SWEDISH PROVERB about FRIENDSHIP

"Friendship doubles our joy and divides our grief." - Swedish Proverb

We've been saving this proverb to introduce May 2010 because this is the month that VIVA LAS VEGAS, which is one of my favorite movies of all time as you may know from reading my Google Blogger profile, was made. I was friends with Elvis Presley when he was making this movie and got to know Ann-Margret, who has to be one of the most famous Swedish-Americans ever, a bit. I've ever since respected her as a person.

And over the last several months we have come to know that we have some Swedish fans of early rock and roll and rockabilly as well...

(311) RCA - VICTOR RADIO CORPORATION OF AMERICA - and ELVIS PRESLEY

While so many of us pitched songs to smaller labels, the bigger labels attracted artists with bigger deals.

RADIO CORPORATION OF AMERICA - RCA - was the label that Elvis, Ann-Margret, and a lot of star performers recorded on. They had the money to promote and the stars working hard to keep their status. We're linking to the OFFICIAL RCA web site.

Elvis Presley recorded this one in 1956 at RCA in New York City... and singing to an RCA-VICTOR like "Hound Dog" on television was a great public relations coup for Elvis and his manager-agent-promoter Colonel Tom Parker!




Just discovered this historical music video of Elvis performing live in Tupelo in 1957. This was the Elvis Presley I first met in '57. Compare the live performance with what the producers at RCA in New York did with the song...

RCA RECORD LABEL (WITH THE HOUND DOG) FROM TED STAUTON's AMAZING COLLECTION

Take a peek at this RCA record label from Ted's collection which we linked to in it's entirety recently. Thanks again Ted for posting your collection on the web...

BLOGARAMA LINK - YOU CAN VOTE FOR US!

If you like our blog and want to vote for us then follow the link to BLOGARAMA and put "WES BRYAN" in the search block... Of course we'd love to earn five stars... we love blogging but we work hard at it too ...

BUDDY KNOX, JACK SCOTT, WARREN SMITH, CHARLIE FEATHERS 1977 AMERICAN INVASION OF BRITIAN

HERE IS THE INFORMATION WE GOT FROM THE POSTING YOU-TUBER ON THIS FINE VIDEO PRESENTATION!

"Hi, you commented on a 'video' I posted recently. The Buddy Knox tracks were from a session (not concert) that was recorded for the BBC and transmitted on September 3rd 1977. There is an excellent article on all the American artists that came over and recorded sessions for the series that ran '76 - '79 in 'Now Dig This Magazine' Buddy, Warren, Charlie and Jack came over and performed a concert at the Rainbow theatre in April 1977. A LP was released of this concert. Buddy performed Lovey Dovey, I Think I'm Gonna Kill Myself, That'll Be The Day, Oh Boy, Peggy Sue, Hula Love and Party Doll. Hope this has been of some help to you!"

veejaythernrdj - United Kingdom

WES: BUDDY KNOX and me were on a road tour in '59-'60 and performed in every state but Alaska, Hawaii, and Utah... we were supposed to go to England at the end of the tour but it never was arranged. VIDEO REPLACED JULY 2013

HELLO to GARY OWENS ! DJ and FUNNY MAN

Gary Owens, the DJ and funny man, is another man who through the years encouraged me to write a book. I last saw Gary in Dave Dutton's store before Dave finally retired it. "You knew all those people - Elvis - all of them," Gary said. Gary is someone I admire greatly for all his accomplisments and - of course - his sense of humor!

Gary's in the Radio Hall of Fame - just click on the title to go there! -

(310) DONALD IRWIN ROBERTSON INVENTOR OF THE SLIP NOTE FOR THE PIANO

The day that Rod Lauren was recording my song "Tender Love, I got to talking with Steve Shoals, the producer at RCA. We were walking up the street and I asked him if he had seen Don Robertson lately. Steve said, "No, but Wes, that guy is a genius."

