Gospel Singers

"The thing is, I've always wanted to be a star. I've always wanted to be an Elvis Presley or a Tupac – like, a huge icon."

"What makes Elvis such a phenomenon well after his death ? This question is best answered by resorting to a more socio-anthropological approach concerned with Elvis’ significance within a wider cultural ensemble.It seems to me one key to understanding Elvis is to first recognize that his figure is paradigmatic of an important cultural shift that occurred in America in the post-War days and the advent of consumerism, as philosopher Charles Taylor has abundantly argued. Acknowledging this makes the heuristics of comparisons with Christian apostleship analytically ill-fated. Second, Elvis can probably best be understood in relation to the ‘civil religion’ of the United States of America as developed since the second half of the twentieth century. Elvis arose in the glory days of America, with the birth of rock’n’roll and the feeling of the becoming of a new golden era — an era of which Elvis fans today are probably somewhat nostalgic.Elvis is intimately tied with a certain feeling and idea of ‘America’.Elvis is a mythical figure in the pantheon delimiting the American Dream : he is a model, and Elvis fans confess finding his life a source of moral lessons: ‘work hard, use your talent, follow your star and be a star’. Furthermore, Elvis confirms the individualist Self-Made Man myth of American Capitalism: “even a boy raised in poverty in Mississippi could make it big” . Elvis is a perfect deity for post-radical transcendence culture: as all stars, he is both unreachable in stardom yet an ordinary guy. This duality without seizing what is at stake, is precisely the reason given by impersonators for what they do (p. 183). These are just a few hints, but it seems to me undeniable that the Elvis phenomenon is potentially rich for religious studies investigation. Rather, Reece’s conclusion is that there is religiosity in Elvis, but that Elvis is not likely to spawn religious movements. (However), Elvis, through this special connection to consumer society’s air du temps and mythological foundations, provided one of the most vivid and enduring templates for rock-star mythology for the past half-century, and probably for decades to come."

"One time, Elvis was in town and invited folks to his suite for a party. His idea of a party? Eating food and having his backup singers belt out gospel songs..."

"First of all, I admire Elvis, not just as a singer but as a creator of a style, a personality. What he has achieved is worth of respect. Regarding the rivalry between Rock ´n Roll and Bolero, there are enough fans for both styles."

"I started my first job in 1977 at the age of 14 as a carhop at an A&W Root Beer restaurant in Fort Lauderdale. The day I was hired, I was promoted to lead carhop when a radio DJ interrupted the music and broke the news that Elvis had died. The lead carhop took off her money belt and announced ‘I must go to Memphis.’ She drove off in her Ford Pinto and was never heard from again. The money I saved that year definitely helped pay for tuition and college expenses and it was a super fun job and a great experience. I learned the value of a dollar and how to make a seriously delicious root beer float – all thanks to Elvis Presley."

"The Elvis tattoo on my chest? I started listening to 'Jailhouse Rock' and loved it."

"Elvis, and that was it"

"Elvis let you know that he cared about you, that he noticed you. He made you feel good. No other entertainment stars ever took the same effort Elvis did, to be honest. They didn't. He took that extra step. Elvis took good care of us, man, I swear to God. Bonuses at the end of tours, also (on top of the regular paycheck). I mean nobody treats musicians and the people that were with him the way Elvis did. Nobody.""

"I am an angry man, so angry I burn myself and I heat up the air around me. This is the nuclear fuel I use to make my music. In a world so full of pain and madness we need to be better than ever, to evolve not devolve, to become masters of our fate and stop listening to the snake talkers who would steal our last breath. It's time to go Elvis and shoot the cursed TV."

"I was appearing at the Sands and a friend of mine, a fellow comedian working with Elvis, told him I'm a black belt. So I got a call from one of Elvis' buddies. He traveled with this massive entourage. So this pal tells me, "Would you be interested in doing Elvis Presley the honor of sparring with him?" I said, "Sure, I’ll give the kid a break." *Laughs*. He rented a hall and arrived with this huge group of people. We looked at each other and he calls me "sensei," which means "teacher." I said, "Oh Elvis, you don’t have to call me that because we’re of equal rank." And he says, "OK, sensei." Then he goes, "Do me a favor, please. Don’t hit me in the face because I have a show to do tonight." And I said, "Well, don’t hit me in my face because I, too, have a show tonight." He responds, "Sensei, if I hit you in the face, it would be an improvement." I said, "I’m going to kill you. You know that, right?" Then we spar. But he was wonderful. He was very, very good in fact. I've sparred with a lot of people and not many were as good as he was. But when we weren't sparring, he was a gentleman at all times."

