Rock & roll – Music: Listen, Look and Enjoy

October 5, 2026October 4, 2026

French rock 1955–2025 – episode 2: Classic rock ‘n’ roll (1): Chats sauvages, chaussettes noires, Dick Rivers and La Femme.

From now on, every blog post will be accompanied by a video podcast. The podcast provides an introduction, whilst the blogpost explores the topic in greater detail. The podcast is in Dutch, but YouTube translates it into English on demand. If you like, you can also watch the podcast on your smart TV. Simply select YouTube and search for ‘kanaal expeditie muziek’.

The rock ‘n’ roll craze of the 1950s did not leave France untouched, and French artists initially confined themselves to translating English-language songs. Later, the Beatles also became a source of inspiration, which is why the term ‘Yéyé rock’ is also used. The lyrics are cheerful and simple, aimed at a very young audience.

The most influential representative of this style is Johnny Hallyday, who also occupies a prominent place in the photo above (standing top left). In 1961, he released ‘Viens danser le twist’, a cover of ‘Let’s Twist Again’, of which he sold over a million copies. In his 57-year career, he has sold 110 million albums and made rock popular in France, perhaps mainly because the difference between chanson and rock was minimal. Listen to one of his best-known songs, ‘Que je t’aime’

The next instalment of this blog post is entirely devoted to Johnny Hallyday. This post will cover other prominent figures in classic French rock: Les Chaussettes Noires, Christophe, Les Chats Sauvages and, in particular, their singer Dick Rivers, after he embarked on a solo tour in 1964.

Serge Gainsbourg can also be seen as a representative of this style. Many of his songs are primarily poetic in nature, which is why he will be discussed later.

How it began

Just as in many other parts of the world, ‘rock ‘n’ roll’ first emerged in France in the mid-1950s. How this came about differed greatly from the rest of the world. The writer and jazz musician Boris Vian had a deep-seated hatred of rock ‘n’ roll and wrote a parody of it: ‘Fais-moi mal Johnny’ (Hurt me, Johnny), sung by the actress Magali Noël, later known for the films La dolce vita and Satyricon.

The public, however, saw this song as the first rock ‘n’ roll track in the French language and appreciated it as such, despite (or perhaps because of) the radio’s boycott of it due to its offensive language. You can listen to it here:

The first ‘real’ rock ‘n’ roll bands emerged in the early 1960s and were ‘Les chats sauvages’ and ‘Les chaussettes noires’.

Les chats sauvages released the first French-language rock ‘n’ roll track, ‘Twist à Saint-Tropez’, clearly inspired by English-language songs that had just come out at the time. When singer Dick Rivers left the group in 1982 to embark on a solo career, it wasn’t long before the band ceased to exist.

Les Chausettes Noires were not destined for a long life either. In their case, this was because members of the band, including singer Eddy Mitchell, were called up for military service. The latter, incidentally, also went on to launch a solo career. Together they had a number of hits such as ‘Be-bop-a-lula’ (1960) and ‘ Daniela’ (1961). You can listen to the latter track here. After Eddy Mitchell’s departure, the group continued for some time without a singer as ‘frontman’ and, in addition to French-language covers of The Beatles, also produced instrumental tracks inspired by The Shadows, such as ‘Miserlou’ here.

Dick Rivers

Dick Rivers (Hervé Former; 1945 – 2019) produced 36 albums during his career. In the early years of his solo career, he recorded several Beatles classics, such as this one: ‘Entre nous c’est fini’. In 1965, he was the only French singer invited by the group to appear on the special broadcast ‘Music of Lennon and McCartney’, in honour of the duo John Lennon and Paul McCartney. This broadcast, a recording of which you can see here, features excerpts from covers of the duo’s songs.

Rivers’ ‘ ’ was a hit in the US and Canada, as was the country rock album ‘ . He also released French-language albums, such as ‘Rock ’n’ Roll Star’ (1974) and ‘Va, Va, Va’ (1975). You can watch and listen to the single of the same name from the latter album here.

During the 1980s, little was heard of the singer and he gave few performances. At his manager’s request, Les Chats Sauvages and Dick reunited once more and released the album ‘Les Chats Sauvages 1982’. It was not until some time later, following the release of the album ‘Plein Soleil’ (1995), that his career was revived. This album features a wide variety of styles, ranging from rock to ballads. He also resumed his live performances. Here you can watch and listen to the title track ‘Plein soleil’.

