April 18, 2002

Elvis bedroom furniture debuts
   (Memphis Business Journals) 

For those who've always wanted to sleep with the King, a Virginia furniture company is launching Elvis Presley bedroom furniture. 


Vaughn-Bassett Furniture unveiled its products Thursday at a furniture trade show in North Carolina. 


There's the Graceland series and the Elvis Presley Hollywood series, depending on tastes. Signature pieces include the "Love Me Tender" bed and the "Burning Love" heart-shaped mirror. 


This August 16 marks the 25th anniversary of the singer's death, in Memphis. 

April 17, 2002
Fan prepares for Elvis convention in Green Tree 
By Tim McNellie  (Bridgeville Star) 


To hundreds of Elvis Presley fans, the road to Graceland runs through Pittsburgh. Or more specifically, through Priscilla Parker's living room. 

As president of the We Remember Elvis Fan Club, the largest Elvis appreciation group in the United States with 900 members, Parker's phone is constantly ringing with inquiries about which are the best hotels in Memphis, where to get concert tickets and whether Elvis is dead or alive. 

"This is like a tourist service to some people," her husband Don says. 

But Priscilla doesn't mind lending a helping hand. (And yes, Priscilla Parker is her real name. That her home is on Tennessee Avenue in Dormont is also coincidental).

"When I made my first trip to Memphis, I wish somebody was there to help," she says. 

But rather than Graceland, she has been guiding Elvis fans to Green Tree in recent weeks, to the 21st Annual We Remember Elvis Spring Festival, scheduled for Friday, April 26, and Saturday, April 27, at the Green Tree Holiday Inn. 

The event benefits the Elvis Aaron Presley Visiting Fellowship at Western Pennsylvania Hospital's burn and trauma unit, which the club established in 1989. Since then, We Remember has paid for 18 doctors from around the world to study at the Western Penn's burn center. 

This year's festival features Patsy Anderson, fan relations manager of Elvis Presley Enterprises, who will speak on the state of Elvis' estate. A dinner on Saturday (peanut butter and banana sandwiches are not on the menu, unfortunately) will be followed with a performance by Elvis impersonator Randy Galioto. 

Elvis' former Army commander, Col. Bill Taylor, also will be speaking.

Visitors are asked to bring canned and perishable items for a food collection to benefit St. Paul of the Cross Monastery's Food Bank.

With 900 members, "We Remember" is the largest of the more than 600 Elvis clubs in the United States, Parker says. "We Remember" includes members from places as far-reaching at Sri Lanka, Poland, Romania, England, Japan and Australia. 

One woman from Iraq recently inquired about joining. 

"Elvis is known around the world," Priscilla says. "You just have to say his first name, and everybody knows who you're talking about."

The club dates back to 1982, when another Elvis club Priscilla belonged to was on the verge of folding. Priscilla kept the club alive, changing the name, and giving it a new, but very Elvis-like mission - raising money for charity.

"We say that we're taking care of business with tender loving care," Priscilla says with a laugh, invoking two of the King's trademark phrases.

Working for charity is in keeping with the way Elvis lived his life, Priscilla says.

Elvis was often noted for his charitable acts, like buying Cadillacs for strangers and paying bills for the needy.

Priscilla tells a story that she heard from a old woman in a Memphis flower shop:

Elvis' limousine was broken down on the side of the road one day when a motorist stopped to help. The driver was under the hood working when the man offered his assistance. Without knowing that it was Elvis' car, the man got the vehicle running again and went on his way. 

A few days later, the man went to the bank to make his monthly mortgage payment. To his surprise, the teller said he didn't have a mortgage. The man insisted that he did, and showed his payment book as proof. 

"Your mortgage has been paid off by Elvis Presley," the teller replied.

"Elvis always said that money is meaningless until you share it with your friends," Priscilla says. 

She became an Elvis fan the first time she heard him sing. The year was 1955 and the song was "That's All Right Mama," played on a small station in the Mon-Valley. 

"The DJ didn't even pronounce his name correctly," she says, "but the next day I went to the record store and bought the single."

She's been hooked ever since.

Today her house is filled with memorabilia, plates, dolls, portraits, photos and just about anything else Elvis-related. Some of the more unusual items include a kenpo karate patch (Elvis was a black belt) and a copy of the letter sent from Pennsylvania Governer Milton Shapp mourning Elvis' death. 

Some of her items didn't make it through the years, though. Priscilla's younger sister was a big Beatles fan, and in the 1960s began corresponding with an English Elvis fan who offered to swap Beatles merchandise for Elvis collectibles. In an attempt to be a good sister, Priscilla offered some of her original Elvis 45s. 

While women swooned over Elvis right away, some men weren't won over until he joined the Army, Priscilla says. 

"He earned respect with a lot of men after that," she says.

Don agrees. 

