MARLENE DIETRICH Quote on Friendship

"It's the friend you can call at 4 am that matters." - Marlene Dietrich

(81) GOLDSTAR and PHIL SPECTOR'S WALL OF SOUND

Now Sylvester Cross, the owner of American Music publishing, was a cheapskate. But when we were recording demos at Goldstar recording studio we were warned to stop whatever we were doing if we saw Phil Spector lurking around. Cross was convinced that Phil had a reputation for stealing other people's lyrics and licks for good reason. Phil Spector seemed way too talented to me to do so and everyone else was trying to steal his Wall of Sound technique, for which there was a lot of mystery at the time.

(We know that Phil Spector's sensational murder trial has been in the news lately and we aren't going to go there. Suffice to say, we'll leave our blog commentary here right where we are in our story, the late 1950's and very early 1960's.)

Phil was early on associated with producing girl groups like the Crystals, and the Ronettes, African-American girl groups. He married Ronnie of the Ronettes.

Here's a You Tube presentation of the Crystals and the sound of Phil's "Wall of Sound," on the Dick Clark Show. It's fast forwarding a couple years to the mod sixties. I can't help think again about the music business - entertainment - and the ground being broken when it came to integration between Blacks and Whites during these early pre-civil rights years.



(ChristineTrzyna: Does the audience in the Ronettes video reveal segregation or integration? The Go Go Dancers in the white boots key us in to the mod sixties and what is happening here, White girls dancing in the background for a Black girl group. Most interesting to me, the line of Black girls - probably from South Central Los Angeles - doing their thing in a row in the audience. I can't help but think how great it was for them to see some other African American women as stars. And more interesting to me, the girls in the audience are going wild for the girls, just like they did for the boy teen idols we all know. I mean, when do we see boys going wild for boys? Almost never!)

Ronnie almost seems like an early Tina Turner.

Phil produced "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' by The Righteous Brothers. This You Tube video presentation of them singing that song is a great example of the Wall of Sound, sound and what the genius Phil Spector could do.




I knew Phil Spector from New York. In Los Angeles we got together for coffee at Canters, the Jewish deli that's still operating in the Fairfax District today. He was younger than me and typically hyper, but he was also always respectful to me. I'll say this about my time with Phil. He never talked against anyone to me.

(80) GLEN CAMPBELL - MUSICAL GENIUS WITH AN AUDIOGRAPHIC MEMORY

Another peer of mine at American Music was Glen Campbell. Glen used to come to the house my brother and I rented near Hollywood and hang out, when he first came to Hollywood by invitation of Jerry Capehart. Jerry Capehart discovered him playing in Albuquerque with his uncle Dick Bills' band. Jerry had been Eddie Cochran's manager and a co-writer with him on some songs.

Glen's ability to play several instruments - even the bagpipes - by ear earned him about $50 a week more than most of us made. He saved Sylvester Cross some money when he was in on sessions for demos.

Of course, as some of us soon learned, making demos for other people wasn't against our contracts. And the publishing houses were all in competition, and more than one of us recorded demos for other houses.

Glen Campbell has gone on to greater fame than perhaps anyone I worked with at American Music, when it comes to being a singer and entertainer. Glen had an incredible audiographic memory. He hears a song once and he has it.

Rockin Country Style discography on Glen Campbell link above!

Glen and I worked together a bit. We wrote a song that got recorded by more than one artist - including Glen, called "I'm A Fool." Rick Nelson also recorded the song. And it's mentioned on this Joey Cooper discography. Joey Cooper recorded the song - in my opinion perfectly - on Chancellor Records, Bob Marcucci's label.

http://www.geocities.jp/hideki_wtnb/joey-c45.html

BMI lists this song as:

I M A FOOL (Legal Title)
BMI Work #648724

Songwriters Glen Campbell and Wes Bryan

Publishing by UNICHAPPEL MUSIC

Glen was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2005. On stage he thanked songwriter Jimmy Reed, and Television Producer Tommy Smothers.

