Thursday July 16, 2020 “(Marie’s the Name) His Latest Flame” Elvis Presley
Elvis has not only left the building but he appears to have left the song of the day list, so ladies and gentlemen “Here’s Elvis!”
This tune, one of thirty eight top ten hits for Elvis, was written by Doc Pomus (“Teenager in Love”, “Save the last Dance for Me”) and Mort Shuman (“This Magic Moment”, “Viva Las Vegas”) and relies heavily on the Bo Diddley beat which was ‘borrowed’ not just by Elvis but by so many artists. Think Buddy Holly (“Not Fade Away”), Deep Purple (“Hush”), Smokey Robinson (“Mickey’s Monkey”), U2 (“Desire”), The Who (“Magic Bus”), Steppenwolf (“Magic Carpet Ride”) and so many, many others and you know they all gave credit and royalties to Mr. Diddley while using his signature beat.
We all know so much about Elvis, after all he as the King but here are some perhaps lesser known facts about him:
-Elvis had a twin who was stillborn
-Elvis’ manager Colonel Tom Parker was not really a colonel but rather a former carnival barker
-Elvis never performed outside the US with rare exception, purportedly because the “Colonel” also an illegal immigrant, feared he might not be allowed back in the country. Parker’s cut of Elvis’ earnings was a phenomenal 50%.
-Elvis bought Graceland for $103,000 (just under $1MM in today’s currency) when he was 22 and he lived out his entire life in that residence. Graceland is now open for tours with 600,000 visitors each year.
An aside here. I met Mr. Bo Diddley in the St. Louis airport many years back. He was wearing a cowboy style expensive hat with a bright but stylish feather and his trademark glasses and was filming the mosaic of the history of flight that is in that airport and he was a real gentleman. I asked him about all of the ‘borrowings’ of his legendary beat and his response was a rather long “Well….”
Stay safe and well...and chunka, chunka, chunk, chunk, chunk.
