ELBERT HUBBARD Quote on Friendship

"Never explain. Your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway." - Elbert Hubbard

(319) SOUNDS OF AN ELVIS PRESLEY HOUSE PARTY : DANNY BOY

This Youtube video was a real find and we (and thousands of other Youtube listeners) want to thank the person who posted this... not a fancy video but an Elvis private recording circa 1959. THE REASON WE'RE POSTING THIS IS THAT ELVIS PRESLEY USED TO SING DANNY BOY to us at the parties and it brought tears to our eyes.


Elvis did his thing with my song "The Dying Ember" presenting my song just like this, him and his guitar.

(318) CLIFF GLEAVES : SOUNDS OF AN ELVIS PRESLEY HOUSE PARTY - CLIFF GLEAVES

CLIFF GLEAVES, an old friend (by then) of Elvis' wasn't just a guest at the parties, he was the hired piano player. That's right. Elvis paid Cliff to ENTERTAIN! He was like a mad man on the piano. So as you listen to this Cliff Gleaves recording, think PIANO. Cliff had a whole repetoire beyond what he had recorded on Liberty Records.


None of the guys who worked for Elvis at the time could keep up with Cliff, his energy: he was one of a kind.

(317) SOUNDS OF AN ELVIS PRESLEY HOUSE PARTY : A JUKE BOX A RECORD PLAYER and LIVE PERFORMANCES

Other artists may have made some of the songs we sang (covered) at Elvis' house parties in Bel Air Estates, but we honored those artists while making the songs our own. And sometimes went on to record the song our way or perform it in concert. Or run into a bedroom with our guitars and jam and write songs!

Elvis' loved to throw parties. When Elvis first came to Hollywood, he went to a couple parties thrown by other celebrities but then he quit. HE PREFERRED TO BE THE HOST.

VIDEO REMOVED DEC 2013

(316) VIVA LAS VEGAS and GLEN CAMPBELL

Glen Campbell was aboard at American Music where I worked. When he moved to Los Angeles after Jerry Capeheart signed him, he spent a lot of time with me at my place. I got Glen Campbell the gig with Elvis Presley for the music for VIVA LAS VEGAS. Glen had asked me to introduce him to Elvis many times so I eventually did introduce the two men.

Elvis asked Glen for a demo record and Glen provided it. Glen gave Elvis a demo of an instrumental he did called "Buzz Saw" that really showed off his musical genius. Because Elvis loved the demo he made the phone calls and Glen was assigned to be the LEAD GUITARIST - the LEADER OF THE BAND - for the movie music. As a member of the Musicians Union he was paid triple scale for the soundtrack work.

This was before Glen become famous. He was a songwriter and studio musician much in demand for years before "By The Time I Get To Phoenix," the Jimmy Webb composition.

(315) I'M A FAN OF ANN-MARGRET: TALENTED, BEAUTIFUL, SEXY - and ELVIS'

Ann-Margret was (and is) a talented, beautiful, sexy, singer, dancer, and actress. In the early 1960's she was also on the RCA label like Elvis Presley.

He used to play me some of her records and say "Listen to that voice!"

Ann's a spirited woman, down to earth, funny, and my great friend Elvis' soul mate.

Would I have gone out with Ann-Margret (before I was married or into a committed relationship; Christine is here reminding me to be specific) if I could have?

You bet!

But I couldn't have for one other reason besides having a girlfriend or a wife. My friendship with Elvis. I was loyal to him.

I'll tell you the truth about Elvis and his men friends. I mean the real friends. None of us would have ever gone out with a woman that Elvis was really interested in. And we knew who he was really interested in and who he wasn't. We spent a lot of time talking about women.

Probably a million men feel the same way as I do about Ann-Margret, especially the United States veterans that she entertained during Vietnam.

Ann's loyal and loyalty meant everything to Elvis.

Roger Smith (Ann's long time husband) is one lucky man and we all know it.

(Link to her official web site above!)

ANN-MARGRET TALKS ABOUT ELVIS PRESLEY

(314) ELVIS and ANN-MARGRET SOUL MATES

Because of my full time, LA-based job with American Music, I didn't travel back to Graceland TM with Elvis when he went there between films. What went on there I heard from the guys, the ones who were my friends.

