series of television appearances. ...
- Elvis Lives on the Singles Chart: "Heartbreak Hotel" back at Number One fifty years after debut
By JESSICA ROBERTSON
(rollingstone.com, January 18 2006)
Elvis Presley returned the top of the Billboard singles chart with "Heartbreak Hotel" today, fifty years after its debut in 1956. The King recorded the tune -- his first-ever Number One -- two days after his twenty-first birthday during the now infamous first RCA Studios session. The genre-crossing "Heartbreak Hotel" originally spent eight weeks at Number One on the pop chart, topped the country charts for seventeen weeks and reached Number Three on the R&B charts. The single is included in the deluxe box set Elvis #1 Singles, due January 24th. The collection features all of Presley's twenty-one Number One hits packaged together on individual discs, including a double A side containing "Hound Dog" and "Don't Be Cruel."
- 'Heartbreak Hotel' a place to dwell for 50 years
By David Hinckley
(New York Daily News, January 18 2006)
Fifty years after Elvis Presley threw the brick labeled "rock 'n' roll" through America's front window, America has exacted a bizarre sort of revenge by largely turning Elvis into a cartoon. Say "Elvis" to most people and they envision Las Vegas wedding chapels and plus-size, white-sequined jumpsuits and bad '70s sideburns. It's more affectionate than malicious. But it's still not the whole Elvis story. We wouldn't be telling jokes about peanut-butter-and-banana sandwiches a half century later if Elvis hadn't left us music that matters. The Rolling Stones wouldn't be taking a $400 million tour without Elvis. Bono wouldn't be meeting prime ministers without the King of Rock 'n' Roll. Bruce Springsteen once scaled the wall at Elvis' Graceland home just to try to say hello.
Fifty years ago today, Elvis was a singer who'd had a couple of modest regional hits. But on Jan. 10 and 11, 1956, he recorded a song called "Heartbreak Hotel." RCA released that little ditty on Jan. 27, 1956. By March it was No. 1 and the rock 'n' roll train that had been picking up speed with Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Bill Haley, Little Richard, the Drifters, Ruth Brown and others now had a fresh young hand on the throttle.
Elvis didn't invent rock 'n' roll. What he did was take everything he liked - the blues of Arthur Crudup, the country of Hank Snow, the pop of Mario Lanza and Dean Martin, the gospel of the Blackwood Brothers - and put it all together. He didn't invent blending and mixing, either. But he ensured that the rock 'n' roll umbrella would be wide and welcoming.
In some ways, it can be argued that, today, the styles Elvis brought together have split apart again. "Rock" itself is often treated as a separate animal from styles it has drawn on, and not one of the several dozen popular-music radio stations around New York today plays contemporary "rock" music full-time. But musicians themselves still mix and match, as any casual sample of hip hop, Latin, country, pop or reggaeton will attest. And Elvis remains among us. Sony BMG just released a CD box set that includes all 20 of Elvis' No. 1 hits, in their original 45-rpm picture sleeves. This enables music fans to get reacquainted with, say, "I Was the One," a richly durable Elvis record that sometimes gets overshadowed because it was the flip side of "Heartbreak Hotel."
Meanwhile, tonight at Au Bar, 41 E. 58th St., singers Andy Karl, Emily Drennan and Tom LoSchiavo break out a new show, "Hunka Hunka Burnin' Love." It's a "musical tribute" that includes a couple of dozen Elvis songs, steering away from imitation to let the tunes tell a story. They always have.
- Motivating students to eat healthy: Lodi Unified's campaign begins with nutty gorilla
By Keith Reid
(recordnet.com, January 18 2006)
Not even a man wearing a gorilla suit impersonating Elvis Presley could get Giang Lu to eat vegetables. "I never eat healthy. That's just how I roll," the eighth-grader said in response to Lodi Unified School District's "Stay Fit, Eat Right California" campaign, which kicked off Tuesday at Morada Middle School. The campaign includes an appearance by a "gorilla" dressed in a Presleyesque white jump suit who dances to the King's greatest hits in a message that maybe only Food Services Supervisor Valery McDonald could explain. "We're encouraging them to choose the right kinds of foods," McDonald said. "And we're doing a quiz asking them questions about health and Elvis. Right answers win prizes, like free orange juice or water." ...
