Elvis didn't have this crowd

Elvis didn't seem to capture the same crowd of young people who were fans of Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRitCshddBo

If Elvis had played a venue as small as the Bananafish Garden, the demand for tickets from all ages would have outstripped supply.

Elvis didn't seem to capture the same crowd of young people who were fans of Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRitCshddBo

Thats true and its because 50% of the people that came to Elvis concerts couldnt care less about the music. They were there to see the ultimate icon, to swoon at the movie star, to get a sexual jolt. Thats the type of women I saw when I attended his shows. I mean just look at Elvis On Tour and see what I mean. The folks at other 50's artists concerts were polar opposites, no swooning, just digging the music.

Thats true and its because 50% of the people that came to Elvis concerts couldnt care less about the music.

50% ?... Riiiiight. When asked about the concert afterwards, I'm sure the 50% that couldn't care less about the music replied, "What concert?!"

Elvis didn't seem to capture the same crowd of young people who were fans of Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRitCshddBo

I agree with that. People going to see Jerry Lee were expecting to hear his classics and this is obviously a much smaller venue than Elvis would have played. And Jerry continued (continues) to play the likes of Whole Lotta Shakin', Great Balls of Fire and his other hits very close to the originals... unlike Elvis did in the 70's. While people did enjoy hearing Elvis play Hound Dog, Jailhouse Rock and Don't Be Cruel (as rushed and forgettable as they were), there was so much more to his performances than simply re-hashing his former glory from the 50's.

I'm sure Elvis got the same amount or actually more young people attending his concerts because he played bigger venues.

It may not look like it in that one video but i'd say he had more young fans coming to his concerts than they had.

I attended 5 Elvis concerts. Depends on what you mean by young. I would say teenagers were in the minority and really young people were there with their parents. Of course 99% white also.

I attended 5 Elvis concerts. Depends on what you mean by young. I would say teenagers were in the minority and really young people were there with their parents. Of course 99% white also.

So Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis had loads of teenagers at their concerts on a regular basis.

What i mean by young is teengers, children, and people in their early to mid twenties.

Obviously children would be there with their parents they couldn't go by themselves.

I attended 5 Elvis concerts. Depends on what you mean by young. I would say teenagers were in the minority and really young people were there with their parents. Of course 99% white also.

So Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis had loads of teenagers at their concerts on a regular basis.

What i mean by young is teengers, children, and people in their early to mid twenties.

Obviously children would be there with their parents they couldn't go by themselves.

No Jerry Lee and Chuck did not (or do not to this day) have loads of teenagers at their shows. But they get their fare share of under 40 people, and women who are not there for a sweaty scarf but to dig the music. With all the women screaming and knocking over each other trying to get a scarf of take a picture of Elvis, did they even know what song he was singing? Did the music ever matter? Perhaps thats why Elvis gave 50 second versions of All Shook Up.

I attended 5 Elvis concerts. Depends on what you mean by young. I would say teenagers were in the minority and really young people were there with their parents. Of course 99% white also.

So Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis had loads of teenagers at their concerts on a regular basis.

What i mean by young is teengers, children, and people in their early to mid twenties.

Obviously children would be there with their parents they couldn't go by themselves.

With all the women screaming and knocking over each other trying to get a scarf of take a picture of Elvis, did they even know what song he was singing?

I would say yes they did.

What I meant by my initial post is that Elvis really didn't have the counter culture, "hippie" crowd going to is shows like Jerry Lee, Chuck and many of the early rockers did. His audience was more made up of his original fans from the 50's plus, young adults in their late 20's and 30's, older people and mostly clean cut teens and early twenty somethings. Growing up in the 60's and 70's, most people my age and a little older thought of Elvis as square. All my friends thought I was weird for being an Elvis fan yet they all thought Chuck Berry ad JLL were cool. I've been to two Elvis concerts; Vegas 73 and Denver 76. I've been to 2 each of CB and JLL. CB in 73 and 79 and JLL in 73 and 94 and Elvis's crowd was more like would go see Frank Sinatra or you would see in church (ironically) and CB's and JLL's crowds, although much, much smaller, were more like you would have seen at a Rolling Stones concert in the 70's.

What I meant by my initial post is that Elvis really didn't have the counter culture, "hippie" crowd going to is shows like Jerry Lee, Chuck and many of the early rockers did. His audience was more made up of his original fans from the 50's plus, young adults in their late 20's and 30's, older people and mostly clean cut teens and early twenty somethings. Growing up in the 60's and 70's, most people my age and a little older thought of Elvis as square. All my friends thought I was weird for being an Elvis fan yet they all thought Chuck Berry ad JLL were cool.