"I have a great respect for him and I have to say that "Viva Las Vegas" was the very first job I ever had, so he was the first person I worked with in a movie. It really was a big influence on me. Maybe it was me that made it up, but I thought, he's a person, I'm a person. If he can do it, I can do it. And he made you feel like that, too. You know, he made you be an equal. And, of course, it wasn't true, but as I said I lived in a big fantasy world and still do, but he made you feel like you were the same. And I think that really was an incredible catalyst for me. I mean, you're working with Elvis Presley and he thinks that you guys are alike so maybe, if he can do it, you can do it. So then something like that, it's a subliminal subconscious incredible influence he had on me."

"Oh thank you Sir, you've made my day..."

"Elvis Presley brought down the house and all the attendance records of the Houston Live Stock Show and Rodeo came tumbling down on the shoulders of his white shirt Saturday night at the Astrodome. The largest crowd ever to attend a rodeo performance to Houston – 43,614 screaming fans – were present Saturday night for the rodeo and Elvis' fourth of six performances. Hours earlier, he had drawn the largest matinee crowd – 34,443 Saturday and his two performance total exceeded by former records by the two-performance total attracted by Roy Rogers and Dale Evans two years ago. In fact, the four performances in which Presley, his band and vocal group have have appeared thus have drawn a total of 131,064 people to the Astrodome. It is by far the greatest start that the Houston event has made since it moved to the Dome in 1966. Presley who has never been known as a talker on stage, probably expressed it perfectly Saturday night when he commented: "You have been a fantastic audience," he said prior to introducing his associate in the 45-minute show. Police are stationed around the arena to keep the audience away from Elvis but Saturday afternoon, a fan sneaked in through the rodeo chutes and was within a few feet of the star when he was apprehended by police..."

"In May of 1959, at the Midnight premiere of "King Creole", in Mexico City, more than 500 teenager broke into the cinema, overtook various side balconies and threw seats and even burning papers to those in attendance at the floor below. A huge fight erupted. As many girls tried to leave the cinema, they were stripped of their clothings and harrassed by the rioters. Police arrived at about 1 am in the morning but incredibly, there were many injured but no arrests."

"Only through his very early stuff, I liked the rawness of Mystery Train and the recordings at SUN. His power as a performer, was incredible. ."

"There is only Elvis and me, and I couldn't say which one of us is the best."

"I jumped out of my 1975 Firebird and rushed to get photos of him. So, that's when he turned to me and said "Who are you with cat?"

"My father had very specific tastes, and that's what we listened to, namely Chopin, Bach, Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and David Bowie. I think that's it."

"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 crescendo 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."

"I identify myself with Elvis, especially the last ten or fifteen years of his career. He never wrote a song in his life but if he hadn't sung them, they would mean nothing."

"Yuri was a celebrity, a hero of the USSR, the first man in space. For the Kremlin, he defined the Soviet spirit. Born poor, then becoming one of the world's most celebrated. He was the Elvis of the Soviet Union."

"Decades ago, during the polio epidemic, people were hesitant to get the vaccine, which became available in 1955. Public sentiment turned in 1956, after the biggest influencer of that era, Elvis Presley, got the shot backstage before he made an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. Immunization levels among teens at the time rose from 0.6% to 80%."

"After Trump-Clinton, the Vice-Presidential Debate Isn’t Exactly ‘the Return of Elvis’"

"Was Elvis up to the challenge? He was. The resulting Elvis special, which aired on December 3, 1968 on NBC, became the top rated show of the season and NBC's biggest success of the year. But the key moment came on the night of June 4, when Elvis was at the Binder/Howe offices. A television set broadcasting Senator Robert Kennedy’s speech at L.A.’s Ambassador Hotel played in the background; the presidential hopeful had just won California’s state primary. Minutes later, Kennedy was shot (he died 26 hours later on June 6) and the assassination provoked a cathartic reaction in Elvis. From the moment that was on, for the rest of the night, we sat in that room and Elvis started to tell us his life story..."

