June 30, 2002

Elvis king of British charts for third week
   Sun Jun 30, 2:48 PM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - Elvis Presley has notched up a third consecutive week as king of the British pop charts almost 25 years after his death.


Dutch dance band JXL's remix of "A Little Less Conversation" soared to the top of the charts after it was used in a television advertisement during the soccer World Cup finals. The song, first heard in a 1960s Elvis film, failed to make the charts on its first British release in 1968 and only managed number 69 in the U.S. charts.

Elvis saw off competition from German techno trio Scooter, whose cover of "The Logical Song" by 1970s band Supertramp rose three places to number two, the Official UK Charts Company said Sunday.

Los Angeles rock group The Calling were the highest new entry at number three with their single "Wherever You Will Go," taken from the album "Camino Palmero."

Britpop bad boys Oasis slipped two places to number four with "Stop Crying Your Heart Out," the second single taken from their new album "Heathen Chemistry."

U.S. rapper Nelly climbed one place to number five with "Hot in Herre," the curiously-spelled former number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

American singer Christina Milian, tipped to be the new Britney Spears, dropped three places to number six with her ska-inspired "When You Look at Me."

Canadian rocker Chad Kroeger's "Hero," taken from the hit film "Spider-Man" fell one place to seven, while rapper Eminem "Without Me" climbed one spot to eighth.

British dance diva Kelly Llorenna scored the second highest new entry of the week at number nine with "Tell it to my Heart," a cover of the 1988 Taylor Dayne hit.

Manufactured British pop band Liberty X saw their single "Just a Little" stick at number 10

... The Official UK Singles Chart - Sunday 30 June 2002

June 30, 2002

Elvis fans flock to festival
   By John Lee In Vancouver - BBCNEWS - June 29, 2002

Western Canada has become the sideburn capital of the world this weekend with the arrival of around 18,000 die-hard Elvis fans for the first annual Penticton Pacific Northwest Elvis Festival.

The event, 200 miles east of Vancouver comes hot on the heels of Presley's posthumous chart-topping success in the UK with the remix of A Little Less Conversation.

Western Canada has become the sideburn capital of the world this weekend with the arrival of around 18,000 die-hard Elvis fans for the first annual Penticton Pacific Northwest Elvis Festival.

The event, 200 miles east of Vancouver comes hot on the heels of Presley's posthumous chart-topping success in the UK with the remix of A Little Less Conversation.


Visitors from across North America are taking part in events in honour of the King of Rock and Roll, who died 25 years ago this year.

Higlights include tribute shows, an Elvis-era car rally, an impersonators' talent contest and a wandering band of Elvis look-alikes, known collectively as "the Elvii."

Elvis's original drummer, DJ Fontana, and road manager Joe Esposito will also be on hand to talk about their close-up experiences with The King.

Business

Festival chairman, Dennis Noble, says the biggest draw is the unveiling of a giant oil painting of Presley.

"It's 12 feet by 18 feet and contains three images of Elvis painted by local artists," Mr Noble says.

"We are applying to the Guinness Book of Records to have it recognised as the biggest Elvis portrait in the world."

Mr Noble says he expects the festival to bring the town Ł800,000 in added business.

Not surprisingly, shopkeepers are fully behind the event, according to Gary Leaman, general manager of the local Cherry Lane Shopping Centre.

"Some of the staff in the centre are wearing poodle skirts or Elvis hairstyles, and many stores have decorated their windows with Elvis memorabilia," says Mr Leaman.

One local business has taken its support even further by producing a selection of specially labelled wines for grape-loving Elvis fans.

"We've produced three official wines for the festival, each with a distinctive Elvis label," says Ken Lauzon, owner of Hillside Estate, one of many wineries in a region famous for its fruit and wine production.

Mr Lauzon produced 300 cases each of Hound Dog Chardonnay, Graceland Gamay and Blue Suede Blush, along with a guitar-themed three-pack selection box which he expects will become a collectors item.

A percentage of profits from the wine sales will be donated to Penticton and Memphis charities.

Tattoo

Local Elvis fans may well raise a glass themselves to toast their good luck in landing one of only two Elvis festivals in Canada.

The other, 2,000 miles way in Collingwood Ontario, has been operating successfully since 1995.

The Western Canada event is a coup for fans like Irene Gjukich, who has lived in Penticton for 23 years.

She says she fell in love with The King when she saw the movie Blue Hawaii as a 10-year-old.

"I play his records all the time, I've been to Graceland twice and I have 81 of his albums. He's part of my life," says Ms Gjukich.

