Christmas Elvis Trivia Quiz - No.2

[ColinB]

Owing to the short life of the first Xmas Quiz, here's No.2 !

Elvis' first Christmas album caused a bit of a stir.

These five questions [or 6 even] are all related to it:

1] One composer rang radio stations asking them not to play his song - who ? and what song ?

2] The LA DJ, Dick Whittinghill, at KMPC, had a different experience with the album than Portland DJ, Al Priddy at KEX.
What was it happened with each of them ?

3] What was the outcome when DJ Allen Brooks of CKWS in Kingston, Ontario, asked for listeners' reactions to the album ?

4] Although total US sales are in excess of 12 million, why hasn't the album received a 'diamond' award [for sales of 10m] from the RIAA ?

5] Which individual song from the album is Elvis' biggest seller, with sales of over 20m ?

[DarrylMac]

The first one is Irving Berlin, who was incensed by Elvis' version of White Christmas.

As for the individual song with the most sales, I'd have to stab a guess at Blue Christmas.

RIAA Diamond Award. Is it something to do with a lot of the sales coming from a budget label re-issue(s)?

[ColinB]

The first one is Irving Berlin, who was incensed by Elvis' version of White Christmas.

As for the individual song with the most sales, I'd have to stab a guess at Blue Christmas.

RIAA Diamond Award. Is it something to do with a lot of the sales coming from a budget label re-issue(s)?

Well, that's the easy ones out of the way !

Well done !

Actually, the 1970 [9 x Platinum] version is treated separately from the 1957 [3 x Platinum] version because of the tracklisting being changed slightly.

[Steve_M]

Colin, if Berlin was incensed by Elvis' version you might ask why he wasn't incensed with the Drifters version. Could it be that they were noticably different?

[ColinB]

Colin, if Berlin was incensed by Elvis' version you might ask why he wasn't incensed with the Drifters version.
Could it be that they were noticably different?

I know what you're getting at !

I reckon The Drifters & their music were well below Mr Berlin's radar in the 50's !

But he was worried that Elvis might get a lot of airplay over the holiday season...............

[DarrylMac]

Ok - Q2. Al Priddy was fired for playing Elvis version of White Christmas, defying orders. As for Dick Whittinghill, not sure, but rock n roll fans deserted his show when he refused to play Elvis, and others. Did the Christmas album maybe win him over - he played it, and ratings climbed?

Q3. When Allen started playing the album, and asked for opinion, of more than 800 callers, 93% were pro Elvis, and his efforts, and Allen played the whole album.

How about that?

[ColinB]

Ok - Q2. Al Priddy was fired for playing Elvis version of White Christmas, defying orders. As for Dick Whittinghill, not sure, but rock n roll fans deserted his show when he refused to play Elvis, and others. Did the Christmas album maybe win him over - he played it, and ratings climbed?

Q3. When Allen started playing the album, and asked for opinion, of more than 800 callers, 93% were pro Elvis, and his efforts, and Allen played the whole album.

How about that?

Well, you just about nailed those !

But Dick Whittinghill, despite requests, refused to play the album at all.
He reckoned playing it would be like "having Tempest Storm give Christmas gifts to my kids".

As you rightly say, Al Priddy got fired.
He played just one cut, but the station management thought the album was in "extremely bad taste".

And Allen Brooks got a 93% positive feed-back from his listeners [several of whom revealed themselves to be men of the cloth].

Well done, DarrylMac !

[elvisa]

5] Which individual song from the album is Elvis' biggest seller, with sales of over 20m ?

I found this little interesting story from Elvis news:

Ironically, the album's biggest hit, "Blue Christmas," was the one track Elvis didn't want to record. As Gordon Stoker, a member of the Jordanaires, the vocal group that backed Presley on that song and many others, recalls, Elvis at first refused to do "Blue Christmas" out of respect for Ernest Tubb, who had had a No. 1 hit with it earlier.

When the producers said he had to cut it, he told folks at the session to come up with something so bad that it would never see the light of day as a single, Stoker told The Associated Press recently from his Nashville home.

"We thought that 'oo-ooo-oooo' was bad enough that they wouldn't release it," Stoker said of the signature backing vocals. To this day, he said, "It still sounds bad to me when I hear it."

[TIGERMAN-GB]

Dick Whittinghill, despite requests, refused to play the album at all.
He reckoned playing it would be like "having Tempest Storm give Christmas gifts to my kids

I would'nt mind Tempest storm giving my kids gifts, it would be educational,

however I personally would have prefered Bettie Page.

[ColinB]

Dick Whittinghill, despite requests, refused to play the album at all.
He reckoned playing it would be like "having Tempest Storm give Christmas gifts to my kids

I would'nt mind Tempest storm giving my kids gifts, it would be educational,

however I personally would have prefered Bettie Page.

tempest01.jpg

But Tempest Storm had her good points........................

[KiwiAlan]

I assume that Mr Berlin and his estate has refused to accept royalties from the Presley version of White Christmas.

Yeah right!

[likethebike]

Those royalties always make a difference Kiwi. Shortly after Elvis' Christmas Album, Jerome Kern's widow wanted to file a suit to try and get the Platters' version of "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" until she was advised the new versions could (and did) sell a million plus copies. Suddenly, it seemed like much less of a blotch on her late husband's legacy.

Berlin probably would have dropped over had he heard the Drifters' version. He wasn't what you would call a fan of R&B a music form he considered barbaric.

[elvis presley scrapbook]

And here is The Drifters version with some familair vocal phrasing to us Elvis fans

http://badaboo.free.fr/merryxmas.swf

[ColinB]

And here is The Drifters version with some familair vocal phrasing to us Elvis fans

http://badaboo.free.fr/merryxmas.swf

Thanks for the link !

It's obvious Elvis based his version completely on this one !

Someone was arguing with me that this wasn't the case just the other day.