Glenda Pelayo, center, and Chelsea Rigas, both 12, dance the Twist on Tuesday at Morada Middle School.
Credit: DOUGLAS RIDER/The Record
- Food fit for the King: Elvis Presley ate here
By Brian Clarey
(yesweekly.com, January 17 2006)
As a country boy epicurean, Elvis Presley was without peer. It was he who brought the grilled peanut butter and banana sandwich into the mainstream. His penchant for cheeseburgers was legendary. And if the recorded soundtrack for the Graceland tour is to be believed, it was Elvis Presley who, some time in the ¹60s, ate meatloaf for dinner every night for six months. And let¹s not even get into the doughnuts.
So in February 1955 when Elvis sat down to a meal at the Brightwood Inn after a show at Williams High School, his order was predictable. "He had a hamburger with lettuce and tomato," Lucille Little recalls, "and a glass of milk." The Brightwood Inn was old-school even in 1955. It was opened way back in 1936 on a stretch of Highway 70 just outside Burlington as a drive-in dinette, with a breakfast menu and car service and famous cheeseburgers that would inspire customers from miles around to rattle their jalopies into the gravel parking lot. The current owner, Paul Treadway, took over in 1950. Lucille came on a couple of years later, and she was there when Presley sat down in the corner booth that night with a woman whom Lucille didn¹t recognize. "She had one Miller beer," Lucille says. "Back then only women drank Miller. It was called 'the Champagne of Beers.' Men did not drink it." ...
Elvis Presley ate a burger in this very booth.
photo by Brian Clarey
- Marathoner explains joys, pains of running
By Amie P. Fender
(The Rebel Yell, January 17 2006)
I am not one who is prone to advertising my emotions. But when I sprinted across the finish line- it sure felt like a sprint but was probably more like a seven minute jog- I saw my dad and collapsed into his arms, tears flooding my face. Why the hell do I run? I am positive I looked as though I had survived some form of mild torture - moreover, a self-imposed torture. I had just finished running 26.2 miles for the third time in my short life. ... On Dec. 4, 2005, at 5 a.m., 11,000 people stood huddled in 45-degree weather waiting for fireworks to make sparkling designs in the air, signaling the beginning of the first [Las Vegas] marathon to cover the strip. We were a group of people who had unanimously agreed to face the physical and psychological challenges of the next hours. Some ran barefoot, others ran in Elvis costumes. ...
- The men who shaped Britain: Bill Haley, Elvis Presley and Tony Blair rock satar
By Daniel Finkelstein
(Times Online, January 17 2006)
CAT STEVENS has been back into the studio and is ready to release his first new album for almost 30 years. Good news. I like the music of Cat Stevens - Teaser and the Firecat, Tea for the Tillerman and all that. Sheikh Ibrahim Mogra, chairman of the Muslim Council of Britain;s mosque and community affairs committee, does not share my reaction. Cat Stevens has spent much of the last three decades as Yusuf Islam, a leading British Muslim and the sheikh is concerned about his recording activity. "My personal view," said Mogra, "is that the only music that should be permitted is the voice and the drum." ... You do not have to concur with the sheikh that pop music should be forbidden because it "has many associations with dance, nudity and taking drugs" to agree that rock music has profoundly changed our culture. In both good and bad ways rock music has helped to shape the modern era.
Tomorrow Channel 4 will be screening Tony Blair Rock Star, a "documentary" recording the Prime Minister's teenage enthusiasm for rock music and his desire to make a living in the pop industry. I've placed the word documentary in inverted commas because straight, and reasonably fair, interviews with Mr Blair's contemporaries are intercut with an impersonation of him as a teenager designed to make him look entirely ridiculous. The drama sections are comic fantasy, only loosely related to the evidence the film makers collected. The aim is to belittle the Prime Minister. As Channel 4 put it: "Blair is portrayed as fame-obsessed, someone who had no interest in politics but forever craved the limelight." The comedy element in the film was diverting, but was also a shame. Far from being ludicrous, Tony Blair's attraction to the music and the glamour of the rock world is a central reason why he has been such a great political success and understands so well the country he is leading. A really worthwhile documentary would have made this its subject.
