(290) HOW DID ELVIS FEEL WHILE HE WAS ALIVE ABOUT IMITATORS ?

The truth is Elvis was very aware of competition. He had to be.

Elvis educated himself about the music business. He sent one of the entourage out to buy all the Top 40 records for his juke box at the house. He watched movies and television performances. He had his preferences of course, and he had a recording contract to fulfill, so of course he wanted his songs to be the best selling and shortly he would, like most musical artists of our generation, have more competition than ever.

But 1963 would prove to be a very good year for Elvis Presley...

Often, as had happened to me, a regional market artist would quickly record a version of the song, and the result was split sales and no one having a hit that could pull in the big money.

Because Elvis thought of his closest friends as brothers, he expected none of us to directly compete with him when it came to recording the SAME SONG. At the same time he seemed complimented when someone tried to sound like him.