(79) JIMMY BOWEN KEEPS ON GOING!

Jimmy Bowen, who had been on Crest Records and Roulette Records, was another musical genius that I worked with at American Music. We wrote over 100 songs together, many he recorded as demos. He called me to be a "four chord genius" and a "melody tune smith."

One night we wrote about 17 songs - in that one night - in a few hours - just to see what we could do.

Together we wrote a song called "Somebody to Love," which Jimmy recorded on Crest. Johnny Rivers wanted to record it and was mad at us for a while that we didn't hand it to him. It was a travelin' man kind of song.

A few bars here on RCS Discography.... (UPDATED WITH NEW JIMMY BOWEN RCS LINK APRIL 2012) Link above.
Jimmy had been performing in Akron, Ohio when he heard that first ever recording I made in a kitchen in Winston-Salem with some other kids. We went to the record hop there where I played my demo for the local DJ, Art Roberts, WCUE.

Then, split from Buddy Knox and the Rhythm Orchids, but all artists on Roulette, I sometimes played on the same bill with Jimmy, while on the Buddy Knox tour. (Jimmy Bowen, Donny Lanier - the lead guitar player who was the instrumental "balls" of the band, and Buddy Knox had started out as the Rhythm Orchids together in west Texas. They got their name from the Orchid shirts they wore as a band originally.)

Jimmy would leave American Music in about 1964 to be a producer for Frank Sinatra's new label, Reprise. There he would help give new life to the careers of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr. These men were overshadowed by the new crop of rock and rollers hitting the charts. But Jimmy managed to select the song and produce "Everybody Loves Somebody Some Time," which became Dean Martin's theme song. Dean was on the charts surrounded by newcomers. And Jimmy did magic for Frank and Sammy too. He did "Stranger in the Night," for Frank that was Franks first single Gold record.

Here's a record Jimmy made in 1961 on Jerry Capehart's label which I found on You Tube. "Teenage Dream World." (VIDEO REPLACED BY THIS SELECTION APRIL 2012) "Aching Heart"

(78) CHALLENGE RECORDS : COWBOY STAR GENE AUTRY'S LABEL

Jerry Cole, Jerry Fuller, and a number of other talents, had been recorded on Challenge Records which was owned by cowboy star-entrepreneur Gene Autry, before they came to American Music to be songwriters more or less full time.

Through the early 1960's this was still an era in which many small labels managed to succeed, though perhaps only a very few of their artists are known today. If a song was a hit in a regional market for one of the regional market favorites, another company in another region might try the same song with one of their singers. It was the cover tune era. Sometimes this worked for the songwriter, because the song was being recorded repeatedly and got a lot of regional airplay on the radio. Sometimes though it was a matter of chart wars just diluting the overall success of the song.

To those of us who grew up admiring the cowboys, the way me and Elvis and Tommy Smothers loved Lash LaRue, men like Gene Autry, who diversified and built empires, were important role models.

Gene went on to own radio stations as well and today he's behind a hugely successful museum in Griffith Park, Los Angeles. Once called the Gene Autry Western Heritage, it just goes by "The Autry National Center" now. It's the place where you can take in Westerns and silent films and check the movie version of Cowboys and Indians against reality, and attend Native American events.

http://koti.mbnet.fi/wdd/challenge.htm

RCS DISCOGRAPHY FOR CHALLENGE RECORDS, Gene's label, linked above!

GENE AUTRY's MUSEUM has grown to be THE AUTRY NATION CENTER and is collaborating with other museums that document Native American life.

http://www.autrynationalcenter.org/

MUSICIANS HALL OF FAME INAUGURAL - NOVEMBER 26, 2007

Friends, we are posting this notice for the new Musicians Hall of Fame, to let you know they are honoring some of those "side men," "session men," and "studio musicians" (Christine says "And where are the women?") that a lot of people don't know about. They are opening in a couple days with a big ceremony to open the museum and give these guys awards for their work.

