American Country Singers

"This boy had everything. He had the looks, the moves, the manager, and the talent. And he didn't look like Mr. Ed like a lot of the rest of us did. In the way he looked, way he talked, way he acted – he really was different. We have sadly lost the most popular man to have ever walked on this earth since Christ. But even back then, when people would laugh at his sideburns and his pink coat and call him 'sissy' -- he had a pretty hard road to go. In some areas motorcycle gangs would come to the shows. They would come to get Elvis, but he never worried about it. He went right out and did his thing and before the show was over, they were standing in line to get his autograph too. God intended for Elvis Presley to do what he allowed him to do. That's why he made him so good looking. I used to get close to him, tried to find a fault so I could go out and tell the world that he had a big mole back here, but, nah, he had no mole back there. Rock and roll is where it is today because the front door of this studio was opened and that kid walked in here and moved an awesome mountain that sat in the way for people like me who might never have gotten anywhere. And he was my friend.."

"I felt there was a man there who truly cared about people. But his life was on a level that my life was not on. I felt like Phillip Dunne [director] fawned all over Elvis. Elvis' attitude was – I saw Elvis looking around that set and summing up people faster than anyone else could have, and I felt that after a short period of time he was disappointed in Phillip Dunne, but he was too polite and well behaved to say anything. He tried very hard to make this film better than his other movies, and you saw him trying and asking questions. And I just believe the sad thing is that [the director] did not have the ability to help Elvis through it. I remember one scene; we were sitting in the truck, and we were supposed to be driving home from a dance or going to a dance, and in the script he was supposed to break into song, turn on the radio and start singing. And to me it was like "yuk," I was very young and I thought, " my sisters are going to tease me, this is so embarrassing and tasteless." You see, I was a snob, too. But – and this was the nicest thing – while we were rehearsing, finally the director walked away, and Elvis looks at me and says, "God, this is so embarrassing. Nobody would ever do this in real life. Why are they making me do this? He never used his star power – never. Maybe he should have. Maybe he did it on some level, but he sure didn't do it on the set. I felt like he was younger than me, this very humble person who would make statements that he believed in. All I know is that there was a person there with a refined heart and soul, and I say refined on any level you want to look at it. When you meet someone like that, you know they're there,The essence of Elvis was a fine person as I've ever met."

"Elvis Presley released hundreds of records throughout a career that spanned slightly more than two decades. He also starred in thirty-one feature films and two documentaries. He was photographed throughout his career, and images of him on film are part of the American visual experience. However, he only sat for one portrait painter, Ralph Wolfe Cowan"

"I don't like that. I mean, I could understand if I was Elvis Presley."

"You couldn't take your eyes off of him.""

"The day I met him is permanently etched in my brain for several reasons. You see, it was November 19, 1970 - my birthday. So I was feeling in a jovial, festive mood and I told my wife I was going to give myself a present that day. I was going to goof off for the entire day..I left her in charge of the limo I used, and my parting words to her were "Unless it's a dire emergency I don't want to hear from anyone.." A few hours later the beeper sounded ..'You're working tonight for someone you won't turn down....Elvis Presley." I rushed back to town, put on my chauffeur's uniform and headed for LAX. He came off the plane and my instantaneous thought was that he was the most charming and gracious person. We hadn't travelled many miles on my limo when Elvis, with his marvellous sense of humour, hearing my British accent decided to call me Sir Gerald. And from that moment on, for all the years I drove two pf his Mercedes 600 and his last Rolls Royce, I was always Sir Gerald to him"

"I was in love with Elvis Presley and I wanted him to be in "A star is born" so Barbra and I flew up to Vegas and we met with him. Parker didnt agree. Later, after the movie was shown, Priscilla Presley called me and said he wanted to see it on opening day, which he did, and that he cried that he didn't do it..."

"He phoned me and asked me if I would mind if he recorded 'The Wonder of You.' I said, 'You don't have to ask permission; you're Elvis Presley.' He said, 'Yes, I do. You're Ray Peterson."