Tony Blair was born in May 1953. That summer a truck driver called Elvis Presley dropped into the Memphis Recording Studios to make his first record - a birthday present for his mother. The next year Alan Freed, a New York DJ, appropriated black slang for sexual intercourse and popularised the term "rock and roll". Throughout Blair's childhood, the popularity of American "sexy music" (as the Daily Mail termed it) continued to rise. In 1956 a film based on Bill Haley's hit Rock Around the Clock caused riots in some cinemas. Yet this American invasion was only the beginning of the rock revolution. In the early 1960s, two significant changes took place. The first was the shift away from professionalism. It was an important moment when, in late 1962, the Beatles rejected a tune by a jobbing songwriter in favour of releasing one of their own compositions as their first record. The rest of the decade saw the development of what critic Ian MacDonald calls "The People's Music", in which the slick acts of people like Haley and Presley were supplanted by a democratic, chaotic freedom in which anyone could perform. ...
- Galloway dominates the airwaves
(BBC News, January 17 2006)
Not content on appearing on one TV show, George Galloway popped up on two as he took part in a quiz on Richard and Judy's teatime programme. The MP and Celebrity Big Brother contestant won £140 in shopping for his housemates in the game. It was his first contact with the outside world since entering the house. But he was not told he had been probed - and cleared of any wrong-doing - in signing motions put before the Commons during his time on Big Brother. ... On the Big Brother show itself, Mr Galloway has danced to Great Balls of Fire wearing an Elvis wig, sideburns and a leather jacket. ... Last week he was branded a "laughing stock" by a Labour member of the London Assembly after pretending to be a cat in another of the show's tasks.
George Galloway has sung in an Elvis wig on Big Brother
- 'Housewives,' daring moms scoop Globe TV awards
By Cynthia Littleton
(Yahoo! News / Hollywood Reporter, January 17 2006)
"Desperate Housewives" had the last laugh Monday as the ABC hit took home its second consecutive Golden Globe trophy for best comedy series. ... Jonathan Rhys Meyers took home the trophy for lead actor in a movie or miniseries for his portrayal of Elvis Presley in the CBS miniseries "Elvis." ...
- Magistrate closes rape case against French rock star
(Yahoo! News / AFP, January 17 2006)
A French magistrate formally closed a rape case against the country's biggest rock star, Johnny Hallyday, after prosecutors found a lack of evidence to prove the charge. A hostess on Hallyday's yacht, Marie-Christine Vo, 36, accused the 62-year-old singer of raping her after a drunken party two years earlier. Hallyday, who has a 40-year career in rock music and was once called the French Elvis Presley, has always denied the allegation. ...
- Go, go Johnny go - but to Belgium?
By Kim Willsher in Paris and Justin Stares in Brussels
(Telegraph, January 15 2006)
Disbelieving French fans have accused the country's ageing national pop icon, Johnny Halliday, of betrayal following the revelation that he has applied to become a Belgian. News that the 62-year-old singer known as the "French Elvis" is seeking to become a citizen of France's small neighbour has been greeted with widespread astonishment.
Bad enough that Hallyday should consider turning his back on the country which has taken him to its heart - much worse that he should turn instead to the nation which is the butt of more Gallic jokes than any other.
... Cynics have suggested there might be financial reasons behind the decision: unlike France, Belgium does not impose a wealth tax on its citizens. However, friends say the reasons are more Freudian than fiscal, especially as Hallyday has said he will continue to live and pay taxes in France. Carols Gomez, chief culture editor for the newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche, who interviewed Hallyday a fortnight ago, said the singer wanted to return to his roots. "He's become a father second time around and this has made him feel instinctively more attached to his own late father," he said. "Everyone knew Johnny was half Belgian anyway. His friends call him 'Le Gros Belge' (The Fat Belgian)."
