June 07, 2002
Today in
History ... Graceland
Elvis Presley's Memphis home, Graceland, opened for public tours
(June 7, 1982)
Elvis Presley could have left one of the great fortunes of
entertainment history, had he been one to worry about financial
planning, rather than freely enjoying and sharing his wealth as he
did. While the estate he left was by no means broke, there was a cash
flow problem, especially with Graceland costing over half a million
dollars a year in maintenance and taxes. It seemed logical for
Priscilla and the executors to open Graceland to the public.
In late 1981, they hired Jack Soden, at the time a Kansas City,
Missouri investment counselor, to plan and execute the opening of
Graceland to the public and oversee the total operation. Graceland
opened for tours on June 7, 1982 ...
full story >>
Photos #
1>> |
Photos
# 2 >> | 
Graceland >> 
June 07, 2002
Tyson
has chance to emulate Presley's last hurrah
By Owen Slot, Chief Sports Reporter in Memphis (The Times) June
07, 2002
JUST when it seemed that he could no longer live with the best, Elvis
Presley turned in one of the most astonishing pieces of work of his
entire output. His weight had started to swell, his reputation had
started to fade, we are in 1968 and though he was still the King by
name, the Beatles had long dethroned him.
Presley did not do much television then, but NBC wrote out a huge
cheque to bring him to its studios and Presley went, dressed in a
black, high-collared leather suit and flanked by some of the musicians
he had known of old. And for this one-off special, Presley’s face
poured sweat, his voice reclaimed its old wildness and the great man
rolled back the years.
“It’s been a long time, baby,” were the opening words of a
review of that show in the Boston Phoenix penned by Peter Guralnick, a
young journalist so moved by his idol that, years later, he would
write the seminal biography of the man. “I don’t know if I can
convey how truly thrilling a moment it really was,” he reflected in
the biography of the time he saw that show. “And I’m not sure it
can ever be as thrilling again . . . I found justification, at last,
for the hopeless faith that (I) had placed in his music.”
It is hardly likely to have crossed Mike Tyson’s mind, here in
Presley’s home town, that at a similar age he is in a similar
predicament and he is also in need of some serious rolling back of the
years. Tyson’s weight, like Presley’s, can be a problem, his
reputation as the greatest is long gone, he is long dethroned. And his
chances of success tomorrow night rest on producing a performance of
old that many feel is no longer within his capabilities. If it came,
it would be fleeting, thrilling; it has certainly been a long time.
If you drive a few miles south out of Memphis and on to Elvis Presley
Boulevard, you will find yourself at Graceland, where you will find
flowers piled up by Presley’s grave and, occasionally, you will see
his fans weeping next to it. And at present you will also find a
promotional banner of tomorrow’s fight.
There is no one bigger than Elvis in this city, but for a few days
Tyson is coming close. These promo banners are everywhere informing
you — as if it were possible to not have known — that one American
icon is here in the home town of another. The celebrities are arriving
in their private plane-loads to see him, too, so many in fact that
some are being diverted an hour west to Arkansas.
“Since Elvis,” Sam Phillips, another icon of the city, says, “I
don’t think there’s been anyone here that’s brought all the
intrigue and emotional extremes that this guy does.” And Phillips
ought to know. Phillips was in his Sun Records studio the day an
18-year-old Presley walked in asking if anyone needed a singer. He
produced Presley’s records for the first two years of his career and
he knew him for the rest of his life. Phillips is now 79 and is
planning to attend Tyson’s bout tomorrow night; he has seen
something he thinks he recognises.
He knows that, like Presley, Tyson came from an impoverished
background. He knows that, as youngsters, they were both fascinated by
their calling, both incredibly knowledgeable students of their future
profession. Presley and Tyson also hit the peak of their talent in
their early 20s, when they were still managed by the handlers they
grew up with. It was the big time that was their downfall.
Heaven knows how much more we could have had of the pair of them had
they fallen into different hands. “I think the parallel is
incredible,” Phillips says. “Mike Tyson has an emotional problem,
no question. But with the pressures that come to bear, I can
understand someone not knowing how to respond in a way that would be
an adjunct to his great talent.
“You have to be helped along before you can walk. It’s very
similar. I realise one is knocking heads around, but being a rock star
is like being in the ring.” The pitfalls of fame are well
documented, but there is no handbook for stardom in a culture such as
that of the United States and on the level that Presley and Tyson have
reached.
Both, at stages in their lives, have probably owned the best-known
face on the planet and neither knew what to do about it. It did not
help that they won enemies, too. The price of the rotating pelvis in
Presley’s act was that he was deemed so controversial that churchmen
preached against him, a vile symbol of a degenerative youth culture.
