This thread is being refreshed
in order that the Mudcatters
who are shouting at each other --
really -- about Elvis Presley,
on a Mudcat thread with a different singer's name on it,
can mosey on over here
and do the shouting and shoving here instead.

Those whose minds are already made up, in the meantime,
can disregard the following observation.

Elvis and Dean Martin: no, not the rock'n'roll/rockabilly stuff,
but the ballads, the crooner stuff.
I need to look deeper for this, to find a source or two,
but Elvis Presley is said to have commented on Dean Martin's ballad singing
as something he admired, to the point of imitation.

And Dean Martin made absolutely no secret of the fact
that he grew up listening to the Mills Brothers,
especially their slow sustained singing.
He wanted to sing ballads as either Donald Mills or Henry(?) Mills did.

Calling Elvis 'original' is superficial. The facts have layers;
and it is more to the point that
Elvis, directly or indirectly, sought out and followed
artists with a high standard, at least in the lyrical 'crooner' ballads.

Thanks for listening.