(272) JO-ANN CAMPBELL : HIT MAKER IN HER OWN RITE

One of the singers I enjoyed performing live with and was proud to know was the talented Jo-ann Campbell, who was a hit-making singer-songwriter in her own rite.

In 1962 she had a hit with "The Girl From Wolverton Mountain", one of my favorite songs of hers, and had a couple albums out,

A southerner by birth, Joanne could put the twang into her singing voice and move doo wop to country.

Joanne dated my friend Bobby Darin just about before he met and married Sandra Dee. Like many of us her romances were reported, for better or worse, in fan magazines.

VIDEO REPLACED JAN 2014

MARY TRAVERS MOVES TO HEAVEN

Mary Travers, one third of the three part harmony of Peter, Paul, and Mary, the folk group who became famous recording Bob Dylan's composition, "Blowin In the Wind," and who we've blogged about in the past, has passed away at 72. Mary had been battling the blood cancer called luekemia for some time. You can link to the groups official site above. The net is flooded with news stories.

(271) NATALIE TRUNDY

Famous now for the "Planet of the Apes" movies, Natalie was, like Christine White, a hard working, often hired television actress in the late 1950's in New York - a bit of history (sorry ladies!) when it comes to early television.

That's her sitting next to me in the publicity photo put out by United Artists.

Link now to her official web site!

WES BRYAN PROMOS in JAPAN

This collage of images from my early career is from Japan. I induged myself in sculpture as a creative outlet when I was in New York. That's me looking like James Dean in a hard hat. The beautiful starlet (we'll write more about her later) that they had posing with me is Natalie Trundy. Oh what United Artists could do for one of their own!

Today Japan is still one of the great buyers of Rock-A-Billy music and memorabilia and well, that's why we have the translator in Japanese installed!

KIRK DOUGLAS in STANLEY KUBRICK's PATHS OF GLORY

Called "The Most Explosive Film Ever Made" in 1957, by United Artists, with Stanley Kubrick as the producer. While I waited to play James Dean, United Artists had me doing commercials for this film. Here's the original trailer thanks to a YouTube Contributor. No I'm not in it...



One of the Best War Movies Ever Made! United Artists felt that making commercials for them that they used in their theaters would help me get comfortable behind a camera. Are any of those old commercials preserved in a film archive somewhere? I'd love to know...

SEPTEMBER 12 1962 PRESIDENT KENNEDY and THE SPACE PROGRAM

Elvis and me loved President Kennedy. On September 12, 1962 this was his invigorating speech about a dream to reach the moon. This is posted on the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, an event that shattered our idea that we're safe on our home front. How I wish we as a nation could be where we were back when Kennedy made this speech!

"We choose to do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard..."

1962 BEATLES LIVE AT CAVERN CLUB

Christine here. Today the remastered CD's of the Beatles came out! Here's a link to a CNN report and if you watch the video with the quick interview of producer Giles Martin (George Martin's son), you learn what modern recording studio technology can do and the challenges that were faced to bring forth better quality sound on the CD format. The original masters were used. And above is a historic video of the Beatles at the Cavern Club in Liverpool circa 1962.

1962 WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR...

...for me as a singer-songwriter. I was experiencing one of the best phases of my life.

CHRIS ISAAK AMERICAN BOY MY BLOG THEME SONG

Friends, in the Profile View of this Google Blog, Christine Trzyna and I chose Chris Isaak's song American Boy as the theme for this blog.

We thought this song's lyrics were all about me!

I want to send my love TO MY FAMILY today... Let the lyrics explain...

W.S. GILBERT Quote on Friendship

"It isn't so much what's on the table that matters, but what's on the chairs."
- W.S. Gilbert

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(270) BACK IN 1962 IT WAS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS

Elvis Presley made three films (we called them movies then) in 1962 which were "Follow That Dream," "Kid Galahad," which we posted on recently, and "Girls! Girls! Girls!, which came out in the fall.

Bringing some beautiful girls up to one of Elvis' parties was more appreciated than anything else a guy could bring. It could turn a slow night into a party for the guys. Here's the song from the movie; Elvis is once again in a military uniform.

"I'm just a red blooded boy and I can't stop thinking about girls..."

WE'VE SET THIS BLOG UP LIKE A STORY

But if you're a casual reader you may want to use the search feature above to find information about a certain artist we're blogging about! TRY IT NOW. Search for ERSEL HICKEY!