Now James Burton was one of the musicians who worked for me in the studio before he went on to be Elvis Presley's and Scotty Moore and the Blue Moon Boys, as you know from reading this blog, was very much a part of Elvis' early success. We posted on them earlier, but to recap, Scotty is the man called "The Guitar That Changed The World." His licks such as what you hear on "Heartbreak Hotel," were key to the sound associated with Elvis. Elvis was just one of the Blue Moon Boys before it became "Elvis and The Blue Moon Boys."

Let's give a hand to these musicians whose life work it has been to give us the soundtracks of our lives!

Wes Bryan and Christine Tryzna

Link above to the MUSICIANS HALL OF FAME'S web site!

(77) JERRY FULLER - RICK NELSON'S SPECIAL SONGWRITER

Jerry Fuller was another of my talented musical peers at American Music. Jerry had also once been on Challenge Records, Gene Autry's label, like Jerry Cole. He had a hit with the "Tennessee Waltz" which had first been a hit for Patti Page, on Challenge. Jerry is best known for being the writer of "Travelin' Man" which was recorded by Sam Cooke, but more famously, Rick Nelson. The demo record went from Joe Osborne, the base player, to Rick.

Sometimes a demo, for all the creative talent, energy, and money, it took to make it, got lost under a stack of other demos an artist was sent. A demo could sit for years waiting for someone to play it, so personal contacts and recommendations were important - the "pitch."

The Rockin Country Style's Discography for Jerry Fuller is linked above!

Now, listen to "First Loves Never Dies." Elvis used to play that song himself. He loved it. And when the lyrics "first loves never dies" was heard, he would put his finger in the air as if he were making a point to the guys. The woman he was thinking about, was a woman he loved before he was famous - Dixie Locke. Elvis never knew, after he was famous, if a woman loved him for himself or not. Dixie had.

Jerry Fuller's web site here tells his success story as a songwriter best.

http://www.jerryfuller.com/

Jerry plays his frets like Jimmie Rodgers.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO OUR READERS OF WES BRYAN - MY LIFE IN MUSIC

Thank You for reading my saga, and let's all give thanks for what we do have at this time in our lives.

Wes

(76) JERRY COLE - A CHAMP OF A CO-WORKER

One of my co-workers at American Music was Jerry Cole, who was once with the Champs, famous for their "Tequila" song." The musicians who made up the Champs were studio musicians - then we said "session men" - who had a first single that made it to the number one spot on the charts and won a Grammy for the best Rhythm and Blues record of 1958. It sold more than six million copies throughout the world. So like me Jerry had an early and unexpected success of a bit of a novelty tune that went to Gold. We wrote about fifteen songs together. He was a great musician too.

Here's a You Tube presentation of the Champs. Bob Morris, Dash Crofts, Jerry Cole, Jimmy Seals. Their music was called "instrumental rock" meaning no lyrics, but this song has a definite "south of the border" - Mexican - flavor.

Yes, Dash Crofts and Jimmy Seals - of the future Seals and Crofts - were in the Champs!

Now here's a Tequila Song which was recorded on Challenge Records, owned by Gene Autry, the cowboy star, about 1959. The name The Champs came from Gene Autry's horse, named Champ.

And then there's this snappier version of The Tequila Song. That's Jerry yelling "Tequila!

What music production in the recording studio can do!

(75) BMI AND OTHER REGISTRIES TO PROTECT THE SONGWRITER

In the early 1960's I decided it was time to officially join either BMI or ASCAP. BMI - Broadcast Music, Inc. and ASCAP- The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, were there to make sure that a songwriter got his or her residuals - payment for work that was recorded by others or used by others in a performance. At the time it seemed that most of the younger guys - my peers - were choosing BMI.

Link to the official BMI web site above!

