American Country Singers

"I like Brando's acting ... and ... and . Quite a few of 'em I like."

"Eventually, everybody has to die, except Elvis."

"Describe Elvis Presley? He was the greatest there ever was, is, or ever will be. We did not have the airwaves he had, but he delivered what he obtained brilliantly. Let me conclude by saying that I realized during those early years that Elvis and I were creating a new sound. When I heard on the radio that he had died, I had to pull my car over to the shoulder of the road as I couldn't believe the initial reports. Elvis's art was a unique art, his style influential enough to be copied by many. But, no one can copy his. The one thing Elvis had that no one else had was THAT voice"

"Elvis is the greatest cultural force in the twentieth century. He introduced the beat to everything, music, language, clothes, it's a whole new social revolution – the 60's comes from it.”"

"Next stop was the Sun Studio. It was not the old one at 706 Union Avenue, by many considered the birthplace for the post war youth culture. Even if Elvis Presley was the most talented artist of his generation, had he not been born, someone else sounding similar, but not as good, would have probably surfaced in another town and in another studio. Talking about Elvis, it was six days before I arrived in Memphis and tried to meet him, albeit unsuccesfully, that I had actually seen Michael Jackson and the Jackson Five in Chicago. Since we had been sharing the same dressing room after their performance, I could have been the first person to tell Elvis that I had met his future son-in-law, later to be married to his then unborn daughter Lisa Marie.."

"Fernest Acernaux was not playing zydeco on that accordion, it was rhythm and blues. And you couldn’t make it playing French, so we played blues and rock ‘n’ roll from Fats Domino, Bobby Blue Bland and Elvis Presley."

"Appropriation, then, has something to do with intent. When another culture's property is exploited for profit, that's appropriation, and it's always deserving of criticism. Elvis was just being Elvis. In "Elvis Presley:The Searcher" an HBO documentary, its signal achievement is in showing how the singer's early years, family culture, and socioeconomic background made inevitable the musician he was to become. It makes clear that he was, first, and foremost, a committed artist, utterly dedicated to music and its ability to move people."

"It'a highly profane parody of my song and therefore, I am telling my staff to call radio stations and demand the song be banned from airplay."

"The reason I chose Elvis Presley' songs as the teaser for this article is to trigger some autobiographical memories for adults who were adolescents when his music topped the charts, which he dominated throughout the 1950s. Hopefully, these songs will inspire older adults, baby boomers, and people of all ages to get up from your chair and dance...."

"i) New Eminem diss!! ‘RAP ELVIS’ If he don’t respond in 48 hours he’s cancelled,“ ii) ‘Rap Elvis’ already destroyed him. mI already killed him with ‘Rap Elvis.’ Where’s he at? Where’s the response? I want to battle him face-to-face. I think he’s overrated and sucks as a rapper.”"

"I listen to a lot of Elvis on the school bus. My bus driver, Ken Lyons, is — was, he's not with us anymore — but he's the biggest Elvis fan. So Channel 13 on SiriusXM radio, many, many nights listening to Elvis Presley and him educating me on Elvis. He's great, he's one of a kind. You can label him however you want to, but his country career was unbelievable. He had a voice that even if you didn't see all the moves and how good looking he was and all that stuff, you just listen to his voice when he's on the Louisiana Hayride with Faron Young and it's like, 'Wow, his voice is really unbelievable.' Great singer. And lot to learn."

"I remember the first time in '56, I saw Elvis. I'm like, I'm buying that record because it's just the look that gets you, it's almost as much as the music. I kind of always had this theory that you look and listen with your eyes and your ears at the same time. He was the first rock 'n roll artist I loved. In my life, I started with him, but as I got into music, Elvis and the Rolling Stones led me to blues."

"I think she's going to become as big as Elvis Presley. He was, incidentally, the handsomest guy I ever met in my life, and a very nice person too."

"Did you ever meet Elvis Presley?"

"Elvis Presley is undeniably one of the most iconic and influential figures of the 20th century."

"The whole exhibition is focused on artists that I’ve listened to at some point in my life who represented something. Lana Del Rey, I was listening to her a lot when I was around 14, and that was really the start of me developing my own taste in music. Adele, she’s iconic as well, and a lot of people would recognize that album. Elvis Presley too — he’s a huge artist. So I wanted the album (cover) to be recognizable, but also for the Western artists to be big, just to show how important these Arab artists are as well.”"

"One evening, it's said he rocked around the clock all night before disappearing into one of the rooms along with eight eager Bunnies. What happened behind closed doors remains a mystery, but was apparently so impressed that he named the spot 'The Elvis Room'."

"My favourite song of all time? I like Elvis' "Love me"."