Frank Sinatra would later embrace Presley and invite him to appear on
his television show, but before the tide of rock’n’roll became
unstoppable, he declared it, pointedly, to be “phoney and false”,
to be filled with “sly, lewd, dirty lyrics” and “sung by
cretinous goons”. Moral acceptance certainly did not come easy. For
remarkably different reasons (you can start with rape and take off in
any direction), Tyson would know what that feels like.
Yet they reacted in similar ways. Both hid from reality by surrounding
themselves with an entourage of hangers-on, salaried friends who
became dependants and yes-men. Both had an extraordinary capacity to
spend and they both liked cars. Elvis liked buying cars so much that
he would buy them for his friends; audited reports show that, between
1995 and 1997, Tyson’s expenditure on cars and motorbikes totalled
$4,477,498.
Like Presley, Tyson loves women. And also like Presley, fame has so
warped Tyson that he does not know where to stop and there is no one
close to him to shout when a red light is approaching. And we all know
what happened ultimately to Presley. You do not have to look very far
in boxing to find a similar early fate predicted for Tyson.
“Unfortunately I don’t think he’ll live to an old age,” Tommy
Brooks, his former trainer, says. “If he doesn’t win this fight, I
think the guy’s going to melt down. He’s either going to end up
going back to jail, or somebody’s going to kill him.”
Either way, though fame may have distorted both these talents, it is
hard to envisage heaps of flowers adorning the grave of Mike Tyson a
quarter of a century after he is gone, or a crowd of 20,000
accumulating outside his gates to mourn his going. There are some who
find it blasphemous that Tyson is allowed to occupy the same town as
Presley, let alone the same sentence. “Disgraceland” is the phrase
that Tyson’s opponents are coining in objection to his presence here
in Memphis. Phillips sees it differently, however.
“There’s a certain element in these two people,” he says.
“They want to be recognised and loved so bad — it can start a real
fire. You have to have this fire to get to the top. The question is
how you control the flames when you’re there.”
In December 1976, when Presley was pretty much burnt out and had just
played his last Las Vegas date, a sympathetic review appeared in the
Memphis Press-Scimitar. “One walks away wondering how much longer it
can be before the end comes and why the King of rock’n’roll would
subject himself to possible ridicule by going on stage so
ill-prepared. And yet they keep coming back and they will pack his
next road tour.”
Maybe that is just it and was about as generous a reflection as
Presley would receive in his fading days as a performer. He would
forget his lyrics, he would start and stop songs arbitrarily, a sad,
distorted, ruined version of his former self. And here, too, is Tyson.
Tyson, for years, has been unable to perform the way he used to. He
comes recklessly ill-prepared to box, thus subjecting himself to
constant ridicule, and yet they still keep coming to see him. Maybe
they also think it might be the last time around because Tyson now
generates that same morbid fascination that Presley did. They are
coming not specifically to see a high-quality sporting contest —
there are plenty of those elsewhere — but to watch a former icon
struggling to give an impression of his former self.
For Tyson, of course, the challenge is to prove that he has not
descended to the depths of Presley’s last performances. There is
plenty of talk around his camp — although there always is — that
he is primed instead to deliver a knockout one-off reminder of how he
was at his pomp, similar to what Presley did on that NBC show back in
1968.
Fame, one suspects, has probably taken too heavy a toll for that,
though it would be a strangely thrilling moment if the rapist did
emulate the rock star. It has certainly been a long time.
June 06, 2002
Tyson
might have bonded with Elvis
By Thom Loverro (The Washington Times) June 4, 2002
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Mike Tyson is staying in some former University of
Memphis quarterback's private home outside of town, but is there any
doubt that if Elvis were still alive, 911 Mike would be spending his
time at Graceland, shooting out televisions and eating peanut butter
and fried banana sandwiches with the King?
If there was ever a marriage of fame and misery, it would have been
Elvis and 911 Mike — both larger than life figures (in Elvis' case,
larger than two lives) tortured by inner demons. They would have been
soulmates, sharing each other's stories of how they were victimized by
their fame and how all they wanted was to be left alone. Then they
would take Elvis' gun collection, hop into his green Cadillac
convertible, and drive around town shooting at reporters and singing,
"In the Ghetto."
It would have been like King Kong and Godzilla on a cocaine binge
together in Japan.
Elvis had more than a passing interest in boxing. He was on the boxing
team at Humes High School, if only for a brief period. Walt Doxey, the
school boxing coach, is quoted on one Elvis Web site as saying,
"Elvis came out for the boxing team. I put him in the ring
against Sambo Barrom and this guy bloodied Elvis' nose pretty good.
Then Elvis came to me and said, 'Coach, I hate to tell you this, but
I'm quitting the team. I'm a lover, not a fighter.'"
