early November
- Rolling Stone Lists the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time
By Brad Laidman
(blogcritics.org, November 16 2008)
Lists are an inane waste of time and perhaps the most obvious piece of evidence that someone doesn't have anything new to say, but I can't help it - I love them. Rolling Stone, having recently downsized its format to better look exactly like Blender, just named their "100 Greatest Singers of All Time" and in response, I'm just dying to weigh in with my own thoughts.
Now when it comes to "all time," Rolling Stone seems to have forgotten that the world was invented slightly before Elvis showed up on the Ed Sullivan Show. So since neither Frank Sinatra nor Enrico Caruso appear on Rolling Stone's list, we'll assume that what they meant was the greatest singers of the rock era.
Before we start, let's acknowledge that this is pretty much an impossible task. Exactly how do you compare the instrument that Aretha Franklin was born with to the one that Bob Dylan has been lugging around for the past 50 years? How many points do you get for being an entertaining front man? Can I pop Roger Daltrey up a few slots for his mesmerizing microphone hurling?
Personally, I give a lot of points for showmanship, but in my mind singing is all about conveying emotion, which means that I'll take Kurt Cobain's gut-wrenching screams over Patti Labelle and Michael Bolton's stale vocal acrobatics every day of the week.
Number 1 Reason That the Rolling Stone List Sucks: Uh, dudes - where the hell is Levi Stubbs? You know the amazing leader of the Four Tops, the one that was just all over the news! Stubbs should have been in the top 20 and whoever forgot that he existed needs to be immediately shot.
The List
1. Aretha Franklin
Aretha's usually a consensus choice in these things, but despite the fact that she has a nuclear powered howitzer inside of her, she wouldn't be number one on my list. She's fantastic, but she never really surprises me. She just always sounds like Aretha, not that there's much wrong with that. Points deducted for continually appearing in dresses that expose more up top than Dolly Parton does when she showers. Points added for once subbing on an opera tune for an ailing Luciano Pavarotti with no rehearsal.
2. Ray Charles
He's the bomb, but he has to be faulted for some of the schmaltz that he somehow constantly seemed too fond of or at least was intent on putting up with to please a middle of the road audience. Listen to Charles' "You Don't Know Me" and you'll hear both. Ray ripping up a heartbreaking vocal, while for some reason being backed up by singers straight out of the Perry Como orchestra.
3. Elvis Presley
Number one for me and no one else comes close. Ignore for a second that Presley was the most beautiful human being of all time and that he was easily the most electric performer ever, Elvis in his prime could sing anything (rock, opera, metal, soul, blues, country no problem). All the wonks will tell you he did his best work at Sun, but for me his immense '50s RCA output is so explosive that it puts everyone else to shame. It's not just that Elvis had an amazing instrument, no one ever had so much fun putting it to use. Whirling back and forth from low to high, from raspy to angelically pretty, the only singer ever that could take any song and transform it into something that sounded like it came from somewhere else a galaxy or too away. ...
- Aretha Franklin tops singer poll
(star-ecentral.com, November 17 2008)
Soul legend Aretha Franklin has been named the greatest singer of the rock era in a new poll by Rolling Stone. Ray Charles came in second, while Elvis Presley and Sam Cooke are in third and fourth places respectively. Other music legends in the top ten include John Lennon, Marvin Gaye and Bob Dylan.
- Nakheel's Miami Resort Reopens
(khaleejtimes.com, November 15 2008)
The legendary Fontainebleau Miami Beach resort, half owned by Nakheel Hotels, was all set for its reopening late on Friday night.
Once playground to Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra, a new generation of VIPs will pick up where the legends left off.
The hotel is open to public from Sunday. Nakheel, a member of Dubai World, paid $375 million for a 50 per cent stake in the resort in April. The renovation of the resort took three years and cost $1 billion. Additions to the hotel include two towers and a 40,000 square feet spa. Sunday's Khaleej Times will carry coverage of the resort's opening.