And here's the official ASCAP web site:

http://www.ascap.com/index.html

A songwriter can be a member of one or both of these organizations. It's a choice. You can also choose not to join at all. BMI and ASCAP don't have worldwide authority. There are other organizations that do what these two do for their member artists. For instance, a Canadian songwriter usually signs up with their Society of Composers, Authors, and Music Publishers of Canada - SOCAN.

http://www.socan.ca/

In England - the United Kingdom - it's the Performing Rights Society NEW LINK!

http://www.prsformusic.com/Pages/default.aspx

These organizations monitor the use or play of a song and provide collection and pay services for "performance royalties" to the publishers and the songwriters. Each and every time a song is played on the radio or the television there are royalties to be paid to the publisher, to the performer, and to the songwriter(s.)

So if you're a serious songwriter and want to make money from your creative output, the thing to do is to register with a publisher. Now at American Music, I agreed that songs I wrote within the capacity of my job were owned by American Music for a period of time, and then all rights returned to me. And they are - just in the last few years!

(74) GOLDSTAR - THE LUCKY RECORDING STUDIO

The studio we employees of American Music used the most was Goldstar.

Goldstar is legendary today. So many hits had been - and would be - recorded at Goldstar that the studio was considered good luck; about 250 hits by the time I was using the studio. Ritchie Valens had recorded "Donna," and "La Bamba," at Goldstar for Delphi Records.

Goldstar was owned by Stan Ross and Dave Gold and it is known for The Wall of Sound, a recording technique most associated with producer Phil Spector.

Goldstar has their own web site to tell the tale...link to it above!

BERNARD MELTZER Quote on Friendship

"A true friend is someone who thinks you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked!" - Bernard Meltzer

(73) SYLVESTER CROSS - CREST RECORDS and AMERICAN MUSIC

American Music Publishing house in Los Angeles, owned then by an eccentric named Sylvester Cross, was one of the biggest publishing houses in the country. Cross owned the rights to songs that were classics and steady money makers like The Sons of the Pioneers songbook. He became independently wealthy by investing what he made at the song writing factory into real estate.

Cross figured that with a staff of talented musical employees working in various collaborations he couldn't loose. One or two hits and he had payroll made and more beach front property.

I'd been writing songs and offering my friends my songs - as they offered theirs to me - since New York. But I owned the rights to one song when I signed with American Music.

The key was to write a song that would become a hit. Then residuals would fatten the songwriter's wallet. Theoretically. We had a quota - about 20 songs a month if I remember correctly. Cross provided the funds to make a demo of a song, with basic instrumentation, which sometimes included other musicians, but often mean me - my voice and a guitar. The demo was then sent off to the artist or artists that we thought could do best with it, for their consideration.

RCS DISCOGRAPHY has a page here on Crest Records which was owned by Sylvester Cross. Now if you look at the line up you can see some names familiar to this blog... Eddie Cochran, who was managed by Jerry Capehart, who was managing Glen Campbell when Glen scored a hit with the song Jerry wrote, "Turn Around Look At Me," and Jerry Capehart himself. (Dick Bills, I believe, was Glen Campbell's uncle who he was performing with when Jerry walked in and discovered Glen.)

Link above to Rockin County Style Discography on CREST.

Once again you can see how we music makers were all intertwined.

Here's a Crest Discography by TAPIO VAISANEN...

http://www.pcuf.fi/~tapiov/discographies/crest.htm

(72) CLIFF GLEAVES - FUNNY MAN ON CALL!

When Elvis was in the army he asked Cliff Gleaves, most recently a joke crackin' DJ with a successful radio program to travel with him. This was on Elvis' dime. Cliff was ready to leave DJing behind and short noticed his bosses. "I'm going with with the great Elvis Presley!" he said.

So Cliff went to Germany and while Elvis was busy with the army, Cliff, who was hyper, went off touring Europe. There was only so much sitting around the villa he could do. He was there with Elvis when Elvis had his one and only leave in Paris.

