On drums...

Same to you David!

Well it continues. Really enjoying him more and more. I continue to hear songs daily that I've never heard before.
One of the things that really stand out for me is he did have some range. He did have a great voice.
I could never find that so in the more popular tunes.

And as I stated, I find the facts and interviews from people that hung out with him interesting, and are quite revealing.
He was a shy guy. Not much business in him at all. Being so, he let certain folks control everything he did.
He hated those movies. He was told what to play etc. I want to believe under different circumstances, a different personality on his part perhaps, some of his own creativeness might have been revealed.
He loved music, that's all he knew.

I don't have access to the music you're listening to, but I certainly can hear the voice and the musical character. He had that in spades and, hooked up to his charisma, it carries.

I'm not sure why you guys are dismissing his "commercial" songs. For me there are two types of commercially successful Elvis tunes: the ones I like and the ones I don't like. Among the latter are the songs with lots of overblown orchestration designed to highlight his vocal powers.

The ones I like are sparse and raw. "Heartbreak Hotel" needs only hearing that first vocal entry to understand that the entire song is wrapped up in his delivery. We've now started doing "Baby What Do You Want Me to Do," which is a great dance shuffle groove when played at his speed (as opposed to Jimmy Reed's version). I'm not sure how this was produced, because on stage was no piano and no drum kit. The guy with sticks was playing on a guitar case. Pretty hard not to be pulled in, even though he seems a little "off his dial," as Lily calls it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDjY2VcLq7o

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Gregory

I'm not afraid to say, he was one gorgeous looking man.

I heard an interview this morning how early on, while he was well into his recording career, he would still confess daily that "he was not a singer". He had no confidence in his voice and called it "flat".
It wasn't until later when he got into classical music that he really wanted to have more range and be a better singer.
It's obvious to me his later recordings prove this to be true.
It was a long time ago I heard that he idolized Roy Orbison. Hell who wouldn't. That guy had some amazing pipes.

Cliff, we talked about the channel just looping. It is live from Graceland. I'm a month or so into it and see no sign of anything being repeated.

Greg, I find there is another category of Elvis songs. The ones that I just can't bear to hear again they were played so many times. I include hound dog, and heartbreak hotel and jailhouse rock in that category.