- Elvis mystery solved!
By Jason George
(Chicago Tribune, November 12 2008)
The whereabouts of Presley's girlfriend who was at the world's first superstar jam session went unknown for decades. Until now.
On Dec. 4, 1956, Marilyn Evans entered--and exited--rock 'n' roll history. That was the day Elvis Presley stopped by Memphis' Sun Studio and recorded an impromptu session with Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis. Historians have long believed Evans was there too because she was dating Presley then and a voice assumed to be hers appears on the recording. Also, a local newspaper photographer captured an image of the brunet alongside the famous foursome, which the paper dubbed the Million Dollar Quartet.
"That lovely creature sitting on top of the piano," the caption for the photo read in the next day's newspaper, is "Marilyn Evans, who dances at the New Frontier in Las Vegas. She is Elvis' house guest thru Friday."
Unlike some other Elvis exes, Evans didn't make a career out of her companionship with The King, and Elvis enthusiasts have long wondered what happened to her after her week in Memphis. Colin Escott, a music historian and co-author of the play "Million Dollar Quartet," now playing at Chicago's Apollo Theater, has called her the "the least known of Elvis' girlfriends," which was true.
Until today.
Two weeks ago, the Tribune ran a story about the missing-girlfriend mystery, explaining why the "Million Dollar Quartet" show features a fictitious Elvis girlfriend, "Dyanne."
"Given that lawyers govern everything these days, they said, if you don't know where [Evans] is, [then] we had to create a fictitious character," Escott said at the time. As it happens, Evans, now Marilyn Knowles-Riehl, 71, saw the article and contacted the Tribune. For 52 years she has hidden in plain sight, a living, missing link to one of America's most magical music moments.
Here is her story.
When a promoter called Marilyn Evans in summer 1956 and asked her to join the chorus line at Las Vegas' New Frontier Casino, she could hardly contain herself--this teenager from Fresno, Calif., lived to dance. "I thought it was probably the most sophisticated thing that had ever happened in the whole world," she said last week with an easy laugh. She came to a Las Vegas in its infancy, a relatively innocent place, where the dancers enjoyed good pay--$135 a week--sports cars and soirées with such headliners as Mickey Rooney and George Chakiris.
"It was just very exciting: two shows a night, seven days a week," she said. "I was loving it." Between shows, the dancers would gather in an employees-only coffee shop within the casino. It was there that Elvis walked in one night and sat at their table. "Wow," Evans thought. "He's beautiful -- really, truly."
Within an hour, Elvis had slipped Evans a scrawled note on the back of a napkin. It read: "Can I have a date with you tomorrow night or before I leave?" Evans nodded in excitement and shock. "He called backstage that night, set a time," she remembered.
And so, for the next couple of weeks she and Elvis explored Las Vegas, driving around, hanging out and walking through the casinos. (Neither enjoyed gambling, she said.) Asked why he picked her, she giggles and shrugs. "I think he probably liked that I wasn't 'out there.' I was respectable," she said. "I still am respectable, you know!"
And what did this respectable teenager's parents think about her dating Parental Enemy No. 1?
Evans' father had died when she was in high school, but to head off any trouble she wrote her mother a letter that began, "Don't flip, mama, but I've become acquainted with Elvis Presley."
Momma did flip, a little; that is, until Evans put the young star on the phone.
"He seems like a very nice person," her mom, L.E. Evans, informed The Fresno Bee in December 1956, after word of the relationship leaked. "Elvis told Marilyn he likes her because she doesn't act like a show girl, because she's real."
Like Evans, Elvis too was performing at the New Frontier--his first Vegas engagement--but when he left, the couple kept in touch by telephone. Then one day, he called Evans and asked her to come visit and stay at his Memphis home.
She said yes.
