TCBCast 357: "Rocker," "Return of the Rocker" and the Rockabilly Revival Era
David "Ghosty" Wills, host of "We Say Yeah: A Cliff Richard Podcast" and the Vintage Rock and Pop Shop joins Justin this week to explore how the "rockabilly revival" era, which technically spanned a near 20-year period between roughly 1970-1990 but culminated around 1981-83, led to the release of two compilations of Elvis material that RCA felt best captured his image as a rebellious rock and roll icon. From the 50s nostalgia of the 1970s to the success of acts like The Stray Cats, Robert Gordon, Dave Edmunds and Shakin' Stevens, Justin picks Ghosty's brain for his memories of becoming a young Elvis fan during this fascinating period of revitalization for classic rock and roll. For Song of the Week, Ghosty brings a thought-provoking finale to the main topic by looking for insights in The Stray Cats's 1992 recording "Elvis on Velvet;" a psychobilly takedown of the media's intense (and weird) fascinations with Elvis. Meanwhile, Justin heads back to the '50s myself to hear how Elvis transformed the country standard "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You" into a jaunty, bopping tune on the 1957 "Loving You" album. Be sure to check out "We Say Yeah!" on all major podcast platforms! As mentioned early in the episode, you can also hear Ghosty interviewed about his work as a voice actor on the podcast "4Kids Flashback." If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.
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2:17:11
TCBCast 356: The G.I. Blues Sessions & Soundtrack
For the first time since the third-ever episode of TCBCast, we're immersing ourselves fully in the music of the US Army's own Tulsa MacLean! Bec and Justin explore the three recording sessions in April & May 1960 that led to the iconic, bestselling #1 album. As it turns out, unusual for Elvis sessions, numerous songs had vastly different arrangements attempted as Elvis and the band struggled to find their footing with the material, as well as contend with external pressures that frustrated Elvis. With classic pop-tinged songs like "Wooden Heart," "Pocketful of Rainbows" and "Doin' the Best I Can" supplemented by material that alluded back to Elvis's earlier 1950s stylings like "Blue Suede Shoes," "Frankfort Special" and "Shoppin' Around," this was a ton of fun to explore. For Song of the Week, Justin decided to pick "Let's Be Friends," which was cut from the film "Change of Habit" and instead became the title track of a low-budget compilation the following year, and tries to puzzle out where it might have fit in the movie's story. Then Bec lays all her cards on the table, selecting "From A Jack to A King," the country classic that Elvis almost semi-jokingly laid down at Chips Moman's American Sound Studio. If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.
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2:17:52
TCBCast Bonus - Terry Stafford: "Suspicion" (1964) Album Discussion
Gurdip's back!!! ...kinda? April Fools! Originally released back in May 2022 on our Patreon, Gurdip demanded to have his say about Terry Stafford and his famous cover of "Suspicion," so Justin obliged and they sat down not just with the single, but Terry's full 1964 album. Released on the Crusader Records label to capitalize on Stafford's surprise Top 5 success with his hit recording of the same name, "Suspicion" featured an array of Elvis-likes from original Brill Building songwriters behind some of Elvis's early '60s material, including Doc Pomus, Ben Weisman, Fred Wise, and Sid Wayne. As you'll hear, evidence strongly suggests that many, if not all, of the songs included were pitched to Elvis for consideration, with several even getting recorded. Justin also guides us a little further past the album to Stafford's post-Suspicion career, including later singles and more significantly as a songwriter himself, with such hits as Buck Owens' "Big in Vegas" and George Strait's "Amarillo by Morning." Joe W. Specht's short-but-thorough biography "The Life and Music of Terry Stafford" was immensely helpful to finding more information on Stafford's story. It's available as of this posting through Texas State University's website here: https://digital.library.txstate.edu/handle/10877/7519 No foolin' - This "TCBCast Jukebox" is one of our all-time favorites we've done. If you enjoyed this, we've also done bonus episodes about Elvis's musical contemporaries such as Ann-Margret, Johnny Cash, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, The Platters, Dean Martin, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, and many more, with more on the way as exclusive bonus content. Please consider joining up over at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy. While we're out this week, Justin and Bec will be back next week with a discussion about "G.I. Blues" - revisiting it, its soundtrack and recording sessions for the first time since literally our third-ever episode of TCBCast!
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TCBCast 355: Elvis's Vehicle Songs
Intrigued by a concept thrown down by a listener, Bec and Justin decided to seriously just go for it and rank (ala the animal songs episode) Elvis's songs about modes of transportation - trains, cars, jet planes, the works. But they had to be substantially about the specific vehicle or use it heavily as a theme, not just a passing reference! As you'll hear, the team begins ranking them - and then to their horror realized after recording that they'd somehow forgotten the biggest and best of them all, so tagged on an ending to the main topic that rectified that little oversight!! Then, for Song of the Week, Justin takes the baton from his own previous SotW, digging into Elvis' minor hit recording of Jerry Chesnut's rowdy honky-tonk rocker, "T-R-O-U-B-L-E." Bec, meanwhile, goes light and selects "A World of Our Own" from 1962's "It Happened at the World's Fair." Wanna hear our list (plus a few miscellaneous other tracks)? Check our playlist here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1q3WSnFOreuqKbeyB9zSyl?si=e094375cdde24de6 If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.
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1:41:11
TCBCast 354: SOTW Spectacular - "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" and "Trouble"
Justin and Bec forego a typical main topic this week, opting instead for effectively two main topics with absolutely massive, iconic Songs of the Week! Bec's Song of the Week is "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" and she explores the roots of it from the 1965 Italian ballad "Io che non vive (senza te)" through to Dusty Springfield's hugely successful English adaptation and eventually to Elvis's famous performances of it in the 1970s, across his 1970 Nashville sessions, the concerts filmed for "That's The Way It Is," and even much later and deeper into the decade. Justin then traces the lineage of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller's legendary "Trouble," originally featured in the 1958 film "King Creole," but increasingly recognized over the years as one of Elvis's most enduring recordings, symbolizing the myth of him as a rebellious rocker, most prominently recently featured in Baz Luhrmann's "Elvis." We go deeper, though, touching on the history of stop-time in Dixieland jazz and, most influentially on Leiber/Stoller, in Muddy Waters's "Hoochie Coochie Man." Understanding the history behind that song, the hoochie coochie itself, and the way Trouble has become representative of expressions of both masculinity and femininity unlocks a deeper sense of the song's significance as one of the all-time masterpieces of Elvis's entire recorded works. Oh yeah, and the duo react to the first trailer for Disney's live action remake of Lilo & Stitch! If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.
About TCBCast: An Unofficial Elvis Presley Fan Podcast
"Elvis is history," Carl Perkins once said, "and anytime anyone or anything becomes history, whether it be Pearl Harbor or Elvis, it will never go away. The world will never tire of his songs."
TCBCast is an unofficial fan podcast featuring co-hosts Gurdip Ladhar and Justin Gausman, along with regular guest co-hosts Ryan Droste and Bec Wyles, plus an array of Elvis fans and experts setting out to better understand that history, and those songs. Tackling topics from throughout Elvis's lifetime and beyond, TCBCast seeks to offer thoughtful, intelligent, heartfelt and honest discourse on Presley's career, his influences, the people who made his work possible, and the cultural phenomenon surrounding his iconography.
TCBCast is not associated with or endorsed by Graceland, Elvis Presley Enterprises, Authentic Brands Group or Sony.
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