From that point on, he mainly sang his own songs rather than translations of English-language songs. In 1997, following a concert in honour of his fiftieth birthday at Disneyland Paris, he gave a unique concert at l’Olympia on 8 January (Elvis Presley’s birthday).

Early in 1998, a new album was released: ‘Vivre comme ça’. On this album, in the song ‘La Trahison des mots’, the singer sings about showbiz and its “sharks”.

In May 2003, the singer published ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’, an autobiographical book about his career, the 45th anniversary of which he celebrated in 2006 with a series of concerts. After the turn of the century, Dick Rivers was involved in several films, including ‘Le furet’, a comedy by Jean-Pierre Mocky. In 2004, Dick Rivers made his stage debut at the Théâtre National de Chaillot, where he starred in Jean Genet’s Les Paravents. He continued his acting career by voicing the monkey Zugor in Tarzan 2.

In 2005, a period of reflection began. Dick Rivers wanted to develop further musically. Francis Cabrel, Mickey 3D, Benjamin Biolay, Mathieu Boggaerts and Axel Bauer became his new songwriters. The result, the album Dick Rivers, the^30thof his career, was released on 27 March 2006. It gave the rocker’s career a new lease of life. Listen to ‘Le mauvais joueur’ from this album here.

After much hesitation, Dick Rivers agreed to take part in Âge Tendre, la tournée des idoles, a tour that visited France’s major venues between January and April 2018. On stage, he performed a medley of Les Chats Sauvages. Following this tour, during which he gave 62 concerts, he set off on a solo tour — entitled 100 % rock ‘n’ roll — with around twenty performances in various cities and at festivals across France from May 2018.

Dick Rivers died on 24 April 2019, the day of his 74th birthday, from the effects of cancer that had been discovered two months earlier during a medical examination.

La Femme

La Femme belongs in the ‘alternative, indie and new wave’ category, but is also regularly referred to as a ‘retro surf rock band’. Reviewer Huw Nesbit praised the group for its versatility. Their debut album ‘Psycho tropical Berlin’ brings together influences from the 1950s (Americana), the 1960s (French pop) and the 1980s (synthpop). This is particularly true of the track ‘ la planche’ (2010).

September 12, 2025September 12, 2025

George Harrison 1943 – 2001 (The Beatles after the Beatles part 2)

George’s later love of Indian music may have come about in a remarkable way. During her pregnancy, his mother regularly listened to the mysterious sounds of sitars and tablas in the hope that they would have a calming influence on the child in her womb. Later, she fully supported Harrison’s career: when he was 14, she bought him his first guitar and a friend of his father’s taught him how to play it. George’s first musical influences were Django Reinhardt and Lonnie Donogram, under whose influence he founded the skiffle group ‘The Rebels’ before moving on to Lennon and McCartney’s group ‘The Quarrymen’. He accompanied the group, then called ‘The Beatles’, to Hamburg and was deported several times because he was too young to play in nightclubs.

Now, let’s skip ahead to Georges’ later years: In 1999, a paranoid and schizophrenic man attacks him and his wife Olivia in their home. He stabs George with a kitchen knife, puncturing his lung. Olivia eventually overpowers him with a poker. Shortly afterwards, throat cancer is diagnosed, which is successfully treated with radiotherapy. Unfortunately, the cancer returns and George dies in November 2001. His ashes are scattered in the Ganges according to Hindu tradition.

Discography

George Harrison has already made two solo albums while the Beatles were still together: Wonderwall (1968) and Electric Sound (1969). These mainly contain instrumental tracks. ‘Wonderwall’ is the soundtrack to the film of the same name and is mixing Indian and Western sounds. ‘Electric Sound’ mainly features electronic music, in which the Moog synthesizer plays an important role.

