Nothin' But the Music - Track 8 / The Moments - Chapter 12 (The Crossover Episode!)

               Today, as the world honors the life of its musical King on the anniversary of his death, I think it is high time that I, in blogged form, honor the music of the great Elvis Presley.  All my life, he has been one of my favorite artists.  I can, without question, also say that he is my son’s absolute favorite – perhaps even the only singer/musician that Joey knows existed.  Joey has dressed as Elvis for Halloween, he has sung and danced along with him at home and in the car, and the movies Elvis made are among the few that Joey will allow to play through in a single sitting (such is a 2-year-old’s attention span).  I don’t seek to rank the King’s work here.  Who could?  Rather, I simply want to share some of Joey’s and my favorite songs in some of the general categories that they cover.  Outside of hymns at church, Elvis songs were among the first I really remember learning as a toddler.  I’m glad that Joey can say the same.  You just can’t beat great music.  It, like Elvis, creates some great memories and moments in life.  Click along with me and enjoy some of those awesome hits.

               As one would expect, Joey’s first and most frequently requested Elvis songs are the fun songs and those with a very fast or up-tempo beat.  While we had been listening to Elvis in the car together since before he could speak, the first song that Joey ever specifically identified was “Burnin’ Love” (as he called it “Hunk-A Burnin’ Love”).  One of the staples of his later albums, this song has been worn out on every album on which it is included in my collection.  Second to this tune was another “hunk” song, “Big Hunk O’ Love” or, as Joey called it “Gunk.”  This song was Joey’s outlet to display his growing ability to join in on a few lyrics.  “Don’t Be Cruel” was another song in which that ability shined, as I would often hear from the back seat “Don’t be cwu. Heart twue.”  Those days seem a distant memory as Joey can now sing along with every song word-for-word.  “Teddy Bear” and “Hound Dog” were other early favorites which he would often request as constant repeats on any car trip.  One of my favorite examples of Joey’s creative song re-titling was “All Shook Up” which Joey always called “Bess My Soul.”  It took me a few days to get that one (just had to pay attention to the first line of the song more).  As Joey’s verbal skills have developed to the point of handling a whole song either alone or as a duet with whoever he is around, he has really flaunted his talent with “Return to Sender” and “Viva LasVegas.”  Though he doesn’t request them as much, he has a lot of fun with “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Moody Blue,” and “Way Down.”  In fact, “Way Down” is sung more in the bathroom than anywhere else with us.  Since he’s been potty-training, a lot of times when I say “Joey, pull your pants down and get on the potty,” he’ll break out into song with “Way Down.”  Haha!  Elvis really is everywhere in my son’s life.  Among the King’s many great cover tunes, “Proud Mary” (which Joey called “Wollin’ on the Wiver”) was and is a solid favorite (Elvis’ was the first version of that song I ever knew myself), along with “Polk Salad Annie” which Joey has added to his favorite list in recent months, and “Johnny B. Goode” or “Go Johnny” to Joey (I still see it as a Marty McFly specialty).  Joey’s most entertaining display of fun Elvis songs came last Christmas when Santa brought him a guitar and microphone, as requested.  Joey opened those gifts first and spent the whole day clinging to his guitar and keeping his microphone in his mouth to sing his rendition of “See See Rider.”  I also gave him a Christmas tree ornament that played “Stuck On You” (one of the first Elvis songs I learned via a special Disney music video at about age 3), but all he wanted to repeat was “Oh see see see rider!  Oh see see see rider!”  Long live the King!  Long live Joey!

               Joey also has a taste for some of Elvis’ deeper songs and straight up love songs.  His absolute favorite is “Can’t Help Falling In Love,” which Joey has always called “Wise Men Say” (again, a first line title assignment).  From the later years, Joey also likes “Suspicious Minds,” which in the Joey title system is known as “Trap.”  While I’ve never seen him watch the entire film (Elvis’ first), he does occasionally hone in on the song “Love Me Tender.”  And, in recent months, Joey has latched onto the cover of “You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me.”  Joey likes to clap out the first two beats that make the King’s version distinct.  If we’ve been in the car for a while, without thinking I’ll start believing that an extra backup voice has joined an album.  Then, I’ll look back and see Joey softly singing to the car window on some of these.