She has Elvis's name tattooed on her wrist, and is planning to add a tattoo of his face to her ankle soon.

Ms Gjukich says she is looking forward to the amateur and professional Elvis impersonators' contests.

However, she is not expecting any look-alikes to have the same effect on her as the man himself.

"The impersonators can look like him and sound like him but none of them have that look their eyes when they sing," she says.

June 30, 2002

A little less conversation has Western world talking
   By Bruce Elder - The Age, June 29 2002


The King is back. Suddenly Elvis Presley is hip and happening and, if the Presley marketers have their way, he's going to be as big as he was when he first caught the world's attention in 1956.

Last week in the United States, the Disney organisation released an animated cartoon called Lilo & Stitch, which features a little girl, Lilo, who carries a photo of her hero, Elvis Presley, around with her all the time. Stitch is a character who puts his claw on a record turntable and out of his mouth comes the voice of Elvis singing, "You ain't nothing but a hound dog".

In the United Kingdom for the past 25 years, Presley and The Beatles have enjoyed the joint honour of having achieved 17 No. 1 hits. For the past two weeks, courtesy of a remix by Dutch DJ Tom Holkenborg, Presley's A Little Less Conversation from the forgettable movie Live a Little, Love a Little, under the joint credit of Elvis vs. JXL, has been at No. 1.

Now, nearly 25 years after his death, and 33 years since The Beatles last reached the top of the British charts, Elvis is the unchallenged king. He has 18 No. 1s. Of course it hasn't hurt that A Little Less Conversation appeared in the George Clooney-Brad Pitt movie Oceans Eleven and that it is being used all over the world as part of a soccer World Cup commercial for Nike.

This same single currently sits at the top of the Australian, Irish, Danish, Dutch and Norwegian charts.

How do we explain this sudden resurgence of interest in someone who, courtesy of a cocktail of bad food and pills, so comprehensively left this temporal building 25 years ago? In part, it has a lot to do with the approach being adopted by the executors of Presley's estate and a new marketing strategy by RCA Records. The single is the first song Presley's estate has officially allowed to be remixed. The same modus operandi applies to the use of Hound Dog in the Lilo & Stitch movie.

This was a decision approved by the executives of RCA Records who were hoping to attract a new generation of listeners to Presley's music.

Already RCA is talking about promotions with McDonald's (well, Elvis did eat an awful lot of hamburgers although given that they were partly to blame for his death this may be a dubious promotional strategy), a video game and a range of 1950s-style clothing by the Lansky Brothers who were responsible for many of his early outfits.

On an intellectual level, he is the vital component in the evolution of rock 'n' roll, and along with about a dozen other singers created a musical form by
blending different styles. He also laid down a template for live rock 'n' roll performance that has never been improved or changed.

He was rock 'n' roll's first superstar and, to this day, no solo performer even begins to approach his success and his iconic status.

And he endures because he was one of the great rebel icons of the 20th century.

Still, the idea of pre-teens (the market for Lilo & Stitch) warming to a singer who, were he alive, would be old enough to be their great-grandfather is kind of scary.

June 29, 2002

Beatles '65 (Elvis' rare photos)

Click to enlarge picture ... and description!

Source : E-mail

June 29, 2002

Eminem like Elvis say Elvis hit writers
   Worldpop - June 28, 2002

Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller, the men responsible for writing some of Elvis Presley's biggest hits, have likened Eminem to Elvis. Speaking at a London theatre before a gala performance of their hit songs on Friday at London's Hammersmith Apollo the pair said both artists were similar because they sang black music for white audiences.

Mike Stoller said: 'They are similar in a sense that Elvis sold to a largely white audience and most of the rap records, especially the ones that deal in violence and sexploitation, sell to predominantly white teenagers.'

The two songwriters, who penned Hound Dog and Jailhouse Rock for Elvis, said they admired some rap music but didn't like lyrics which glorified sex and violence. 'In rap music what I have tended to hear has been exploitation of misogyny, violence and stuff that I did not admire. I also like a tune,' said Mike Stoller.

June 28, 2002

Elvis-The Concert
   October 13, 2002
   Arizona State Fair.
 

Source : EPE
 

June 28, 2002

Elvis may have left, but memorial remains


Carmel couple raise stone to mark star's final concert
By Chris Birk - The Indianapolis Star - June 27, 2002


As the midday heat baked the gravel remains of Market Square Arena, a flock of Elvis Presley fans returned to the site of the King's final concert to pay their last respects.

