FROM OUR ARCHIVES POST (197) WHAT'D WE DO WITHOUT THOSE BLUE SUEDE SHOES ? CARL PERKINS and ELVIS PRESLEY

Carl Perkins' Rockabilly "Blue Suede Shoes," is so associated with Elvis Presley but Carl was first with it and the song was covered again and again, a true classic in its own time.

Here's a YouTube presentation of Carl singing "Blue Suede Shoes."

And here's one of many videos featuring Elvis Presley singing probably the song most associated with him other than "Hound Dog"...


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LISA MARIE AND ELVIS DUET : FAN VIDEO TO BE RELEASED TO THE PUBLIC

LISA MARIE AND DAD VIDEO RELEASE : Chris Michaud reports for Rueters

Excerpt:

"Presley’s new video, “I Love You Because,” is an emotional duet with her late father.


Due to premiere on Thursday on country music TV channel CMT and CMT.com, the video was recorded in August for the 35th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death."

"Presley, who died at the age of 42, recorded “I Love You Because” in July 1954 at Sun Studio in Memphis, the same time he recorded “That’s All Right.”


Producer Sam Phillips deemed it unsuitable for Presley’s first single, and it ended up on Presley’s first album, from 1956, never to be performed by Presley again, according to CMT.

Lisa Marie Presley, 44, recorded her vocals to the song in August at the suggestion of producer T-Bone Burnett, as a special song for fans."

ROCK BOPPIN BABY : SUN ROCKABILLY VOLUME 3

Have a great Labor Day weekend.

Weekend listening!

Give a couple rounds to this CD put out in 1996 which features Edwin Bruce, Barbara Pittman, Roy Orbison, Gene Simmons, Kenny Parchman, Dick Penner, Dickey Lee and the Collegiates, Tracy Pendarvis, Jimmy Williams, Ernie Barton, Glen Honeycutt, Harold Jenkins (Conway Twitty), Jerry Lee Lewis, Alton and Jimmy, and Carl Perkins! It's music history and a lot of fun.

Weekend reading?

We've got the latest memoir by Johnny Ramone (of the Ramones) and is he an Elvis fan!

(427) BILLY LEE RILEY : SUN RECORDS PROTEGEE

Wes' cousin Dean reminded us that BILLY LEE RILEY passed away in August of 2009. We went through our archives to see what we'd posted on Billy before, and saw that the links needed to be updated.

See post (183)!

Like Elvis, Billy Lee Riley started out on that local label that became one of the most famous small labels in Rock-A-Billy and Early Rock and Roll : SUN. But here's a song Billy recorded in 1965. If you go right to the YouTube site you can read what the video poster wrote about Billy - all good.

SONNY BURGESS WITH THE BLASTERS

Sonny Burgess is one of the original SUN RECORDS artists and first recorded "Red Headed Woman" on Sun. He's going to be playing at the Rockabilly Festival in Vegas coming up in April.

BILLY LEE RILEY 2007 RED HOT

Billy Lee Riley, an original Sun recording artist, played for me on some demo productions I did years later.

VIDEO REPLACED APRIL 2014

(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.

CLIFF GLEAVES RCS and YOUTUBE

Thinking about Elvis, I've also been thinking about our friend Cliff Gleaves. Cliff was the funniest man around Elvis, a real madcap with high energy, a personality, once a D.J. with aspirations of a singing career of his own. How great an entertainer was Cliff Gleaves? Great enough to be expected to perform at Elvis' house parties in LA. He sometimes played the piano and sang for hours! When I listen to this song "The Long Black Hearse" I'm reminded of his sense of humor...

RCS DISCOGRAPHY - WE LOVE THIS SITE!

We are so lucky to have a great resource like RCS discography on the Internet.

This volunteer project is a real labor of love and ROCKIN COUNTRY STYLE DISCOGRAPHY was probably the first Internet site to list me, WES BRYAN, which got us interested and then hooked.

We're talking here about early Rock and Roll - Rockabilly- Rockin Country Style and one of the most fascinating things about that era was that it was the time of small regional labels.

So using the LABEL search feature we can go right to them and see who they were recording, hear sound samples, get profiles and pictures in some cases.Now folks, RCS can't take donations as things are set up, but you can always express your appreciation in other ways.