"They mention me and they mention Elvis, not the same... RELAX. Not more slaps than Presley..Elvis super legendary."

"At one point, Elvis used to have football games in his front yard in LA. Glen Campbell and I were on Rick Nelson's team and we would play against his. At first, it was supposed to be flag football but people wound up with black eyes and things like that. It got pretty rough, but I think that's where Glen might have hooked up early with Elvis. Then, it was when Glen and I played "The Crossbow", that Elvis would visit whenever he was in Albuquerque. They even had a little balcony to keep Elvis' group out of the crowd down below..."

"Fifty-six years ago last April, in a studio on Fifth Av in Nashville, a 25-year-old Elvis Presley spit out another platinum-selling record. “It’s Now or Never” hit the airwaves one day after the 4th of July, and topped the charts for weeks. It sold over 20 million records worldwide and became one of his most successful releases. Studios up and down Nashville's famed “Music Row” have cradled the genius of America's music masters for generations. For Elvis Presley and many others, that six-block span has been a place where dreams really can come true. But today, in a global internet economy rife with piracy and wanton copyright violations, the future of America's music industry is threatened. For many musicians, songwriters, and the more than 56,000 Nashville workers whose jobs depend on the resilience of America's music industry, the time to fight back against those threats truly is “Now or Never.”"

"Sakuraba is just magic, proving to the world that the Gracies could be beat. He walked into that arena like if he was Elvis and he was the man who did it."

"To the extent that the cultural-appropriation police are urging their targets to respect others who are different, they are saying something that everyone needs to hear. But beyond that, they can plunge into doomed tangles. American popular culture is a mishmash of influences: British Isles, Eastern European, West African, and who knows what else. Cole Porter committed no wrong by borrowing from Jewish music and Elvis Presley enriched the world when he fused country-and-western with rhythm-and-blues."

"He is more like an Elvis Presley or a Marilyn Monroe, who died early and left their impression on the world."

"At Sun Studio in Memphis Elvis Presley called to life what would soon be known as rock and roll with a voice that bore strains of the Grand Ole Opry and Beale Street, of country and the blues. At that moment, he ensured — instinctively, unknowingly — that pop music would never again be as simple as black and white."

"He touched their lives...."

"In the Sun Studio in Memphis it hit me like a blow. What a musician, what an upheaval. It is still there, the old microphone, the silver Shure 5-5 with the lateral grooves, by means of which a certain Elvis Aaron Presley in July 1953, just 18 years of age, made his first recording. This man has shaped pop culture like no other, in fact influenced all music after him."

"He has sung for years about murder and biblical torment and characters who hurt one another just for the philosophical kick. It's a nasty congruence that his lyrics set him up to sing about a death he knew nothing of, until it was time to record, something of a ham — possibly down to thinking Elvis Presley is as biblical as anything else."

"When I was 20 years old and TWISTED SISTER began, I don't think I would have ever asked someone who was 60 where the music industry was going. I think that I would look around at my peers and see where the scene is at, rather than go to, let's say, Elvis Presley's producers and go, 'Hey, man, give me some advice as to how I can move forward because I don't think that they're seeing things the way I'm seeing things. When they were 20, they were seeing things in their way. So when I talk to 20-year-olds, I say to them, number one, I didn't have a mentor — I never had a mentor. And number two, I was smart and I just looked around me. I think it was impossible to think that before Elvis came, nobody thought Elvis was gonna come. And it should never be predictable."

"As far as I'm concerned, I hope this rage passes as quickly as it has spring up. Elvis strides on stage, takes a wide-legged stance, grabs up a guitar, gives it a couple of whangs, opens his mouth and starts gyrating. He shivers and shakes, he quivers and quakes. The faster Presley moves, the more agitated the crowd becomes. An announcer implored the crowd, “If you want to see Elvis Presley in the pictures, write Paramount Pictures. As far as I can learn from Paramount’s local office, there is no deal cooking on Presley."

"Freddy had two people in a pedestal, Elvis Presley and John Lennon. Those were the people he thought made a difference in music and he would never had dreamed he would be put in the same pedestal alongside them. I think he got his wish..."