"Fany was his country's most famous and finest guitarist. In 1946, he moved to the Republic of South Africa as a migrant miner, recorded with Miriam Makeba, his guitar work not matched there either. Known as the Elvis Presley of the Marrabenta style he is credited with expanding on it with modern influences from Johannesburg."

"His face darkened into a frown, but he managed to finish 'All Shook Up'. Then with his eyes flashing, he pointed to Scotty Moore and addressed the crowd. "He got egg on his guitar, Whoever threw that will never make the Yankeesǃǃ" After a moment's pause, which did not cool his ire, he again faced the crowd 'Most of you people came here to enjoy the show, the guy who threw the egg will never make it. I mean it, Jack, we're just trying to put on a nice show'. The guilty were William Quinn 20, from New York,William B Oates, 21 of Brooklyn, James Stark, 20 of Greenport, New York and John Eidt, 20 of New York City, and they spent the night in jail."

"So often in the careers of great men and women of history, there came a point in time where they were told their talents were not sufficient to realize their dreams. In the case of Elvis Presley, these words came early and often. But by the end of the 1950'a he was a musical phenomenon who electrified millions of attendees at his live performances. Until his untimely death in 1977, Elvis had an indisputable role in creating the modern American musical landscape and the development of a unique youth culture. Elvis' importance to the inception of rock and roll, and contemporary music as a whole, cannot be overstated, his image transcending the categories of the music he played and the movies he starred in to become a cornerstone of modern pop culture. Depicted in every material form imaginable, his estate at Graceland remains a pilgrimage site for fans of his music. In February of 1961, at a charity luncheon and concert arranged by the record company with the Governor of Tennessee present, RCA Records presented him with a plaque commemorating the 75 million records he had sold worldwide, the first artist in history to reach this impressive milestone. Accompanying this plaque, RCA Records also gifted Elvis with an 18-karat white gold and diamond Omega wristwatch, purchased by them at Tiffany & Co. The concert itself was an immense success, raising $51,612 (close to a half a million in 2018 dollars) for various charities. Sometime in 1962, the watch was exchanged by Presley to the current owner's uncle after the latter had expressed his admiration for the timepiece during a chance meeting inside a lounge at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas. We are proud and thrilled to present, for auction, what once belonged to the man who simply said, in response to questions regarding his popularity, "All I do is sing and dance a little." It is, without a doubt, a superb vintage timepiece with one of the most fascinating provenances to ever appear on the world auction market."

"Get yasself a wheelbarrow load of mad hogs, run ’em through the front door, and tell ’em Phillips sentcha. This is Red Hot and Blue comin’ atcha from the magazine floor of the Hotel Chisca. And now we got somethin' new gonna cut lost, DEE-GAWWWW! cut LOOSE! Good people, this is Elvis Presley"

"Elvis? He was great, a real natural guy..."

"Society, Lord Byron predicted, will eventually narrow into two tribes, “the Bores and Bored.” If so, maybe Elvis should shoulder some blame. The illusion of consensus found in the title of his 1959 collection “50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can’t Be Wrong” — a “customer is always right” moment for pop music — suggests a broad democratic crowd, immune to second-guessing. But not even Elvis would have believed that. Today, the title has been parodied so much — self-deprecatingly (Blues Traveler's “1,000,000 People Can’t Be Wrong”), hubristically (“100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong”) — that whatever truth it once contained in Elvis- case is buried beneath geological layers of cynicism."