After the Beatles split up, George releases the following albums:

All Things Must Pass (1970)
Living in the Material World (1973)
Dark Horse (1974)
Extra Texture (Read All About It) (1975)
Thirty Three & 1/3 (1976)
George Harrison (1979)
Somewhere in England (1981)
Gone Troppo (1982)
Cloud Nine (1987)
Brainwashed (2002, posthumous)

All Things Must Pass (1970)

Harrison can now indulge himself. His musical contribution to the albums released by the Beatles had been limited to two songs per album. ‘All Things Must Pass’ contains two CDs with original songs. This album topped the charts in both the US and the UK. You can listen to one of the songs: ‘What Is Life’ (recorded in 1992). The second song, ‘My Sweet Lord’ (recorded in 1970), can be found here:

This last song led to a lawsuit because of its similarity to the hit ‘So Fine’ by the Chiffons (1963). George lost the case and had to pay $600,000.

Concert for Bangladesh (1971)

George doesn’t have much time to dwell on his disappointment, because his mentor and Indian sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar calls on his help in organising a benefit concert for refugees from the former East Pakistan. Two concerts are scheduled for Madison Square Garden, one in the afternoon and one in the evening on 1 August 1971. George calls on his friends and colleagues: Ringo, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Billy Preston and the band Badfinger. The concert and the album featuring the recordings raised 12 million dollars.

Living in a material world (1973)

Due to his conviction for plagiarism, George struggles with a writer’s block for quite some time, but eventually a new album, ‘Living in a Material World’, was released in 1973, the year in which he professes his Hindu faith. The album spent five weeks at number one in the US and UK charts. The single ‘Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)’ was a huge hit. Listen to a recording in George’s later years here.

According to some, this album contains the strongest compositions of his career. Critics used terms such as ‘vastly appealing’ and ‘profoundly seductive’; others found it ‘awkward’ and ‘overtly sentimental’.

Dip in career

After ‘Living in a material world’, a handful of albums were released that were of much lower quality than ‘All things must pass’ and ‘Living in a material world’. With the song ‘Blow Away’ on the album ‘George Harrison’ (1979), he reaches the top 20 in the US and Canada for the first time in years. It is one of his most popular songs, a straightforward pop song with little melodic variation.

Somewhere in England (1981) and Cloud Nine (1987)

The death of John Lennon in 1981 is a shock to George, who still considers John a mentor. He reworks the song ‘All Those Years Ago’ as a tribute to John; Paul and Linda McCartney and Ringo also contributed to it. The song peaked at number two in the US and is included on the album ‘Somewhere in England’ (1981).

I also want mention the album ‘Cloud Nine’ (1987) with hits such as ‘Got My Mindset on You’ and ‘When We Was Fab’, which is also a nostalgic look back at the time when the Beatles conquered the world as a group. Ringo also plays on this song. You can listen to it here:

The song is very similar to older Beatles songs such as ‘I am the walrus’ and contains references to ‘Drive my car’ and ‘Within you, without you’. Complete with cellos, sitar and special effects, it brings the era of psychedelic rock back to life. It is Harrison’s last hit in the US; the public considers it one of his ten best songs.

The Traveling Wilburys (1988)

Harrison’s passion for music has faded somewhat in recent years. Then something happens that brings his joy back: the formation of the supergroup ‘The Traveling Wilburys’, whose members, besides George, are Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty (of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers). They present themselves as a group of travelling half-brothers, the Wilburys and released two albums of classic rock. The first is a huge success and has won a Grammy for ‘Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group’. Here you can hear ‘End of the Line’, one of the songs from this album.

The group released a second album, jokingly titled ‘Traveling Wilburys Vol. III’. By then, the group has become a quartet following the death of Roy Orbison from a heart attack. George have big plans, including a series of performances, but nothing comes of it and eventually the interest of the group members waned.

The Beatles Anthology (1994)

A new project ‘The Beatles Anthology’ presented itself. It was a multimedia project consisting of six hours of television documentaries, three sets of double albums and a book about the history of the Beatles, all arranged chronologically. Apparently, each of the three remaining Beatles feel the need to record and document the past as much as possible. They first allow Jools Holland to be interviewed at length. Afterwards they start cataloguing lyrics from the past, unfinished songs, takes from recordings and all the correspondence surrounding them. Several songs by John Lennon also surface: ‘Free as a Bird’, ‘Real Love’ and ‘Now and Then’. Of these songs, only a poorly recorded vocal track and a piano part were available. Then they decide to finish these songs using digital tools and add them to each of the parts of the anthology. Free as a Bird is released in 1995, ‘Real Love in 1996. You can hear that song here

It took until 2023 for ‘Now and then’ to become available, because only then the quality of the source material can be improved with AI.

