Favorite #1 hit by ELVIS PRESLEY? (Part 2 of 2)

If you missed Part 1, you can check it out here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x1160433

As always, dates indicate when a single reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

with suspicious minds..

SUSPICIOUS MINDS!


I love the back up singers on that song.

:loveya:

i love that song

Good Luck charm is a great song also, but I have to go with Suspicious minds. That has become the most requested tune when we play out. Of course we do mostly originals..lol. But still, people love that song and I have to say it is a great tune.

Actually, over this past Winter, I had a odd stretch of turning on the oldies station and only to find song playing (along with "Can't Help Falling in Love"). Made me sad at the time. I still like the song though. :)

Hard to believe there was ever a time when that station was good!

I still have it programmed because most of our stuff is on CD now (both cars still have cassettes, one is a 2000 too) and the adapter thingy to play CDs in the car is generally in the opposite car of whichever I'm driving at the moment. Go figure. :eyes: I just hit my programmed buttons when I get in the car and until I find a song I like. Most of their stuff isn't so great, but sometimes you'll catch a good one. :)

...you really like "Suspicious Minds!" :)

FWIW, rock critic Dave Marsh once fondly described that record as "a hillbilly Jerry Butler."

n/t

If I can dream. whew, now there's a song. turn that one up and see if you don't thrust your arm in the air

And what's really amazing is seeing outtakes of the '68 TV Special in which Elvis does several takes ("If I Can Dream" closes the show and it's a live vocal) without once easing his almost unreal intensity and commitment...when you think he's nailed it as a song was never before nailed, he starts over with another take. I don't know how his voice handled it.

For the studio version, recorded a few days earlier, Elvis had the lights turned out and ended up on the floor. Freaked out the engineers, who thought they'd seen and heard it all, and he kept at it 'til he had the performance he wanted and then had it played back over and over again. He said then that he'd never again record a song he didn't believe in. The ironic part is that the Colonel wanted him to close the TV show with a traditional Christmas song, a la Perry Como, and Elvis and his young producer fought with him about it; the Colonel had the final word but once he left the room Elvis turned around and told his crew that they were going to record a 'message' song, anyway, and the music supervisor )I think), W. Earl Brown, wrote "If I Can Dream" on the spot and gave it to Elvis the next day. It's one of the few times that Elvis ever stood up to the Colonel.

It's an amazing performance, I agree.