"But what struck me most was his quality of genuine humility – humility mixed with intense determination. He was, innately, one of the most introverted people who had ever come into the studio, but for that reason one of the bravest, too. He reminded me of many of the great early blues singers who had come to SUN, in fact his insecurity was so markedly like that of a black person. On July 5, 1954, he sang everything he knew – pop stuff, spirituals, just a few words of [anything] he remembered. He watched me intently through the glass of the control room window – I was no longer taping, and in almost every respect this session had to be accounted a dismal failure, but still there was something. Every so often he looked up at me, as if for approval: was he doing all right? I just nodded and said "You're doing just fine. Now just relax. Let me hear something that really means something to you now." Soothing, crooning, my gaze locked into his. Finally they decided to take a break. It was late, he was clearly discouraged, and everybody had to work the next day. Maybe, I thought, they ought to just give it up for the night, come back on Tuesday and try again. Scotty and Bill were sipping Cokes, not saying much of anything. I was doing something in the control room and, as Elvis explained it afterwards, "this song popped into my mind that I had heard years ago, and I started kidding around with [it]. It was an up-tempo song called "That's All Right, Mama", an old blues number by Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup. "All of a sudden," said Scotty, "Elvis just started singing this song, jumping around and acting the fool, and then Bill picked up his bass, and he started acting the fool, too, and I started playing with them. I think I had the door to the control booth open so I stuck my head out and said, 'What are you doing?' And they said, 'We don't know'. 'Well, back up,' I said, 'try to find a place to start, and do it again.'"

"I just love Elvis' singing. And I am his biggest fan"

"Elvis came by the "Memphis Funeral Home" often, our employees all new him, and he would even sing for service. I also remembered the time Elvis buying a new Lincoln for a mother and her children who would walk by the local dealership often just to eyeball the cars. The young mother, as she walked out of the showroom, asked the salesman, “Was that Jesus?". I never met a more humble man than Elvis but what made him so special to me was I got to know him. I guess he was the most famous person I’ve helped bury, and I’ve buried thousands over 60 plus years."

"Forty years ago, I had the privilege of studying for a doctorate, at this same university, where you and your wife studied law and I still feel nostalgic about Harvard, about Elvis Presley, about Edgar Allan Poe, and about Martin Luther King. So I toast to you, Mr. President."

"I would go on a minute's notice. I love Elvis Presley,"

"I had successfully shoved all those fantastic automob iles to the back of my mind and had curtailed ‘‘if only’s’ to a passing moment of idle retrospection until I was looking at the autographs on the Autographs Ink stand at the Memorabilia show and realised that if I had kept the cars and had the foresight to have an autograph book handy throughout my career I would be heading into the sunset with my future assured. For instance Elvis Presley. His moniker changes hands at a cool couple of grand and upwards. In 1960 and 1961 was in a karate dojo with him in LA and even got to do a kata or two with him at his home in Perugia Way. And I had a morale advantage over him. He kicked me on the chest once and was terribly apologetic. That was the time when I should have moved in on him and demanded a couple of dozen signatures. In fact, why didn't I whack a load of 10" X 8" in front of him and say “Sign”. LOL"

"Once upon a time, all we knew about Elvis was that he sang like a motherfucker; and that was all that mattered; you know, when you gas up and you go to pay inside the gas station and you hear Elvis singing Surrender, (1961), you know that the mystery of that guy, was everything; the voice, and the mystery, and the not knowing; and I think the great thing about anything that you hear over the waves is, you don't want to know too much, you know?"

"After I won my first Masters in 1961, I received an invitation telegram from Elvis. A telegram, not as easy as a text is today. We were playing in Los Angeles and I went to the set of ‘Blue Hawaii’ where Elvis was finalizing the filming. He saw me walk in the room and yelled ‘CUT!’ The gentleman he was, Elvis went and put a jacket before he came to shake my hand. Elvis was just starting to play golf and asked for a few swing tips. He gave me a practice swing, and I swear, it was like a cow giving birth to a roll of barbwire. So, I adjusted his grip and told him he really had to use his hips during the downswing. He said, ‘Baby, you’re talking to the right man.’ And gave us all a little shake. Memories are the cushions on life, but what a gentleman he was. He was my age, yet died so young, a tragedy, a man who could give EVEN so much MORE to society."

