From Nothingville to Memphis

 

With DJ Robin Braid

01 Trouble-Guitar Man

02 Stop, Look And Listen

03 The Love Machine (Alternate Take 11)

04 There Ain't Nothing Like A Song [with Nancy Sinatra]

05 House Of Sand

06 Hard Luck

07 Big Boss Man

08 Clean Up Your Own Backyard (Undubbed Version)

09 Rubberneckin'

10 All I Needed Was The Rain

11 Edge Of Reality

12 City By Night

13 Stranger In My Own Hometown (Undubbed Master)

14 Baby, What You Want Me To Do (First 'Stand Up' Show)

15 Run On

16 So High

17 Road Medley (Full Length Version)

18 Charro!

19 Gospel Medley [with Darlene Love] (Full Length Version)

20 I'm Movin' On

21 You'll Think Of Me

22 Memories (Stereo Mix)

23 Long Black Limousine 

24 If I Can Dream (TV Version)

25 When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold (Second 'Sit Down' Show)

Don't Knock Elvis (MP3)

Felton Jarvis - Don't Knock Elvis

In celebration of what would've been Elvis Presley's 77th birthday, here's an odd artifact from a very early stage in the career of songwriter and producer Felton Jarvis (1934 - 1981).

Jarvis was Elvis Presley's producer between the years 1966 and 1977, when Presley died. While still struggling to make a name for himself, he recorded this Elvis Presley tribute 45, which was released on the tiny VIVA label in August, 1959. While in the Marines in 1955, Jarvis experienced a life-changing event when was lucky enough to catch a live Elvis Presley show in Norfolk, Virginia.

Upon getting out of the Marines, he returned to Atlanta and went to work as a sheet music printer at Bill Lowery's National Recording Company (NRC). At the time, the label was over-flowing with talented performers who, in less than a decade, would be national stars: Jerry Reed, Mac Davis, Joe South, Ray Stevens and Freddy Weller. Jarvis moved into songwriting and producing, making a name for himself in 1961 by producing Every Beat Of My Heart, the first R&B #1 hit (of eleven, in all) for a local band called the Pips, soon to be renamed Gladys Knight & The Pips. From NRC, Jarvis went to work for the ABC label, where he produced "Sheila" a huge national hit for Tommy Roe, another graduate of Lowery's NRC concern. After a few years at ABC, he moved over to RCA where he and Presley established a solid working relationship that worked out pretty well for both of them.

Eddie on Elvis

Noted author and possibly the world's most perfectly developed man (now that Charles Atlas is gone) Eddie Deezen tells you about some of Mr. Presley's animal pals, right here.

BONUS! Here's more from Eddie, writing about Snap, Crackle, and Pop.

Mr.Deezen

Elvis & A Little Mid-Century Mania

Over at beltstl.com (Built Environment in Layman's Terms, St. Louis), Toby Weiss has put together a humdinger of a blog post that looks back at Elvis Presley movies and their eye-popping embrace of mid-century modernism at its finest. The screen captures are truly sensational.