Elvis – Favourite Songs (Introduction)
This is appropriately “published” at Christmas, that’s 2024, with Elvis singing loads of songs about that celebration. Titles coming to mind are Santa Claus is Back in Town, White Christmas, Blue Christmas, O Little Town of Bethlehem, I’ll be Home for Christmas, and Here Comes Santa Claus. Clearly Elvis had a religious upbringing attending the Assembly of God Church in Tupelo, Mississippi, the music and the preaching staying with him for his life.
OK, I’ll make an exciting start! A Little Less Conversation! Plug a quarter in the jukebox! Put another nickel in the nickelodeon! I’m in the groove on this. Music to
my ears! Crooning’s the word, isn’t it? The man with the velvet voice, the man they called “The King”. Look at that, started already! I know I’ve got to choose just
one song, one of his greatest songs, surely, among the many wonderful songs – you can just hear them the moment you say the title, or a line in it, singing it if you have a
voice and if you don’t have a voice … you just try it, you have to imitate, just humming, so memorable, you can hear it all flooding back in that magical mix of
words, cadence, meaning and music.
It was from so long ago, probably on the radio, or the wireless as it was back then, the first time you heard the song, you remember not only the song, you remember where
you were each time you heard it out there in the world – at a dance, in a caff, at somebody’s house on your fab new Phillips record player. My first hearing Elvis was on a big old wireless full of valves and a big battery – we lived up in the hills of North-East Scotland, and there was no electricity!
Nowadays of course many Elvis hits have become standards, great music played everywhere. I don’t mind that, as long as it’s not too loud and can still
hear yourself think, just the song playing softly over the air – ah, there it is, the song playing gently on my mind … here we go:
“It’s now or never, come hold me tight …”
One of his greatest, well to me anyway. I also have poignant memories of Love me Tender or I Can’t Stop Loving You, the old Don Gibson song, a big hit for Ray
Charles. You hear these songs and you recall fondly perhaps with a tear in the eye being in someone’s arms, the moment of love, the expressions on their face and Elvis
crooning, “That’s the wonder, the wonder of you,” or “Are you lonesome tonight?” or “You’re so square, Baby I don’t care!”. Well, maybe not that one. But with the likes
of “Please don’t stop loving me, You were born just to be in my arms,” the words almost whispered as if to you, up close, held, loved, at peace, gone to heaven, in total
bliss.
“Love me tender, love me sweet
Never let me go
You have made my life complete
And I love you so.”
Many a young lass must have imagined Elvis was singing to them. Love Me Tender was one of the few songs written by Elvis. It was also the first and instant choice when I asked for an Elvis song from the pop-song musician playing at our local market one Saturday morning on Feb.22, 2021. He also told me that Elvis sang a lot of songs just for the money because he loved money.
Then there’s Wooden Heart, originally a German folksong. The bread seller at our market, Pieter from Germany a long time ago, told me that it was “Muss I Denn” a popular song with Germans when hiking, singing along together, especially school groups all walking in tune to:
“Must I then, must I then
From the village, must I then
And thou, my dear, stay here?”
In the Elvis hit after the lilting accordion intro it became:
“Can’t you see I love you,
Please don’t break my heart in two,
That’s not hard to do,
Coz I don’t have a wooden heart.”
And actually Elvis breaks into the German of “Muss I denn”, a nod to the original. Pieter also told me that a German pop star some years ago stole a tune and words from some earlier song, and claimed that he’d written it. “Oh je!” Oh dear!
OK, it’s way over time we had your favourite Elvis songs. More from me at the end!
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Conclusion … yeh, me again!
OK, enough of this encomium on Elvis and his songs, but I could sing his praises for ever, so to speak or sing! Just to finish with another song from me – it’s my rave after all! This is not by Elvis but it’s got a great imitation of him in it – it’s “Donald where’s your troosers” written and sung by Scotland’s Andy Stewart. It’s about a young Scots lad wearing his kilt, as he sings for fun in a strong Scots accent:
“I just come down from the Isle of Skye,
and the ladies they all say to me,
‘Donald whaur’s yer Troosers?’”