With soaked brows and solemn faces, more than 100 people lined the southeast corner of Alabama and Market streets to swap Elvis memories and welcome the city's newest landmark -- a memorial commemorating Presley's final concert.

The Memphis, Tenn., native died less than two months after his June 26, 1977, Indianapolis performance.

"My aunt fell down in front of the TV when that man died," 50-year-old William Browder said as he peered over the site, now a parking lot. "My girlfriend, Jenny, touched his hand right here at his last concert. And you don't ever disagree with a woman that touched his hand."

Touched by Presley's music, lifelong fans Paul and Kay Lipps decided to immortalize a location known to Elvis fans worldwide. The Carmel couple, creators of the Taking Care of Presley Memorial Benefit Committee, scrounged enough donations to erect a $10,000 granite marker for the street corner.

The memorial also doubles as a time capsule, as souvenirs ranging from ticket stubs and song lyrics to photographs and poems are enclosed inside. The plan is to open the capsule in 2102.

Elvis fans, fanatics and Downtown passers-by stopped to witness the unveiling of the marker, which was temporarily sheathed in black garbage bags. As Paul Lipps ripped plastic from granite, Al Dvorin -- of "Elvis has left the building" fame -- offered up his trademark valediction again.

Dvorin, flown in from Chicago for the ceremony, was Presley's concert and stage announcer.

"Although Elvis has left the building, his spirit is still with us," Dvorin told the crowd. "When Elvis did a charity show, every penny went to the charity. Today, people are raising funds for cancer, cystic fibrosis and Special Olympics in his name."

When Paul Lipps unveiled the plaque, the wide-eyed crowd cheered and applauded. It's inscribed with an enlarged front-row ticket stub, a picture of Presley from the concert and a photograph of the arena.

"I've been to all the other Elvis things, and this looks good," said Richard Thompson, who, even without his polyester jumpsuit, could easily be mistaken for an Elvis tribute artist.

But Thompson, sporting bushy sideburns and an ever-curling lip, had hoped for a little more.

"It's good, even though they didn't have a statue," he said. "Maybe next year."

Thompson's criticism aside, the monument still needs a little work. A "TCB" logo -- short for the King's "taking care of business" mantra -- eventually will rest in the middle of the base.

What won't change is the spelling of Presley's middle name on the plaque.

Presley's given middle name is Aron, not Aaron. Many fans and Elvis cohorts, though, have adopted the traditional -- and biblical -- spelling. The controversy came up in planning the marker, but the committee decided to stick with what has become Graceland gospel.

Presley's father, Vernon, had little education and simply misspelled the name, Dvorin said.

"Elvis was concerned about it, and he always used the double As," Kay Lipps said. "It did come up, and we decided that was the way to go -- do what Elvis preferred."

June 28, 2002

Elvis Time Capsule Buried in Indiana
   Thu Jun 27,10:32 AM ET - By The Associated Press


INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - A woman in Elvis earrings clasped her hands and wept while men with thinning pompadours and thick lamb-chop sideburns stood to the side, quietly remembering the King.

Fans held a ceremony Wednesday to dedicate a marker honoring Elvis Presley at the former site of Market Square Arena, 25 years to the day after the concert that would turn out to be his last. Presley died in 1977.

"People around the world know of Indianapolis, Indiana, and Market Square Arena just because Elvis was here," said Kay Lipps, chairman of the Taking Care of Presley Memorial Committee. "Even though it has been 25 years, his music still touches people and makes them happy."

The marker is in a gravel parking lot where the arena stood before being demolished last year. A time capsule encased within holds Presley memorabilia including a scarf he gave Lipps, letters from fans across the world, and a bootlegged recording of one of Elvis' last shows.

A bronze plaque reading "Ladies and Gentlemen, Elvis has left the building" sits atop a stone column, just as Elvis' show announcer Al Dvorin would say at the end of each of Presley's shows.

"His spirit lives on," Dvorin said. "He could have started his own religion."

 .... Elvis fans to dedicate marker at MSA site
        

... archive The new Elvis Presley monument will be unveiled Wednesday at the former site of Market Square Arena

June 28, 2002

Elvis Presley Factoids:

Records sold: Approximately 1 billion (world wide)

Current album sales: 5 million annually

U.S. sales awards: 132 Gold, platinum or multi-platinum albums and singles

Billboard Top 40 Hits: 114

Billboard U.S. #1 Pop Hits: "Heartbreak Hotel," "Don't Be Cruel," "Hound Dog," "Love Me Tender," Too Much" "All Shook Up," "(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear," "Jailhouse Rock" "Hard-Headed Woman," "A Big Hunk O' Love," "Stuck On You," "It's Now or Never," "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" "Surrender," Good Luck Charm," "Suspicious Minds." (The upcoming "Elvis 30 # 1 Hits" collection will also include Country and British chart toppers, including "Return To Sender," "Can't Help Falling in Love" and "Devil in Disguise.")