And so, 52 years later, what does she remember most about the house? "I remember that phone just rang and nobody answered, which was odd." In Memphis, Elvis and Evans spent their days riding motorcycles, going out to eat and watching rented movies at Elvis' house, a luxury the girl from Fresno could hardly believe.
"He was relaxed. He was comfortable there," Knowles-Riehl recalled. And at night she slept ...
"... not with him."
"He was extremely honorable. He was young; I was young."
On Dec. 4, 1956, the couple, along with some of Elvis' friends, cruised around Memphis, as usual. But on this day Elvis stopped at Sun, where he had made his first record only three years prior. It was there, over the next few hours, that fate (and a tape recorder) would allow a rare glimpse of the musical passions of these four future legends, as they jammed on gospel, country and blues. It was a seminal session of rock 'n' roll's origins ... and one that Knowles-Riehl barely recalls.
"I remember that outfit I was wearing was all wool," she said with a shrug of apology. "A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then."
The fact that the session meant so little to her might help explain why she said she felt fine when the relationship faded a few weeks later.
"I always preferred classical music," she explained. "We were just into different things, not that one's better than the other."
"It was great, I loved it, it was terrifically exciting and wonderful, but I had other things I wanted to do," said Knowles-Riehl who, the next year, began attending the University of Utah.
Asked why she never broadcast her brush with stardom, Knowles-Riehl said she never thought it among her life's highlights. Instead she prefers to gush about her two husbands -- her first died -- her son and a dancing career that includes 13 years as the director of the Fresno Ballet.
"It's like people whose high point of their life is their senior prom," she explained. "My senior prom was good, but a lot of stuff has happened that's been great since then." Such as ...
"When it's not driving me crazy, I enjoy genealogy," said Knowles-Riehl, who divides her time between Carmel, Calif., and Salt Lake City.
She also continues to dance--thanks to the fitness of a 40-year-old-- and she runs her own belly dancing troupe.
"It's pretty much the opposite of all my training, but I love it," she said. Until last week, Knowles-Riehl had never listened to the recording session from that day in Memphis. But when she did, she quickly nixed the popular theory that she's the one who requested the song "Farther Along."
"That's not me," she said, as the female voice on the recording speaks with an obvious drawl.
"I wouldn't pick up a Southern accent that fast," she said, chuckling.
And yet, in listening to the rest of the album from that day's session Knowles-Riehl stumbled upon another female voice, this one requesting "End of the Road." "That's me," she said, as her wide brown eyes grew wider.
"It's like otherworldly," she said of hearing herself, "out of body."
With the headphones still on, Knowles-Riehl appeared in that moment as she does in the '56 photograph: Her face bright and blushing, wondering how could it possibly get any better than this.
Marilyn Knowles-Riehl (left) is the mystery woman seated on the piano in the Million Dollar Quartet photo (right) from 1956. She was Elvis' girlfriend at the time and was there in Sun Studios at the legendary 1956 jam session of Jerry Lee Lewis (from left), Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash. In fact, her voice is heard on the historic recording.
(Tribune photo by Jason George/Photo from Michael Ochs Archives)
- The "Kid and the King" takes readers on a musical journey
(book announcement)
By MICHELE MARCOTTE
(The Daily Sentinel, November 8 2008)
Norman Johnson can describe his first encounter with Elvis Presley to a 'T.'
It was a Wednesday afternoon in 1955, and Elvis, a little "scruffy and awkward," stood near an "old beat up Buick" with his two band members Scotty Moore and Bill Black at the Gladewater venue, Mint Club. As the three young men unloaded the equipment they planned to use later that night at their show, Johnson, then 14, offered to assist.
"(Elvis) said, 'Kid, grab that box right there in the trunk,'" Johnson said Thursday from his Elvis-memorabilia-clad home. When he asked Elvis what the box contained, Johnson got a welcome surprise, as it was filled with the trio's first batch of promotional photographs. Johnson immediately asked Elvis if he could have one, but still being a struggling musician on the road, Elvis replied, "I really hate to have to charge you, but I have to pay for the picture."
