ELVIS PRESLEY Quote on ADVERSITY

"Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will stand adversity." - Elvis Presley

A BLESSED CHRISTMAS TO YA !

(224) JERRY LEE LEWIS - WHITE CHRISTMAS

Here's a YouTube presentation of Jerry Lee Lewis performing "White Christmas"

DALE EVANS ROGERS Quote on Christmas

"Christmas, my child, is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, it's Christmas." - Dale Evans Rogers

(223) ELVIS sings RED WEST'S SONG "IF EVERY DAY WAS LIKE CHRISTMAS"

This song, "If Every Day Was Like Christmas," is one of the most beautiful songs Elvis recorded for the holiday season, and Red West wrote it. Red West was one of Elvis' bodyguards for many years, and if you'd like to read a bit more about him, use the Google Blogger-Search Feature above to read previous posts. Red remains a friend of mine to this day. He and I also wrote a few songs together!

(222) ELVIS CARAVANS IT BACK TO MEMPHIS

Elvis was afraid of flying for years and as a result he preferred train travel or moving back and forth between Los Angeles and Memphis by caravan...

Elvis loved the seasonal changes and the snow. He lived for visiting family for the holidays. He'd see friends, visit old haunts... Christmas was special for him. He made up for his childhood poverty and lack of opportunity by renting a whole movie theatre or amusement park for the private entertainment of himself and his friends...

I was lucky to be one of them, even as my life moved away from performing and into studio work.

GRAMMY MUSEUM in downtown LOS ANGELES JUST OPENED !

Just opened! The GRAMMY MUSEUM in downtown Los Angeles sounds like a hit! Click on the title above to get to the new website!

They have Elvis Presley's 1942 Martin guitar and letters that Elvis wrote and letters Buddy Holly wrote! There's more than artifacts that celebrate remarkable talent. There is also a focus on how records are mastered. Like any good museum, you get an education going through this one.

According to Tom Teicholtz in his article recently published in the ARTS IN LA supplement to the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles... "There is a history of how music has been recorded - from Thomas Edison's phonograph to the Graphophone and Gramophone, from cylinders and disks, from 78 RPMs to 45's, 33s, and eight track tapes, to current digital formats...

Are Wes and I heading down there? You betcha!

Christine Trzyna

(221) BOBBY DARIN - SILENT NIGHT

Bobby Darin only recorded one Christmas album - in 1960 - but it wasn't released till 1991! It's called "The Twenty Fifth Day of December."

Here's a YouTube presentation of Bobby's version of "Silent Night."

(video removed December 3, 2010 - no current replacement)


Bobby and I were friends in New York. When he went to LA to make a movie his whole life changed once again. Bobby and I remained friends for some time. He once bought a song from me - just handed me a check.

(220) NAT KING COLE - THE CHRISTMAS SONG

NAT KING COLE ...

Mel Torme and Bob Wells wrote "The Christmas Song" in the mid 1940's, but it's Nat King Cole's 1961 recording that made the song a Christmas Classic... I believe this was the top selling Christmas album that year.

Video removed

(219) PERRY COMO - THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

Perry Como was always one of my favorites. He put out a few successful Christmas albums ...PERRY COMO CHRISTMAS ALBUM  link


NEW VIDEO as of APRIL 2014

Quote from JOHN by CYNTHIA LENNON

This excerpt is from the book about her famous Beatle husband, John Lennon, by ex-wife Cynthia...

Page 31 of "John" by Cynthia Lennon

"Music had been an important part of John's relationship with his mother and when she died he used it to blot out the pain and anger he felt. Julia had bought him his first guitar, and she loved music. She played the piano and banjo, and sat with him patiently for hours, showing him over and over again how to play the chords. She had also introduced John to rock and roll. She would play Elvis Presley records at top volume, grabbing job's hand to jive around the kitchen to them. She always encouraged John's musical dreams.