Using the GEOGRAPHICAL search is a fascinating way to see what SMALL LABELS existed and who recorded on them. Elvis Presley and so many others walked into Sun Records in Memphis to produce a recording - vanity or low budget. Other Rockabilly and Country artists to be were doing so all over America in smaller towns and markets. Go to the state and the town/label and give a listen to a local hopeful giving it their all! You can also use the RCS LABEL search to see who was recording at Sun besides Elvis and get a feel for the body of work from a particular studio.

CLICK ON THE TITLE ABOVE TO GET TOTHE RCS MAIN PAGE ! AND MAYBE DO A SEARCH FOR AN ARTIST, like CLIFF GLEAVES!

(We'll be looking at the 1962 Rockabilly Chart soon!)

(202) RCS DISCOGRAPHY - THE JUDD RECORD LABEL - The Other PHILLIPS

Click on the title above to get to the Judd Record label's page for RCS discography. Judd was owned by a brother of Sam Phillips (of Sun Records fame), Jud Phillips, who lived in Alabama. The label had a studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama and in Nashville, Tennessee. A fellow who's now a Senator, Bobby Denton, was once a singer who recorded at Judd...

(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

(196) CARL PERKINS : THE BEATLES : HONEY DON'T

Carl Perkins Rockabilly recording on Sun Records "Honey Don't..."When The Beatles recording the same song with the Mersey Beat it was a rare recording of the drummer, Ringo Starr, singing... "Rock on George."

VIDEOS REPLACED MARCH 2014



RUN THE NAME RINGO STAR THROUGH THE SEARCH FEATURE ON THIS BLOG and you'll find out about the recent museum show on Ringo! )

(185) BILLY LEE RILEY AND HIS LITTLE GREEN MEN

Thinking about Jerry Reed, I got to thinking about another Southern musician who made it in Hollywood, Billy Lee Riley, who was also an original Sun label artist as well and who did a bit of harmonica playing for me when I was producing records. Billy Lee, in the spirit of space exploration we've been talking about as well as the spirit of my song "Tiny Spaceman," had a band called Billy Riley and His Little Green Men back in 1957. They had a song called "Flying Saucers Rock and Roll."

Linking to a Discography for Billy Lee Riley. He's got a Rockin Country Style page, just like me and a lot of other early Rockabilly artists. (We love RCS Discography!)

RCS DISCOGRAPHY on BILLY LEE RILEY  updated April 2014

(86) CHARLIE RICH'S LONELY WEEKENDS 1960 STYLE

I met Charlie Rich in Memphis when I was there awaiting Elvis' return from the U.S. Army. DJ Dewey Phillips, who had given Elvis his start when he broke his first record, recorded on Sun Records, "That's All Right Mama," introduced me to Charlie. He was touring locally, and sleeping in the booth of the restaurant he was playing in, so he could save on motel rooms and send money home to his family then.

Charlie recorded on Sun Records, just as Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, and a few other artists who had made it to greater fame did. His song "Lonely Weekends," which came out in 1960, became like a signature song for him. By 1960 Sam Phillips' label was Phillips International. Charlie sounded a bit like Elvis on this song, and Elvis loved the song. So did I. One day I would record the song myself.


Here's a little Documentary with singer-songwriter Charlie Rich speaking too about his music career and Sun.

Charlie Rich on RCS Discography : http://rcs-discography.com/rcs/artist.php?key=rich1000

Charlie continued his musical career as a performer having a couple hits in the seventies and winning a Grammy. Linking to his official site above!

Here's a little Documentary with singer-songwriter Charlie Rich speaking too about his music career and Sun.



UPDATE 2011 Here is a Youtube historical music video of the song Lonely Weekends! (I also recorded this song years later!)

(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."

(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

(49) SCOTTY MOORE : "THE GUITAR THAT CHANGED THE WORLD"

Scotty Moore had worked as studio musician at Sun Records, owned by Sam Phillips, in Memphis, Tennessee. Scotty had a band called the Starlight Wranglers, and Bill Black was their bass player. In the summer 1954 Scotty and Bill auditioned Elvis Presley (not the other way around!) and they agreed that they would try a few recording sessions with him, to see if there would be a chemistry between them. The result was a demo called "That's All Right Mama" that become Elvis' debut record, as played by DJ Dewey Phillips, on his Red Hot and Blue show on WHBQ, Memphis.