Honors: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Country Music Hall of Fame, Gospel Hall of Fame. (No other artist is in all three!) Time Magazine readers' "Man of the Century."

Percentage of Americans who consider themselves Elvis Fans: 45 percent (CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll)

Annual visitors to Graceland: 750,000

Voters in the Elvis U.S. stamp selection: 1.2 million (more than voted in the Presidential primary of the same year)

Favored songwriters: Otis Blackwell: "Long Tall Sally," "Rip It Up," "Don't Be Cruel," "Return To Sender," "All Shook Up"

Leiber & Stoller: "Hound Dog," Loving You," "Jailhouse Rock," "Treat Me Nice," "Bossa Nova Baby"

Doc Pomus & Mort Schuman: "His Latest Flame," "Little Sister," "A Mess of Blues," "Gonna Get Back Home Tomorrow"

Jerry Reed (Hubbard): "Guitar Man," "US Male," "A Thing Called Love"

Scott "Mac" Davis: "In the Ghetto"

Tony Joe White: "Polk Salad Annie," "I've Got a Thing About You Baby"

Dennis Linde: "Burning Love," "For the Heart"

Mark James: "Suspicious Minds," "Moody Blue"

Source : The Philadelphia Inquirer - June 27, 2002

June 28, 2002

BMG/RCA Records Launches Elvisnumberones.com to Support Release of ELV1S 30 #1 HITS


The Most Comprehensive Website Ever Devoted to Elvis' Music

NEW YORK, June 27 /PRNewswire/ - In support of the forthcoming release of ELV1S 30 #1 HITS, a collection of the King of Rock 'N Roll's (TM) 30 chart toppers on one CD, BMG/RCA Records recently launched the elvisnumberones.com website http://www.elvisnumberones.com. The site is a treasure trove of Elvis' music and performances designed to appeal to both Elvis aficionados and novices.

Designed by New York-based interactive design shop Sudden Industries, the site will survey Presley's 30 #1 singles by rolling them out in phases leading up to the September 24th release of ELV1S 30 #1 HITS. Each single has its own page, featuring anecdotes, chart information, the original sleeve, photos, and more. Rich in content not previously seen on the Internet, the site also includes over 200 photos, numerous archival documents, and rare footage of performances and interviews expressly culled from the archives of RCA and the Elvis Presley Estate. Users can experience the site in a number of ways; the singles are organized by date, according to stylistic "era" and according to the Elvis influence they project (e.g. singer, movie star, style setter). A streaming jukebox application plays a continuous loop of samples of the #1s, newly mixed and mastered from the original master recordings.

Other features of the site include the Virtual Elvis workshop, powered by Oddcast VHost, which enables fans to dress up the King of Rock 'n Roll in their favorite period outfit, place him in a variety of storied settings, and select an appropriate comment -- culled from archival interview tapes -- for him to voice. Via linked email, fans can share the resulting full-screen animated Virtual Elvis, which recipients can in turn customize and send on. An Elvis Gizmo provided by Gizmoz Inc. offers users a unique opportunity to collect Elvis audio, video and other media on their desktops. Users can also get content update alerts directly to their desktops, and share the fun with their friends via email and instant messaging. Another planned feature will be Sudden's "Roll Your Own" Elvis Video.

The CD and the site are at the center of a major international commemoration of Elvis Presley's passing 25 years ago this August, spearheaded by BMG and RCA Records. "Our goal is to reintroduce Elvis to a new generation of music fans," says Kieve Huffman, Sr. Director of Online Marketing for BMG. "Elvisnumberones.com offers an informative, interactive, and ultimately fun marketing platform that will build awareness for the CD and underscore the
importance of Elvis's musical legacy."

"It was quite an honor to be chosen to develop the "ELV1S 30 #1 HITS site," says Sudden CEO Bob Holmes. "We have worked successfully with BMG/RCA artists as diverse as Tyrese and The Foo Fighters, so for them to recognize that Sudden could bring the excitement of those projects to an artist like Elvis was quite gratifying."