By the time John and I got together, he talked, ate and breathed music. When he wasn't playing the guitar, he was writing lyrics or talking about the latest Lonnie Donegan, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly or Chuck Berry record. Almost every lunchtime he met the two other Quarrymen to rehearse. They were both younger and went to the Liverpool Institute, next door to the art college, the best known of Liverpool's boy's grammar schools: distinguished judges and politicians had been educated there, its pupils were expected to do well. But John's friends, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, were more interested in playing music than passing exams."


Cynthia Lennon

(Christine Trzyna here. This quote was culled from a number of references to Beatle John Lennon's early musical influences. Cynthia Lennon was John Lennon's first wife, of ten years, and mother of his son Julian. The book is C 2005 by Cynthia Lennon and Crown is the publisher.)

(218) THE CHRISTMAS SEASON - THE COVER TUNE SEASON

Now friends, the Christmas season has always been and will probably remain, in my opinion, the COVER TUNE SEASON! So very many singers have recorded traditional - and sometimes innovative - Christmas songs.

A Christmas song that sells well can bring in residuals for years to come. Songwriters can become rich on one Christmas song that becomes a classic. Christmas songs may get played for only a short period of time every year but they sell.

Even stars who are known for their own amazing singing and songwriting are willing to cover some traditional tunes. Often they record their own favorites from when they were growing up.

So over the next couple weeks we'll be acknowledging some of the singers and classic songs of the Christmas holiday season.

QUOTE: SELF REALIZATION FELLOWSHIP : RESPECT BRINGS OUT THE BEST IN OURSELVES AND OTHERS

Christine here: A man I got to talking to in the park gave me a rather beaten old booklet published by Self Realization Fellowship called "Bringing Out the Best In Our Relationships With Others," part of their "How to Live Series," 3rd printing, by Brother Premamoy.

Those of you who are a familiar with the Elvis story know that Elvis sometimes retreated to the Self Realization Fellowship property to be alone and to do his version of meditation. We'll be talking more about that in some future blog.

Reading through it, I am sure that this excerpt is about Elvis Presley, during the time that he was exploring other religions, though he remained a true Christian devotee to Jesus Christ to the end of his life. As Wes says about Elvis "Jesus Christ was it for him."

Page 11.

"There was a famous "rock-and roll" singer who used to come to the ashram to pay his respects. I met him here at Mr. Washington. He was an idol to many. Yet he was extremely respectful. He always addressed me as "sir," and was very polite, very dignified. He once told me that he was taught at home to address as "sir" any man who was older than he was. He was a "king" in the world of popular music, yet never lost this quality of being respectful to others."

Elvis met with Sri Daya Mata, who was the person chosen by Psaramahansa Yogananda, the founder of what was to become the Self Realization Fellowship, in his years of spiritual exploration. After his death Priscilla also met with Sri Daya Mata to talk to her about Elvis.

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

(216) HISTORY MOMENT NOVEMBER 29 1961 ANOTHER CHIMP BLASTS OFF

Another chimp blasts off into space, leading the way for mankind...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING from WES BRYAN and CHRISTINE TRZYNA

Though our American economy is in trouble, especially in Los Angeles, we want to be thankful for what we do have and that certainly includes our loyal friends.
I was thinking of Elvis Presley, a man who never took for granted his gifts from God. Elvis gave thanks to God - to Jesus Christ - for his talent and he felt it was a gift he was meant to use, to be an entertainer and help people forget their problems for a while. He also chose to record Gospel as a means to uplift their spirits - and his.The Elvis I knew was a dichotomy in his way. He was a famous Rock and Roller and a sensualist, but also a Gospel Singer, a devout believer in Christ, with great loyalty to family and his family of friends. To be part of his musical Rock and Roll family at the house was a honor.

ROULETTE - RADIO STATION COPY OF MELODIE D' AMOUR - WES BRYAN

My tour for Roulette to promote Melodie D'Amour took me through many cities including my new home town of Los Angeles in 1961. I performed on the Wink Martindale Show on KCOP and on Alan Freed's Radio Show, as well as the amusement park in Pacific Palisades with the Pacific Ocean view.

Meanwhile I was a staff song writer at American Music, the publishing house owned by Sylvester Cross.

Here's a "Radio Station Copy" of the record that Elvis said was one of his favorites. He put it in his juke box at the house and carried a copy with him to Vegas.

