Post by erik on Aug 13, 2022 12:43:34 GMT -5
It has been forty-five years since The King, Elvis Presley, died a tragically untimely death at the age of 42; but his legacy lives on in the song featured in this week's Pop Music Hits Spotlight.
LOVE ME (Elvis Presley; RCA; 1956)—The year 1956 was unquestionably the year of Elvis Presley. At the end of 1955, after two years at Sam Phillips’ Sun Records label in Memphis, the soon-to-be 21 year-old former truck driver from Tupelo, Mississippi was signed to RCA Records for $35,000, a sum that, by our standards, seems quite cheap, but which, at that time, was considered outrageous. And what was more outrageous was what Elvis and his contemporaries, both White and Black music performers alike, were propagating. His first major RCA singles release, “Heartbreak Hotel”, became the first song to top all three major singles charts, Pop, R&B, and Country; and it was only the beginning, as Rock and Roll was to all but eviscerate the post-World War II big-band style personified by Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby. Not only did Elvis score massively with such rockers as “Don’t Be Cruel” and “Hound Dog” (both of which were also triple chart-toppers), but he also topped the charts with ballads like “I Want You, I Need You, I Love You” and the title track of his first film Love Me Tender. That (at the time largely unsung) ballad style of Elvis’ manifested itself again just before the end of 1956 with “Love Me”, written by “Hound Dog” scriveners Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller back in 1954, basically as a kind of parody of maudlin country and western music. The song had already been recorded a number of times over the succeeding two years by many artists, including Jimmie Rodgers (the son of Canadian-born C&W legend Hank Snow), but none was anywhere near the hit that Elvis’ version was. Elvis recorded “Love Me” at Radio Recorders Studios in Los Angeles in September 1956 with his usual crew, including the great male vocal group The Jordainaires, and RCA released it in October, off of his second album release (simply titled Elvis). While it may not have been a #1 hit, “Love Me” was nevertheless an across-the-board hit all the same, peaking at #2 on the Billboard pop chart, #10 on the C&W singles chart, and #7 on the R&B chart during the first week of January 1957. The year 1957 would see Elvis’ popularity accelerate even further, with two huge hit films, Loving You and Jailhouse Rock, and more singles that would further redraw the boundaries between pop, R&B, and country, forever sealing his reputation as the King Of Rock And Roll.
LOVE ME (Elvis Presley; RCA; 1956)—The year 1956 was unquestionably the year of Elvis Presley. At the end of 1955, after two years at Sam Phillips’ Sun Records label in Memphis, the soon-to-be 21 year-old former truck driver from Tupelo, Mississippi was signed to RCA Records for $35,000, a sum that, by our standards, seems quite cheap, but which, at that time, was considered outrageous. And what was more outrageous was what Elvis and his contemporaries, both White and Black music performers alike, were propagating. His first major RCA singles release, “Heartbreak Hotel”, became the first song to top all three major singles charts, Pop, R&B, and Country; and it was only the beginning, as Rock and Roll was to all but eviscerate the post-World War II big-band style personified by Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby. Not only did Elvis score massively with such rockers as “Don’t Be Cruel” and “Hound Dog” (both of which were also triple chart-toppers), but he also topped the charts with ballads like “I Want You, I Need You, I Love You” and the title track of his first film Love Me Tender. That (at the time largely unsung) ballad style of Elvis’ manifested itself again just before the end of 1956 with “Love Me”, written by “Hound Dog” scriveners Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller back in 1954, basically as a kind of parody of maudlin country and western music. The song had already been recorded a number of times over the succeeding two years by many artists, including Jimmie Rodgers (the son of Canadian-born C&W legend Hank Snow), but none was anywhere near the hit that Elvis’ version was. Elvis recorded “Love Me” at Radio Recorders Studios in Los Angeles in September 1956 with his usual crew, including the great male vocal group The Jordainaires, and RCA released it in October, off of his second album release (simply titled Elvis). While it may not have been a #1 hit, “Love Me” was nevertheless an across-the-board hit all the same, peaking at #2 on the Billboard pop chart, #10 on the C&W singles chart, and #7 on the R&B chart during the first week of January 1957. The year 1957 would see Elvis’ popularity accelerate even further, with two huge hit films, Loving You and Jailhouse Rock, and more singles that would further redraw the boundaries between pop, R&B, and country, forever sealing his reputation as the King Of Rock And Roll.