Tag: Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley’s Funny Take on “Are You Lonesome Tonight” in Omaha in 1977

In 1977, near the end of his life and in poor health, Elvis Presley had a laugh with Charlie Hodge during “Are You Lonesome Tonight?”

Elvis Lauging

There are a number of instances of Elvis Presley cracking up while performing the monologue in “Are You Lonesome Tonight.” For example, on August 26, 1969 in Las Vegas, Elvis could not keep it straight as the soprano backing vocals from Cissy Houston (Whitney’s mom) made him start laughing. Another gem occurred near the end of his life while performing in 1977, apparently in Omaha on June 19, 1977.

The Omaha performance was filmed for a CBS TV Special. Reporters noted that the the ailing and puffy-looking Presley gave a subdued performance that lacked the enthusiasm of his earlier shows. But there were still flashes of energy and the King’s charm.

In the clip below, Charlie Hodge comes out to hold the microphone while Elvis plays guitar and sings “Are You Lonesome Tonight.” Hodge often held the microphone for the King, but the proximity of the men during the touching song and the spoken-word segment leads them both to cracking up.

One may point out that it is near the end of Elvis’s life when he appeared not to be in good health. In fact, in a little more than two months, the King would be dead. But still, especially considering his condition during this period, his charisma and voice comes through to make an entertaining performance.

As for the man holding the microphone, Charlie Hodge was a man of many talents beyond holding a microphone. He was a singer, musician, arranger, and close confidant of Presley. As a member of Elvis’s “Memphis Mafia,” he helped Elvis in a number of ways, including with music arranging. As you can tell from the video, the two men were very close, with Hodge living at Graceland for seventeen years. After Elvis’s death, Hodge continued to help promote the legacy of the King.

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    Was Kurt Russell’s Voice in “Forrest Gump” as Elvis Presley?

    Kurt Russell Elvis Presley

    In Forrest Gump (1994), there is a scene where the young Forrest Gump is dancing while a young man staying at Gump’s mom’s house plays the guitar and sings. The viewer immediately recognizes the singer character as Elvis Presley, who learns some of his dance moves from the kid. But did you recognize the voice of the actor playing Elvis? It was Kurt Russell.

    Kurt Russell is not credited with the role, but many observers have recognized his voice for the actor Peter Dobson. While some have debated whether or not it is really Russell, IMDb lists Russell as providing the voice. Also, reportedly, the DVD commentary to the film confirms Russell’s participation.

    Below is the Elvis scene from Forrest Gump. Do you recognize Russell’s voice for the young Elvis? By the way, the later scene of Elvis on television is of course the real Elvis with his real voice.

    Russell as Elvis in Other Movies

    Forrest Gump director Robert Zemeckis knew that Russell had played Elvis in the 1979 made-for-TV film Elvis, directed by John Carpenter. So, he concluded that Russell, who was by then too old to appear as the young Elvis, would be ideal to provide the Elvis voice in Forrest Gump.

    In this scene from Elvis, Russell plays the young Elvis. Interestingly, Carpenter did not use Russell’s voice for the singing Elvis in the movie. Singer Ronnie McDowell, whose first hit was the 1977 song “The King is Gone,” provided the voice for Russell’s Elvis when he was singing.

    Russell would reprise his Elvis skills in the Las Vegas heist film 3000 Miles to Graceland. In that 2001 film, Russell works with Kevin Costner to plan a Las Vegas robbery during an Elvis Presley impersonators convention.

    Besides dressing as an Elvis impersonator in 3000 Miles to Graceland, Russell also portrayed Elvis in the music video for Presley’s “Such a Night,” which was featured on the soundtrack for the movie.

    Russell With Elvis

    Those movie appearances as Elvis (or an Elvis impersonator), however, are not Kurt Russell’s only connection to Elvis. When Russell was a child actor, he briefly appeared in It Happened at the World’s Fair (1963).

    In that movie, Russell appeared onscreen to kick the King. In the film, Elvis had paid the young boy to kick him so he could meet the nurse at the fairground.

    It Happened at the World’s Fair was Russell’s first movie appearance. At that time, Elvis was 27 years old; and Russell would later be 27 years old when he portrayed Elvis in Elvis.

    In this segment from Turner Classic Movies, Russell tells the story about meeting Elvis and about portraying him on film.

    And that is the story behind the movie and Russell’s connections to Elvis Presley, who was born on January 8, 1935.