The production of this enormous project took approximately 5,000 hours of work. Apart from the priceless cultural value of the whole, it was also a great commercial success.

Brainwashed (2002)

Meanwhile George Harrison has started working on a new album: ‘Brainwashed’. He passes away during the production process. The album has been completed by his son Dhani and his friend and colleague Jeff Lynne. The album reachs the top 20 in the US and is positively reviewed by most critics, who particularly praise George’s deeply emotional slide guitar playing.

The album includes the singles ‘‘Inside a cloud’ , ‘‘Road’. The instrumental ‘Marwa Blues’ receives a Grammy Award in 2004 for ‘Best Pop Instrumental Performance’. Listen to this number here.

The song is named after Raga Marwa, an Indian classical raga that was usually played at sunset.

What else did George Harrison do?

George’s somewhat waning interest in making new albums and the overall lower quality of most of the songs in the period 1975–1985 relates to other activities that were taking up more and more of his time.

Dark Horse Records.

In 1974, George founds Dark Horse Records, a label to enable musicians to release songs that record companies were not interested in, following in the footsteps of the now defunct Apple Corps. George is helping them as a producer. Harrison’s own albums are also released under this label from 1976 onwards. A&M Records handles the worldwide distribution of the label. Harrison’s son Dhawi revives the label in 2002 after a 10-year hiatus, in connection with the release of Harrison’s last album, Brainwashed. The label still exists, although its roster consists of a limited number of artists, such as Ravi Shankar, Joe Strummer, Leon Russell, Cat Stevens and, of course, the legacy of George Harrison himself.

Handmade Films

In 1978, George Harrison and Dennis O’Brien found Handmade Films, initially to produce Monty Python’s Life of Brian. The next blockbuster was Time Bandits (1981). Twenty-one other films followed. Most of them flopped, partly due to the excessive debts incurred by O’Brien, some of which Harrison recovers after legal intervention. Handmade Films ceased operations in 1991.

Humanitarian activities

Throughout his career, Harrison has been politically active. In the 1960s, he supports the civil rights movement and is protesting the war in Vietnam. Later, he joins Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth in opposing the use of nuclear energy. He donates one of his houses to the Hare Krishna movement, which turned it into a temple.

Looking back

Harrison demonstrated outstanding songwriting skills, which developed already during his Beatles’ years. However, I doubt whether he ever equaled the standard of his best songs from that period. Inspired by Hinduism, he continued to explore themes such as transience and personal growth. His most important songs as a solo artist are: ‘What is life’ and ‘My sweet Lord’ (both on the album ‘All things must pass’, 1970), although a court ruled that the latter was partly plagiarised. ‘Give Me Love (Give Peace on Earth)’ (on ‘Living in a Material World’, 1973) and ‘Blow Away’ (on ‘George Harrison’, 1979) are simple pop songs, but among his most popular. In addition’’Got My Mind Set on You’ and ‘When We Was Fab’ (both on Cloud Nine, 1987).

Between 1966 and 1968, George devoted himself to learning to play the sitar. Until his teacher Ravi Shankar advised him to go back to his roots. Ravi Shankar saw him as a world-class guitarist, but he was only able to achieve an average level on the sitar. Harrison’s ‘Marwa blues’ (on ‘Brainwashed’, 2002), which posthumously won a Grammy Award, proved that Shankar was right about the guitar.

May 16, 2025May 15, 2025

From ‘rock & roll to ‘rock’

From ethnical to age group based division of musical preferences

in the second half of the 1950s rock & roll was a previously unprecedentedly popular type of music. But ‘rock & roll’ was played in the black community in the US much earlier and was simply called ‘rhythm and blues’, boogie-woogie or jazz. Examples include: “Roll ’em Pete” by Big Joe Turner and pianist Pete Johnson (1939), “Rocking this house” by Memphis Slim and the House Rockers (1946), “Rock and Roll” by Wild Bill Moore (1948), “Rock the joint” by Jimmy Preston (1949), “Saturday night fish fry” by Louis Jorden (1949) and “Rocket 88” by Jackie Brenston.