"A grade schooler in western Kentucky when Elvis came on the scene, I had grown up with his music and movies. When his tragic death occurred in August of 1977, I was a young pastor in middle Tennessee. The following Sunday, my sermon was titled “Heartbreak Hotel.” That morning I shared my grief with many others. Elvis was the type of person such that many who had never seen him in person felt they knew him — personally. Some folks will declare with deep conviction that Elvis led many people astray and that he is burning in hell. Others are just as strongly convinced that, by God's grace and a faith he sang and spoke of, he is in heaven. Daring not to judge or speculate, I can simply hope that he is in heaven. I have no answer to whether there will be concerts in heaven, but the Bible makes it clear that there will be plenty of singing."

"Elvis Presley has been described variously as a baritone and a tenor. An extraordinary compass- the so-called register-, and a very wide range of vocal color have something to do with this divergence of opinion. The voice covers two octaves and a third, from the baritone low-G to the tenor high B, with an upward extension in falsetto to at least a D flat. Presley's best octave is in the middle, D-flat to D-flat, granting an extra full step up or down. Call him a high baritone. In "It's'now or never", (1960), he ends it in a full voice cadence (A, G, F), that has nothing to do with the vocal devices of R&B and Country. That A-note is hit right on the nose, and it is rendered less astonishing only by the number of tracks where he lands easy and accurate B-flats. Moreover, he has not been confined to one type of vocal production. In ballads and country songs he belts out full-voiced high G's and A's that an opera baritone might envy. He is a naturally assimilative stylist with a multiplicity of voices – in fact, Elvis' is an extraordinary voice, or many voices."

"Growing up, Elvis Presley's quasi-gospel ballad "Crying in the Chapel" was the first secular recording allowed inside their strict "Church of God in Christ" home in West Oakland, California. Ruth, Anita, Bonnie, and June were only allowed to listen to the radio on Sundays and on top of that, it had to be gospel stations. Years later, Anita, reflected on the fact that it was "so unbelievable that someone like Elvis Presley could relate to the story in their song 'Fairytale' and want to record it". She thought Elvis "did it beautifully and was very pleased with his version, capturing the emotion in the song", as he did. Ruth "also spoke positively of Elvis's final album 'Moody Blue' and defended him against charges of any cultural appropriation""

"One of Elliott's properties is the Rail Haven Inn/Best Western. at 203 S. Glenstone Ave., which has a unique room — one that attracts travelers from out-of-state as well as locals. It's the Elvis Room — where a 21-year-old Elvis Presley stayed in 1956 after a performance at Springsfield's Shrine Mosque. As far as anyone knows, the room suffered no damage."

"Think of Elvis Presley’s home, Graceland- It was once just a house, now it’s a shrine."

"When I was a kid, we moved from Canada to the US, first to Pasadena, then to Palm Springs. This guy who lived across the street was the PS's airport manager and he really liked us, so he’d tip us off when famous people were flying in. One day, he told us Elvis Presley was flying in at 3 p.m. and if we showed up we could meet him. He let us ride with our bikes on the tarmac and then, this private plane landed, the steps came down and... there was Elvis. We ran towards him and he picked me up and swung me around, hugged my sister, signed autographs, and talked to us. Finally, one of his guys told him they had to go, but as they drove off, he rolled down his window and waved goodbye to us all the way down the road. He was so nice, really cool and it was so great to meet him and shake his hand.."

"The emergent cultural wars between Mexico and the US over rock 'n' roll, however, took a dramatic turn on 19 February 1957 when a comment gleaned from an alleged border interview with Elvis Presley appeared in Mexico's largest newspaper, "Excelsior", in which the rock 'n' roll star was quoted as saying, "I'd rather kiss three black girls than a Mexican." Two days later, a Mexican woman was quoted in the same column as saying, "I'd rather kiss three dogs than one Elvis Presley." At first unnoticed by the public at large, this exchange soon unleashed a torrent of anti-Presley criticism, his records were burnt at the Zocalo, and he was denied radio airplay, all of which while sustaining a powerful backlash against Presley and the mass media itself. Most people now dismiss the remark as completely false, some even attributing it to an act of political vengeance against him. In fact, it had been started by a high-up Mexican tycoon who wanted to contract Presley for a private birthday party, for which he sent him a blank check to fill in as he wished. Presley, according to the story, returned the blank check, so the tycoon, extremely offended, and with the help of a top politician, invented the storyline about Elvis not liking Mexican women."