Then halfway through, Andy Stewart breaks off singing and talks to us, musing on how Elvis would have sung the same, and he does a great imitation of Elvis swivelling his hips, very funny with the kilt on, going in typical Elvis breathy fashion:
“Oh, Donal’, oh, Donal’, Donal’, Donal’ where’s your trousers?”
What? What you say? Better if I could sing better. Well, that’s most appreciative of you. Actually, not quite the end, I forgot something. I’m going to finish by saying that a few people kindly replied to my Elvis song request by saying that they didn’t have an Elvis favourite because they didn’t know any. Well, Elvis would have sung to that! One thing was I had to be careful who I asked for a favourite Elvis, I well know you can’t expect everyone to love what you love. Still, must say I wonder how they missed hearing The King. Maybe supermarkets don’t play him! Maybe the people I asked were into other stuff, didn’t listen to the radio, didn’t read papers or magazines, didn’t watch likes of “Ready, Steady, Go!” or the “Ed Sullivan Show” in the ’60s and ’70s.. Must say I was more than a bit all shook up when I got so many … four people! They probably missed out on the Beatles, too! Actually one of the “Elvis missers” wrote again to say:
“As a teenager I liked his song Wooden Heart !! Not so much that I’m not a fan … I just listened to other stuff.” There it is, doing other stuff, possibly a bit more highbrow, possibly like the elderly couple I sat beside a few years ago in a cinema showing the Monty Python film of their live reunion stage show, “Monty Python Live (Mostly)” … they asked me what this film was going to be about. I asked them where they’d been for the past 50 years. They said something about living in a third-world country in the desert in a closed religious commune. No, no, I’m making that up, but it could just as easily apply to Elvis missers.
You know, I reckon that Elvis is one of the few singers you could turn off, and still have the pleasure of looking at him, looking at pure good looks, a beautiful man, at least in the 1960s, not so sure about him after he got addicted to pizza and drugs.
Here’s something I just thought of … Yeh, Got my Mojo Working! I just thought or remembered Elvis had an identical twin brother but he was stillborn 35 minutes before him, imagine his mum’s horror then delight that he survived. Imagine if there had been two “Elvises”! Elvis’s parents were members of an Assembly of God church, linked to Pentecostalism, believing in receiving the spirit of God …. I often wonder how his parents handled their son’s crazy, wild and sexual swivel-hipped singing, I suppose the gospel songs were all right. Reminds me that Jerry Lee Lewis also had difficulties in a religious family, his mother sending him to the Southwest Bible Institute where he would have to sing only evangelical songs but the rebellious Jerry Lee got himself expelled because he did a boogie version of a hymn. Daring and different from an early age!
Elvis, The King, he’s always on my mind! Every time I hear him sing I can’t help falling in love with his voice, I simply get all shook up with a kind of burning love, something so searing I can’t patch it up, and I’m left with a suspicious mind. I tell myself just pretend but it’s too much trouble. I know though if I can dream, the memories may hurt but I’ll be pledging my love for The King. He’ll have to go, he’s just a hound dog, it’s now or never, return to sender!
Who wrote the Elvis songs? What musical poets found the inspiration to give the world such aural delights? Well, Google turned up a Top Ten, based on the number of big hits they wrote for him. Leiber and Stoller came in Number One with hits like Jailhouse Rock and Hound Dog. Aaron Schroeder was Number Two, the writer of It’s Now or Never and Good Luck Charm. At Number Ten was Florence Kaye, the only female writer, equal with Ben Weisman. Kaye wrote in a team with two others. Weisman’s biggest song was Frankie and Johnny.
And my favourite Elvis song? All of the great selection above, but if have to choose one, maybe Broken Heart … and Blue Suede Shoes … and It’s Now or Never. Then there’s Suspicious Minds!
One final choice: Can’t Help Falling in Love With You. Yeh, great lyrics!
Nothing like a joke to go out on: What did the one-legged Rock’n’Roller sing? You got it! “Don’t ya step on my blue suede shoe.” Yeh, that’s nothing like a joke!
One last point: I was going to include famous singers here who covered Elvis songs, also the favourite Elvis songs of celebrities, but I think I wisely resisted this because anyone can access that kind of thing on Google. They can’t get the information and stories here provided by my close friends, acquaintances and various Elvis lovers. This is unique!
OK, time to stop this and let others make their favourite choices and tell their stories of first hearing The King. or later in life.