I'm sure Elvis did have some hippie's as fans but that doesn't mean anything.

Clean cut adults are just as good as hippie adults.

Some of your friends thought Berry and Lewis were cool but most teenagers didn't think that i assure you.

What I meant by my initial post is that Elvis really didn't have the counter culture, "hippie" crowd going to is shows like Jerry Lee, Chuck and many of the early rockers did. His audience was more made up of his original fans from the 50's plus, young adults in their late 20's and 30's, older people and mostly clean cut teens and early twenty somethings. Growing up in the 60's and 70's, most people my age and a little older thought of Elvis as square. All my friends thought I was weird for being an Elvis fan yet they all thought Chuck Berry ad JLL were cool.

I'm sure Elvis did have some hippie's as fans but that doesn't mean anything.

Clean cut adults are just as good as hippie adults.

Some of your friends thought Berry and Lewis were cool but most teenagers didn't think that i assure you.

Actually most teenagers did. At least where I grew up in Denver CO. We had 50's day every year in Jr. High and High School and a lot of kids my age really got into 50's music with the release of American Graffiti and Happy Days and I remember kids talking in school and such about the artists and it was always CB and JLL over Elvis. Elvis was regarded in the same league as Tom Jones (who I also liked) at the time. I really think the corny movies and the super clean cut image of the 60's really hurt Elvis with a large segment of young people because I thought of him that way myself until I saw him in person in Vegas.

Surely this can be turned to say that no other performer had the crowd that Elvis did either.

And if someone turns around and says that Tom Jones did, well it isn't true. Tom did not do any comparable size tours.

And unless we have all been fed a load of bull, wasn't Elvis the biggest draw on the concert circut at that time.

Another point to consider, some would say its a plus and other a minus, Elvis was not limited in his repertoire, you couldn't pigeon hole his concerts to just a rock concert. That may not have made him cool at the time, but hey, even dead he out survived the cool guys.

Surely this can be turned to say that no other performer had the crowd that Elvis did either.

And if someone turns around and says that Tom Jones did, well it isn't true. Tom did not do any comparable size tours.

And unless we have all been fed a load of bull, wasn't Elvis the biggest draw on the concert circut at that time.

Another point to consider, some would say its a plus and other a minus, Elvis was not limited in his repertoire, you couldn't pigeon hole his concerts to just a rock concert. That may not have made him cool at the time, but hey, even dead he out survived the cool guys.

Elvis truly had every age group at his shows in the 70's; from little kids to the elderly. Very few performers had ever pulled that off at the time. But Elvis really never had the "hip" crowd at his shows in the 70's. Don't really know if that's bad or good? I think most teenagers and twenty somethings in the 70's regarded him the same way the Beatles did in the 70's.

Anyone remember when People Magazine declared Kenny Rogers the new Elvis in the early 80's because his concerts attracted such a wide age range?

What I meant by my initial post is that Elvis really didn't have the counter culture, "hippie" crowd going to is shows like Jerry Lee, Chuck and many of the early rockers did. His audience was more made up of his original fans from the 50's plus, young adults in their late 20's and 30's, older people and mostly clean cut teens and early twenty somethings. Growing up in the 60's and 70's, most people my age and a little older thought of Elvis as square. All my friends thought I was weird for being an Elvis fan yet they all thought Chuck Berry ad JLL were cool.

I'm sure Elvis did have some hippie's as fans but that doesn't mean anything.

Clean cut adults are just as good as hippie adults.

Some of your friends thought Berry and Lewis were cool but most teenagers didn't think that i assure you.

Actually most teenagers did. At least where I grew up in Denver CO. We had 50's day every year in Jr. High and High School and a lot of kids my age really got into 50's music with the release of American Graffiti and Happy Days and I remember kids talking in school and such about the artists and it was always CB and JLL over Elvis.[quote]

Most jr. High and High Schools didn't do that and most kids that age weren't into 50s music.

In Colorado where you grew up they did but there were 49 other states and a whole lot of teenagers you didn't know.

I'm sure there were some teenagers somewhere that thought Elvis was cooler than Chuck Berry or Jerry Lee Lewis.

Generally speaking teenagers in the 1970s didn't listen to Chuck Berry, Elvis or Jerry Lee.