Elvis' boxing gloves are on display at Graceland.
He would later play a fighter in a 1962 film, "Kid Galahad,"
and was trained for the fight scenes by former welterweight champion
Mushy Callahan.
Elvis
and Muhammad Ali were friends. He would visit Ali at the fighter's
Deer Lake, Pa., training camp. Ali once told a story about how he and
Elvis sneaked into a nearby redneck bar, and Elvis ran on the stage to
sing a quick verse of "Hound Dog" and then ran out of the
bar together. Elvis said, 'Champ, I've never done that before in my
life.'"
Another time, when Mike Douglas was visiting Ali at Deer Lake, Elvis
had heard Douglas was at Deer Lake, and he called the camp to
apologize for shooting out his television set while the Mike Douglas
show was on. According to George Dillman, Ali's martial arts teacher
who now owns the camp, Elvis wanted to let Douglas know that he wasn't
mad at him. He was mad at a guest on the show who had said something
about him.
Just another misunderstood act of violence. 911 Mike can relate to
that.
They are keeping 911 Mike on a short leash here, fearful that any
contact with any human being — or reporter — would result in, of
course, a call to 911 and the end of his big showdown with heavyweight
champion Lennox Lewis Saturday night at the Pyramid arena. On Sunday,
before entering a fitness center for a workout, 911 Mike encountered a
group of demonstrators who were shouting "stop homophobia"
at him and waving signs.
911 Mike walked over to the demonstrators, and the stage appeared to
be set for disaster. But instead 911 Mike hugged one of the
demonstrators and said he was not homophobic. And when he left after
his workout, 911 Mike rolled down the window of the sports utility
vehicle he was riding in and said, "Listen, listen, I'm not
homophobic. I told them I'm not homophobic. So if I use a homophobic
term I'm not homophobic."
Yesterday, when he arrived at the fitness center, 911 Mike signed some
autographs and asked, "Where's my homosexual friends?"
Today, 911 Mike is supposed to have a workout session at a Tunica,
Miss., casino that is open to the media. We'll see. This has been an
on-again, off-again decision on whether 911 Mike will be allowed to
have contact with the outside world.
What promoters should definitely do, though, is schedule a tour of
Graceland for 911 Mike. It's quite the spectacle.
In gift shops, you can find Elvis shirts, hats, candles, salt shakers,
silverware, music boxes, thimbles, clocks, key chains, ties, plaques
and a version of Elvis monopoly, among the many trinkets available.
You can even find Elvis himself, in a souvenir wand with the following
sales pitch: "Can you find Elvis? He is inside the magic
wand."
So that's where he's been hiding.
In a tour of Graceland, you can see the famed "Jungle Room,"
where Elvis partied like it was 1999 but missed it by 22 years (he
died in 1977, and Memphis is honoring the King with a big 25th
anniversary show in August). You can see the kitchen, which, according
to the automated tape tour guide, "was especially busy." And
outside, in the "Meditation Garden," you can see the graves
of Elvis Aaron Presley, along with his father, Vernon; mother Gladys;
grandmother Minnie Mae, and, which came as a shock to me, the grave of
Jessie Garon Presley — Elvis' twin brother who died at childbirth.
Boxing writer Tom Hauser recently wrote on the Web site SecondsOut.com
that 911 Mike visited the grave of the old-time great featherweight
Abe Attell, who also was believed to be the bag man who delivered
mobster Arnold Rothstein's money to the 1919 Chicago White Sox in the
Black Sox scandal. 911 Mike reportedly spent six hours talking to the
grave.
Elvis is dead, buried and waiting at Graceland to hear from 911 Mike.
Two of the greatest:
Elvis and Ali >>
Elvis
and Muhammed Ali (photos) >>
June 05, 2002
Presley's
South: Always on our minds
(Independent.co.uk - June 01, 2002)
Elvis Presley - king of
rock'n'roll and tragic star. Simon Calder takes a trip through the
American South
where a legend was born.
"Always on my mind." That was the point, during the visit to
Graceland, when my composure disintegrated. Our tour group had been
hurried through the house where Elvis lived and died. With 2,500
tourists pumping through every day, there is barely time to reflect.
But the house feels haunted all right by the spectre of
unbelievably tackiness.
The saddest thing about the relatively modest house at 3764 Elvis
Presley Boulevard, Memphis, is that it has been left exactly as it was
when the greatest singer in the world died of desolation on 16 August
1977. From the mirrored ceilings and stacked televisions to the last
leopard skin in the Jungle Room, you can sense the despair of
Presley's later years.