Johnson said he understood and paid Elvis 25 cents for the black and white glossy that he believes was the first promotional photograph Elvis signed. He still has the photo, and keeps a framed copy above his desk at home.
While Johnson, a performer himself, was unable to attend that evening's performance - being too young to get into the Mint Club - he went on to see Elvis many more times in venues across East Texas and western Louisiana, many of which are documented in his recent autobiography "The Kid and the King."
"The Kid and the King" takes readers on a journey through East Texas' musical history, and documents the early careers of some of country music's most illustrious performers of the 1940s, '50s and '60s, as well as, the performance career of the "kid" - the name the King of Rock 'n' Roll gave Johnson on their first encounter.
The kid performed across the Ark-La-Tex region, often mirroring the moves and styles he witnessed Elvis do. "When I found out girls liked Elvis so much, (I thought) well, what if I tried to do Elvis," he said. "So, I (did covers) of a couple songs and the girls just loved it."
Johnson coins himself as the first Elvis impersonator, and at a special book signing on Nov. 15, he will do his impersonation for the first time in 54 years. The book signing, scheduled for 1 to 5 p.m. at Hastings, will be different than any other signing Nacogdoches has experienced, Johnson said.
The event will include a handful of special guests, including Casey Monahan, director of the Texas Music Office for the Office of the Governor, Elvis impersonator Asa Landrey and a surprise visitor who was mentioned in the book. There will also be a Q & A session with Johnson, an Elvis trivia quiz for prizes and the official chamber of commerce ribbon cutting ceremony for Johnson's company, A Lill Nacogdoches Company.
"The Kid and the King" is currently available at Hastings for $30, and includes a 78-minute oral history with Johnson and Danny Merrell, an East Texas radio host. For more information on the book signing or Johnson's autobiography, visit www.normanjohnson.net/elvis.
- Feds again reducing counts against top pathologist
(news.yahoo.com, November 7 2008)
Federal prosecutors in Pittsburgh are seeking to drop more than half the counts against celebrity pathologist Cyril Wecht before his retrial, saying it will make the case easier on the jury they hope will convict him.
Prosecutors say Wecht, the former Allegheny County coroner, used government staff and equipment to benefit his lucrative private practice. The forensic expert has used the practice to investigate famous deaths, including those of child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey, Clinton White House deputy counsel Vince Foster and Elvis Presley.
Wecht was originally indicted on 84 theft- and fraud-related counts.
Prosecutors dismissed 43 of the counts to "streamline" the complicated case before the first trial. Jurors heard seven weeks of testimony and then deliberated for more than 50 hours over 11 days, but they could not agree on a verdict and a mistrial was declared in April. ...
- `Blue Hawaii' is no longer just an old Elvis movie
By MARK NIESSE
(news.yahoo.com / Associated Press, November 7 2008)
Among the blue states that delivered the White House to President-elect Obama, one truly lived up to its marquee billing in the 1961 Elvis Presley musical "Blue Hawaii." Hawaii voters backed island-born Obama more than any other state, giving him 72 percent of the vote. And Democrats also made gains at the state Capitol, where they now control nearly 90 percent of the Legislature. "We're certainly the most Obama state in the country," said Chuck Freedman, a state Democratic Party official. "There's no denying that he has roots and connections here. People were really excited about getting on board."
Nationally, Obama got 52 percent of the vote. His sweep of Hawaii was exceeded only by the predominantly black District of Columbia, where he captured 93 percent of the vote. Hawaii has no racial majority and only 3 percent of its population is African-American. Hawaii voters said they identified with Obama because he spent much of his childhood in Honolulu, and because his talk of diversity resonates with the islands' residents. ... Obama's closest blood relative in Hawaii is his sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, who teaches U.S. history at La Pietra Hawaii School for Girls in Honolulu. His 86-year-old grandmother, Madelyn Payne Dunham, died of cancer two nights before the election. She had been living in the same 10th-floor Honolulu apartment where Obama grew up.