When Elvis went to LA to make movies, Cliff went with him. Cliff had married while in Europe and he and is wife lived separate of Elvis. But he was there on the sets with him, and as Elvis liked to do, he often got movie "extra" work or bit parts for his friends and entourage. Cliff was in "King Creole" with Elvis as an extra.

In Los Angeles Cliff proved to be the comedic genious whose energy and spirit pulled Elvis Presley out of a depression. "Where's Cliff?" Elvis would ask when he wanted to come out of it.

Elvis wanted Cliff on the piano entertaining at his house parties. It was an honor that Cliff wasn't about to give up. So there he was banging on the keys - with talent to spare.

As an insider for some years Cliff Gleaves was there in Elvis' life, as a friend, confidant, advisor (Cliff was a no bullshit person, someone who Elvis actually asked for advice from, and when Cliff gave advice Elvis listened!), and as the Jester of the King's Court, there wasn't a man who could compete with Cliff.

Cliff made people laugh, he made them roll, he made them laugh till no sound came out of their mouths. He made Elvis roll!

If you can judge a man's greatness by how much he is missed as Will Rogers said, then Cliff Gleaves was one of the greatest.

Above link to Rockin Country Style Discography - Cliff Gleaves page!

King Creole on the IMBd database

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051818/

And a YouTube presentation of Elvis singing the title song of the movie, "King Creole."

(71) JOHNNY RIVERS WOULD NOT QUIT

The one person I invited out to LA and to stay with me who just wouldn't was Ersel Hickey. Ersel remained true to New York. Johnny Rivers once said to me years later "Ersel was the first punk rocker."

Johnny Rivers came out to LA from New York to live and moved in with me. He was looking for a record contract and he worked his tail. Johnny stayed with me, and he stayed with a few other friends of his in the business, including Lindsey Crosby's, Bing's son.

He had a little sports car and we went all around in it. Johnny and me drove up to Elvis' that first house party I attended there. Elvis was making the movie "Flaming Star," at the time.

Elvis had a juke box on one end of the room and a record player on the other. The juke box usually was stocked with the latest Top 40. Parties at Elvis' were alive with personality and music.

Johnny Rivers was one of many talented people who made Elvis' parties special. Elvis entertained us. Cliff Gleaves was usually there on piano at Elvis' request. Johnny would strap on his guitar and go through a series of hit songs - other people's hit songs.

He was on his way to becoming Mr. Whisky A - Go-Go but not quite yet.
Jam sessions often erupted at these parties. And when it came to music at Elvis' the talents of Red West, who was one of Elvis' entourage, were part of those jams.

(70) THERE'S A HOUSE PARTY TONIGHT !

The first party I attended at Elvis' after moving to LA, Johnny Rivers and I drove up to Bel Air. Elvis was making the movie "Flaming Star" at 20th Century Fox. It was his 6th movie. Johnny had been over to Elvis and he said "I know he wants to see you." So we got into Johnny's car and drove up to Bel Air.

In the movie "Flaming Star," Elvis played what we referred to then as a "half breed," someone who was half Native American. It was Marlon Brando who the writers had in mind to play the part Elvis did. It wouldn't be the first or last time that a script written with James Dean or Marlon Brando in mind ended up staring Elvis Presley.
The femme fatal of the film was actress Barbara Eden, who would become known for her signature role in the television series "I Dream of Jeannie."

At the house Elvis came through the door still covered in the body makeup the studio had him wear to appear darker. (He also wore brown contact lenses to cover his naturally blue eyes.) When you look at some of the stills of the film today, you can see how unnatural it looks.

He welcomed me with a hug and told us to make ourselves at home until he got all that makeup off. It took him near an hour.

This was the beginning of my being a regular at Elvis Presley's house parties - the time of my life! Elvis' as my second home!