"Once a year Parkes, a sleepy mining town in rural Australia, explodes into colour and song hosting a five-day festival and extravaganza to celebrate Elvis Presley, now billed as the southern hemisphere’s biggest tribute to the superstar. The town’s transformation extends beyond this year’s Parkes Elvis Festival generating A$13 million (US$9.3 million) for the local economy as more than 27,000 people visited to attend some 200 themed events. "It’s helped the whole economy", noted Parkes Motel owner Andrew Porter of the frenzied growth in tourists. The New South Wales state government is projecting an injection of Aus $43 million (US̩30.6 million) into the wider region surrounding Parkes this year due to the festival, a much-needed source of income amid a severe drought as the event has helped develop Parkes' service economy – and its numbers. This extends to the sporting field with another regular fixture – a rugby game – featuring teams with players wearing copies of his trademark white jumpsuit. The population has increased by four percent to around 12,000 in the past decade, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in sharp contrast to the declining or static trend in other regional and rural towns. Inspired by the Parked Elvis Festival huge success, other small towns have started their own events such as the ABBAFestival in nearby Trundle and the Bob Marley Festival in Kandos, said University of Wollongong Human Geography expert Chris Gibson, who has compiled a database of some 2,800 festivals across the country..."

"Steve Sholes, who produced the session, said, “Roll the tape.” And I said, “But I haven't heard the song yet!” And he said, “Roll the tape, Bill!” and I look and the studio is totally black out there. I can't see a thing. I said, “You're kidding!” He said, “No, roll the tape!”. So, I roll the tape and I don't know what's going to happen. And a guitar starts off, and then a bass comes in, and Elvis starts singing. And I still can't see a thing in the studio. And I'm afraid to turn any mikes off because somebody may come in and start playing. All of a sudden, Elvis stops singing and just starts talking. And I say to myself, “This is awful!” because you don't normally put a lot of echo on dialogue. And I thought, next take I'll just turn it down, so we just did the take all the way through. If you listen to the dialogue, the echo matches the effect, because he says, “And the stage is bare, and I'm standing there…”. Later, I said, “How about that echo?”. Sholes said, “Screw the echo, that's a hit!”. And it was done in one take..."

"This was a white kid in the 1950s going on Beale Street, learning from masters of black music like Roy Hamilton, Jackie Wilson and others. He was different, interesting, but not something you felt the magnitude of at first – not until you heard Dewey Phillips playing 'That's All Right' on [his radio show] 'Red, Hot & Blue'. Hearing what he was doing, singing black music with a confidence and a uniqueness, made me and other African-American talents say, 'This guy has something'. And he did! We felt that maybe he was opening up a market that had been not fully opening up to black music, breaking down barriers to a greater appreciation of what black music truly was. That opened up more doors for artists like Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Brook Benton and so many others. We felt that maybe he was opening up a market that had been not fully opening up to black music, breaking down barriers to a greater appreciation of what black music truly was. That opened up more doors for artists like Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Brook Benton and so many others. He was soulfully expressing the songs with an r'n'b flair, showing what black music was through his perspective. What Elvis did for me was cement in my mind the great potential reach of r'n'b and soul music. The credibility that he bought to it, whether he viewed it that way or not, doesn't matter, because this was the net result. What Elvis did for me was cement in my mind the great potential reach of r'n'b and soul music. The credibility that he bought to it, whether he viewed it that way or not, doesn't matter, because this was the net result.This documentary gives the complete picture of the person, his greatness, some of his secrets, some of his ups, some of his downs and an abundance of his power. And people would love to see how much of a production role Elvis had in the music that he made. It was a real honor for us at Stax Records, for [Elvis] to record there. He was as soulful as anyone. He was amazing at whatever he chose to do."