- A Young 'Prince Charming' Crowned as Bhutan's New King
(FOXNews.com, November 6 2008)
Bhutan — Bhutan on Thursday crowned a Western-educated bachelor with the good looks of a young Elvis Presley and an easy charm with his people — the first king to lead the country since its transformation to democracy.
In a solemn ceremony laced with sacred Buddhist rituals, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, 52, Bhutan's much-loved monarch formalized his abdication and placed the Raven Crown on the head of his 28-year-old son, Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck.
The coronation ceremony, which took place at the precise hour appointed by astrologers, was the last step in a process that saw the elder Wangchuck reform the isolated Himalayan nation from a closed-off absolute monarchy to a democracy with his heir at the helm.
However, with the monarchy idolized by much of the population, his influence will be paramount. "If we have democracy it is because the kings gave it to us," said Jigme Thinely, Bhutan's first democratically elected prime minister. "The king will be the force that ensures the long term stability and resilience of democracy," he told reporters Wednesday ahead of the coronation.
- Perkins, Elvis, Cash and Lewis Are Chicago's Hot 'Million Dollar Quartet'
(news.yahoo.com, November 5 2008)
Performances at Goodman's Owen Theatre played Sept. 27-Oct. 26; the production was technically a rental, not part of the Goodman's resident season. Tickets for the Apollo run are on sale through Jan. 4, 2009.
Million Dollar Quartet had its world premiere at Florida's Seaside Music Theatre, and was subsequently staged at the Village Theatre in Washington state, breaking box-office records. Critics have embraced the show, which is driven by period pop numbers including "Blue Suede Shoes," "Fever," "Sixteen Tons," "Who Do You Love?," "Great Balls of Fire," "Ghost Riders in the Sky" and "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On."
Directed by Eric Schaeffer (Broadway's Glory Days, Putting It Together, London's Witches of Eastwick) and Floyd Mutrux with a book by Mutrux and Colin Escott, Million Dollar Quartet is produced by Dee Gee Theatricals and John Cossette Productions.
Here's how producers characterize the experience: "On Dec. 4, 1956, an auspicious twist of fate brought Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley together. The place was Sun Records' storefront studio in Memphis. The man who made it happen was Sam Phillips, the 'Father of Rock 'n' Roll,' who discovered them all. The four legends-to-be united for the only time in their careers for an impromptu recording that has come to be known as one of the greatest rock jam sessions of all time." ...
- Elvis Presley Makes Ghoulish Headlines
(news.yahoo.com / Associated Press, October 29 2008)
More than three decades after his death, Elvis Presley is still making an impact from beyond the cemetery with his specter raised in three different news stories just days before Halloween.
- The owners of Endsley Funeral Home in Bartonville, Ill., celebrated the business' 80th anniversary with a crypt-ic party: An Elvis impersonator sang songs and danced at an open house that featured a replica of the 650-pound casket that houses the King's remains. Approximately 300 people joined the moody-blue party.
- Million Dollar Quartet, a theatrical project showing in Chicago, recounts the famous 1956 recording session in which Sun labelmates Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins gathered round a piano for an off-the-cuff sing-along. The show's back story is bathed in eery mystery: Elvis showed up that day with a girlfriend believed to be named Marilyn Evans. According to The Chicago Tribune, the woman - unlike the King's other exes - never stepped forward publicly, and her true identity and whereabouts remain lost to history.
- Forbes named Elvis the Top-Earning Dead Celebrity, having generated an estimated $52 million in the 12 months from October 2007 to October 2008. Among the 13 names on the list are such figures as John Lennon, Heath Ledger, Marilyn Monroe and Marvin Gaye. One name that's disappeared from the annual chart is the Man in Black: Johnny Cash.
|