IMBd movie database for "Flaming Star" link above!

(69) GO WEST YOUNG MEN! GO WEST! (Bobby Darin's already out there!)

My first visit to Los Angeles was during my Christmas respite from home building in 1956. On that trip I met James Dean's great actress friend Christine White and walked the Hollywood streets that my favorite stars walked before me, never imagining I would ever have my own taste of celebrity. I had passed through the city on tours since then, and while the scene was entirely different than the scene in New York, I knew that an exodus of New York had begun. Los Angeles - Hollywood- had always been known for movie making but now it seemed television shows were leaving the cold weather of the east for the warm weather of the west.

Just before he left New York Bobby Darin and I had been talking about producing one of my songs into a record for me. Bobby went to Los Angeles to make the movie "Come September" which also starred his future wife and the mother of his only son, Dodd, Sandra Dee.

Elvis was based in LA too. I caught up with him and stayed at his suite in a hotel while he was making "G.I. Blues." Now that more movies were ahead for him, he was renting a home in Bel Air.

One of my brothers decided that he wanted to try living in Los Angeles for a while too, so I met up with him in Winston-Salem, we loaded up his old car and drove it across the country. We pulled into Elvis' driveway in Bel Air. Joe Esposito came out and demanded that we remove the "bucket of bolts" because it made Elvis' luxury cars "look bad." Before we could put the key in the ignition, Elvis came out, heard Joe, and said, "You leave that car right there. It looks fine."

Elvis liked my brother. "He's country, just like my cousins," he said. He meant Gene and Billy Smith, the two men who started with him as members of his entourage when he first came into fame and would be there when he died.

Here's a Youtube Presentation of Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee, with Bobby singing "Once Upon A Time"

(68) JERRY CAPEHART / AMERICAN MUSIC

American Music, one of the biggest music publishing companies in the West, was owned by an eccentric named Sylvester Cross. I was signed by Jerry Capehart there to a five year contract.

Jerry Capehart was a great part of Eddie Cochran's success. He was a successful songwriter in his own rite. Jerry had been his manager and had written hit songs with Eddie including the forever great "Summertime Blues," and "C'Mon Everybody," as well as "Teen-Age Heaven."

Jerry Capehart's own Rockin Country Style Discography link above!

Jerry Capehart is talking about Eddie Cochran in this video the short haired man in the white business shirt is Jerry Capehart. Jerry is one of many people who started out as a performer, musician, and songwriter, who went into the music business in another capacity.

(67) THE DECISION TO LEAVE NEW YORK...

The decision to leave New York wasn't an easy one for me. New York always seemed to be the center of creative enterprise to me and I loved the energy there. But bit by bit there was an exodus from New York to Los Angeles by a number of my peers. Television was moving from New York to Los Angeles - Hollywood - too.

So many of us traveled to perform that "home" became a bit difficult to define. Was home a place, a state of mind, a woman?

Home had always been to me Murphy, North Carolina - the Smokies. The family stead. But my older brothers had left home years before I did as the youngest, my mother had died, my father was remarried and living in Winston-Salem, and visits to my hometown and relatives had become rare due to my touring.

I'd traveled with my father for work, several states, building before I'd been discovered as the Next James Dean. I'd toured all over the United States. I'd been moving for years, one place to the next.

The life of planes, trains, and automobiles, sharing hotel rooms and sleeping sitting up got to me.

Maybe what got to me most was that I had no place to really call home at the end of each day.

I'd never relied on speed or any drugs to make it through. As I entered my late twenties the years of touring wore on me. I wanted a personal life. Some peace.

I wanted and needed a place to settle.

Everything I'd experienced since the age of 20 had changed me. There was no question about it.

Where did I belong?

So when one of the biggest song publishing houses in the country, American Music, courted me to be a staff song writer, which would end my years of touring, I thought it was the answer for me. A way to stay in the music business and use my talents and skills about then time I had a clue that most teen idols, even ones who were more successful than me, grew up and found either a new musical direction or something else to do.