BMG is the global music division of Bertelsmann AG, one of the world's leading media companies, with annual revenues of $17.86 billion. BMG owns more than 200 record labels in 42 countries including Arista Records, RCA Records, RCA Label Group -- Nashville, and Ariola. In addition, BMG owns one of the world's largest music publishing companies.


Source : RCA Records

June 27, 2002

RCA unearths 100 "lost" Elvis recordings, just in time to celebrate his death day
   By Robert Wilonsky (The Dallas Observer - June 27, 2002)


Dead 25 years come August 16, Elvis Presley is, once more, the hottest corpse in the ground. Just a few days ago, he topped the pops in the United Kingdom for the first time since he died on the dumper--with a song, no less, that was relatively unknown to all but the hardcore till its use in Ocean's Eleven last year and a new Nike ad tied to the World Cup. Now, the Mac Davis-Billy Strange-penned "A Little Less Conversation" is about to become the ubiquitous single of the summer of 2002, thanks to a groovy redo by Junkie XL that polishes an already sparkling song, the funkiest thing the fat man cut in the 1960s. Released first as a single in 1968, when the song appeared in Live a Little Love a Little, the remix hits U.S. outlets this week, only days after Presley bumped the Beatles from the history books. Where both were tied at the top, with 17 U.K. number ones, now Elvis walks alone. Amazing what a dead guy can do when grave robbers toss his fat ass onto a dance floor.

The Elvis-JXL single, which marks the first time Elvis Presley Enterprises has allowed such a remix, is but the beginning of an Elvis onslaught. In coming weeks, majors and minors will begin revving up the money machine to capitalize on--pardon, celebrate--the anniversary of the King's dethroning. Tomato Records, which has been plundering Townes Van Zandt's tomb in recent weeks, has slated for release Elvis' recordings from the Louisiana Hayride in the mid-'50s, which have been circulating in legit and illegit forms for years. And RCA's got two monster releases forthcoming, chief among them September 24's ELV1S 30 #1 Hits, which parent company BMG insists is the "first ever collection of 30 Presley number-one singles on one CD." (If nothing else, the enormous success of Beatles 1 proves people are more than willing to buy one CD that collects the most famous songs on a dozen discs already in their possession; this disproves labels' fears that the CD burner will render all best-ofs and greatest-hits a moot point.)

But the most significant release tied to the anniversary of Presley's death--and, really, is there anything as morbid as celebrating an expiration date?--is Today, Tomorrow & Forever, a four-disc boxed set containing 100 previously unreleased Elvis tracks, a fairly astonishing claim given that Elvis allowed the release of alternate tracks during the '70s, when he needed to fill space on albums to which he'd committed. (At one point, he was under contract to RCA for three albums a year, a burden he'd become too weary to bear.) And only five years ago, RCA released Platinum: A Life in Music, which proffered Presley's chronological history in the studio using 77 outtakes among its 100 tracks. Besides, it's not as though even the casual fan is unfamiliar with the bulk of what appears in this collection; here, for the 432nd time, are "Heartbreak Hotel" and "Hound Dog" and "In the Ghetto" and "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" and on and on. There's even some real crap here, an admission made plain in Colin Escott's track-by-track liner notes: "Elvis had good reason to sleepwalk through 'The Love Machine.' It was, by any yardstick, a ghastly song."

Yet Today, Tomorrow & Yesterday is one of those compelling listens, a best-of-and-rest-of that offers an alternate history, a what-if? time line. It begins with a July 1954 recording of "Harbor Lights" (a hit for Bing Crosby only four years earlier), cut during Elvis' very first days in the Sun studios, and it ends with a February 1976 rendition of "Hurt," which had been a concert staple and, Elvis used to insist, one of his favorite songs. In between are legendary live recordings from shows seen on old footage but never heard (specifically, the May 16, 1956, performance at the Robinson Memorial Auditorium in Little Rock), outtakes from movie soundtracks (including the collection's title song, a long-lost duet with Ann-Margret originally recorded for Viva Las Vegas) and copious alternate takes from sessions made at home and in the studio. Throughout, Elvis can be heard cracking jokes (including one about the Vietcong at the height of the Vietnam War), making small talk with the band and trying to figure out just how the hell to give depth to the fluff he was stuck with throughout the latter part of his career.

