Well, bust my britches, here it is January 8, Elvis Presley's birthday! Now, a mere 20 days after the young rock crooner had celebrated his 21st, back in 1956, he stepped onto the stage at CBS Studio in New York City and made his
US national television debut, on the Dorsey Brothers show. Seems he was hot property from the get-go, cause he was back on that stage, straightaway, for five more appearances, on February
4th,
11th and
18th, then again on March
17th and
24th. And, yeah, heck, he was pretty good.
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Jan 8, 2012 -
42 comments
Surely one of the most memorable musician photos ever is this one:
Johnny Cash, making his feelings known with customary aplomb. But did you ever notice he was wearing a jumpsuit in that photo, and not his more standard black shirt/trousers ensemble? Well,
that very jumpsuit just went for a handsome $120,000 at auction. Someone else just paid $300,000 for one of Elvis'
peacock-emblazoned jumpsuits. And remember that little
necklace John Lennon wore on the cover of
Two Virgins? Yep, the
only thing he wore. Fetched a cool $528,000. Meanwhile, in Japan, a
bunch of grapes just went for $910. What a bargain!
[more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Aug 11, 2008 -
21 comments
Fifty years ago today
Elvis Presley recorded what would prove to be one of the iconic standards of the rock'n'roll canon,
Leiber and Stoller's
Jailhouse Rock. The song's sly allusions
("number 47 said to number three, you're the cutest jailbird I ever did see") to same-sex prison liaisons went unnoticed (or at least uncommented on) at the time, and it stayed a US #1 radio hit for 7 weeks straight. The unisex
production number [youtube] from the
movie of the same name has come to be recognized as one of the grandfathers of the pop/rock video. A black-leather-clad, still-svelte Presley performed the song on his
1968 [youtube] "comeback" TV special, and was singing it (slurred delivery, sequins and all) right up into
1977 [youtube], the year of his death. In 1980 John Belushi and company turned in a fine
version [youtube] as the closer to the Blues Brothers movie, and the song was a regular feature of their
live [youtube] shows as well. Happy 50th birthday,
Jailhouse Rock!
posted by flapjax at midnite
on May 2, 2007 -
52 comments
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