A tribute to Elvis

Terry Blackwood, lead singer of the Gospel group, the "Imperials"

 

 

"He would probably be considered a baritone, but he could reach notes that most baritone singers could not. Much of his abilities emanated from a very intense desire to execute a song as he wanted to do it, which meant that he really sang higher than he would normally be able to. When the adrenalin is going, and the song is really pumping, you can get into that mode where you can actually do things, vocally, that you couldn't normally do. So he had a tremendous range because of his desire to excel and be better, and that's why he could do a lot of things that most people couldn't."

 

A TRIBUTE TO ELVIS

Greg Lake, lead singer and bass player for the UK progressive rock super-group "Emerson, Lake and Palmer", as published on www.greglake.com, on September 7, 2007.

 

 

 "Perhaps the only other voice to touch me ( Luciano Pavarotti's voice being the first), was the voice of Elvis Presley; to watch him perform as I did along with Carl (Palmer), and Keith (Emerson), both in 1971 and again later in 1976 was an absolutely awesome and breathtaking experience; like Pavarotti, Presley had the power to reduce most people to tears very quickly and indeed to move them to think very carefully about their inner spiritual beliefs; as far as singing is concerned, the human voice is a matter of the expression of passion in the understanding of the human condition and, upon seeing both of them perform, I very quickly came to realise that they were each capable of expressing more feeling, with their voices, than I had ever thought possible".

 

A TRIBUTE TO ELVIS

Songwriter, record producer and actor Paul Williams, writing about Elvis' "Heartbreak Hotel", which ranked in fourth place in Crawdaddy Magazine's list of "The 100 best singles of all time"

 

 

 "The first line of the record is sung without accompaniment, punctuated at the end by two beats, two chords on the piano. Exquisite. And this pattern is repeated through the verse, a cappella singing, piano crash, more a cappella singing; and then Elvis sings the chorus backed only by the beautiful, lonesome sound of a walking electric bass. The risk —only a great voice can hang out there that naked — is impressive and the payoff is phenomenal. None of which would matter, I suppose, if it weren't that the voice that this perfect and daring bit of accompaniment supports is nothing short of awesome; spirit is walking throughout this recording, just put it on the phonograph, and the room fills with ozone. Darkness and gloom drip joyfully from every rafter. This "Heartbreak Hotel" voice is an instant old friend; it intimately and unforgettably announces the arrival of something big"

 

Songwriter, record producer and actor Paul Williams, writing about Elvis' "Heartbreak Hotel", which ranked in fourth place in Crawdaddy Magazine's list of "The 100 best singles of all time"

 

A TRIBUTE TO ELVIS

 

 

 

 

 

 "Elvis Presley`s talent as a musical artist was double barrelled and more; his voice, on the one hand, was extraordinary for its quality, range and power, as well as being a unique stage performer with instinctive natural abilities in both areas; he was the master of a wide and diverse range of vocal stylings and ventriloquist effects, from the clear tenor of his C&W heroes, to the vibrato of the Gospel singers he loved, his voice invariably possessing an aching sincerity and an indefinable quality of yearning virtually impossible to pigeonhole".

 

From the U.S Department of the Interior`s paper on criteria for greatness as a vocalist, which, together with all aspects of his life and legacy, led to the inclusion of his home, Graceland, in the National Register of Historic Places, in 2006.

A TRIBUTE TO ELVIS

 

Mike Handley, narrator and TV/radio spokesman.

 

" ....Elvis Presley possessed the most beautiful musical instrument (his voice), and the genius to play that instrument perfectly. (He) could jump from octave to countless other octaves with such agility without voice crack, simultaneously sing a duet with his own overtones, rein in an always-lurking atomic explosion to so effortlessly fondle, and release, the most delicate chimes of pathos. Yet, those who haven't been open to explore some of Presley's most brilliant work - the almost esoteric ballads and semi-classical recordings -, have cheated themselves out of one of the most beautiful gifts to fall out of the sky in a lifetime".-

A TRIBUTE TO ELVIS

  Lisa Marie , speaking about her father

 

"I remember him very well. It was a very intense feeling to have him around. You would know he was there in the house, you'd know he was there when you drove up the driveway. He was a very powerful person spiritually....he was an incredible and enlightened man. A one-of-a-kind human being."

 

A TRIBUTE TO ELVIS

Frye Gaillard, reviewing his February 20, 1977 show at the Coliseum, for the "The Charlotte Observer"

 

 

 

"In the early going at the Charlotte Coliseum, there were scattered notes here and there that made you wonder if finally he was gonna do it but, always, he would pull up short, rely on the grins, the charisma and the legend, until finally a little before 10:45, he came to the gospel classic, "How Great Thou Art"-. And that was it. As he came to the part where he belts out the title, he sounded like Mario Lanza with soul, cutting loose a series of high notes that would tingle the spine of even the diehard skeptic; but crecendo came on a song called "Hurt"; it's an old song that Elvis didn't record until a couple of years ago, and the key ingredient is its range, an awesome collection of notes that could leave a normal set of vocal chords in shreds; he finished in what seemed his most potent style, but wasn't satisfied, and mumbled to the band, "Let's do that last part again."; he did, and if there was anyone among the packed-house crowd who had thought Elvis was a fluke, they no doubt came away converted.

 

 

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A TRIBUTE TO ELVIS

 

 

  -Patti Sciaifa  (Mrs. Bruce Springsteen)

 

"Elvis, to me, is a symbol of tremendous promise and that kind of American hopefulness, where you can come from nowhere and have nothing and build yourself up and chase that American dream."

 

 

Question on Elvis a hot potato for Minnesota governor in 1956

 

 

Question on Elvis a hot potato for Minnesota governor in 1956

 

 On December 11, 1956, Elvis's first movie, Love Me Tender, was in its third week in Minneapolis theaters. That morning the Minneapolis Morning Tribune ran a front-page story on how the state's governor, O. A. Freeman, answered a question posed by 11-year-old Linda Johnson. "I would like to have your personal opinion of Elvis Presley," Linda wrote the governor. "I love him."

 According to the Tribune, Freeman "straddled the fence on a burning national issue." His return letter to Linda read, in part, "I've been so busy with my duties here and my reelection campaign (a successful one) that I had never seen Mr. Presley until his recent appearance on the Ed Sullivan program. He is certainly a very unusual showman and apparently appeals to many people."

Tribune reporter Ed Goodpaster, who wrote the paper's story about the correspondence between the young girl and the governor, closed his article with the following observation.

"Freeman, no stranger to political differences of mind, realized that this, however, was a different situation. As one of his assistants put it: 'Political infighting hath no fury like a Presley fan whose blue suedes have been stepped on.'"