What I meant by my initial post is that Elvis really didn't have the counter culture, "hippie" crowd going to is shows like Jerry Lee, Chuck and many of the early rockers did. His audience was more made up of his original fans from the 50's plus, young adults in their late 20's and 30's, older people and mostly clean cut teens and early twenty somethings. Growing up in the 60's and 70's, most people my age and a little older thought of Elvis as square. All my friends thought I was weird for being an Elvis fan yet they all thought Chuck Berry ad JLL were cool.

I'm sure Elvis did have some hippie's as fans but that doesn't mean anything.

Clean cut adults are just as good as hippie adults.

Some of your friends thought Berry and Lewis were cool but most teenagers didn't think that i assure you.

Actually most teenagers did. At least where I grew up in Denver CO. We had 50's day every year in Jr. High and High School and a lot of kids my age really got into 50's music with the release of American Graffiti and Happy Days and I remember kids talking in school and such about the artists and it was always CB and JLL over Elvis.

Most jr. High and High Schools didn't do that and most kids that age weren't into 50s music.

In Colorado where you grew up they did but there were 49 other states and a whole lot of teenagers you didn't know.

I'm sure there were some teenagers somewhere that thought Elvis was cooler than Chuck Berry or Jerry Lee Lewis.

Generally speaking teenagers in the 1970s didn't listen to Chuck Berry, Elvis or Jerry Lee.

There was a huge 50's revival in the 70's and American Graffiti was a hugely popular movie and Happy Days was a top 10 TV show. When I went to college, kids from other states that I became friends with said they had 50's day at their schools as well and they were from all over the country; (New Jersey, Missouri, Virginia, Iowa, and many others). We actually had two 50's revival bands come to our college in the fall of 79 and they both had a packed attendance. I'm not saying that teens and twenties in the late 60's and 70's were hanging CB and JLL posters on their walls but they regarded CB and JLL as cooler than EP and they were getting into the music through the movies and TV shows. The American Graffiti Soundtrack was big and remember most of my friends had it. CB and JLL were also on several TV shows like The Midnight Special. Liking Elvis in the 70's for a teenager had a stigma that liking JLL and CB didn't and I really don't know why that was but it was.

Interesting observation.
I think different venues - smaller and non-seated - and the Let the Good Times Roll revival of the old rockers would have led to the difference.

What I meant by my initial post is that Elvis really didn't have the counter culture, "hippie" crowd going to is shows like Jerry Lee, Chuck and many of the early rockers did. His audience was more made up of his original fans from the 50's plus, young adults in their late 20's and 30's, older people and mostly clean cut teens and early twenty somethings. Growing up in the 60's and 70's, most people my age and a little older thought of Elvis as square. All my friends thought I was weird for being an Elvis fan yet they all thought Chuck Berry ad JLL were cool.

I'm sure Elvis did have some hippie's as fans but that doesn't mean anything.

Clean cut adults are just as good as hippie adults.

Some of your friends thought Berry and Lewis were cool but most teenagers didn't think that i assure you.

Actually most teenagers did. At least where I grew up in Denver CO. We had 50's day every year in Jr. High and High School and a lot of kids my age really got into 50's music with the release of American Graffiti and Happy Days and I remember kids talking in school and such about the artists and it was always CB and JLL over Elvis.

Most jr. High and High Schools didn't do that and most kids that age weren't into 50s music.

In Colorado where you grew up they did but there were 49 other states and a whole lot of teenagers you didn't know.

I'm sure there were some teenagers somewhere that thought Elvis was cooler than Chuck Berry or Jerry Lee Lewis.

Generally speaking teenagers in the 1970s didn't listen to Chuck Berry, Elvis or Jerry Lee.

There was a huge 50's revival in the 70's and American Graffiti was a hugely popular movie and Happy Days was a top 10 TV show. When I went to college, kids from other states that I became friends with said they had 50's day at their schools as well and they were from all over the country; (New Jersey, Missouri, Virginia, Iowa, and many others). We actually had two 50's revival bands come to our college in the fall of 79 and they both had a packed attendance. I'm not saying that teens and twenties in the late 60's and 70's were hanging CB and JLL posters on their walls but they regarded CB and JLL as cooler than EP and they were getting into the music through the movies and TV shows. The American Graffiti Soundtrack was big and remember most of my friends had it. CB and JLL were also on several TV shows like The Midnight Special. Liking Elvis in the 70's for a teenager had a stigma that liking JLL and CB didn't and I really don't know why that was but it was.

