Earnest “In the Ghetto” ranks 50
Next five in King’s career online today
The King is gone, but he is not forgotten, especially if we have anything to say about it.
Thirty-eight years after his death, Elvis Presley remains a global icon. As the years pass, it’s perhaps too easy for Elvis’ image to obscure his artistry. So for this extended “Elvis Week,” the Go Memphis staff is paying tribute to Elvis as musician by counting down our choices for “The 50 Best Elvis Songs.”
Yesterday’s first batch included a signature hit (“In the Ghetto”), Elvis’ first recording (“My Happiness”) and even a B-side (“Fame and Fortune”).
Of one 1960 single , Chris Herrington writes: “‘Stuck on You’ was recorded just a couple of weeks after a just-discharged Elvis set foot back in the States and was rushed to release, offering an exciting hint at Number 46 in The Commercial Appeal’s Elvis song countdown, “If I Can Dream,” was influenced by the words of Martin Luther King Jr., and recorded just two months after the civil rights leader’s assassination in Memphis. what his post-Army music might have been had it not been so hijacked by Hollywood. Both more adult and more urbane than his ‘50s music, Sun or RCA varieties, ‘Stuck on You’ is more easeful than slick, as Elvis slurs and purrs his way around the song’s gently rocking, call-and-response foundation.”
Of “My Happiness,” John Beifuss writes: “If Elvis’ debut Sun single — ‘That’s All Right’ backed with ‘Blue Moon of Kentucky’ — represents the Big Bang of Rock and Roll, then this demo acetate is the small flame that lit the slow-burning fuse. A 1948 hit for a Capitol vocal quartet called The Pied Pipers, Presley’s interpretation — a slow, plaintive, boyish croon, accompanied by a softly strummed acoustic guitar — represents a message of devotion from son to mother that is remarkable in its sincerity.”
You can read the full post and follow the rest of the countdown each day Monday through Friday, for the next two weeks, at GoMemphis.com where we’re revealing five songs a day.
Today’s second installment. which will post at 9 a.m., includes gospel, a live recording and one of Elvis’ signature movie songs.