"I think Elvis was just a beautiful singer He had the swag. He had the sauce."

"The 21st century is beginning to see (and hear) things differently, though, and many of us now take a broader view of Caruso's art and achievement (and thus) when Ben Watt compares the great tenor with Elvis Presley is a sign of more enlightened times. The digital age gives us unfettered access to the whole of music, unfiltered by snobbery and tradition, and perhaps Caruso can be released from the stale old classical ghetto. In his time, he was indeed as good as Elvis."

"I'm customized to do everything I shouldn't do, I've learned all that I know by stubbornness and (the) blue I got my schooling more or less on the street, My eyes have seen a thing or two. And though my heart has made me weary,I like everything about you, yes I do, yes I do, yes I do, yes. I like the way you look, the way that you talk I like the way that you move when you walk, My mind is set on you,My pelvis is on fire And I can't shake it off"

"Elvis was a (Gospel) singer par excellence. On "Milky White Way", (1960), he' got the strength of a bassman and the sweetness of a tenor. The heritage we have in Elvis' gospel music is a gift to the world."

"There was a real threat of danger, a cold war with an iron curtain and there was a Soviet army stacked up on the other side, so those were serious times. He was just another soldier, he was Elvis Presley but at the same time they assigned him in accordance with the needs of the service and unlike others who have gone in the military from celebrity life and essentially used their talents to entertain troops, he was a scout. Despite living in a house "off post", when it came to the field Elvis Presley was not a celebrity and I think his fellow soldiers respected him for his dedication even though he was as famous as he was. When I met him, he was out in the field and he was recognized for his professional performance in the Third Division which I, interestingly, subsequently commanded 28 years later and it occupied the shallowest part of NATO battle front. Elvis' unit and my unit were in that division and we had the toughest job and it was a time of heightened tension. Anyway, we were in this wooded area and I was driving along in my jeep and somebody noted that, there he was. When I walked over to him he saluted and was very proper and what struck me was that he looked just like another GI. Other than the fact that he was REALLY Elvis Presley, he acted, and I saw him, as just another soldier, in the woods, kind of dirty, doing a job...""

"The Denver Zoo hopes that 11-year-old polar bear, Cranbeary may be expecting. But to be sure, staff sent a sample of her poop to an expert at predicting polar bear pregnancies – Elvis, a beagle working with the Cincinnati Zoo. It is nearly impossible to determine if polar bears are pregnant through traditional tests, so zoos are trying this new approach. Denver Zoo is one of 17 zoos with possibly-pregnant polar bears that have gathered up samples for Elvis to examine. Elvis has a 97 percent success rate in determining polar bear pregnancy and we are anxiously waiting to find out if Cranbeary the polar bear might become a momma bear this year!"

"As to Elvis, some experts believe that the release of music he did not approve in life can reward his fans, but at the same time could end up hurting his legacy over the long term. While alive, he almost always only released music he thought was great but after his death, many of the songs he thought were not, were released on new albums. This is one reason many artists prefer to keep their material under wraps forever."

"i) When you got the last name Presley everybody's gonna get the question, are you related to Elvis? Well, my granddaddy and Elvis' granddaddy were brothers. In fact mine carried Elvis and Gladys down to visit Vernon, his daddy, at the state penitentiary, when he did a little time for altering a check. ii) Mississippi is proud of Elvis. I think his story was a story of somebody that started off with nothing"

"I would continue to do the Elvis Presley show because it is something that's been in my life for years and I won't let it down,"

"Baby let's play house" and "Don't be cruel"

"It hit home when I turned 42 as that was the age when my father died. I have moments when I wish he had lived to see my children, and I speak to my little ones about him. I tell them who he was and we all love his music."