"I knew Elvis getting the bug to entertain, singing gospel music for the congregation in his own church, but there was something that was more important to him. It was black music. He wanted to be a gospel singer the way the black people sang. Long back, he'd sing to a broom, pretending it was a guitar. We thought he was crazy...."

"I have been following the sound of my own voice since childhood, growing up in a family of academics in Knoxville. I spent my formative years playing air guitar while listening to the monolithic stereo console in my parents. My first concert experience was seeing an Elvis Presley in Knoxville. I was just about four years old but have some vivid memories of holding my parents' hands and people screaming, so it was kind of scary. I also remember him doing ‘Hound Dog’ and ‘Teddy Bear.’ And ‘Teddy Bear’ was such a favorite at the age of four that I brought out a big styrofoam guitar for it."

"Different as our sounds were in 1956, I could see that we were in parallel tracks, Elvis was interpreting one kind of black music, R&B, while I found my inspiration in black folk songs, spirituals and calypso. ( A year passed, and while in Las Vegas) Elvis came backstage to say hello and he couldn't have been more decorous, insisting in calling me Mr. Belafonte. Only later would I learn that he had hung out for years with a lot of black musicians and had come by his style legitimately. (Alas), he performed with such put on flash that over the next years, I noticed, he inspired a whole generation of R&B players who thought they could put that flash on, and become Elvis, too.."

"Like some sort of Grammy-powered "Super Friends", John Legend, Post Malone, Jennifer Lopez, Blake Shelton and more than a dozen more artists joined forces on February 17, 2019, for a prime time television special titled “Elvis All-Star Tribute". The union of Post Malone and Urban demonstrated that — for Elvis Presley Enterprises, at least — the show's mission, in large part, was to affirm the idea of Elvis' universal appeal. Adam Lambert wore a blue suit and blue suede shoes during his version of "Blue Suede Shoes", while Jennifer Lopez went full J.Lo during "Heartbreak Hotel"- Another highlight was Mac Davis' solo rendition of "Memories," a song he wrote for the original 1968 special. Davis, 77, the elder statesman amongst the performers (beating John Fogerty by four years), shared a poignant memory of holding the then infant Lisa Marie Presley during a visit to Elvis' Bel Air home. He later was joined by John Legend, who sang a Davis composition that has emerged as one of Elvis' biggest posthumous hits, "A Little Less Conversation." Others on the show included Darius Rucker, Ed Sheeran, Kelsea Ballerini, Alessia Cara, Josh Groban, Pistol Annies and Little Big Town. Lisa Marie did not perform, but introduced a gospel medley segment featuring Carrie Underwood and Yolanda Adams; similarly, actress Riley Keough, Lisa Marie's only daughter, introduced Dierks Bentley, who contributed with the rocker, "Little Sister". “I’m here tonight because 50 years ago a King returned,” said Shelton, host of the program and — not coincidentally — a judge on the hit NBC vocal competition program, “The Voice.”, then adding that the original special had been often imitated but never surpassed while, in addition changing, as it also did, the game forever in music and television."

"I was scared of him when I was a child. He was very sexual. There was something — the sexual vibe of Elvis was out there, big time."

"Elvis is right up there with death and taxes in things that can't be avoided,"

"I met Elvis in 1968 at the Aladdin Casino in Las Vegas and had a drink with him. A lady asked him for an autograph but he didn't have a pen, so I gave him mine. Then he gave me the pen back and that's when I said, “Naw, you keep it Elvis. I don’t think anyone’s going to be asking for my autograph."

"I'd have been off playing with my bow and arrow or something and had a big impact on me too, of course, but the Elvis stuff was the real start of it. It was the rocket ship taking off for a whole bunch of us"

"They are two equivalent beasts even with their differences. Diego Maradona is Elvis Presley singing 'My Way' at his last concert at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis. He embodies the deity, the absolute power, the sunset, the snowy peaks and the abyss. And Lionel Messi is Paul McCartney, the long-play list, the continuity and the health. To ask one of them to have what the other has doesn't look to be a proof of social intelligence but one of galloping dissatisfaction of a country that doesn't conform with having two of the three best footballers in history in less than 40 years."

"Imagine Beatty in the Paul Newman part and you can kind of see it, but what about the Redford part? Apparently, Redford wasn't cast yet and Beatty had a mighty strange idea for his co-lead. Yes, that's right, he wanted Elvis Presley. Ultimately, though, Beatty did not appear in the film, reportedly because he found the two-hander was too similar to his recent "Bonnie and Clyde". Now, picturing Beatty and Elvis in those parts is a fascinating "What if?" but what the public got was probably the best possible version of that movie..."

"In "Mystery Train" (1955), he rocks out with an astounding depth, Elvis' voice never sounding so rich, nor so pleading; best of all is his final spontaneous laugh & whoop of excitement, worth its weight in gold."