(66) THE ENTOURAGE Versus THE RAT PACK - Elvis' Boundaries When It Came To Women

While Elvis was filming "G.I. Blues" and having an affair with Juliet Prowse, came the day there was some pounding on the door of his hotel suite. Elvis answered the door himself, though any of the guys could have done so for him.

Frank Sinatra was out there determined to see Juliet. Elvis wouldn't let him in.

Elvis had not long before appeared with Frank on Frank's "Welcome Home Elvis" television special out of Miami but Elvis saw no reason NOT to date Frank's girl.

Understanding Elvis' idea of "boundaries" when it came to women is important to understanding his sense of friendship. No real friend of Elvis would EVER, and I mean EVER, date a woman who was HIS! You had to spend a lot of quality time with Elvis to know which of the many women he remarked upon as "girlfriends" really were! So to be part of his close circle you knew who he was really interested in, even if he was really interested in a FEW women! To be a part of Elvis's circle and start up with a woman he wanted was the fastest way to be excommunicated. I've only heard of one man in his group who in later years very likely had an affair with a woman who was most special to Elvis.

He was territorial. He tested you to see if he could trust you.

Since no one in Frank Sinatra's Rat Park was a real friend to Elvis, since none of them were part of his inner circle, or a member of his entourage, he saw no reason not to date Juliet. He didn't think Frank or any other star owed him in any way for the same reason.

For those of us who really cared about Elvis, we were hands off his women! And being around Elvis meant being around women, women, and more women, most of them beautiful, many of them - not all of them - ready, willing, and able. There were jokes that the Entourage and his friends at the parties got "the left overs." There's truth to it. I can say that I'm not the man who got the most women.

Having met a good number of women that Elvis had affairs with, while he had his type, I wouldn't put a dime on the big deal psychological theories about Elvis Presley's sexuality.

(65) G.I. BLUES - LOS ANGELES HERE WE COME! and JULIET PROWSE

In the fall of 1960 I had my Roulette contract and a hit. I was still touring with Buddy Knox, and I was also doing some independent bookings. My road travels brought me to Los Angeles. I was doing radio, television, and live performances.

Colonel Parker's next coup was to have Elvis Presley star in a movie in which he played a G.I. while the American public still had fresh memory of Elvis' patriotic service in the U.S. army. The movie was called "G.I. Blues."

Elvis was staying at a hotel in a suite. This is where the promise we made three years earlier when I first met him in Memphis - "See you on the coast!" came real. I had met some of the men who were in Elvis' early entourage when I went to Memphis to see him come home from the army. In the weeks before his arrival I spent some time with some of the men who surrounded Elvis as friends and as employees. Now, as I made my way through Los Angeles, I stayed on Elvis' sofa in his suite for a short time. This was my entry into Elvis' personal world as it was becoming, a world in which a bunch of high spirited guys - mostly with Southern roots like we had - surrounded Elvis, making his life easier, half working, half playing, providing him trustworthy company.

At the time, Elvis was dating his co-star, Juliet Prowse. She was a South African born dancer, known for her beautiful skin and long, long shapely legs. The two of them were in lock up in his bedroom.

Here's a You Tube Presentation of GI Blues. Elvis wore a uniform through most of it.

GI Blues on the IMBd movie database

Click on the title NEW LINK added January 12, 2011

A You Tube presentation on a party for Juliet Prowse.

Juliet had class and real movie star charisma. She was a dancer first and foremost and had a kind of bodily confidence that was dynamic.

(64) SAM PHILLIPS and SUN RECORDS : WHO DISCOVERED WHO?

When Colonel Parker bought Elvis' contract with Sam Phillips for his local Memphis label at Sun Records, he then sold Elvis to RCA for much more. Of all the artists who recorded at Sun, Elvis Presley emerged to be the most musically impactful of them all.