"i) I still find myself captivated by many of Elvis's songs, his style of translating lyrics with music giving the listener the sense that even though he's singing, he's speaking his feelings and living them throughout the song. When I listen to “Don’t,” which he recorded when he was only 22-years-old, I can't imagine anyone else singing this heartfelt song with such an emotional connection to the words. ii)his taste was so diverse. Yes, country, rhythm and blues, black music, but he also loved opera and Bach and Brahms. By setting his vocals in a pop-classical context, I wanted to expose him in a way that he never had the opportunity to — wanted to, but never was able to..."

"After what seemed to be an eternity, a baby boy was born, dead. I was desolate at the loss of our child. But then my father put his hand on my wife’s stomach and announced, ‘Vernon, there’s another baby her. At the time Elvis was born, medicine hadn’t advanced far enough for a doctor to predict twins, so his arrival took us completely by surprise. Gladys and I were so proud of Elvis and enjoyed him so much that we immediately wanted more children. But, for reasons no doctor could understand, we had none after him."

"Elvis laughed, cried, worried about people. He had a generous streak as long as the mighty Mississippi and delighted in being able to help people. He could be angry, funny, sad or happy, just like everyone else. He had all these little traits just like other people, but he was a lot more too. He became a part of our lives and even with his closely guarded privacy, he drew us into his life so willingly and lovingly that he was, in fact, a part of each and every one of us. He made us sing because of his songs, he made us cry at every pain, either mental or physical that he bore, he made us laugh at every little grin he gave, but most of all, he made us love because he gave us love. He gave us himself and asked us for nothing in return."

"I was about 10 years old, the first time I heard Elvis Presley's voice, pouring from my father's car radio, in East St. Louis, Illinois; I can't recall the song, whether it was a ballad or a rocker (but), what I remember is how his voice, that smoldering rumble of a voice, made my skin tingle; I don't know why, but I just loved his voice, his sound just did something to me."

"Elvis recorded “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” and, at every show, he played it. The Beatles, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Fats Domino, James Brown —all the big acts who have ever recorded rock ‘n’ roll at one time recorded it. It was the first rock ‘n’ roll song that made me a teenage idol with both blacks and whites. In 1952, it was called race music. What opened the gate here in America for race music was that generation of young white boys and girls, but when Elvis got in, he opened the door that much wider. In fact, all the chords are the same, they're not black and white, unless it's on paper. The music and melodies never change."

"He was breathtaking, really, it was very difficult to focus.."

"i) I realize I'm part of a musical history and I revere the legacy of my predecessors, so, for instance, when playing live I'll do some of their bombs, or say, we play "Jailhouse Rock" as a tribute to Elvis. So why Elvis you ask? Well, I was brought up in a black and white world. I dig black and white; night and day, rich and poor, man and woman. I listen to all kinds of music and I want to be judged on the quality of my work, not on what I say, nor on what people claim I am, nor on the color of my skin. ii) I met Elvis Presley at the Dick Clark show at Circus Circus in Las Vegas, a place where a great musical extravaganza with some of the greatest artists of the day always would appear. We were sitting in the audience and Jackie Wilson had just finished his set and then Dick Clark came out, but before he introduced the next act he wanted to announce someone special had arrived, "Ladies and Gentlemen" The lights went down and all of a sudden spotlights went to the back of the room. I looked around and it was Elvis, He was looking cool and wearing shades. He snatched his shades off as if saying "Hello Everybody!, then came walking down the aisle to his table and he saw Louise, stopped said "Hi Louise. Hi Nikki" and they started talking. I stood up and he said "Hi." I said "Hi, I'm Pepe. It's nice to meet you." I shook his hand. He said something else to Louise, and then said "See you later" and went to his table. By the time I was in Las Vegas, I had already met tons of celebrities-- Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Patti LaBelle and the Bluebells, Dionne Warwick and Wayne Newton. I also met Ike and Tina Turner. I drank champagne with Adam Clayton Powell and I met Redd Foxx but, when I saw Elvis, I said, now that man's a star. It was a different kind of thing.""