"Ronnie James Dio, Bon Scott, Bruce Dickinson and Elvis Presley.."

"He had a musically textured rhythmic voice that had emotional intelligence; concentrate on his voice: sweet, remorseful, defiant, suggestive."

"As completed his first 90 minutes in the Premier League for Arsenal in over three years, and was arguably their best player in the 0-0 draw at West Ham's London Arena on Wednesday evening, "A Little Less Conversation", the song by Elvis Presley, was the tune that played the players off the pitch, the lyric urging for "a little more spark" a fair assessment of the game. But it is the line about the need for "a little less conversation, a little more action" that best sums up his situation at Arsenal..."

"He started drawing on my front all the way down to my navel, doodling as I spoke to him, in front of hundreds at his dressing room after his August 1970 opening show at the International Hotel in Las Vegas. Incredible sensation, he used a biro!!! That night back at my hotel, alone, I undressed and there they were, the doodlings. I did not wash until they wore off..."

"His generosity.."

"On the evening of the Oscars, with Austin seated next to me, I understood intimately what he felt when it was time to learn if he would climb those stairs to the stage. So, I took his hand and held it softly as the winner was announced. Although his name wasn’t called, Austin is no less a winner. The time had come for Austin to say goodbye to Elvis as he began to embrace an infinite universe of possibilities as an actor. I can’t wait to see what he brings us next."

"While Elvis Presley and Roy Orbison were ruling the rock-pop charts in the US, he had everyone grooving to his music in Nepal. The song "Deula yo joban timilai deula" may have sounded similar to what was trending internationally, but was given a funky twist of his own, and arguably was responsible for introducing rock and pop to the entire nation. He became a heartthrob in his country and was soon called the Elvis Presley of Nepal because he came like a breath of fresh air in a music scene dominated by traditional tunes."

"What's more, the asset class “fine art” is to investing,is what science fiction is to the rest of literature. The "extreme" characteristics of sci-fi and high-end art help teach investors—or readers—important lessons. Science fiction speaks to human nature, while art offers a window on the nature of asset markets. What then qualifies as "extreme"? Take Andy Warhol. In 1986, collectors could buy a Warhol "Triple Elvis" painting for about $200,000, but a "Triple Elvis" went for $81.9 million at auction in 2018. That's a 400-fold gain—an investor's dream. The average annual return of the "Triple Elvis" works out to about 20.6%. Pretty good. And there is nothing more fundamental to investing than returns."

"I just come off the air and got a phone call telling me that they had just found Elvis dead, so I was in shock, as I thought for a moment that we had contributed to his death, minutes earlier having been, as I was, the first person to review the book that laid it all out. Moreover, given that people knew that I didnt make up stories and because of the large audience I had just reached in "Good Morning America", I thought that we may have had sent Elvis over the edge. I'll never know..."

"Not only did Elvis give teens their own music with which to identify, he proved that much of the disposable income of this generation would be spent on music, fashion, and media of its own choosing and thus turning that generation into a high-pro!le, identifiable group with their own fashion sense, hair styles, slang, taste in music, preferences in movie stars and other favorite pastimes."

"A few days before Christmas one year, Elvis was in the store buying guns for some of his friends as gifts. There was a customer off to the side looking at a display case that held nothing but expensive Browning over-under shotguns. Presley went up to the gentleman and commented on how nice the guns were. The man agreed, but said they were way out of his price range, since they were all probably in the thousand dollar plus area. Elvis asked the guy which one he would buy if he was purchasing, and the fellow said probably the Diana grade with the gold inlay. Elvis then went back to the counter where Jerry Knight was, and as he left said to Jerry, "When that guy gets ready to leave, take that Diana grade shotgun out and put it on the counter and give it to him. Tell him Elvis said Merry Christmas." Jerry said he did just that, and he thought the guy was going to faint when he received the gift."

"In 1956, I was President of his Los Angeles Fan Club and when I met him I noticed he had bad complexion and realized he wasn't perfect. So maybe it was a chance for me to make it in Hollywood (LOL)"

"Another time we played with Herman's Hermits who were very popular. Frankly, we didn't rate them musically, but we were impressed when they told us about they having met with Elvis Presley, "Elvo" to us. And when they told Ian Anderson he sang like 'Elvo' he was very flattered and to this day the rest of the band and I always call Ian 'Elvo'!”"

"Our son's name would be Elvis...."