"This is an intimate way of getting to know Elvis," says Ernst Jorgensen, calling from his garden in Denmark. Jorgensen has been handling RCA's Elvis reissues for years, and the Great Dane has become a beloved figure amongst Elvis devotees, second only to biographer Peter Guralnick. "I am a foreigner, so I look at Elvis with an element of surprise. In America, Elvis was ridiculed, a victim of the way he died and looked, the abuse of medicine, all that. In a small country like this, we would have been much kinder to him. When we started in the early '90s, it was like nothing of Elvis' music was left. I was trying to get people back to where he came from. The music is where the real greatness is, and we wanted to tell that story."

Alex Miller, head of BMG's reissue department, says the 100 tracks were collected from myriad disparate sources--from collectors (the label gets at least one call a day from someone claiming to have a long-lost tape), from the label's estimable vaults, from engineers who worked on sessions, from radio stations that broadcast Elvis concerts in the '50s. Jorgensen and Roger Semon began compiling the box five years ago--around the time the 300,000-selling Platinum was released--in preparation for the 25th anniversary of his death. Theirs would be a revisionist history of sorts: They wanted the world to hear "In the Ghetto," for instance, stripped of its garish ornamentation; they wanted to show the playful Elvis, the thoughtful Elvis, the goofy Elvis, the disinterested Elvis.

It would be a chronological story, much as Platinum, but without the reverence that collection showed. Today, Tomorrow & Yesterday is almost a blasphemous box; it's like a fete to which the guest of honor shows up a little out of it and makes one hell of a mess. But since Elvis often had little regard for his own legacy--some 12 years after Elvis stepped into the Sun, he wound up recording "Yoga Is as Yoga Does"--why shouldn't the men charged with maintaining it muck with the myth? The icon is resilient enough to withstand reevaluation, indestructible enough to stand up to the skeletons falling out of the closet. So, yeah, here's "The Love Machine," indefensible crap. But here, too, is Elvis ripping the guts out of Ray Charles' "I Got a Woman." And, yeah, here's another version of that lousy "Snowbird" (already a hit for Anne Murray when Elvis got to it); but here, too, is a "Pieces of My Heart" done in 1975 that may be the most revelatory and heartbreaking thing the man ever recorded ("Now I'm holding on to nothing/Trying to forget the rest").

"He's not here to protest what we're doing," Jorgensen says. "But since outtakes and even the songs Elvis hated were released when he was alive, I don't think we overstepped any borders. And being such a major influence on the past century--and this one, as well--I think you get to the point where you're writing history. You wouldn't discard early sketches of Picasso or early letters of Hitler because you think that's not what they should be known for. At some point, history takes over. We always keep Elvis' official masters available so people can hear the real thing. It's not that we force them to listen to these 'sloppy' things...There are just conflicts that you have to explain. His was a career of contradictions. He was a contradiction."

June 27, 2002

Audio Reviews : "Elvis: Today, Tomorrow & Forever'' (RCA/BMG Heritage, $69.98) — Elvis Presley
   The Associated Press — June 26, 2002


Dead nearly 25 years, Elvis Presley has become passe even for Vegas impressionists and supermarket tabloids. The legacy is tired and bloated, much like the King himself toward the end.

This four-CD boxed set would appear to be just what we don't need — more second-rate Elvis. The 100 tracks on ``Elvis: Today, Tomorrow & Forever,'' all previously unreleased, are mostly alternate takes of lesser-known material, which makes it attractive primarily to completists.

Still, the timing for the set could hardly be better because Presley returned to the top of the singles charts in Britain last week with a remix of ``A Little Less Conversation.'' Likely a fluke rather than the start of an Elvismania revival, the hit isn't included here. But the anthology does feature the greatest singer in the history of rock 'n' roll, and there are some fascinating moments.

The performances span Elvis' recording career from 1954 to 1976 and range wildly in quality, with even the liner notes acknowledging that a couple of compositions are awful. A handful of his biggest hits are included, among them ``In The Ghetto,'' ``Are You Lonesome Tonight?'' and ``I Want You, I Need You, I Love You.'' The outtakes are understandably more ragged than the originals but include interesting tweaks in tempo, arrangement or vocal interpretation.

``Shake, Rattle and Roll,'' for example, restores a piano solo and risque verse edited from Elvis' original. He's backed by a harmonica on ``Loving You'' and a celeste on ``Can't Help Falling in Love.'' There's a duet with Ann-Margret on ``Today, Tomorrow & Forever'' (good) and an a cappella version of ``Steadfast, Loyal and True'' (bad).