The following short film (15 minutes) shows many artists who can be retrospectively classified under the ‘rock & roll’ label. The influence of Afro-American roots, boogie-woogie in particular, is clearly audible.

While the term ‘rock and roll’ was well known, it did not refer to a type of music in the beginning. It was the name of the movement of a ship on the waves (‘rocking and rolling’) and later took on an explicitly sexual meaning when, among others, Trixie Smith sings ‘My (man) rocks me with one steady roll’ in 1922 or Billy Ward ‘I rock ’em roll ’em all night long’ in 1951.

Disk jockey Alan Feed was the first who used the term in 1951 as a designation for a type of music. His radio show was listened to by both white and black American youths. ‘Rock and roll’ has been said to be the first style of music to appeal to a specific age group and not an ethnic group as had been the case in the US until then. With that, the term is also linked to the development of a youth culture, with its own clothing, style of going out and dancing. The twist is inextricably linked to rock and roll.

The genre’s breakthrough was caused by white musicians – or perhaps better their record labels – such as Bill Haley and his Commets with “Rock the joint“(1952), which had previously been sung by Jimmy Preston, “Rock around the clock” (1954), and “Shake, rattle and roll” previously sung by Big Joe Turner.

The song “Rock around the clock” only became a world hit in 1955 thanks to the film ‘Blackboard Jungle’, a film in which later icon Sidney Poitier debuted. For the first time, riots broke out with fans wanting to attend a performance by the group. You can see Bill Haley and his Comets (and his audience) at work here

Bill Haley’s other hits included “See you later alligator” ,” Rock-a-beatin’ boogie“, “Rip it up“, “Hot dog buddy buddy” and more….

Bill Haley’s fame declined rapidly; when Elvis Presley appeared on the scene and appeared to have much greater sex appeal, his fans turned their backs on him. But first and foremost, he had a fantastic voice. Bill Haley was giant on whose shoulders, Elvis could glory. Here you can watch “Ready Teddy” (1957) on the Ed Sullivan Show. Usually only his upper body is in view, as people found the jerky movements with his lower body offensive to viewers.

In an earlier post, I have explored his songs.

Rockability: Cross-over between rock and roll and hillbilly music

Others who rode the wave of rock & roll were Johnny Cash with “Folsom prison Blues” and, of course, Buddy Holly, whose career ended by a plane crash (1959). Buddy Holly gained great fame with songs “Peggy Sue“, “Oh boy” and “That will be the day“. Here you can listen to Peggy Sue during a performance on the Ed Sullivan show (1957).

Incidentally, some black artists did gain recognition as rock & roll artists, such as Little Richard, here with “Long tall Sally“(1955, with Bill Haley in the audience), Chuck Berry with “Johnny B. Goode“(1958) and Fats Domino. In 1957, the latter said: ‘What they call rock ‘n’ roll now is rhythm and blues. I’ve been playing it for 15 years in New Orleans’.

The now next song “Jambalaya” was certainly not meant to be rock and roll, but the musicians didn’t care about that and the audience even less. The musicians are none others than Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ray Charles, Ron Wood (now Rolling Stones) and Paul Shaffer. The totally revved-up audience provides the background ‘vocals’ (well, background….).

Elvis Presley was well acquainted with and greatly admire ‘black’ rock & roll artists. When he was called ‘King of rock & roll’ he held it off by referring to Fats Domino, in his opinion (rightly) the only singer to whom this title was appropriate.

The record industry, which was responsible for landing Bill Haley and Elvis Presley, later thought it would do well to launch a somewhat more polished version of rock & roll that was accessible to a wider audience and therefore more commercial. Partly as a result, artists like Ricky Nelson, here with “Hello Mary-Lou“(1959), and Del Shannon with “Runaway‘ (1959).

This ‘new’ type of music was named ‘rockabilly’, a word that refers to the crossover of rock and country & western (‘hillbilly’ music). This is an example of how whites left their mark on historiography. Rock & roll music, as you have heard, was played from as early as the 1940s and has African-American roots.

Rather, whites, some of whom were country singers until then, were adopting the musical style of their black colleagues.