               I won’t even try to list Joey’s favorite Elvis films or the songs he can quote from each one.  While I most often hear him sing the title song from Clambake and some of the other tunes from that film (gotta love the King and an army of kids singing about “Confidence”), his mother often cites that Joey frequently breaks out into “I’m Not the Marrying Kind” (he often calls it “What!”) from Follow That Dream.  She seems to like that he has taken to that song, as she has told him on a few occasions (when referencing the tune) that he is not to marry some old skank.  Perhaps to balance, I can settle for him heeding the words of another Elvis cover he sings along with, “Hard-Headed Woman.”  After all, the King says they’ve “been the cause of trouble ever since the world began.”

               As I have aged and come to respect Elvis’ overall versatility beyond his raw talent behind a microphone, I have come to love some of the more powerful and inspirational songs that peppered his repertoire over the years.  The first Elvis album I ever owned was the recording of his 1972 concert at Madison Square Garden (my parents bought it for me on cassette during my first visit to Graceland).  While I still love (now on CD) the entire concert, the two songs that stuck out in my mind and grew in favor to me were “The Impossible Dream” and “American Trilogy.”  I have long said, and once told Joey (see The Moments – Chapter 4), that I want the Elvis version of “Impossible Dream” played at my funeral.  And, Joey has taken a liking to “American Trilogy” (he calls it “Glory, Glory”).  It is one of the songs that I will catch Joey mimicking Elvis’ movements and facial expressions on the most.  He has also gotten into the Elvis cover of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.”  Who wouldn’t?  And, he and I greatly enjoy the King’s version of “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”  As an adult with a more complex life than what I knew as a young Elvis fan many years ago, I have developed a great appreciation for “You Gave Me A Mountain,” a song in which Elvis always put a lot of soul and seemed to focus on the lines that mirrored his own struggles.  The more I hear “The Wonder of You,” the more I consider it a kind of tribute song from me to Joey.  Some of the lyrics are so universal and can apply to many kinds of relationships.  Next to “The Impossible Dream,” I would have to say that the most inspirational Elvis song was another “dream” song – “If I Can Dream.”  To hear him sing it, you almost thought Elvis was going to lift off the ground and carry you with him.  That is one of the qualities that separates him from any other artist.

               No one in popular music at any time in human history has been able to sing a Gospel song like Elvis Presley.  His voice and overall talent was obviously a gift from God, and he sang about the real King like no one else.  If you have never seen the documentary “He Touched Me: The Gospel Music of Elvis Presley,” it is a must.  The songs it includes and the stories told about Elvis are all beautiful.  One of my favorite songs to hear from Elvis is that title song, “He Touched Me.”  Elvis balances the gentle pace of the song with the mighty strength of the message it conveys.  I also love hearing his version of “How Great Thou Art,” partly because he generously lets his Gospel-focused backup singers take over for much of the song to show off their extraordinary talent.  Though many versions exist, I’d never really paid attention to the song “You’ll Never Walk Alone” until I heard the Elvis version.  A powerful and beautiful song.  Of all the Gospel songs that Elvis recorded which were mainstays in the church in which I grew up, the one that tends to stick out the most is “Take My Hand Precious Lord.”  I love his version.  Another commonly-heard but Elvis-perfected Gospel song is “Peace in the Valley.”  Elvis gave it the tone it needed and sings it as if he were yearning more than anyone around him to feel that peace someday.   As tragic as it was for the world to lose him at such a young age, I hope he has entertained the angels and those others who have gone on a hundred times over with the sweetest heavenly concerts imaginable. 

My Daddy asked me once if I knew what caused Joey to get so fixated on Elvis and his music.  I told him that my only theory was that during Joey’s first year of life, when we spent about as much time together in my car as out of it, that I tended to play the same four CDs (don’t always know what a baby might hear on the radio) and two of them were Elvis albums.  Perhaps hearing Elvis so much before he could even speak gave Joey a built-in appreciation for the King and his work.  I don’t know.  Joey’s mother and I had certainly also given Joey heavy doses of Elvis exposure in each of our homes.  Whatever the cause, Elvis has become greater than any superhero in Joey’s eyes and the ultimate figure outside his families that Joey wants to keep in his good graces.  I appreciate all the musical memories Elvis gave me over my lifetime and do so even more now as Elvis is helping Joey and I build new memories together.  Long live the Kings!