Don invented the slip note for the piano. He was an amazing pianist and performed on Elvis Presley and Ann-Margret records.

Don was also known to be helpful. A couple years back my daughter Hollie, a singer with a three octave range and following in her dad's footsteps a bit as a songwriter, had a conversation with him on the phone for near an hour. She was looking through his music catalogue to see if she could find a song she'd like to record.

We're linking to Don's official site above as well as his page on the NASHVILLE SONGWRITERS FOUNDATION below...


http://www.nashvillesongwritersfoundation.com/p-s/don-robertson.aspx

(309) ROD LAUREN RECORDS a COUPLE JIMMY BOWEN - WES BRYAN SONGS

ROD LAUREN was, like me promoted to be an actor as well as a singer. And the exploration of space continued to fascinate the American public, then as it does now. (Scientist Stephen Hawkings recently said that alien life is out there and we do not want to meet it!)

ROD LAUREN RECORDED TWO SONGS that JIMMY BOWEN and me wrote, "Tender Love" and "Why Can't I Win Your Love?"

He was on RCA and Steve Shoals, the same man who signed Elvis Presley to RCA in about 1955, was the producer on these two songs of ours.

ROD is one of the actors in this space romp meets the beach party!
(Christine here: I called Wes and said "I think I found a video - did Rod do a movie? Wes laughed and started yelling THE HAND THE HAND! - it's a cult classic!"

(308) THE ROSES - ROCKABILLY HALL OF FAME BACKGROUND SINGERS

The ROSES were a background singing group who worked on my recording with Norman Petty as producer. We're linking to the ROCKABILLY HALL article and pictures of the men. They worked with Buddy Holly and the Crickets, Buddy Knox, Waylon Jennings, and me - to name a few.

UPDATED JANUARY 2013 with link renewal:
ROCKABILLY HALL OF FAME : THE ROSES

March 2014 - Link added to side bar

WES BRYAN BLUE BABY (also called SO BLUE OVER YOU)

Arne did his thing and got this one up on Youtube before anyone else did and made up another beautiful photo collage to go with it. THANKS ARNE!

WES BRYAN I JUST WANT YOUR LOVE

OK Arne and friends! Here is the official scoop from me, WES BRYAN on the recording of this song! "I Just Want Your Love."

I split a session at Norman Petty's with BUDDY KNOX who recorded "I THINK I'M GONNA KILL MYSELF" that session. Yes! Jerry Allison of the Crickets was on drums, as was Joe B. on stand up base, and Sonny Curtis was on lead guitar. (Sonny went on to write the Mary Tyler More Show theme song...)

Jerry Allison was married to PEGGY SUE and she was there! Peggy Sue was beautiful and of course she's got the song "Peggy Sue" by Buddy Holly and the Crickets written for her!

THE SONG WAS WRITTEN FOR ME by two singer-songwriter friends from New York - ERSEL HICKEY and JOHNNY RIVERS!

WEST TEXAS BOP

This is an album that I believe was made of masters stored in Norman Petty's vault which was sold as part of his estate. (I do not profit from the sale of this album. However, the recordings I made at Petty's were unreleased and it's good to hear them years later.)

It's true that the intro for my song "Blue Baby" was also used on "That'll Be the Day." It works for both songs and I was recording with the Crickets left behind when Buddy Holly went on tour - and died in that plane crash.

NASHVILLE FLOODED GRAND OL OPRY A DISASTER

This YouTuber did a great job with this video with an appropriate song sung by Johnny Cash about a flood "Five Feet High and Rising."

Christine and I send our best wishes to the singers, songwriters, and all the people of NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE. We "stopped the presses" here, delaying posts to post this one...

ARNOLD H. GLASGOW Quote on Friendship

"A true friend never gets in your way, unless you happen to be going down."
-Arnold H. Glasgow

LAURENCE J. PETER Quote on Friendship

"You can always tell a real friend: When you've made a fool of yourself he doesn't feel you've done a permanent job!" - Laurence J. Peter