Provider of a British rock and roll version was Harry Webb, who later adopted the stage name Cliff Richard, and his band ‘The Shadows’, previously called ‘the Drifters’. Their songs and instrumental numbers became world famous. They were widely imitated, especially in the rest of Europe.

Here, Cliff Richard sings with the Shadows “Move it” (1958), which was considered the first authentically British rock and roll song.

The record company pushed Cliff Richard to impersonate Elvis, to dress as much as possible. It looks a bit forced, but he does his best. Here you can also see him in “Do you wanna dance“(1958).

It is fun to compare this performance of “Move it” from a performance by the same Cliff, now with Hank Marvin, one of the former Shadows in 1995. They perform at London’s Dominion Theatre with ‘The Queen’ in the front row. You can see it here.

But Great Britain had another answer….

By the late 1950s, ‘skiffle’ music had gained high popularity. In essence, skiffle has the same roots as American country music, which in turn emerged from European folk music. This can be well heard on a recording of Lonnie Donegan’s “Putting on thes tyle”(1957).

The rise of skiffle was in response to the growing commercialization of mainstream pop music. The thousands of skiffle groups that sprang up all over the UK used simple instruments like guitar, mandolin and washboard or drums. For many, Lonnie Donegan was the role model. For ‘The Quarryman’ too.

Over time, ‘The Quarrymen’ developed their own sound, by adding a bit more ‘beat’ to their songs. They changed their name and with it music history. You can see their first gig at ‘The Cavern’ here (1962)

With their new name, ‘The Beatles’ conquered the world, at least musically, the ‘British Invasion’. Countless other English ‘beat groups’, such as Freddie and the Dreamers, Herman Hermits, Dave Clark Five traveled to the States. This list could also include the Rolling Stones, the Animals and the Yardbirds, but their music, especially in the early days, was more strongly inspired by the ‘rhythm & blues’ genre. All recordings date from the early 1960s.

The second half of the 1960s saw the emergence of many new styles of music, generally referred to by the term ‘rock’. Within rock, a division tok place between ‘hard rock’, sometimes also referred to as ‘metal’, and ‘soft rock’, sometimes called ‘folk rock’. Famous exponents of the former include Steppenwolf with, for example, “Born to be wild” and of the latter the Eagles with “Hotel California. From the turn of the century, the boundaries between pop and rock blurred and we also saw the rise of electronic (dance) music, with all its variations. Of course, I will come back to all this later.

However, there are also musicians who keep the spirit of rock and roll alive. Some of them have recently formed the group “The Barnstones” and they made a brilliant album. This super formation is featuring Jimmy Barnes, Slim Jim Phantom, Chris Cheney , Kevin Shirley and Jools Holland’, whose piano is unmistakably present. Here you listen to the song ‘Johnny’s Gone ‘from this album, accompanied by a fast-paced cartoon. The best rock & roll ever from 2023….

April 27, 2025April 26, 2025

Elvis Presley: ‘King of Music’ brought down by manager and doctor

Elvis Presley was born on 8 January 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi. His family moved to Memphis, Tennessee, in 1948. He learned to play the guitar from a boy next door. He was not a very popular kid at school. This changed after his appearance in the local minstrel show, after friends signed him up for the show.

The start of Elvis’ carrier

At 18^the , Elvis went to work as a truck driver and in the meantime, he looked forward to an opportunity to use his talents as a musician. That this was successful was mostly due to coincidence. Elvis had had a song recorded at Sam Phillips’ studio to give as a gift to his mother. Phillips, the owner of the studio was just looking for a ‘white’ boy with a ‘black’ voice. The assistant who had recorded the record remembered Elvis and he, along with two other boys, guitarist “Scotty” Moore and bassist Bill Black, were invited to come and do some singing. Afterwards, the trio would be inseparable for several years. It seemed to be nothing and when the session had already ended, Elvis started singing Arthur Cudrups’ song “That’s all right, mama” (1946). That was the sound Phillips was looking for. The song appeared on local radio and the interviewer asked him what school he had attended in order to reveal his white identity. Phillips now recorded his song with “Blue Moon of Kentucky” on the B-side.

