(388) ANN-MARGRET STARS ON A "SHINDIG" ALBUM

RCA Victor put this one out. That was Ann's label. The same label Elvis was on.

It's a "Shindig" album that "Stars" Ann-Margret. I don't think Ann was ever on the television show Shindig but she was associated with Rock and Roll early in her career not only because of her own music because of her movie roles and of course, because of her relationship with Elvis Presley.

I've blogged about Ann before - WES BRYAN is a FAN! - and we're linking to Ann's OFFICIAL web site again!

(She's been recording a Gospel album.)

(380) 1964 ELVIS' GREAT YEAR : VIVA LAS VEGAS CAME OUT

I've said that Viva Las Vegas remains one of my favorite movies. Elvis was working on it in 1963, which is when he met Ann-Margret, but it came out in 1964. (It's my favorite Elvis movie.) It was very popular, so while the Beatles were "invading" America, Elvis was having a great year too. Was he worried about the Beatles' chart toppers effecting his success? No. But he was aware.
When Elvis was in Germany he had all the top hits sent over to him. Back in the states he loaded his juke box with his favorites. It was part of the business to know who was who and what was what. At the house he often played demos for me and Johnny Rivers, wanting our opinions; which ones should he record?

(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?

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...

(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

(280) STATE FAIR - PAT BOONE - ANN-MARGRET - BOBBY DARIN

The movie STATE FAIR, which came out in 1962, stared my friend Bobby Darin, as well as Pat Boone. I'd begun to work with and for at Pat's production company called Cooga Mooga.

One more person who we'll be blogging a bit about in the future, someone all Elvis Presley fans know to be very important to his story, the exciting singer, dancer, and actress Ann-Margret, also stared in this film.

We're linking to the IMDB on State Fair as a link so click on the title above if you want to go there!

Here's Ann singing with Pat...

ANN-MARGRET BABY IT'S COLD OUTSIDE

This song is on an album Ann had out in 1964 so we're a little ahead of ourselves here, but since the last few nights in Southern California have been cold for us - a faint smell of wood fires in the fireplaces mixed with sea mist in the mornings - we were thinking about it... enjoy!

(P.S) Elvis played albums of Ann's for me. He liked her voice. "Listen to this little voice she has!" he would say to me. Wes

(217) ANN-MARGRET POCKET FULL OF MIRACLES

Here's a short YouTube presentation from the 1961 movie, directed by Frank Capra, called "Pocket Full Of Miracles." In this film Bette Davis plays the mother of a daughter, played by Ann-Margret, who is invented a society dame in order to impress her daughter's Spanish fiancee, who knows nothing of her illegitimate birth.

"Pocketful of Miracles" was Ann-Margret's big screen debut in 1961 and she was on screen with a couple of the most talented actors Hollywood ever had - Glenn Ford and Bette Davis.

Ann-Margret figures big in the Elvis Presley story as most of you probably know. Elvis wouldn't meet Ann for a couple years but just about any man who was interested in beautiful women couldn't help but notice this starlet who's big break occurred in Las Vegas when George Burns hired her for his act.

Here's a link to an impressive Swedish Internet site that features Ann-Margret!

http://www.ann-margret-from-sweden.com/records/records.html

(152) STATE FAIR - A ROCK AND ROLL MOVIE

Gene Vincent, in that interview we posted recently, mentioned that he was going to the states to do the movie called "State Fair." This was a rock and roll movie, young and hip, and guess who else was in it? My friend Bobby Darin, as well as Pat Boone and Ann-Margret.

Go to the IMDB movie database STATE FAIR link above!

Now, take a look at this YouTube video that features the sexy Ann with someone who you might be surprised did a bare-chested love scene with her - Pat Boone! Yea, really!