Elvis is with you everywhere in Memphis. Down the Mississippi in New
Orleans, a streetcar was once named Desire. In Memphis, besides the
Boulevard, the Presley name is celebrated on a night club, a bus
(number 13) and a Day (8 January, his birthday). Strangely, the
airport is not (yet) named after him. Memphis International is where
tens of thousands of fans will arrive this summer to commemorate 25
years since his squalid death-by-burger.
I wanted to celebrate the artist as a young man, who clambered out of
poverty with only the strongest, sweetest, sexiest voice the modern
world has ever known. So I headed across the Mississippi state border,
south-east along US Highway 78, to the town were Elvis was born in
1935.
"Tupelo – the place to be" is the civic motto (a slogan
that, curiously, it shares with Belgium). Its name comes from the
Tupelo gum tree. The official map features every single set of traffic
lights in town. Tupelo asserts it is "a vibrant, booming
city" – I see suburban sprawl. "Big-city attractions"
– all I perceive is the usual detritus of strip malls and gas
stations.
Through a few more of those celebrated traffic signals, and you reach
the core, a lattice of streets named for presidents who never quite
made it to Tupelo. The "model city of nearly 35,000 offering a
high quality of life" is unravelling slowly into the urban
dereliction that afflicts most American towns as the ties of community
loosen and fray.
Yet I just can't help believing Tupelo is different. It might lack the
historical allure of, say, Stratford-upon-Avon, but then Shakespeare
never sold a billion records. As birthplace of a genius, Elvis's home
town qualifies for automatic elevation to the premier league of
tourist destinations.
Between 4 and 5am on 8 January 1935, Gladys Presley gave birth to two
boys at 306 Old Saltillo Road. One, Jesse, was still-born. The other
lived with his parents in the tiny two-room shack until it was
repossessed four years later. These days, a dollar buys you entry into
what is now known as 306 Elvis Presley Boulevard.
Vernon Presley and his brother had borrowed $180 to buy the materials
to build a home that, at the time, was on the eastern fringe of
Tupelo. The sparse, timid furnishings are diametrically opposite the
velvet and leather excesses of Graceland.
In the tail end of the Depression, the South was not a comfortable
place to be. After their eviction, the Presleys moved to a succession
of relatives' homes and rented apartments, living down to the
stereotype "white trash".
Elvis was not a high achiever at school, the next stop on the trail:
Lawhon School, Main Street. He even failed to win the singing
competition with a rendition of "Old Shep", which ends
"If dogs have a heaven/There's one thing I know/Old Shep has a
wonderful home". Elvis didn't.
The identity of the child who beat him into second place is not
recorded at the Birthplace Museum across the street from the shack.
"One of the most unique private collections of Elvis memorabilia
in the world" will delight devotees determined to revel in
randomness and celebrate the commonplace, and depress those who will
carbon-date the Las Vegas jumpsuit on display as the beginning of the
end.
Cheer yourself up at Johnny's Drive-In, on the corner of East Main
Street and Veterans Boulevard. It has served Elvis and countless
distant cousins (Presley is a common surname here) with catfish and
ribs.
Some time later, with a stomach as heavy as the humidity, I
hitch-hiked back to downtown Tupelo, and was picked up in seconds by a
couple whose air-conditioned pick-up was as icy as the Mississippi
afternoon was sweltering. "You know they rebuilt that shack in a
different place, dontcha?" said the driver, referring not to
Johnny's Drive-In but to Elvis's birthplace. I thought, ah well, the
Shakespeare industry has taken a few liberties too. But where could I
hear some music tonight?
"Jefferson Place," they chorused, as they dropped me off
outside the redbrick bulk of the Tupelo Hardware Store – the next
stop on the road to stardom. Like many young American males who had
grown up during the Second World War, Elvis wanted a gun –
specifically, a .22 rifle. But Gladys persuaded her son to choose a
guitar for his 12th birthday instead. This was the place she bought it
for him, price $7.75. Today, it looks as despondent as every other
retailer in downtown Tupelo.
Am I lonesome tonight? Not likely, because once the sun stops
tormenting the town, Southern companionship emerges. Any president who
wandered into Jefferson Place on a Saturday night would find plenty of
friends who will enquire politely of the stranger what brings them
here and what brand of beer they would prefer.
Caught in a small-town poverty trap, Vernon Presley took the
13-year-old prodigy and the rest of the family along US78 to Memphis,
which was enjoying a post-war economic revival – the world's first
Holiday Inn was one product. The majority of the city's white folks
had no idea that the black population around Beale Street was
composing the foundations of modern music. Elvis, the new kid in town,
picked himself from the white trash heap and learned from them.
Back in Graceland, disbelievers in the monarch's mortality can visit
his grave in the grounds. Here, someone had left a single red rose
with a card reading "Always on my mind". If the card wasn't
stained with tears while the donor was writing, it certainly was by
the time a few tour groups had sobbed their way from the grave of the
man who was too good for his own good.