He had just served a stint in the Navy when Elvis entered the Army. 

"At the time I thought that was a good thing. I did my service and he should do his," Don says. 

Don met Priscilla at a sock hop and the two were soon listening to Elvis tunes together. 

Priscilla is president of We Remember and handles most of the day-to-day functions, such as writing the newsletter, organizing events and answering members' questions.

"Don is vice president in charge of everything I don't want to do," she says.

Occasionally the calls border on the bizarre, like the time a man called to ask if Elvis was alive.

"I told him that if Elvis were alive, he would not go into hiding," Priscilla says. "He loved life too much to go into hiding." 

April 16, 2002
New Nike World Cup Soccer Ads Feature Elvis Song

Nike goes for "a little more action" with their new Nike World Cup Soccer television ad campaign, featuring a great re-mix of Elvis' "A Little Less Conversation." This multi-million-dollar campaign is airing worldwide with some limited spots airing in the U.S. The spots feature some of soccer's top stars in a match set to this great song featuring Elvis' original master voice recording with a new, upbeat music mix. 


          

Nike "Secret Tournament" - Running Time: 3 minutes
Hi (15.3 MB) Lo (7.6 MB)

Nike "Secret Tournament" - Running Time: 60 seconds
Hi (5.1 MB) Lo (2.5 MB)

Nike "Secret Tournament - Semi-Final" - Running Time: 30 seconds
Hi (2.5 MB) Lo (1.3 MB)

       Source : EPE 

Chrysalis gets hunka Elvis publishing catalogs 
Mon Apr 15, 2:30 AM ET 
By Justin Oppelaar 

NEW YORK (Variety) - Independent music publisher Chrysalis Music has signed prestigious five-year worldwide contract to administer a pair of publishing catalogs representing the bulk of Elvis Presley's biggest hits. 


The deal, cut last week with catalog co-owner Julian J. Aberbach and Elvis Presley Enterprises, gives Chrysalis direct control over Gladys Music and Elvis Presley Music for North America and authorizes the company to supervise the catalog's existing subpublishing deals abroad. 

Together the two catalogs hold nearly 500 compositions, including such rock 'n' roll classics as "Hound Dog," "All Shook Up," "Love Me Tender" and "Viva Las Vegas." The singer's top hits can command as much as $250,000 in publishing royalties for a single use -- a rate rivaled only by the Beatles' best-known work. 

Chrysalis beat out larger rival BMG Music Publishing, whose parent company BMG Entertainment owns most of Presley's recorded music catalog through its RCA imprint. BMG is planning a major marketing push later this year to accompany a new collection of Presley's 30 No. 1 hits this October. 

Prior to last week's deal, the two Presley catalogs were independently administered. 

Los Angeles-based Chrysalis' eclectic roster of songwriters includes platinum-selling rap duo OutKast, Italian singer Andrea Bocelli (news - web sites), singer-songwriter David Gray and ex-Van Halen front man David Lee Roth. It also administers compositions from Blondie, Pat Benatar and Jethro Tull, among others. 

Reuters/Variety 

April 15, 2002 ("Elvis My Happiness" Fan Club)

New release from "Elvis My Happiness" Fan Club - Double CD
Elvis Sings Jerry Leiber And Mike Stoller

The track listing 
CD 1 - Baby, I don't care - Bossa Nova Baby - Dirty, Dirty Feeling - Don't - Fools Fall In Love - Girls ! Girls ! Girls ! - Hot Dog - Hound Dog - I Want To Be Free - If You Don't Come Back - Jailhouse Rock - Just tell Her Jim Said Hello - King Creole - Little Egypt - Love Me - Loving You - Santa Claus Is Back In Town - Saved - She's Not You - Steadfast, Loyal and True - Three Corn Patches - Treat Me Nice - Trouble - You're The Boss. 

CD 2 - Baby I Don't Care - Bossa Nova Baby - Don't - Girls ! Girls ! Girls ! - I Want To Be Free - If You Don't Come Back - Jailhouse Rock - Just Tell Her Jim Said Hello - King Creole - Little Egypt - Loving You - Saved - Steadfast, Loyal and True - Three Corn Patches - Treat Me Nice - Trouble - You're The Boss. 
Bonus - Hound dog (live) - Love Me (live) - Santa Claus is back in town
 

Supposedly, this will come out in June.

(updat. April 14) - Cover CD from Paul Dowling WWE
April 12, 2002 (elvis.com.au)

A Little Less Conversation 
Special 3 track CD single  

BMG will release "A Little Less Conversation" as a 3 track CD single worldwide in late May. The tracklisting will consist of - radio edit; original release & the remix. The release will coincide with the end of the World Cup Soccer.