Among the best tracks are seven live cuts from a show in Little Rock, Ark., in 1956, and eight from Las Vegas in 1969-70, which illustrate how dramatically Presley — and popular music — changed in less than 15 years. The early concert captures the raw frenzy of the young Elvis on stage, with a radio announcer providing slightly inaccurate but priceless play-by-play: ``He's winding up his legs, and here he goes with `Heartbreak Motel'!''

Elvis was never just about music, of course. Stage patter and studio chatter capture his hammy humor, and accompanying the discs are some terrific pictures of our most photogenic rock icon. The liner notes are informative but skimpy, limited mostly to track-by-track commentary by Colin Escott.

The set contains no revelations, only reminders that a quarter-century after his death, Elvis' pioneering talent is underrated and overshadowed by the cartoon King.

To explore the Presley catalog is to discover greatness. This may not be the place to start, but with ``Today, Tomorrow & Forever,'' that catalog is now a little richer. Thankyouverymuch.

 — Steven Wine, AP Writer

June 27, 2002

Elvis Staying Relevant Among Young
   The Associated Press - June 26, 2002



MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Most of them were born a decade or two after Elvis Presley died. But the kids watching Disney's new "Lilo & Stitch'' at a screening in Memphis got a chuckle when the small blue space alien Stitch did an Elvis impersonation in a white jumpsuit.

And that made the folks from Graceland happy, too.

"We're going to have millions of young kids discovering Elvis and asking their parents if they've ever heard of this guy,'' said Jack Soden, president of Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc.

It's a big year for Graceland, the center of a multimillion-dollar business owned by Elvis' sole heir, Lisa Marie Presley. Aug. 16 is the 25th anniversary of Presley's death in 1977 at the Memphis mansion, and he is already getting new attention.

This week, RCA Records released a version of his 1968 "A Little Less Conversation'' to radio and commercial outlets. "Elvis vs. JXL — a Little Less Conversation,'' remixed into a techno groove by Junkie XL, has already hit No. 1 in Britain.

Also this week, RCA/BMG Heritage released a four-CD box set, "Elvis: Today, Tomorrow & Forever,'' with 100 previously unreleased tracks, mostly alternate takes of lesser-known material. And an album of Elvis' 30 No. 1 hits is due out in September.

As for "Lilo & Stitch,'' it was not planned to coincide with the Elvis anniversary. Disney came to Graceland more than two years ago with the idea of including Elvis music in the movie.

"Then they began weaving Elvis more and more into the movie and it became a multi-tier series of permissions and licenses, and of course we were getting more excited by the minute,'' Soden said.

Presley's music runs throughout the animated movie. Lilo is a lonely young girl in Hawaii who consoles herself with Elvis records that belonged to her deceased parents. She has no friends until she adopts Stitch, the mischievous alien she thinks is a dog.

The movie opened Friday, and there was an invitation-only show the night before in Memphis, followed by an elaborate luau at Graceland put on by Disney.

Hula dancers, Hawaiian torches and banquet tables with thatched roofs greeted the more than 600 guests, who included business associates of Graceland and Disney and their families.

"The day we decided to use Elvis music in the movie we didn't think we would be here celebrating at Graceland,'' said Dean DeBlois, co-writer and director of the film.

Eight Elvis songs are in the movie, and making Lilo an Elvis fan helped round out her character, DeBlois said.

"It would make her a little different from other girls her age today who are listening to the latest pop bands,'' he said. "We have one scene where Lilo is alone. She's lonely and feeling kind of sorry for herself so we picked 'Heartbreak Hotel' for that one.''

Presley made three movies in Hawaii and staged two of his best-known concerts there: a benefit for the USS Arizona in 1961 and "Aloha From Hawaii'' in 1973.

DeBlois and his partner, Chris Sanders, got a private tour of Graceland. One long hallway is lined with Presley's gold and platinum records.

"I turned one time and I was right at 'Blue Hawaii.' I couldn't believe it,'' Sanders said. "I walked a couple of feet and there was 'Rock-A-Hula.'''

June 26, 2002

Elvis fans to dedicate marker at MSA site
   The Indianapolis Star - June 26, 2002


A commemorative marker will be unveiled at noon today at Market and Alabama streets.

That's where Market Square Arena once stood. And the arena is where, on June 26, 1977, Elvis Presley performed his last concert.

Presley died on Aug. 16, 1977.

The $10,000 marker -- which weighs about 2,000 pounds -- will be dedicated by the Taking Care of Presley Memorial Benefit Committee.