    Do you think it is Russell’s voice in Forrest Gump? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Who Was Poor Old Johnnie Ray?

    who was Johnnie Ray Poor old Johnnie Ray,
    Sounded sad upon the radio;
    He moved a million hearts in Mono.
    Our mothers cried;
    Sang along, who’d blame them.

    The opening of the 1982-1983 hit song “Come On Eileen” by Dexys Midnight Runners mentions a person named Johnnie Ray. So does the first line of Billy Joel’s 1989 song “We Didn’t Start the Fire” (“Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray. . . .”).

    In each of the songs, the songwriters refer to Johnnie Ray in the context of remembering their childhoods.  During the period they evoke, Johnnie Ray was a big star. But by the 1980s, when these songs were released, and today, many ask, “Who was poor old Johnnie Ray?”

    Who Was Johnnie Ray?

    Johnnie Ray, who passed away on February 24, 1990, was born in Oregon on January 10, 1927.  He rose to stardom as a singer in the early 1950s. Some, like Tony Bennett, have credited Ray’s work to being an important precursor to rock and roll.

    One of Ray’s biggest hits was “Cry.”

    Bob Dylan once noted that Ray was the “first singer whose voice and style I totally fell in love with.”  Ringo Starr explained that in the early days, he and the other Beatles listened to “Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Johnnie Ray.” The Rolling Stones’s Bill Wyman, among others, has commented how Ray opened up his ears even before Elvis Presley began recording.

    And when Elvis Presley got out of the army, he covered a song he knew from Ray, “Such a Night.” Elvis’s version appeared on his 1960 album Elvis is Back.  Below is Johnnie Ray’s version.

    But as rock and roll took off in the late 1950s, Ray’s popularity declined in the U.S. even as he remained popular in other countries. Ray never disappeared and continued to perform until 1989.

    Ray even had some fun with Presley’s music in the following comedy bit, where Ray explains he is not declaring war with Elvis. The clip is from a 1957 live episode of the CBS variety show Shower of Stars.

    Ray had a great voice and made some wonderful music despite being deaf in one ear from a childhood injury. It is interesting to speculate why he could not maintain his popularity as rock and roll took off.

    Maybe his style still was stuck in the 1940s era for rock and roll listeners. Maybe rumors about his sexual orientation hurt him, or maybe it was not cool to be in a movie like There’s No Business Like Show Business (1954) with Ethel Merman.  (Still, that film also starred Marilyn Monroe, and Elvis Presley’s career would survive being in far worse movies.)

    Ray also appeared on What’s My Line? on June 9, 1957.

    Other songs have mentioned Ray too. In 1986, Ray appeared in Billy Idol’s “Don’t Need a Gun” video and was mentioned in the lyrics of the song.

    More recently, Van Morrison dropped Ray’s name in his song “Sometimes We Cry” on his 1997 album The Healing Game.  In the song, Van Morrison exclaims, “I’m not gonna fake it like Johnnie Ray.”

    Van Morrison’s reference is not a criticism of Ray but a tribute.  He invokes his memory of Ray’s own songs about crying such as “Cry,” along with Ray’s ability to fake cry on cue for his performances.  Like the other singers who have invoked Ray’s name, Morrison remembers Ray as a major presence in his childhood.  In a 2006 interview, Van Morrison noted that in his childhood home, “Johnnie Ray was like the backdrop, hearing his music on the radio during that period.”

    Ray clearly made an impact on those who heard him during his prime.  And it is great that the name checks by Van Morrison and Billy Joel will lead others to discover Ray’s music.  Ray of course can also thank the writers of “Come On Eileen” (Kevin Rowland, Jim Paterson and Billy Adams) for his presence in one of the most iconic opening lines of a 1980s pop song.

    Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Elvis Presley’s Movie Debut: “Love Me Tender”

    Love Me TenderOn November 15, 1956, Elvis Presley made his movie debut in Love Me Tender as the film premiered at New York’s Paramount Theater.   The film is set in Texas after the U.S. Civil War.

    In the movie, Elvis plays Clint Reno, the brother of a former Confederate soldier.  If you are going to make a movie with the most popular rock and roll star of the era, apparently someone thought it would be a good idea to put him in a period piece.

    Presley started his music career with Sun Records in 1954, and then his first album for RCA was released in March 1956.  So at the time of the release of Love Me Tender, Presley had only been recording music for a few years.  Also, he had made his first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on September 9, 1956, only a few months before the release of Love Me Tender.

    The film initially had the title, The Reno Brothers.  But after advance sales of the single “Love Me Tender” went through the roof, the movie was renamed after the song.  Elvis sang “Love Me Tender” in the movie, along with three other songs.

