Came home from a 'folk wedding' early last night (leaving heather to go nuts among the ratatouille and Morris dancers) 'cause I was feeling crappy. Turned on the tube, and watched an infomercial (I think) about Elvis' Gospel recordings. Fascinating. It contained the full clip of himself singing "Peace in The Valley" (with The Jordanaires doing great harmony). I've always loved his treatment of this, but I hadn't known the background, until last night.

Apparently Elvis wanted to sing it for his Mother, but Sullivan said "NO". (perhaps he thought it was sacriligious for the hip-shaker to sing a Gospel song, as WELL as "Hound Dog". Thank goodness, that Elvis had the clout by then....and DEMANDED to sing it. You can see how dis-combobulated Sullivan was, simply because of his introduction.......

"....uhhh,....uhhh...here's a ....uhh...song that Elvis SAYS....uhhhh....is for...uhhh...his mother....uhhhh..."

Bloody marvelous rendition.

Also on this program they talked a lot with J.D. Sumner (Six feet six, and could sing the bass out of an eighty foot well!)

Anyway, it did my heart good to see Elvis INSIST on repertoire control. Sullivan, that old reactionary was noted for putting his foot down HARD to get his way. I could be wrong, but I believe that Dylan, refused to go on if he couldn't sing "Talkin' John Birch Society"....and The Doors simply refused to change a line of lyrics. I think The Stones DID leave out a line.

Way to go Elvis.

Cheers

Rick