Scotty and Bill and Elvis formed The Blue Moon Boys, added drummer D.J. Fontana, became the Hillbilly Cat and The Blue Moon Boys, and toured for a couple years with Scotty as the manager, but Colonel Parker never took them on when he took on Elvis.

Scotty is one of the most admired guitarists in the world, and he has long been called "The Guitar That Changed The World" due to his influence on early rock and roll. Among the guitar legends who credit Scotty as an inspiration is the Rolling Stone's Keith Richards.

Let's let these links tell Scotty's story.

Scotty Moore Inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame :

http://www.rockhall.com/inductee/scotty-moore

Scotty Moore and drummer D.J. Fontana at the Rockabilly Hall of Fame :

http://www.rockabillyhall.com/Scotty&DJ1.html

and alsoScotty Moore's official Web site! Link above!

ROCKIN' COUNTRY STYLE : RCS DISCOGRAPHY

We want to THANK ROCKIN' COUNTRY STYLE, also called RCS Discography, for all the hard work they've done over there at Emory University to present a viable history of Country Rock and Roll - sometimes called Rockabilly - to you. If you've been reading this blog and listening to the sound samples, you know we've been leaning on RCS heavily. Now folks, RCS can't take donations as things are set up, but you can always express your appreciation in other ways. Send them a note in the U.S. mail or an e-mail ! Or get involved if you have some records you are willing to share for a time so that more clips can be uploaded!

(I just love to listen to the snap, crackles, and pops on vintage vinyl!)

The volunteer team there headed up by Terry Gordon has done a great job of supplying music clips as well as photos of actual records and covers.

Using the GEOGRAPHICAL search is a fascinating way to see what SMALL LABELS existed and who recorded on them. Elvis Presley and so many others walked into Sun Records in Memphis to produce a recording - vanity or low budget. Other Rockabilly and Country artists to be were doing so all over America in smaller towns and markets. Go to the state and the town/label and give a listen to a local hopeful giving it their all!

You can also use the RCS LABEL search to see who was recording at Sun besides Elvis and get a feel for the body of work from a particular studio.

Every studio is different in sound quality and feel. This is something that I as a music producer am careful about. It's not just getting the right singer or musicians together.

RCS MAIN PAGE link above!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

RCS has gone independent of Emory University. We link quite a bit to this amazing reference site! THANK YOU Terry Gorden and so many other volunteers and contributors! "

NEW LINK TO TERRY's RCS January 21, 2011

(26) CLIFF GLEAVES, ANITA WOOD, and SUN RECORDS

That night that Elvis and his guys burst into the Wink Martindale's dance party show, Elvis drove us to Graceland in his new stretch limo. Riding next to Elvis as he drove was his girlfriend Anita Wood. Gladys Presley, Elvis' mother, thought Anita was the perfect girlfriend for him. She ran her own radio show, (Anita Wood was one of the early women in radio broadcasting), and she had recorded songs herself. Perhaps more than all that, Anita Wood was all for Elvis' success. She was familiar with the music business and touring, and she knew the lifestyle he lead. Anita Wood, as a recording artist, was known as one of the "Memphis Belles."

Cliff Gleaves, a once hotter than hot hep cat disc jockey, who had given it up to travel with Elvis - by Elvis' invitation, kept clicking his fingers. He kept saying "We have James Dean in the car with us!" The guys put me through the James Dean poses and I was glad to oblige.

Cliff Gleaves and Anita Wood had something in common with Elvis in that they had both recorded on Sun, the small label that Sam Phillips had in Memphis, where local talent paid for vanity recordings and small budget records were recorded. Most of these recordings were not hits in terms of the way we think of hits now, but small labels did provide local and regional music, and the special flavor of music emerging in Memphis, with local musicians and local talent, is preserved in Sun recordings. Anita recorded a song called "I'll Wait Forever," at Sun and as things turned out, she didn't exactly wait for Elvis, but she did date him for years.

ROCKIN COUNTRY STYLE DISCOGRAPHY - CLIFF CLEAVES link -click title!


Anita Wood's songs are included on Sun Recordscompilation disks.

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

New Link! SUN RECORDS DISCOGRAPHY includes Anita

NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO of her hit "I'll Wait Forever"

UPDATE April 2012 A New Music Video!