Presley's
palaces: His own heartbreak hotels
Elvis had dozens of homes during his 42-year lifespan; these are just
a handful.
Bad
Nauheim, West Germany. Like most well-to-do members
of the US military posted to the Cold War's front line, Elvis rented a
big house. His was a five-bedroom white stucco house at 14
Goethestrasse, where he lived from October 1958 to the end of 1959
while serving in the Army.
Hollywood,
California. Elvis lived at 565 Perugia Way from 1960
until 1965. He invited the Beatles in 1965. Formerly owned by the Shah
of Iran, the house was demolished in 1990 to make way for a new
development.
Palm
Springs, California. Elvis was introduced to Palm
Springs by his manager, Colonel Tom Parker. In 1965, Elvis
commissioned a 15-room house to be built at 845 Chino Canyon Road. In
1967, he also briefly leased a 5,000-square-foot futuristic house on a
cul-de-sac at 1350 Ladera Circle. It was here that Elvis spent his
wedding night with Priscilla. The estate has subsequently been
nicknamed the Honeymoon Hideaway, and is available for honeymoons and
weddings (001 760 322 1192, www.elvishoneymoon.com).
Beverly
Hills, California. In 1967, he bought a house at
1,174 Hillcrest Road, Beverly Hills. Fans still make pilgrimages to
the gates of the home today to scrawl messages about their hero.
Las
Vegas, Nevada. Elvis's comeback began at the
International Hotel at 3,000 Paradise Road in 1969; it is now the Las
Vegas Hilton (001 702 732 5111, www.lasvegashilton.net)
and home to the Star Trek attractions. Presley stayed in the Imperial
Suite on the 30th floor, later renamed the Elvis Presley Suite. This
suite witnessed the separation of Elvis and Priscilla, and was where
Elvis drew a .44-calibre pistol and shot the TV. The suite has now
been ripped out, but there is still a 400lb bronze statue of Elvis in
the lobby.
June 05, 2002
Organizers
pleased with festival's progress
An estimated 25,000 turned out for fourth annual
Elvis weekend.
By M. Scott Morris (Tupelo
Daily Journal) June 04, 2002
Elvis Presley Festival organizers will spend the week poring over gate
receipts and bills to determine the festival's financial status.
They're not too worried about what they'll find.
"There's no question about the festival doing well. We just don't
have the final numbers yet," said Jim High, assistant director of
the Downtown Tupelo Main Street Association. "By Friday, we
should have a real indication of where we are."
High estimated 25,000 people attended the fourth annual festival,
which ended Sunday. It included performances by Charlie Daniels and
B.B. King on Friday and Saturday evenings as well as the "Riding
with the King" bicycle race Sunday.
"That's our best estimate right now," said Gary Bailey,
festival chairman. "It's not a big issue with us. We're happy
with the number of people we saw at the festival. That's what matters,
and I feel very good about what I saw."
Just by looking at the crowd, organizers could tell there were more
people for 2002 than 2001, which drew roughly 14,000 people.
Part of the increase is attributed to the talent lineup, which was
more expensive this year. King's fee was $50,000. Bailey said some of
that was offset by donations from corporate sponsors, like Cingular
Wireless, which presented the King concert.
"It's tricky math," Bailey said. "If we were to bring
somebody in for $75,000 next year, would we get a one-third increase
in attendance? It's a judgment call."
Organizers are anticipating continued festival growth and there are
tentative plans to move the event to the new City Hall Plaza in coming
years.
There are many questions to be answered before such a move is
approved, including whether beer gardens would be available at a new
site. Alcohol consumption is currently prohibited on city property.
"The beer gardens did very well this year," Bailey said.
"Depending on how things happen, that could be one reason to stay
where we are."
June 04, 2002
Elvis in 2002 – Find Out What’s
Happening! >>
-------------------------- (EPE
update - June 03, 2002)
June 04, 2002
Elvis,
Then & Now, Official 25th Anniversary Bookazine Hits Stands August
6
------------------------------------- (EPE
- June 03, 2002)
Following
is a press release from Gruner & Jahr USA:
Coming August 6:
 ELVIS,
THEN & NOW
Authorized by Graceland
The Only Official Commemorative Bookazine
New York, NY – Gruner + Jahr USA announces the release of Elvis,
Then & Now, the only official bookazine authorized by Graceland,
commemorating the 25th anniversary year of Elvis Presley’s death and
Elvis Week 2002.
In cooperation with Elvis Presley Enterprises (EPE), Elvis, Then &
Now was produced with special access to Graceland’s archives, an
extensive photo-library of over 40,000 images.