- Investors and Art Lovers Putting a Face and Value on Verdult
(PRWeb, January 17 2006)
The Official Biography of William Verdult, "the Dutch Master", one of a very few American master artists alive today, helps art lovers and investors solve a problem by putting a face and value on Verdult's work. Collectors of Verdult's work include: Frank Sinatra, Paul Newman, Elvis Presley, Jack Lord, Farrah Fawcett, Telly Savalas, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Lee Majors, Alfred Hitchcock, Tom Jones, Kim Novak, Robert Redford, Dana Mark of 'Police Academy', Connie Francis, John Wayne, Red Skeleton, and Clint Eastwood. ... The Official Biography of William Verdult provides art lovers and investors with a museum quality presentation of Verdult's life, and work as an artist and philanthropist. The biography chronicles his birth in Putte, Netherlands. It lists his early years and bouts with smallpox and rheumatic fever; his immigration to America, growing up in the Dakotas and New York, his movement to California; his fast start in the 1960s and the culmination of 20 years of work with his gold, diamond, and gem laden Tut Treasures. Along the way, highlights of his exhibits and Galleries, commendations by governors, university presidents, international acclaim, philanthropic work and involvement in the Make A Wish Foundation is presented. ... After 20 years of work he completed his 53 piece gold, diamonds and gem laden King Tut Treasures exhibited at the Sahara, Sands, Sundance and Marina hotels in Las Vegas ...
- 'American Idol' backers nervously wait in the wings
By David Lieberman
(USA TODAY, January 16 2006)
Sweat will pour from lots of brows tonight as American Idol begins its fifth season. We're talking about executives at the companies behind the hit talent show, not the new crop of singers vying for a chance to become a superstar. Several deals cut over the last few months dramatically raised the financial stakes for the businesses that make up American Idol Inc. ... "Now that American Idol's longevity is guaranteed, we have been able to focus on long-term initiatives," says CKX chief Robert F.X. Sillerman. ... CKX, which also licenses Elvis Presley, plans some corporate synergy. "Elvis will be making an appearance on this year's series " Sillerman says. ...
- Saved by Elvis
By Emma Garrard
(North Lake Tahoe Bonanza, January 15 2006)
After spending the holidays in my home state of Alaska, I returned to the Bonanza to have my best week as yet as the staff photographer. I got to cross-country ski (one of my favorite activities) at Spooner Summit - as well as shoot a Living section about it; ride in a helicopter for the first time ever while covering the power outages; and head up to Mt. Rose to cover Elvis Day.
What's better than Elvis on skis? Even before the day began, I knew it would be the highlight of my season. After a few warm-up runs, the Elvises took me down the notorious Chutes, which I hadn't ridden before. I thought the steep faces were great, comparable to the North Face at Mt. Alyeska in Alaska. I was as impressed with the Elvises' skiing ability as their costumes and had a hard time keeping up - but they were nice enough to wait for me to make my turns. On a mid-morning chairlift ride to the summit with "Telvis" (Elvis on Telemark Skis), the expert skier turned to me and said: "This is the first time in eight years I haven't worn a helmet," He said as he patted his pompador wig. "I hope the spirit of the King is with me."
Descending the Chutes a second time, I forget I wasn't as proficient on my telemark skis as my snowboard. I was struggling to make quick turns on the steep slope. The next thing I remember, I caught an edge and started to tumble. I let go of my poles first, then one of my skis popped off - I was struggling and falling down the 1,500-foot hill at least a 45-degree angle. Eventually I stopped and immediately felt pain in my left leg, especially when I put weight on it. The Elvises saw what had happened and came to my rescue, helping me down the rest of the way before Ski Patrol put me in a sled. The Mt. Rose First Aid station gave me a quick assessment and soon I was on my way to the ER. It was there I found out that my season basically began, and ended, with Elvis and a partially torn Achilles. As a reminder, I now have this really cool boot I get to wear for the next month or so. I will still be working, but perhaps a little slower than usual. So, if I take your photo, be kind like the Elvises, and give me a little extra time to catch up and get your name. Next year I will wear an Elvis costume, maybe then the spirit of the King will be with me.
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