    The film was similar to Elvis’s later films in that it combined a story with Elvis singing. But it differed from many of his later films in that he did not play the lead role in Love Me Tender.  Additionally [spoiler alert!], Presley’s character died at the end, which would have been unthinkable in his later movies.

    What is your favorite Elvis Presley movie? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    3 a.m. Albums: Elvis Presley’s “The Jungle Room Sessions”

    Our series “3 a.m. Albums” examines albums that are perfect for those nights when you cannot sleep due to sadness, loneliness, or despair. Today we consider Elvis Presley’s “The Jungle Room Sessions” (and “Way Down in the Jungle Room”) a collection of songs from Presley’s final recording sessions.

    Elvis Last Recording Just for the circumstances surrounding Elvis Presley’s recording of The Jungle Room Sessions (2000), the album constitutes the perfect “3 a.m. album.” The songs on The Jungle Room Sessions come from Presley’s final two studio recording sessions on February 2-7 and on October 29-30, 1976 in the late night and early morning hours. Presley was emotionally and physically drained, no longer wanting to go outside his home at Graceland even as he worked hard to fulfill his obligations for concerts booked by Colonel Tom Parker.

    Because of Presley’s reluctance to leave Graceland, RCA brought a studio to him, setting up recording equipment in Presley’s famed “Jungle Room,” the den at the back of Graceland behind the kitchen. Although the room was not built for recording, Nashville engineer Brian Christian helped figure out how to adapt the room in ways such as draping the walls with heavy blankets to dampen the acoustics. Considering the obstacles, the music that came out of these sessions sounds fantastic.

    The music from these sessions may be found on two similar releases from Sony’s Follow That Dream (FTD) specialty Elvis label.  The Jungle Room Sessions from 2000 features outtakes from the sessions.  FTD later released Way Down in the Jungle Room in 2013 as a two-CD set that includes both the masters and various outtakes. I own and love both of these releases, which are somewhat duplicative, with some differences.  Either one makes for great three a.m. listening.

    The masters from these Jungle Room sessions produced the final two official albums of Elvis’s career: From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee (1976) and Moody Blue (1977). The Jungle Room Sessions and Way Down in the Jungle Room compile unreleased songs from these recording sessions that according to Ernst Jorgensen’s Elvis Presley: A Life in Music, generally started after 9:00 p.m. and went all through the night.  A more recent

    And it is these gems and alternate takes — sometimes stripped down, sometimes featuring false starts and comments by Presley — where Presley through his beautiful voice sacrifices his own anguish to help heal yours. As his weakened body gives his lifeblood to each song, you find a close companion in the night. Allmusic describes the Jungle Room Sessions album as “one of the most revealing and emotionally draining releases ever issued by Elvis. Hear it and weep.”

    The Jungle Room Sessions generally follows the order in which the songs were recorded, beginning with “Bitter They Are, Harder They Fall.” This recording includes some opening conversation by Elvis and two short takes before getting to the complete fifth take of the song. The missteps and chatter draw you into the sessions, so you feel you are sitting with Elvis and the band in the middle of the night in Graceland, or maybe they are with you wherever you are.

    Other songs include a nice take on “The Last Farewell,” “Moody Blue,” “Danny Boy,” and “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain.” Another highlight is “She Thinks I Still Care,” a George Jones classic that was written by written by Dickey Lee and Steve Duffy.

    The collection of songs also includes alternate takes on “Hurt,” a song where in Presley’s cries of anguish Greil Marcus found an “apocalyptic attack.” Similarly, Dave Marsh wrote, “If [Presley] felt the way he sounded, the wonder isn’t that he only had a year left to live but that he managed to survive that long.” This alternate take matches that description.

    Finally, the Jungle Room Sessions album ends with the rocking “Fire Down Below.” But you no longer hear Presley on this track, except for a brief clip of Presley singing “America” after the track ends. The instrumental recording for “Fire Down Below” was made for Presley to later add his vocals. But he died before he got the chance to do that.

    “Fire Down Below” is a fitting way to end the album, with the listener missing Presley, wondering what he might have done with the music, a track that sounds more like a sunrise than a 3 a.m. song.

    Check out other albums in our series “3 a.m. Albums.”  The Jungle Room Sessions and Way Down in the Jungle Room appeara on Graceland’s special collector label Follow That Dream and are available through Graceland’s official store.  What is your favorite 3 a.m. album? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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