Elvis, Then & Now is a unique compilation of interviews, original
essays and rarely-seen photos. The bookazine is sealed in plastic to
prevent damage or mishandling and includes a complimentary CD of
Heartbreak Hotel and a rare version of In the Ghetto.
Executive Editor Kelly Winkler comments: “It’s really a
one-of-a-kind anthology of everything Elvis: his clothes, his hair,
his stuff, the cars he loved and the women he cherished. And because
we had access to Graceland’s incredible archives and Elvis images,
we were able to choose—and exclusively use—the best of the
best.”
Gruner + Jahr USA, one of the top-ranked magazine publishers in
America, reaching one of the largest readerships in America, publishes
Child, Family Circle, Fast Company, Fitness, Inc, Parents, Rosie, and
YM. G+J USA is 25.1% owned by the Jahr Group and 74.9% owned by
Bertelsmann AG, the largest privately held and the fifth largest media
company overall in the world with yearly revenues at $17.86 billion.
For more information on G+J USA go to www.gjusa.com.
June 03, 2002
It's
now or never: Elvis is back in the building
By Patrick Donovan (The
Sydney Morning Herald) June 03, 2002
The King is back.
For the first time, the Graceland Estate has approved a remix of one
of Elvis Presley's songs, A Little Less Conversation.
The remarkable comeback from the King of Rock `n' Roll comes 25 years
after his death.
The obscure song, released in 1968 as a B-side from the single Almost
In Love, which appeared in the film Live A Little, Love A Little, has
been remixed by Dutch DJ and producer Tom Holkenborg as Elvis Vs JXL.
The original Presley version, just 99 seconds long, was a great dance
track but way too short.
The big beat remix, a sound made famous in 1998 by DJ Fatboy Slim on
his hit album You've Come a Long Way, Baby, clocks in at three
minutes, 30 seconds and the extended remix is just over six minutes.
It is not the first time a remix has reinvigorated a career.
British DJ Tall Paul's 2001 remix of INXS's ballad Never Tear Us Apart
has been nominated for the most performed dance work at the
Australasian Performing Rights Association Awards in Sydney today.
So are today's ravers jiving away to the King? Definitely. The single,
which has been released on vinyl to clubs, is No13 on the Australasian
Recording Industry Association club chart this week.
Radio cannot get enough of it and it is also heard on Nike's World Cup
advertising.
Presley's own label is ecstatic about the song and plans to saturate
the market with the King before the 25th anniversary of his death on
August 16.
It also will not hurt in the lead-up to the September 23 release of an
album of digitally remastered Elvis number 1 hits
"We're ecstatic," says BMG's Andrew Jones, who manages the
Elvis material for the company.
"We're going out with the number ones in September and it's a
fantastic platform to relaunch him in the marketplace. A whole new
generation are discovering him.
"We want to release a few singles in the lead-up to the
remastered album. So there's strong consideration for remixing other
songs."
June 01, 2002
Fans to
Mark Last Elvis Show
By Associated Press - June 1, 2002
INDIANAPOLIS -- The last building that Elvis left may be gone, but
some fans are doing their part to make sure it's not forgotten.
When Elvis Presley took the stage at Market Square Arena during the
summer of 1977, no one knew it would be his last show.
On June 26, the 25th anniversary of that concert, a group of Presley
fans will dedicate a historical marker at the site where the arena
stood until it was demolished last year.
The marker will bear an inscription in bronze reading "Ladies and
Gentlemen, Elvis has left the building" atop a granite column.
"We've designed it in such a way that when something else is
developed there, hopefully we'll be able to still use it in a
cornerstone," said Kay Lipps, chairman of the Taking Care of
Presley Memorial Committee.
The marker will be erected on a street corner overlooking the gravel
parking lot where the arena once stood. A time capsule encased within
it will hold Presley memorabilia.
Presley died Aug. 16, 1977, from heart disease worsened by
prescription drug abuse.
"The edifices, the places that we played in, were good
places," said Al Dvorin, Presley's show announcer from 1955 until
his death. "If the cities have seen fit to put up bigger places,
so be it. But our memories lie in places where we've played,"
Dvorin, whose trademark announcement, "Elvis has left the
building, thank you and good night," closed each of Presley's
shows, will be on hand for the marker's dedication.
June 01, 2002
"Sergeant
Presley: Our Untold Story of Elvis' Missing Years"
This item will be published in September
2002.
 ECW
Press sign Rex and Elisabeth Mansfield to a book deal detailing their
two
years with Elvis Presley in Germany
Rex Mansfield was the only man to ever take a girl away from Elvis
Presley during his reign as the King of Rock and Roll and lived to
tell about it. Mansfield was drafted into the army with Presley in
1958 and became one of his closest friends throughout those years,
that is, until he fell in love with Elisabeth Stefaniak.