A bronze plaque -- measuring 42 inches by 36 inches -- is on the marker. And inside, there's a time capsule that will be opened in 100 years, said Kay Lipps, a founder and chairwoman of the committee. One of the items in the time capsule is a scarf that Presley gave to Lipps at his last concert.

The time capsule itself proved to be a bit of a challenge. It was to be sealed in the marker Tuesday, but it was too wide to fit inside. So it was sent to a welder to be cut down in time for the dedication.

Other items inside, Lipps said, include a copy of the original tour schedule; the song list from the Indianapolis concert; and an assortment of letters of remembrance from fans.

Among those speaking at today's ceremony will be Al Dvorin, who for years was the announcer for Presley's concerts. Dvorin coined the phrase "Elvis has left the building" as a way to wrap up the concerts by making clear there would be no more encores.

For years, a display case in the lobby outside the arena's sixth-floor ticket windows contained a picture of Elvis and a plaque commemorating the last concert.

That picture of Elvis was taken at the last concert by Paul Lipps, Kay's husband. They both attended, of course; it was their 28th Presley concert.

The arena was imploded last July. Plans are in the works to redevelop the site, which temporarily is being used for parking.

Money for the memorial came from fan contributions and the committee's fund raising.

June 26, 2002

Second Elvis remix planned
  Worldpop - June 25, 2002

Elvis Presley's record company, BMG, are making plans to release a second Elvis remix single in a bid to emulate the success of the current No 1, A Little Less Conversation. The label has been so overwhelmed by the success of JXL's (pictured) remix that it is now in talks with several DJs about repeating the success on one of the tracks which will appear on the forthcoming Elvis No 1s album.

'It has to be right,' said a spokesman for BMG. 'It has to be as big as A Little Less Conversation otherwise it won't reflect the No 1s album.'

The forthcoming Elvis album will feature all 31 Presley tracks to top either the UK or US singles charts and will be the subject of a huge global advertising campaign by the label. The album has a tentative release date of 23 September.

Worldpop's interview with JXL

June 26, 2002

WIN 2 FREE TICKETS TO "ELVIS IN CONCERT" August 16 in Memphis

You could be the lucky winner of these two "prime location,
side-by-side" tickets for ELVIS IN CONCERT in Memphis
August, 16, 2002 - read full information >>

Source : (e-mail) Thanks to Suzie Housley

        Link to new article (photos) of the Fingal Independent
               Elvis lovers stayed with King's cousin - June 28, 2002

June 25, 2002

Irish Elvis fans get King - sized Memphis trip.
   By Joanne Hegarty "Evening Herald" Ireland, Tuesday 25th June 2002.

ELVIS fans Maurice and Maureen Colgan couldn't believe it when they got an  invitation from the King's first cousin to come and stay.

But the Swords couple's dream came true with a holiday of a lifetime in Memphis, where they were wined and dined by Donna Presley.

Elvis - No 1 in the charts with a remix of A Little Less Conversation - has been a life-long obsession for the Swords couple who couldn't believe their luck when they got an invite from cousin Donna Presley to stay with her in her Memphis home. They had previously corresponded with Donna.

"She brought them to to Graceland and even Elvis's old school. They were also interviewed by Memphis television. Donna has been in touch with me before through an Elvis worldwide website and she knows what big fans we are. She organised a car and driver for us to see all the sights (sic) of Memphis," beamed Maurice.

The couple, both in their sixties, stayed in Donna Presley's apartment overlooking the Mississippi and were brought to several restaurants by Donna. Maurice and Maureen were over the moon when Donna sent a hand written letter inviting them to come and stay for a week.

The letter and invitation read: "You have shown devotion and support throughout the year, not only to Elvis but to the whole Presley family."

Maurice who is currently waiting for triple by-pass surgery has even made an extra difference in the rock 'n' roll legend's hometown. "I went to visit Tupelo in Mississippi and noticed that there wasn't a statue of Elvis in his home town, so I contacted the Mayor and campaigned for a statue of Elvis when he was a young boy," explained Maurice.

In January of this year the Dublin artist and writer was granted his wish and a statue of the musician has been erected, which the couple will visit on their trip. Also in 1961, Maurice wrote to Elvis while his wife Maureen was in hospital with a serious case of kidney failure to ask for a get well card. Maurice and Maureen explained: "We knew that he was getting a ton of mail from all around the world, so we didn't expect to get any thing back from him, but then two letters came, one to the hospital and one addressed to me.

"In the letter written to Maureen, the King says: 'Just a short note to say I hope you are feeling much better. Take care of yourself and don't worry, everything will be alright'."

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