There' a controversy about Sam - just how interested he really ever was in Elvis - just how much insight he had that Elvis would be famous. Was he just a man who had a small struggling business who rarely turned away income or someone who was a visionary?

A woman named Marion Keister is the key here.

Elvis made his first record at Sun. A vanity recording that he paid a few dollars to record, "My Happiness," which was given to his mother as a gift. At the time he had graduated from Hume high school in Memphis a couple months earlier and was working as a parts driver for a local electric company. He was not yet with the Blue Moon Boys - Bill Black and Scotty Moore, though he may have met them here or there. He was helping support his family and still putting clothes on layaway. He made this record with Marion Keister as the producer. Of course when it came to a vanity recording there wasn't a lot of production considerations. It was basically no budget. Yet, vanity and other no budget recordings today hold the history of Rockabilly and early Rock and Roll. Marion remembered Elvis. She talked him up to Sam Phillips.

Came the day that Sam needed some singers for a project and it was Marion who suggested he call Elvis in. Sam was impressed. One thing lead to another. Marion had a background as a DJ and as a singer herself. She and Elvis would also cross paths in the military.

Sun Records is associated with many people who were in early Rockabilly and early Rock and Roll. Their attraction to the label has much to do with Sun being "it" in Memphis - the location - as well as a building reputation based on who else used the studio. No doubt as some of them succeeded others wanted the luck of the studio to rub off on them. Did Sam Phillips really "Discover" so much talent or did they "Discover" his studio?

I have to back up a bit here and say that a few people claimed to "Discover" me who were onto my road to success after I started to ride it. I always credited the Akron, Ohio photographer who insisted I looked like James Dean, Irving Waitzkin. He took me to the Beacon Journal and had photographer Bill Samaris there take photos of me for that Roto Cover that made all the difference.

Here's the History of Rock site on Sam Phillips.:

HISTORY OF ROCK - SAM PHILLIPS

 

Sam Phillips at the Tennessee Encylopedia - Clearly a Son of the State! Link above!

Decide for yourself: With Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and many others on the Sun Label, was Sam Phillips all he's said to be?

TENNESSEE ENCYLOPEDIA

Links updated March 2014

EARL HAMNER Quote on Life

Now Earl told me this one himself. He's the writer of the old television series, The Waltons, and was actually the John Boy - Writer character himself.

"The world steps aside to let a person pass, if they know where they're going." - Earl Hamner

(63) DAD TRIES TO GET COLONEL PARKER TO BE MY MANAGER

Dad had become my greatest fan, but what I needed at a time when I was shy of managers was a great new manager.

Dad thought that Elvis' Colonel Tom Parker would make the best manager for me - for anyone in the business. To this day I don't know how he got the address, but one day Elvis Presley admitted to me that he knew dad had approached Parker to be my manager. Dad got a letter back that I'll paraphrase by saying, "I only have one act, that's Elvis Presley!"

Parker got Elvis Presley a $35,000 recording contract with RCA Victor in the mid-1950s when Sam Phillips of Sun Records in Memphis decided to sell it. Maybe Sam lived to regret it, maybe not. Parker made his whole life revolve around Elvis.

Elvis himself told me that he thought that if Parker hadn't been his manager "The Hollywood Sharks" would have gotten him... Elvis thought that way, at least at this moment in time. But he wouldn't feel that way forever.

Colonel Parker has had a lot said about him. He turns out to be a controversial man, not only for his tactics for managing Elvis Presley but also because he took a higher than standard percentage for what he did for him. Parker and his assistants not only booked Elvis, they marketed him, took care of every detail of his performances and tours. But after Elvis died there would be law suits back and forth between the Colonel, RCA, and the Elvis Presley estate.

And I think Parker taking on just one act like this was an incredible act of faith.

ROCKABILLY HALL OF FAME - COLONEL TOM PARKER link above!