For Elvis impersonators the best were the sweaty Vegas years of rhinestone suit and shades, peanut-butter-and-jelly diet, and extravagant pill-popping - though I suspect much of the reason is that the man was already a parody of himself. Almost anyone who can hold a tune can do a reasonable Suspicious Minds, but very few can get within a mile of Heartbreak Hotel or Jailhouse Rock (except maybe The Residents: if you're going to do Jailhouse Rock, do it differently).
Then there's the earlier-the-better school, for whom the Sun Sessions, recorded in '54 and' 55 but not released till the mid-Seventies, provided a gold standard which was never again to be reached. From then on, thanks to Colonel Tom Parker, the US army, and Elvis's own easy-going nature and regrettably middle-of-the-road tastes, it was downhill all the way to the bloated corpse on the toilet in Gracelands.
It's a persuasive case, particularly as it follows a template: the extraordinary raw talent reined in and ultimately destroyed by the commercial realities of a corrupt and duplicitous music industry. But I don't really buy it. I think Elvis's greatest moments were pretty much what most people think of as his greatest moments; that is, basically the hits collected on Golden Records Volume One and Volume Two. And my particular favourites are the Country ones - Love Me, That's When Your Heartaches Begin, and, especially, A Fool Such As I.
Not that I thought of them as Country when I first heard them, any more than I thought of One Night, say, as Blues. They were all just Elvis songs. Maybe he was the first Alt. Country singer:
Hank Snow did the original version. Pure Fifties Country. Great instrumentals and gritty vocal. Not a hint of Vegas here.
Bob Dylan did a version on the Dylan album. Straining the vocal chords a bit, but it just about works.
Rodney Crowell and Emmylou Harris do it live.
Raul Malo (of the Mavericks) is one of the few singers who could really match Elvis vocally (check out his version of Roy Orbison's Crying) but he plays it straight and uptempo here.
See if you can find his version of Merle Haggard's Long black limousine. It's on the Memphis Sessions album. Utterly stunning.
Posted by: Martin Adamson | June 01, 2008 at 02:23 PM
I remember Elvis suddenly erupting onto the wireless in 1950-something. "What rubbish" I thought. Still do.
Posted by: dearieme | June 01, 2008 at 10:39 PM
Did you ever hear Raul Malo singing Stephen Foster? Unfortunately, I can't find it on YouTube. But here is a sampler from Amazon. It's just a few seconds, but it will show you how beautiful he can sing.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/recsradio/radio/B0002M64Z6/ref=pd_krex_dp_001_001?ie=UTF8&track=001&disc=001
Posted by: Dom | June 02, 2008 at 02:10 PM
No, hadn't heard that. Very fine. Not that I needed convincing: I'm already a fan.
Posted by: Mick H | June 02, 2008 at 05:13 PM