MARCH 1958 MOVIELAND MAGAZINE ELVIS LONELY?

This is the magazine that my father saw on a news stand in Winston Salem and paging through it, he saw the article on me, called "Crashing the Fame Barrier."

I was in great company:

Elvis Presley "Lonely Elvis Presley Needs Your Help."

Ricky Nelson "Are You The Girl Ricky Nelson Wants To Date?."

Debbie Reynolds "Why Debbie Has That Happy Feeling."

Dean Stockwell "Dean Stockwell's Frankest Interview".
Ava Gardner "Ava's Secret Love Affairs."

Natalie Wood & Bob Wagner "A Ring For Natalie."

Frank Sinatra & Lauren Bacall "A Warm Glow."

Dad went around the neighborhood showing people my picture and if to that point he had doubts about my actor-singer career, he put them aside and got fully behind me. That meant so much to me.

I miss my Dad.

But Elvis, lonely ??? Not at this point. He had no time to be lonely.
It was girls, girls, girls...

(269) ELVIS and SPIRITUAL FRIENDSHIP

Elvis and I had some kind of spiritual connection. We were both Christians and we read the Bible together at times and we had a lot in common, beginning with being raised in the South, but there was more.

Sometimes Elvis would say to me as I was leaving the house. "You know and I know"

He meant The Truth. Jesus Christ.

But Elvis was a bit of a spiritual explorer and he also was a believer in Reincarnation. How do I know this about Elvis?

Because he told me more than once "Wes, I've known you in our other life." He said it in a joking attitude but he meant it.

It's always feel sad when I think of how Elvis died, but I know he's alright - with God - too.

(268) THE DEATH OF A GENEROUS SPIRIT

NOT ALL STORIES OF ELVIS' generosity have been collected.
DO YOU HAVE A STORY TO SHARE?

(267) ELVIS and the HOLY BIBLE

When Elvis threw a party, of course there was a lot of spontaneous performances- It could turn into one long jam session. His living room was huge - like Grand Central Station - and sometimes there was music coming from three different locations; records playing, people singing, Elvis or one of his guests - even me - with a guitar.

Sometimes Elvis would take a seat, take out his Holy Bible, and begin to read from it to the people who gathered around him.

I can still remember girls sitting at his feet, listening to him read it, and begin to cry...

LES PAUL ONE OF THE GREAT AX MEN

Lester William Polsfuss, long known as Les Paul, passed into Eternal Life at the age of 94 yesterday, August 13, 2009. To link right to his site, click on the title above. Les invented the Les Paul Gibson Guitar, an electric guitar, that helped take Rock and Roll out of the acoustic phase into the electronic phase. (And Rock and Roll is rounding back a bit, with a acoustic guitar versions of many previously electronic hits.)

Now it's been a while since we've posted multiple links on a blogpost. But below is the link to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Les Paul page.

http://www.rockhall.com/inductee/les-paul

"The guitar that bears his name – the Gibson Les Paul – is his crowning achievement. It grew out of his desire, as a musician and inventor, to create a stringed instrument that could make electronic sound without distorting. What he came up with, after almost a decade of work, was a solid bodied instrument – that is, one that didn’t have the deep, resonant chamber of an acoustic guitar." Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

We'll let the world speak for itself on Les.

(266) HIGH JINKS = GOOD CLEAN FUN

All the joking and horse-playing Elvis and the guys were up to - the high jinks - was good clean fun. I can't emphasize that enough. No drugs!

So many people think that drugs and the music business always go hand in hand... NOT SO!

When Buddy Knox and I were touring we drove in front of the tour bus! We were young, it's true, but we crisscrossed the United States for two years and it was exhausting. Still, we carried on, performing to our professional best and no hard drinking and no drugs.

And when I hired a musician to work in the studio with me and he or she turned up on something, I could tell, and so could just about anyone else who heard it. You often hear of some "great" drummer or guitarist who performed fantastic - until they ruin their lives or overdose; I couldn't take that chance. Unusable tracks are money thrown away. A waste of everyone else's time. A good way to loose your contract. I'd have to ax the ax man on drugs.

SKY SAXON Quote on Life (In Memorial!)

