Three Greatest Singers, and Why

I disagree on "Hurt" being a party trick. When Elvis gets to that spoken part man, he just sounds broken. Sorry I didn't address it sooner.

Peter- I think some of the reason that people like Day don't get the credit they deserve is that because in the rock history they're often portrayed (for lack of a better term) as villains. Phony, antiseptic artists perpetuating a played out style. A lot of people take "Before Elvis there was nothing" literally. I remember an interview I did a few years back with the popular DJ Bruce Morrow and he mentioned Doris Day as just about the lamest thing in the world. For me, I had always liked her as a movie star, but it was an oldies/nostalgia show I was listened to a few years back that really sold me on her. They used "Sentimental Journey" as the theme to their show and hearing it driving home every night I was struck by just how sensuous her vocal style was. She really deserves more respect as a musician.

Part of the not hearing stuff though has come from the rigid categorization that overtook contemporary radio a few decades back. Even rock and roll was segregated within itself. For instance the classic rock audience never hears Elvis, Chuck Berry or Jerry Lee Lewis. Then of course, there's the passing away of the audience that originally heard it. They never had a forum like Rolling Stone to keep the memory alive, but it would be a shame if it was lost. I wish it was more written about.

I definitely agree about discoveries through other artists. Half the blues artists I have I was led to by Elvis. And I would have never discovered Sinatra or many traditional pop artists without my addiction to Bobby Darin. He opened my ears to those sounds. Ironically, I discovered Haymes through Darin. I bought the two DVD set of State Fair because the remake was a Darin movie. I watched the original and loved Haymes' voice and aplomb. I discovered Joni James because one of my favorite doo wop groups- the Duprees practically worshiped her and used lots of her material for their hits.

This happens a lot less today because the market place demands mostly all original material.

Sorry to derail your thread RJM.

Sorry to derail your thread RJM.

No worries. But don't you know that before Elvis, The Earth was without form, and void?



rjm

I disagree on "Hurt" being a party trick. When Elvis gets to that spoken part man, he just sounds broken. Sorry I didn't address it sooner.

Peter- I think some of the reason that people like Day don't get the credit they deserve is that because in the rock history they're often portrayed (for lack of a better term) as villains. Phony, antiseptic artists perpetuating a played out style. A lot of people take "Before Elvis there was nothing" literally. I remember an interview I did a few years back with the popular DJ Bruce Morrow and he mentioned Doris Day as just about the lamest thing in the world. For me, I had always liked her as a movie star, but it was an oldies/nostalgia show I was listened to a few years back that really sold me on her. They used "Sentimental Journey" as the theme to their show and hearing it driving home every night I was struck by just how sensuous her vocal style was. She really deserves more respect as a musician.

Part of the not hearing stuff though has come from the rigid categorization that overtook contemporary radio a few decades back. Even rock and roll was segregated within itself. For instance the classic rock audience never hears Elvis, Chuck Berry or Jerry Lee Lewis. Then of course, there's the passing away of the audience that originally heard it. They never had a forum like Rolling Stone to keep the memory alive, but it would be a shame if it was lost. I wish it was more written about.

I definitely agree about discoveries through other artists. Half the blues artists I have I was led to by Elvis. And I would have never discovered Sinatra or many traditional pop artists without my addiction to Bobby Darin. He opened my ears to those sounds. Ironically, I discovered Haymes through Darin. I bought the two DVD set of State Fair because the remake was a Darin movie. I watched the original and loved Haymes' voice and aplomb. I discovered Joni James because one of my favorite doo wop groups- the Duprees practically worshiped her and used lots of her material for their hits.

This happens a lot less today because the market place demands mostly all original material.

Sorry to derail your thread RJM.

Oddly, I've never seen the 1962 State Fair, despite being a Darin fan, although his song from the movie,This Is Heaven, is nicely done but nothing special. Having said that i don't really care for the earlier version of the film, which is probably why I never have sought out the remake. Darin is wonderful for linking other artists - what other one singer could lead you directly or otherwise to Sinatra, Dylan, Ray Charles, Tim Hardin, Louis Armstrong and, of course, Elvis. He managed to do the one thing that the Sinatra/Presley duet didn't - merge the styles of Sinatra and Elvis together. Mack the Knife may swing like hell, but the phrasing and vocal style is rock n roll, not Sinatra. That rock n roll phrasing in the swing material got toned down somewhat in Darin's Capitol era, and yet found its way instead into the wonderful - and sadly out of print - Earthy album of folk and gospel songs. Somewhat ironically, like Elvis, Darin's most under-rated material comes from the period 1966-68. At the same time, both artists were slowly but surely reinventing themselves, albeit in different ways. While Elvis started the long haul back to credibility, Darin was attempting the same as he worked his way towards his protest albums, although Darin's reinvention was short-lived and under-rated. But it's the music they both recorded en route to those reinventions which is particularly interesting, such as Presley 1967 Guitar Man session and the demos that Darin recorded with a blues/folk flavour that appeared in the mid 1990s such as Easy Rider (based on C C Rider) and I'm Gonna Love You.