"Baritones UnBound continues the second season of Asolo Rep's five-year American Character Project, an in-depth look at this nation and its people. No other voice has defined the United States quite like the booming sound of the baritone. From Sinatra to Elvis and much more, this musical journey chronicles some of the most beloved singers and songs of all time. Conceived by Broadway leading man and threetime Tony Award nominee Marc Kudisch and created by Merwin Foard, three dynamite baritones take the stage to give us a captivating musical tour of the baritone voice throughout history, namely Marc Kudisch, Jeff Mattsey, and Timothy Splain. Veteran singers Jeff Mattsey and Mark Delavan join Kudisch in an illuminating performance studded with classics from Broadway, opera and beyond. From Gregorian chants to well-known arias (“Ah! Per sempre,” “Largo”) including show tunes (“I am a Pirate King,” “Oh What a Beautiful Mornin’”) and popular music (“It Was a Very Good Year,” “It’s Now or Never,” and “Pretty Women”)"

"By the time we got towards the end of our stay there, Elvis was worn out, so he got all the singers individually to do a song. Of course, all the musicians knew that I play and sang and they knew some of my songs. Elvis was obviously hesitating and thinking of something else to do, and Ronnie said: 'Let Bardwell sing'. He just went, 'Yeah, right ...'. And Guercio said, 'No, really. You wanna do something else, let him sing, because he can sing'. So Elvis went, 'Ladies and gentlemen, my bassplayer is going to sing now'. So Charlie Hodge gave me his guitar and I got Charlie's mike. Charlie was holding another mike on the guitar, for me to play it. And I didn't know what to do. I mean, how am I going to follow Kathy Westmoreland doing 'My Heavenly Father'? And Donnie Sumner said, 'Do the Hurricane song'. You know, 'Please Don't Bury Me' by . I got to the last verse of the song that's a bit off color. We were going from 'My Heavenly Father' to 'Kiss My Ass Goodbye', and it just took everybody by surprise. That was a really good moment, because I had shown Elvis a part of me that he didn't know of. He knew that what we had just done was show business, and it was good show business, because it was entertaining. I went back to the dressing room after the show, and Tom Diskin knocked on the door. We let him in, and he said 'I have a message for you from the Colonel' So I figured that I was fired when he sent Tom Diskin into the dressing room, but he said, He wants me to tell you that that's one of the funniest things he's ever seen at an Elvis Presley show'. I was thrilled with that. If I didn't do anything else I had done that. That was fun"

"I have nothing to do with him and therefore no reply is necessary"

"Elvis' lowest effective note was a low-G, as heard on "He'll Have To Go"(1976); on "King Creole" (1958), he growls some low-F's; going up, his highest full-voiced notes were the high-B's in "Surrender"(1961) and "Merry Christmas Baby" (1971), the high-G at the end of "My Way" (1976 live version), and the high-A of "An American Trilogy"(1972); using falsetto, Elvis could reach at least a high-E, e.g, as in "Unchained Melody" (1977), so, it was very nearly a three-octave range, although more practically two-and-a-half."

"I mean, don't tell me about Lenny Bruce, man – Lenny Bruce said dirty words in public and obtained a kind of consensual martyrdom. Plus which Lenny Bruce was hip, too goddam hip if you ask me, which was his undoing, whereas Elvis was not hip at all. Elvis was a goddam truck driver who worshipped his mother and would never say "shit" or "fuck" around her, and Elvis alerted America to the fact that it had a groin with imperatives that had been stifled. Lenny Bruce demonstrated how far you could push a society as repressed as ours and how much you could get away with, but Elvis kicked "How Much Is That Doggie in the Window" out the window and replaced it with "Let's fuck." The rest of us are still reeling from the impact. Sexual chaos reigns currently, but out of chaos may flow true understanding and harmony, and either way Elvis almost single handedly opened the floodgates."

"It was the autumn of 1971, and two tickets to an Elvis show turned up at the offices of Creem magazine, where I was then employed. It was decided that those staff members who had never had the privilege of witnessing Elvis should get the tickets, which was how me and art director Charlie Auringer ended up in nearly the front row of the biggest arena in Detroit. Earlier Charlie had said, “Do you realize how much we could get if we sold these things?” I didn't, but how precious they were became totally clear the instant Elvis sauntered onto the stage. He was the only male performer I have ever seen to whom I responded sexually; it wasn't real arousal, rather an erection of the heart, when I looked at him I went mad with desire and envy and worship and self-projection. I mean, Mick Jagger, whom I saw as far back as 1964 and twice in ‘65, never even came close."

"I might be the biggest Elvis fan you've ever met. I mean, I've seen it all. And I just loved him. I don't know what it was. I mean, probably the same reason everybody loved Elvis. Cause he was electric. He was just electric, the greatest entertainer I've ever seen, and I think the reason why was because — and I heard him say it many times in interviews — , he always did what he felt. Genuinely did what he felt. It wasn't choreographed. It wasn't, OK, well, I'm gonna do this move at this time. It was coming up from inside of him, and it was coming out. That's what it was, and that's why people connected with it. Cause it was the real deal.”"