(335) PLACES TO GO THINGS TO DO : SAN FERNANDO VALLEY : THE PALOMINO : MARTY ROBBINS

Another club that I frequented along with songwriter friends and my friends who played there was the PALAMINO, in the San Fernando Valley neighborhood of North Hollywood. The place evolved over the years and was open until the mid 1980's. It seated a lot of people but had an intimate feel.

It was the first place people played when they came through town. It was once considered one of the most important Country Music clubs in the country so Johnny Cash came through, as well as so many others - Jerry Lee Lewis, Marty Robbins.

Here's a video of Jerry Lee Lewis recorded at the Palamino... Jerry is said to hold the record for performances at the Palamino!

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...

TRICK OR TREAT ? ? ? ANDY KAUFMAN - ELVIS IMPERSONATOR on JOHNNY CASH SHOW

Andy Kaufman, a Saturday Night Live comedian, took his act to the television show "Taxi" and as a stand-up comic around the country. A devoted Elvis fan, this impersonation makes you forget you're looking at Andy.

Andy Kaufman was ELVIS' favorite impersonator. Andy used to work at Jerry's Deli in Sherman Oaks, California, as a waiter. Wes

(204) FERLIN HUSKY GOSPEL and PAUL REVERE AND THE RAIDERS ? REALLY!

Now, if you've read about me as a cover blurb on Cool Magazine's hipster cover in 1958, along with James Dean and Ferlin Husky, and Ferlin as one of the men on the video from a YouTube presenter said to be one of the earliest of Elvis (along with Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Blue Moon Boys Bill Black and Scotty "The Guitar that Changed the World" Moore), you may be wondering "who is Ferlin Husky?" What a name? Right?

Like Elvis Presley, Ferlin Husky's a southerner who recorded Country, Country-Pop, religious music and funny songs.

Here's COUNTRYPOLITAN's Profile of Ferlin Husky: http://www.countrypolitan.com/bio-ferlin-husky.php

And above Ferlin's Official Web Site!

Ferlin recorded "Gone" in 1954 as a country song which didn't chart well, but a new producer worked on the 1957 version and he continued to sing this song throughout his career.

Now, this may seem improbable but the American Invasion of Britian continued when in 1965 the Paul Revere and the Raiders covered "Gone." Yes! Really!

UPDATED VIDEO JUNE 18, 2011

JOHNNY CASH IMPERSONATING ELVIS !

This YouTube video of Johnny Cash impersonating Elvis The Pelvis - or trying to - is a lot of fun!



Elvis was usually honored when one of his friends tried to sound like him and he had a good sense of humor about impersonators. Thousands of individuals today make some small living at being Elvis impersonators, some make a good living at it. Andy Kauffman and Eddie Murphy are two commedians who've impersonated Elvis.

(201) RCS DISCOGRAPHY THE SUN RECORD LABEL and SAM PHILLIPS

Using the RCS Discography site that we just bragged so much about, let's take a a look at the SUN record Label. As we know, so very many artists who made it big made their first recordings at this Memphis recording studio. If you've read our recent posting about the earliest video of Elvis ever made (also posted below) you may see that he was there backstage somewhere with a group that included Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins, who were an original Sun recording artist too, as was Charlie Rich, Billy Lee Riley, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, and many others.

Click on the Title Above to get to the exact page for the Sun label's RCS Discography...

Below Edwards and Callahan give their Sun Records Story...

BSNPUBS - EDWARDS AND CALLAHAM - THE SUN RECORD LABEL  link

A Note on the First Video Ever of ELVIS (?) posted below by Wes Bryan

Christine Trzyna here: Wes and I were looking at the YouTube video we posted last week that is proposed to be the first film footage of Elvis ever. Wes identified the people in the video (as you look on the screen) as Bill Black to the right of Elvis, Scotty Moore "The Guitar That Changed The World" to the right. Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Ferlin Husky, a country singer who was on the Grande Old Opry. So we think that this video is of Elvis Presley in his incarnation as the lead singer for the Blue Moon Boys on or at the Grande Old Opry.

Ferlin Husky is also in this video.

THE EARLIEST FILM EVER TAKEN OF ELVIS? WITH BUDDY HOLLY, CARL PERKINS, and JOHNNY CASH?

Lubbock Texas, 1955... This YouTube presentation states this clip taken by a fan may be one of the earliest films ever taken of Elvis.

October 6, 2007 update: Wes has identified the following people in this film clip:
Elvis, with Bill Black, his stand up bassist, to the right as you see the video, Scotty Moore "The Guitar That Changed The World," to the left, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash (both appeariing dark), FERLIN HUSKY - a country singer who played on the Grande Ol Opry, and Buddy Holly. Bill Black was the first cousin of Bonnie Bosley (Underwood), one of Elvis' first girlfriends. Don't know who the person in the flowered shirt is.

Note: The person is Ferlin Husky...

(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