“Well, I think you could retire when you die. I don't, however, believe in death, so I guess I will retire when I leave my body. But I plan to continue writing and performing in heaven”

Sky Saxon March 2009

I worked in the studio with Sky, who's my age, at a point in my career. (There's a bit about him in our book.) He was a unique individual. I love this quote by Sky, who was one of the first real " California Hippies" that this ol Rockabilly star ever met.

This quote is from one of the web sites that features Sky, http://www.skysunlightsaxon.com/ at but we're linking to his official site by clicking on the title above which announces this memorial service.

Sky Sunlight Saxon Memorial

Kenny Roland Detroit is hosting this memorial featuring the band he had with Sky Sunlight Saxon's, Flights w/Djin Aquarian from Yahowa 13. Also performing are The Lottery w/St. Jermain, Dick Peddicord Band from Blue Cheer.

The Top Shelf
2151 Market Street Redding, California
Aug 28, 2009
6:00pm - closing

(265) ELVIS PRESLEY - MICHAEL JACKSON - PRESCRIPTION DRUGS

The recent death of singer Michael Jackson of course made me think of my friend, Elvis Presley, whose death anniversary we celebrate this month. I watch the morning news and hear what's new in the investigation of Jackson's death. The implications so far have been that he was on prescription drugs and that at least one doctor may be involved in administering injections of other drugs - most likely pain killers - to him. Like Elvis, whose tours were unrelentless, Jackson was up against a big tour schedule of about fifty shows in a row.

As you probably know Jackson was briefly married to Elvis's daughter Lisa Marie Presley, who is now happily married to another man and a little less than a year ago had twin daughters. I'll leave Lisa Marie out of this post, as she was out of the marriage with Jackson.

When I first met Elvis the man wasn't even a drinker. And I believed for most of my friendship with him that any prescription drugs he was given, by doctors, had to be safe. Elvis' death in which a great number of prescription drugs were found in his system - interacting and counteracting each other - seemed to be a WARNING to everyone what could happen when even doctors didn't know when enough was enough.

So sadly, I remember Elvis at his best, in contrast to how debilitated he was in the end.

Ever since Elvis died I've been afraid to ever take sleeping pills or any prescription drug I don't really need, afraid I might become addicted. My writing partner, Christine Trzyna, is the same way, believing that holistic medicine and yoga are the better or first alternative.

We ask our readers to stay away from street drugs and to ask your doctor a lot of questions, be as informed a pharmaceutical consumer as you can be, and not to follow in either Elvis' or Micheal's footsteps in this way.

(264) AUGUST 5 1962 : MARILYN MONROE MY FAVORITE and ELVIS'

Marilyn Monroe was Elvis' favorite actress - and mine. She was an "older woman" but ahead of her time.

She was born Norma Jeane Mortenson on June 1, 1926 in Los Angeles.

On January 14, 1954, Marilyn married baseball star Joe DiMaggio at San Francisco's City Hall.

On August 5, 1962, Marilyn was found dead.

We heard all the horrible rumors that made it into books as exposes years later at the time. We were upset by Marilyn's death. The idea that anyone so young would have overdosed on prescription drugs was almost unthinkable.

Joe orchestrated her funeral, giving her the dignity and respect in death that he didn't think she got in life. No big Micheal Jackson extravaganzas like the recent one, which cost the tax payers of Los Angeles County, which is in a Great Depression-like economy right now, something like 2.5 million for the day.

.

Despite his fame, Elvis and Marilyn never met. They didn't run in the same Hollywood circles. I almost met her in New York when I was studying acting with Lee Strasberg at Actors Studio.

(263) ELVIS WASN'T "A DRINKER"

Elvis wasn't much of a drinker.

He loved to be in control at his in-home parties. He was a great host.

Elvis remembered what you drank and he would have one of the entourage, playing bartender, mix it up for you. I wasn't much of a drinker either. I believed being drunk was stupid if you wanted to make it with the girls!

He was before his time in being concerned that no one leave his parties drunk and driving. We gave each other rides home or stayed there. In one of the bedrooms or on the floor.

(262) ELVIS GAVE ME A KEY TO HIS HOUSE

I spent many weekends with Elvis and the guys at his house in Los Angeles in the early 1960's, any time my own career didn't take me out of town. I WAS GIVEN A KEY TO THE HOUSE BY ELVIS. I could come and go as I pleased but I liked to call ahead before I went up anyway. Elvis' was my home away from home.