READERS - LET US KNOW IF YOU FIND A BAD LINK OR VIDEO !

We check our links and videos from time to time and are able to replace them when they become obsolete in most cases, but please let us know if you come across a bad one! You can leave commentary for us two ways. You can e-mail us at wewritethebook@yahoo.com or you can leave a message using your Open ID (even if you blog on another format) or Google blogger ID!

THANK YOU!
Christine and Wes

(215) NASHVILLE SONGWRITERS HALL OF FAME

This link takes you to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame honors list.

http://www.nndb.com/honors/545/000129158/

Among the honorees mentioned in this blog are Ernest Tubb, Marty Robbins, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Waylon Jennings, Buddy Holly, Bob Dylan, Mac Davies, Johnny Cash, Chuck Berry, and Gene Autry.

Use the Google search feature above to read what we have to say about these talented people and the music!

(214) MARTY ROBBINS - WEST TEXAS TO LOS ANGELES

One of the stars who passed through Los Angeles on tour in 1961 was Marty Robbins who got the first ever country Grammy Award for "El Paso" in 1959, the song he is most associated with, and which got him into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Marty continued with hits like "If I Had A Hammer," which was covered by many other singers including Peter, Paul, and Mary. He was one of the singers I liked to go hear, along with some of the guys that I knew from Elvis'.

MARTY ROBBINS OFFICIAL updated March 2013
"Don't Worry" was a 1961 hit for Marty. (video replaced March 2013)
  
In 1970 after years from hits, Marty won a Grammy Award for the best country song in 1970. He was inducted into the Nashville Song Writers Hall of Fame in 1975. He got into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1982.

Link to The Country Music Hall of Fame... NEW LINK January 13, 2011 Click on title!

"El Paso" is classic Marty Robbins and reflects the Hispanic culture of Texas.

  Here's a bio of Marty from Billboard.com
BILLBOARD MARTY ROBBINS PAGE  updated April 2014

(213) THE BROWN DERBY and HOLLYWOOD PHOTOS BY BRUCE TORRENCE

Here's a link we found to some Hollywood photographs of the Brown Derby and many other famous sites and restaurants on the website of photographer Bruce Torrence. This is an impressive collection. And there are lots of Brown Derby exteriors from the 1940's through 1950's

http://www.hollywoodphotographs.com/

The Brown Derby was one of those places where the walls were covered with studio photographs of stars. Though a lot of studio executives an movie stars dined there, just about anyone could get in. It was one of the most famous restaurants then and it's legend goes on now.

Wes

Christine here: I once had a friend who swore that her mother, who was a waitress at the Brown Derby, bought a house in Van Nuys for cash, tips she made there. She described a time when the San Fernando Valley was where people went hunting and fishing.

(212) WHAT CLUB ARE WE GOING TO TONIGHT ?

"What club are we going to tonight?"

My friends seemed to go out to a club most every night, either looking for girls, or on dates, mostly in Hollywood, sometimes in the San Fernando Valley. Clubbing was the thing to do.

Now the truth is, I wasn't as much into clubbing as many of my friends were. First of all I had been the entertainment in a heck of a lot of clubs myself. You could say that I'd had my fill of clubbing. Like Elvis Presley I barely drank in comparison to some of them. Also like Elvis Presley I like to retreat and have private time.

If you've ever had to perform you know that even when you have complete confidence in yourself things can get out of control or go wrong despite your best efforts. A performer needs the support of his fellow performers, and so for this reason more than any other I went clubbing.

I always found more quiet moments to be with the music outside of the music business when I found that retreat... And I still do... Just me and my guitar...

ELVIS IS A GRANDPA TWO MORE TIMES !

Congradulations are in order to Elvis and Pricilla's only daughter Lisa Marie Presleyand her husband Michael Lockwood on the recent birth of twin daughters, Finley and Harper, who came into this world on October 7th.

If you'll click on the title above you'll get to the news agency Reuter's report.

Here's to Lisa Marie's own MYSPACE that is linked to her charity to help the homeless in Memphis and New Orleans...

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.Channel&ChannelID=42291868