BMG recently licensed a remixed version of "A Little Less Conversation" to sports brand Nike for its $90m global TV campaign around the Fifa World Cup
 

Return of the King -  NEWSWEEK’s Suzanne Smalley looks at the coming Elvis onslaught | By Suzanne Smalley
NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE - April 11, 2002 

If Elvis were to come out of hiding sometime, the next few months would be a darned good time to do so.

AFTER ALL, this summer the King will be a hotter commodity than ever. As the country approaches the 25th anniversary of Presley’s death on Aug. 16, Elvis will be inescapable. His infectious music and pouty mug will fill every corner of the culture. Record companies will offer up rare recordings on CD and publishers will put out many celebrative books, hoping not only to lure in nostalgic baby boomers but also to turn on their MTV-raised kids. And over the next six months, you’ll also hear Presley’s songs used to sell just about everything—even products completely unrelated to the singer. 
His longtime label, RCA Records, and its parent company, Bertelsmann Music Group, have been aggressively banging out licensing agreements with various partners. “The idea is to contemporize Elvis Presley,” says Joe DiMuro, a strategic-marketing executive at BMG. “We know we’re going to get the Elvis aficionado who is in his mid-40s. But how do we make Elvis relevant to those 34 and under?” BMG has been working with companies that target all sorts of different demographics. “On the corporate side, we’ve been talking to multinationals: beverage, automotive, financial, institutional,” says DiMuro, “telecom, consumer electronics, fashion apparel ...” In short, get ready for an Elvis onslaught.

Actually, it’s already begun. Last week, a $80 million Nike ad campaign pegged to the World Cup debuted featuring a remix of Presley’s “A Little Less Conversation.” Gruner + Jahr, Bertelsmann’s magazine division, will produce a 200-page Elvis magazine featuring rare photos that will be packaged with a CD featuring “Heartbreak Hotel” and a previously unreleased version of “In the Ghetto.” There’s even Elvis furniture on the horizon, with Vaughn-Bassett debuting two King-inspired bedroom suites this month called the Elvis Presley Collection. In mid-June, Disney’s “Lilo & Stitch” will hit movie screens featuring a little girl who dresses her puppy up in Elvis costumes. The film will contain six of Presley’s No. 1 hits. 
Come July, you’ll really feel the Presley push. BMG will release a four-CD anthology called “Elvis: Today, Tomorrow & Forever” consisting of 100 unreleased tunes. The tracks will feature rare moments from his studio recording sessions and several live broadcasts. “Everyone knows Elvis,” says Aram Sinnreich, a music industry analyst for Jupiter Media Metrix, who thinks the CD will likely sell well with very little marketing. “There’s a lot of untapped revenue potential in catalog music, and you don’t have to spend a lot of money getting him on ‘Total Request Live’.” 

Though don’t be surprised if videos featuring the King somehow turn up on MTV this summer. The Carson Daly crowd is key. Of the three Random House (a Bertelsmann subsidiary) books coming out about the King, only one is intended for older Elvis fans. The hard-core aficionados will appreciate “The Elvis Treasures,” a pop-up coffee table book that contains replicas of memorabilia from the Graceland archives including a library card bearing Elvis’s adolescent signature and a love letter to a girlfriend. But the second book is for kids (it’s a tie-in to the “Lilo & Stitch” movie) and the other, “A Girl’s Guide to Elvis,” explores Presley’s sex appeal and is intended for women in the 24-and-under demographic.

Whatever your age, you won’t be able to escape the mania in Memphis this August. Fifty thousand people are expected to gather near Graceland during “Elvis Week.” The stretch will begin Aug. 10 with a parade in downtown Memphis. Later that week, rock experts will discuss the pop icon at a University of Memphis seminar, with tickets selling at $100 a pop. A candlelight vigil will be held Aug. 15, during which a large line will walk by Elvis’s grave.

Finally on Aug. 16—the anniversary of his death—”Elvis: The 25th Anniversary Concert” will be held at the Pyramid arena. Old bandmates scheduled to perform include James Burton (his guitarist) and Glenn D. Hardin (his pianist). Priscilla Presley and Lisa Marie Presley will be there. Most chillingly, so will the King—via interactive-video. Historic footage of Elvis will be broadcast onstage, including moments where Presley will actually say things like, “James, play ‘Blue Suede Shoes’.” Says a Graceland spokesperson, “You will kind of forget a few minutes into the show that Elvis is not really there.”

In case you still haven’t had enough of Presley by then, in the early fall BMG will release the zealously titled “ELV1S 30 #1 Hits,” a compilation album of his top tracks that’s not unlike the Beatles “1” album, which sold 8 million units after its release in 2000. BMG is shaping the CD as a stocking stuffer. By the end of the 2002 Presley offensive, the King may even have a newfound respect with naysayers. People will see “there was more to Elvis as a cultural force than there was the first go-round,” predicts Timothy White, editor in chief of Billboard. Maybe with all the attention, Elvis will finally reemerge. Then we’ll really see a party.