"I was discharged today and I'm doing very well, feel real good. I just would like thank the staff at Elvis Presley Trauma Center and many, many thanks to all the well-wishers. It's great to know people care about you."

"He's really the only white man who can sing the blues. He's got a real feeling to it, which comes from the contact he had as a child with negroes"

"We are still considering names, but since the twins were born on Elvis' birthday, I guess that for now we can call the little boy Prince Elvis."

"I was just really getting started good when he came out. I loved his work. He was one of a kind. People talk about somebody being big, and people will compare them to Elvis, but there's never been another Elvis. I never got to meet him, but I talked to him on the phone one time. He was looking for a song, and he told me he loved 'Chain of Fools' and he asked me if I could write a similar song for him. I tried, but all I could think about was the other song and I never could write it. That's the closest I got to meeting him.""

"If you're ever in Japan, consider a trip to "Chineskikan",two hours outside Tokyo in the city of Chichibu. The museum is the only one of its kind ion the world, dedicated entirely to rocks that look like human faces. Owned and operated by Yoshiko Hayama, "Chineskikan" is home to some of the most spectacular stones nature has to offer, with rocks that resemble everyone from Elvis Presley to E.T."

"My mom was a huge Elvis fan, she's always, ever since I can remember, always had small Elvis dolls and random Elvis memorabilia around the house. Growing up, I finally asked her why she decided to name me Elvis, and originally, she was going to name me Gregory. But she had a dream two weeks before I was born that she was at an Elvis concert and her newborn baby was at the concert as well. So instead of Gregory, she decided to call me Elvis. Yeah, she was about as big of an Elvis fan as possible."

"While His Holiness' collection is mostly made up of Classical music, it also includes an old album of Édith Piaf’s greatest hits; Argentine tango tunes, especially by Astor Piazzolla and a 25-disc collection of Elvis Presley’s Gospel songs-"

"When Elvis heard me sing this song in Las Vegas in late August of 1958, he became so emotional that he had to leave the show. The next day, he sent me two dozen yellow roses with a note explaining that he had just lost his mother and hearing me sing 'Mama' was more that he could bear"

"A few months after I released my version of "Crying in the Chapel", RCA released Elvis' version and sales of mine crushed. By sheer chance, I had a encounter with him in California, a few years later. so I confronted him over the issue and told him his version had cost me a lot of money. After explaining that he had not been aware that his song was going to be released, he just quietly got out his checkbook and wrote me a check. I was still upset so I didn't look at it until several months later when Christmas was approaching and money in my family was tight. Worse, my mother had already scraped together what little money she had so she could buy presents for our family at that time. Except she didn't really buy the presents because she only had enough money to put them away in layaway. Anyways, I unfolded the check and let me tell you, I had never seen that many zeros on a check before. It was for US$10,000 (the equivalent of US$80,000 in 2017 dollars). I then took just US$50 dollars for myself, and sent the rest to my mother. And they never had a better Christmas."

"I remember seeing David playing in a local band before I even went to the school since my dad was David's art teacher. I remember seeing this band play on the school steps and this thing with hair sticking straight up and playing the saxophone doing Elvis Presley songs. I looked at my dad and said, “Dad, who is that?” He said, “Oh, that’s Jones.” I said, “I want to be him""

"It was the best thing that ever happened ... to me I mean."

"I started singing in 1967. My brother had a song book which contained songs of Elvis Presley so we used to share the songs and I would imitate a lot of English songs. This helped me when I went to Victoria Falls Casino Hotel where I would sing and entertain whites in the early 1970s. I joined The Four Brothers in 1983 and that is when we recorded ‘Zvinonaka Zvinodhura’ and the following year, we did the ‘Tosangana Ikoko’ album which had eight tracks."

"Art didn't quite hear what all the fuss was about (he even asked, “What kind of a name is that?”), but he went with an offer for the contract. He then called me a few days later saying there's no way he's pay what Sam Phillips wanted — $50,000. His highest offer was $35,000, so I said, ‘Art, you can give him $500,000, it won’t matter, you’ll make it back on the first record" Then “He said, ‘You’re insane.’ I said, ‘Possibly, never had to debate that, but I know what I’m telling you.'” Art never went above $35,000, Elvis' contract went to RCA for $40,000, and the rest is history."