Stefaniak, a 19-year-old German girl who was infatuated with Elvis,
met him at a movie theater one night, fell in love and began dating
each other. Soon, she became Elvis' personal secretary, lived in his
house and was primed to become his secretary at Graceland.
However, along the way, Rex and Elisabeth fell in love and she was
torn between Rex, a common solider and Elvis Presley, the world's
number-one superstar.
The book, "Sergeant Presley: Our Untold Story of Elvis' Missing
Years", is a lively account of their years with the King
(1958-1960) with chapters written by both Rex and Elisabeth Mansfield.
The book, priced at $24.95, contains many never seen before photos of
Presley taken by the Mansfields, and includes a special color photo
section.
The Mansfields will also be signing copies of their book in Memphis
during Elvis Week. To order a copy, go to www.ecwpress.com
or www.amazon.com
Source : (e-mail) Marshall Terrill
May 31, 2002
Elvis Presley Festival will be held in Downtown
Tupelo May 31 to June 2.
... more
>>
May 31, 2002
Rock
legends' memorabilia in live internet auction
(Ananova) May
31, 2002
Elvis Presley's custom-built white Cadillac is being auctioned live on
the internet.
The 1974 car with the licence plate ELVIS has a reserve price of
$60,000, the equivalent of L41,000.
Other items in the auction include a signed cowboy hat worn by
Madonna, a Trabant car signed by U2, and a Fender Stratocaster used by
Jimi Hendrix.
The reserve price on Madonna's cowboy hat is L1,400, and bids for the
Trabant are set to start at L2,800.
A reserve price of $500,000 - L343,000 - has been placed on Hendrix's
guitar.
The Rock Legends online pop and rock memorabilia auction, which is
being run by Ebay, starts on Saturday June 1.
Guitars owned by Bob Dylan and Eddie Van Halen are also up for grabs
in the live auction, which is being held in Las Vegas.
May 29, 2002
50 GOLDEN YEARS -
A COMMEMORATIVE COLLECTION
CLASSIC AND RARE RECORDINGS FROM THE LEGENDARY SUN
LABEL
LIMITED EDITION BOX SET INCLUDING:
• 200 tracks including some not previously available on
domestic CD
• Presentation photo album-style box
• 72-page
book >>
• Elvis
Presley's first acetate recordings replicated on a 7" single
>>
Full
Sun Track Listing >> |
50 GOLDEN YEARS - FBUBX002
DISC 1
SUN RISE - In The Beginning
DISC 2
SUN STARS - The Principals
DISC 3
SUN CREAM - The Key Components
DISC 4
SUN SHADES - Rockabilly Central
DISC 5
SUN STYLES - Rockabilly Crucial
DISC 6
SUN STREAMS - Blues & Country
DISC 7
SUN SET - Still Flying The Flag
DISC 8
SUN DAYS - From The Source
7" VINYL ELVIS PRESLEY - The First Sun Recordings
|
Source : FAB-U-LUS
May 28, 2002
ELVIS
PRESLEY - TICKLE ME SOUNDTRACK (LP)
 Castle
Music in association with BMG/RCA are proud to announce the
upcoming release of the soundtrack that accompanied ELVIS PRESLEY'S
1965 movie Tickle Me.
Released on vinyl, on 10th June, this will be the first time ever that
the soundtrack has been made commercially available in its entirety
with bonus material. The album comes complete with full-colour
album-sized 12 page booklet featuring rare memorabilia and
photographs, plus liner notes by top rock 'n’ roll authority Stuart
Coleman.
Tickle me was Elvis' 18th film and literally rescued its producers
Allied Artists from financial ruin. The movie sees Elvis playing
Lonnie Beale, a down-on-his-luck rodeo star who falls for health farm
PT instructor Pam (Jocelyn Lane) against a backdrop of slap-stick
shenanigans and bikini-clad beauties; a happy-go-lucky plot that
became the blue-print for most of his mid-period films.
Tickle Me features nine songs all of which had been previously
recorded between 1960 & 1963 and, although two EPs were released
internationally at the time, the soundtrack album was only issued in
South Africa. This exciting release represents the first-ever issue of
the complete movie soundtrack plus rare alternate takes on one vinyl
LP.