You and Elligan are making the mistake of associating some of the people who liked Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry more than Elvis and saying the majority did.

Sure there are some that did but don't get ahead of yourself and say the majority of people favored Lewis and Berry.

It's hard to speak for the majority of a major age group and say that's what they all liked more.

where i went to high school they didn't have 50s revival days and Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis weren't listened to by the majority of people there.

The schools i went to didn't have 1950s revival days and they didn't listen to 50s rock n' roll.

I still say most other schools didn't do that and they still don't.

Besides all that if you did have a 1950s dress up day at school those type of decisions would be made by the school board or the prinicpal not the students.

What I meant by my initial post is that Elvis really didn't have the counter culture, "hippie" crowd going to is shows like Jerry Lee, Chuck and many of the early rockers did. His audience was more made up of his original fans from the 50's plus, young adults in their late 20's and 30's, older people and mostly clean cut teens and early twenty somethings. Growing up in the 60's and 70's, most people my age and a little older thought of Elvis as square. All my friends thought I was weird for being an Elvis fan yet they all thought Chuck Berry ad JLL were cool. I've been to two Elvis concerts; Vegas 73 and Denver 76. I've been to 2 each of CB and JLL. CB in 73 and 79 and JLL in 73 and 94 and Elvis's crowd was more like would go see Frank Sinatra or you would see in church (ironically) and CB's and JLL's crowds, although much, much smaller, were more like you would have seen at a Rolling Stones concert in the 70's.

Who cares? The worship of this demographic is one of the things that destroys our appreciation for Elvis' work and for any performer that chose to express themselves in a field other than country, R&B and rock n' roll.

Let's get real here. Elvis, in the 1970s, like Sinatra, was beyond any current whim of the moment. He was a superstar's superstar and played the biggest venues because his popularity demanded the biggest venues. And if Elvis did not appeal to some younger folks in the `1970s, this board and others like it would most probably not exist as the majority of posters on boards like this are people in their 40s and '50s. And gee for all the supposed "youthful" response to Berry and JLL all they could muster in the 1970s was a mere three Top 40 singles, one of them a remake of a '50s classic, another a little novelty song. It's not like they were at the heart of the supposed counter culture. And another thing when you have a crowd of 20,000 people and a crowd of say 500 it's a lot harder to pick faces out of the crowd.

And if there's one thing that gets under my skin it's the misogynistic dismissal of female fans. Yeah they're there for his body. How do you know that their intense response is not a reaction to the way Elvis performs his music? You don't. But because their women, their tastes in music could never be the equal of men's who are there only for the music. Right. As if half the crowd at a Stones' concert wasn't a bunch of hero worshipping kids wishing they could be the Stones.

Finally, Elvis did not want to and never considered himself to be an oldies artist and it is to his credit. Unlike Berry and JLL, who were bound to their hits, Elvis performed hits but didn't let those hits define him. The reason songs like "American Trilogy" got precedence over stuff like "Hound Dog" was because Elvis figured his audience came to hear him sing and a song like "Trilogy" was one of the best ways to do that.

I attended 5 Elvis concerts. Depends on what you mean by young. I would say teenagers were in the minority and really young people were there with their parents. Of course 99% white also.

So Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis had loads of teenagers at their concerts on a regular basis.

What i mean by young is teengers, children, and people in their early to mid twenties.

Obviously children would be there with their parents they couldn't go by themselves.

No Jerry Lee and Chuck did not (or do not to this day) have loads of teenagers at their shows. But they get their fare share of under 40 people, and women who are not there for a sweaty scarf but to dig the music. With all the women screaming and knocking over each other trying to get a scarf of take a picture of Elvis, did they even know what song he was singing? Did the music ever matter? Perhaps thats why Elvis gave 50 second versions of All Shook Up.

Wow, a rare comment regarding Elvis "rushing" his songs, that has some thought and fact behind it!!! Elvis WAS giving to his fans when singing the Don't be Cruel/Teddy Bear medley, later Hound Dogs, Love Me etc., and of course that included throwing out scarves, kissing the girls, accepting gifts from his fan's and showing his great appreciation towards them!!!!! And I love his performances whether they are rushed or not!!

Googling 50's day it seems to have been a very widespread thing all over the country in the 70's, not just in Denver. At my Jr. High and High School everyone really got into it with probably 90% of the kids dressing up. Girls wore poodle skirts and bobby socks and made their hair up in 50's style. Boys basically all dressed up like Fonzi! Then we had a big sock hop with 50's music in the gym after school. Crusing became really big again as did hanging out at drive-ins because of American Graffiti and Happy Days.