(The Entourage, sometimes called The Memphis Mafia, was an everchanging group of employees over the years by the way. Some stayed longer than others. Elvis had other friends, close friends, who were not The Entourage.)

In Los Angeles when I saw Elvis Presley and Ann-Margret together - well - at very first I didn't know that Elvis had Priscilla, the girl he introduced me to in 1962 as his girlfriend at a party, despite all the other women he dated, living in Memphis with him.

Elvis and Ann-Margret made Viva Las Vegas together and continued to see each other for some time thereafter. Ann has published her own memoir and continues to uphold the memory of Elvis.

To this day I think - as they did - that they were soul mates.

ELVIS PRESLEY and ANN-MARGRET THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR LOVING ME

This YouTube presented put together a collage of good photos of Elvis and Ann. Some on set and in acting roles, others not.

One of the things that strikes me as I see these videos is the pictures of Ann on her motorcycle. Elvis loved that Ann rode - because he did too. He loved to go off alone on the road and leave the Entourage behind. When Ann and Elvis were dating, they went off on their bikes together.

ELVIS PRESLEY and ANN-MARGRET : THE LADY LOVES ME from VIVA LAS VEGAS

ELVIS PRESLEY and ANN-MARGRET: They were making the film about this time of year in 1963. (The film was released in 1964.)

"Viva Las Vegas" remains one of my favorite films of all time.

And Ann-Margret remains one of my favorite ladies of all time too, and a great lady she is.

(313) JUST WEEKS BEFORE ELVIS WENT TO HOLLYWOOD TO FILM VIVA LAS VEGAS

Just weeks before Elvis Presley began to make VIVA LOS VEGAS in Los Angeles and met Ann-Margret, Priscilla Beaulieu, just shy of her 18th birthday, moved to Graceland TM from Germany to complete a couple months of high school and graduate in Memphis, or to be Elvis Presley's everything.

Priscilla has published her own memoir about this time in her life. And over the years it's been quoted and controversial. Was the whole memoir PR? What does Priscilla think about her young life now that she's a senior citizen? We leave it to her to say.

I met Priscilla briefly when she was out visiting Elvis in Bel Air at a party in 1962. Priscilla was beautiful and Elvis was proud to point her out to me. He called her his girlfriend.

She's still beautiful and more importantly she has self-actualized since those days when she lived to please Elvis.

(312) VIVA LAS VEGAS ELVIS PRESLEY'S BEST MOVIE?

Linking to IMDb movie database for the facts, just the facts man, about VIVA LAS VEGAS.

Do you think it's Elvis' best movie?

HAL WALLIS ON ELVIS PRESLEY

"A Presley picture is the only sure thing in Hollywood." - Hal Wallis (Producer)

COMMENTS CHANGED to ANY REGISTERED USER

Friends, we are just overwelmed at the numbers of you who are visiting our blogsite, which we started near three years ago just to see if we could. Honestly, if even a dozen people a month were reading us a couple years ago we were pleased, and now the numbers have burgeoned.

And with that so has the comment spam, junk, and sadly, harrassment. Sadly we have to do the right thing and report some of this to the authorities. We have been advised to change our Comments to ANY REGISTERED USER.

THANK YOU !

Wes and Christine

DENNIS HOPPER - THE LOS ANGELES TIMES OBIT

DENNIS HOPPER was an actor I met in New York City. He was one of the guys I went to the coffee houses to hear BOB DYLAN play at back in the day. He had a role in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE that James Dean starred in and after James Dean had passed away and I was being promoted as the Next James Dean, Dennis was one of the actors who wanted to meet me. He was really nice to me in New York and again when I moved to Los Angeles. I saw him out in Malibu and he gave me his home phone number. I gave him a call.

At the time I met Dennis Hopper in New York, he dressed conservatively and you might never have guessed he would become famous for portraying rebels or be considered a rebel himself from his exterior. HE WAS A STRAIGHT LACED IVY-LEAGUER TYPE just as George Hamilton IV was.

Wes Bryan

We're linking to the Los Angeles Times Obit for our readers around the country and the world can hear what his home town newspaper had to say about him