TICKLE ME SOUNDTRACK (LP) - Track Listing:
SIDE 1
(Such An) Easy Question
It Feels So Right
I Feel That I've Known You Forever
Slowly But Surely
Night Rider
Put The Blame On Me
Dirty, Dirty Feeling
I'm Yours
(It's A) Long Lonely Highway
Allied Artists' Tickle Me Radio Trailer (Version 1)
SIDE 2
Slowly But Surely (Take 1)
It Feels So Right (Take 2)
I'm Yours
(It's A) Long Lonely Highway
I Feel That I've Known You Forever (Take 3)
Night Rider (Take 5)
Source : Castle
Music
May 26, 2002
Top
10 hit for Florence’s Phillips, WQLT
By Terry Pace (TimesDaily)
May 26, 2002
FLORENCE - Sam Phillips has another Top 10 hit on his hands - this
time in the wild, competitive, up-and-down world of commercial radio.
The 79-year-old "Father of Rock 'n' Roll" - who began his
music career as a radio disc jockey in the Shoals - owns the Big River
Broadcasting Co. in his hometown of Florence.
Phillips' oldest local radio outlet - WQLT-FM, 107.3 - ranked No. 10
among adult-contemporary stations when Arbitron recently released
national ratings results in the 2002 Radio & Records Directory.
"It's almost unbelievable, because markets our size are usually
not recognized that much," Phillips said in a telephone interview
from his home in Memphis, Tenn.
"But our ratings have just gone completely through the roof among
adult-contemporary stations," he added. "It's just an
incredible achievement."
Scoring a 12.3 rating, WQLT was the only station in the South to rank
in Arbitron's Top 10 listings for average-quarter-hour shares of the
radio audience. WIKY-FM of Evansville, Ind., was No. 1 with 18.9,
followed by stations in West Virginia, New Hampshire, North Dakota,
Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa and New York.
"This is something I'm so very proud of," said Phillips, who
founded the legendary Sun Records label in Memphis half a century ago,
launching the rockabilly careers of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis,
Johnny Cash and many others.
"This will make every station in the country and every agency in
the business, take notice that this a market to contend with,"
Phillips added. "I give full credit to the people there who make
it happen."
Big River's general manager, Nick Martin, who says the national honor
came out of the blue, agrees with Phillips' assessment of the secret
to Q-107's soaring success.
"Very simply put, it's our staff," Martin said. "We
give them not only the creative flexibility and trust to get the job
done, but also the autonomy to execute it."
That means WQLT's program director, Charlie Ross, and both the on-air
and off-air staff are encouraged by Martin, Phillips and his sons,
Jerry and Knox Phillips, to be innovative and imaginative on the job.
"The great thing about our success is that no one person can take
credit for it," Ross said. "A lot of radio stations have a
problem with a programming-versus-sales mentality. We don't have that
problem here."
In recent years, Big River Broadcasting has made technical
improvements and market expansions that have increased the station's
potent 100,000-watt reach to listeners across north Alabama, south
Tennessee and east Mississippi.
"We are dedicated to building a regional brand," Martin
said. "Our recent opening of offices and a studio in Decatur have
helped increase our visibility and business opportunities in the
Tennessee Valley, but this particular ranking is based on metro
numbers from the Florence-Muscle Shoals market."
Martin added that WQLT, which Phillips purchased in 1972, has a
management staff with more than a century of combined radio
experience. He said the Arbitron ranking will help WQLT stand out in
the crowd among national advertisers and industry leaders.
"This really validates what we believe and do each day,"
Martin said. "The foundation that began 30 years ago and the
contributions of each and every individual - and each and every
listener - have helped over the years to create the brand identity of
Q-107."
Ross added that news of the Top 10 ranking marked the end of a yearly
emotional roller coaster that accompanies the annual release of
Arbitron radio rankings.
"It's still hard to put into words my feelings about seeing
Q-107's call letters in print as the No. 10 adult-contemporary station
in the nation," Ross said. "Sure, I'd like to see us rank
higher nationally, but in order to do that, we've got to make sure
we're always taking care of things here at home.
"The national ranking is great," Ross added, "but it's
the Shoals and the rest of the Tennessee Valley we cover that matter
most to me."
May 26, 2002
Elvis
Tracks Burn Up 'Lilo & Stitch' Soundtrack
(Billboard)
May 24, 2002
Songs by Elvis Presley, as well as Elvis covers by Wynonna and the
A*Teens make up the soundtrack to the forthcoming animated Walt Disney
Pictures film "Lilo & Stitch." Due June 11 via Walt
Disney Records, the album also leans on the film's lush Hawaiian
setting with two songs by Mark Keali'i Ho'omalu and the Kamehameha
Schools Children's Chorus.
Wynonna covers Presley's "Burning Love," while the
Stockholm-based A*Teens take on the King's "Can't Help Falling in
Love," which will be heard over the movie's end credits. Five
Presley recordings, including "Hound Dog" and
"Heartbreak Hotel," and three pieces from the Alan
Silvestri-composed score round out the release ... more>>
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