Kids now days have either 70's day or 80's day.

As I said before, seeing Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee in the 70's, they both played the same place (The Rainbow Music Hall) which sat about 4000 people and both shows seemed like sell outs. The crowds at both shows were made up entirely of white teens and twenty somethings, maybe a few 30 somethings but not many. I remember commenting that there wasn't anyone there who was old enough to have been fans when they first got popular in the 50's. The crowds looked just like the video I posted at the top of this thread.

What I meant by my initial post is that Elvis really didn't have the counter culture, "hippie" crowd going to is shows like Jerry Lee, Chuck and many of the early rockers did. His audience was more made up of his original fans from the 50's plus, young adults in their late 20's and 30's, older people and mostly clean cut teens and early twenty somethings. Growing up in the 60's and 70's, most people my age and a little older thought of Elvis as square. All my friends thought I was weird for being an Elvis fan yet they all thought Chuck Berry ad JLL were cool.

I'm sure Elvis did have some hippie's as fans but that doesn't mean anything.

Clean cut adults are just as good as hippie adults.

Some of your friends thought Berry and Lewis were cool but most teenagers didn't think that i assure you.

Actually most teenagers did. At least where I grew up in Denver CO. We had 50's day every year in Jr. High and High School and a lot of kids my age really got into 50's music with the release of American Graffiti and Happy Days and I remember kids talking in school and such about the artists and it was always CB and JLL over Elvis.

Most jr. High and High Schools didn't do that and most kids that age weren't into 50s music.

In Colorado where you grew up they did but there were 49 other states and a whole lot of teenagers you didn't know.

I'm sure there were some teenagers somewhere that thought Elvis was cooler than Chuck Berry or Jerry Lee Lewis.

Generally speaking teenagers in the 1970s didn't listen to Chuck Berry, Elvis or Jerry Lee.

There was a huge 50's revival in the 70's and American Graffiti was a hugely popular movie and Happy Days was a top 10 TV show. When I went to college, kids from other states that I became friends with said they had 50's day at their schools as well and they were from all over the country; (New Jersey, Missouri, Virginia, Iowa, and many others). We actually had two 50's revival bands come to our college in the fall of 79 and they both had a packed attendance. I'm not saying that teens and twenties in the late 60's and 70's were hanging CB and JLL posters on their walls but they regarded CB and JLL as cooler than EP and they were getting into the music through the movies and TV shows. The American Graffiti Soundtrack was big and remember most of my friends had it. CB and JLL were also on several TV shows like The Midnight Special. Liking Elvis in the 70's for a teenager had a stigma that liking JLL and CB didn't and I really don't know why that was but it was.

Yes the 70's had a huge 50's revival and one of the most popular TV idols of the day was the Fonz. American Grafitti was a huge movie and guess who was not even mentioned in the film or who's music was not on the soundtrack? Yup, Elvis. He basically defined that era yet was not heard in the film! The Col probably had something to do with that perhaps. Young people liked and bought Burning Love, but it was a one shot thing for the 20 somethings and teens I knew. They still considered Elvis passe and a guy in a jumpsuit playing Vegas while they considered most of the artists in Let The Good Times Roll much cooler. By the time the mid-70's rolled around Elvis was not even on a young person's radar anymore.

While people like Chuck Berry or Jerry Lee Lewis were regarded as cool by some of the younger folks, Elvis was already out of style. His hairstyle, his jumpsuits and his presentation of the songs were not what the people below 30 wanted to see. Just look at the audience at the "Elvis In Concert" special. No teenagers, just housewifes with their hubbies. In his final years Elvis was an oldies-act. He still drew a large audience, but certainly not the younger ones.

Elvis didn't seem to capture the same crowd of young people who were fans of Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRitCshddBo

Thats true and its because 50% of the people that came to Elvis concerts couldnt care less about the music. They were there to see the ultimate icon, to swoon at the movie star, to get a sexual jolt. Thats the type of women I saw when I attended his shows. I mean just look at Elvis On Tour and see what I mean. The folks at other 50's artists concerts were polar opposites, no swooning, just digging the music.

Spot-on r&b. Agree with all that! 50% didn't give a sh*t about the music. Also, in the 70's, they screamed for what he once stood for and not for the performance he was giving at the time. So sad!!!