The trio was regularly invited to perform at local clubs over the following months, often as the support act for a more celebrity. At those gigs, Elvis was shaking on his legs with nerves, which led to the girls in the audience starting to scream. Elvis soon became more confident, but he developed the shaking of his lower body into an act in no time. The girls screamed, but the boys hated them out of jealousy. The police often got involved as these boys were waiting for Elvis outside. Later, even the national guard joined the police. He was much less heard on the radio. The stations broadcasting country & western thought he was a ‘nigger’ and the more ‘rhythm & blues’ oriented stations thought he sounded too much like a ‘hillbilly’.

Breaking through and becoming a celebrity

Heartbreak Hotel became Presley’s first number-one hit, making him a national celebrity. A few weeks later, RCA released his first album “Elvis Presley”. His raucous vocals had a great influence on then barely known singers like John Lennon and Keith Richards. Their appreciation was countered by the disgust of established newspapers and their readers and television presenters. Yet they all invited him to perform on their shows. Ed Sullivan, for instance, paid $50,000 for three performances, most of it went to Elvis’ manager, “Colonel” Tom Parker. Half of the audience tuned into these shows to enjoy, scream or giggle at his songs, including, for example, “Blue Suede shoes”, which you can hear now, including the screams on a 1956 recording.

Meanwhile, his second film “Loving You” was released and he was shooting his third film “Jailhouse Rock”. The title song of this film had become a huge success. You can hear this song here.

In the army

On 24 March 1958, Elvis’ tour of duty broke. He had expressed his wish to be treated as an ‘ordinary’ soldier and so it happened. He spent part of his military service in Germany, where he also met Priscilla Beaulieu, whom he would marry eight years later. She was only 14 at the time. He also got to know something completely different, namely amphetamine. The sergeant generously dispensed it to him and other soldiers because he had noticed that it made his men a lot more energetic. Meanwhile, Elvis had also bought a new house for his parents and himself, Graceland.

His fans had no chance to forget him. The record company had the necessary recordings on the shelf, such as “Wear My Ring Around Your Neck“, “Hard Headed Woman “, “One Night“, “A Fool Such as I” and “Big Hunk o’ Love”. You can hear the latter one here.

Back from service, Elvis immediately dove into the RCA studio, where his best album up to that point, ‘Elvis Back’, was recorded. The album showed Elvis at his strongest, from raw rocker, emotional blues singer to interpreter of romantic ballads. It includes his best-selling singles, such as Stuck on you“, “Is now or never” and “Are you lonesome tonight?” You can hear the last song here:

A few more albums were released in the 1960s that exemplified the then dominating ‘cosmopolitan’ Nashville country style. Furthermore, 27 more films were recorded in the 1960s, mostly dubbed ‘dregs’ by critics. The songs Elvis had to sing on those were invariably put on record and sold well too, but it depressed Elvis that he had no challenging projects on his hands.

Some of his most popular songs – all from films – were “Can’t help falling in love” (1961), “Return to Sender” (1962), “Viva Las Vegas“, the title track of a 1964 film that would only become popular years later, “A little less conversation” (1968) which became a number-one hit as a remix in a Nike advertisement at the World Cup only in 2002. “Crying in the chapel” which had been recorded in 1960 and was still on the shelf, was the only song to reach the top-ten. Most of the above-mentioned songs are fragments from films. However, the fans wanted to see Elvis sing live. That happened again from 1968 onwards.

Live again

Everyone thought Elvis should perform again and in 1968 the ‘Come back special’ was broadcast. Presley, tight in leather, appealed to the feelings of the of years gone by. You can see and hear a medley of three old songs “Heartbreak Hotel”, “Hound Dog “and “All shook up.

Elvis was uplifted by this performance, but Parker was furious because he had in mind a sweet-voiced Christmas show. Presley recorded another album not consisting of film music for the first time in eight years, called “From Elvis in Memphis“. Critics were positive. For the first time, ‘soul’ took center stage, alongside rock and country songs. A choice was made to put more emphasis on what was called the Memphis sound (akin to country & western) instead of the standard pop sound. The following songs date from this time and are partly on this album. The recordings are from Las Vegas and Honolulu: “Burning love “, “The wonder of you”, “Suspicious minds“, “Kentucky rain“, “Patch it up” and “In the ghetto”, you are about to watch. This protest song jumped that straight to number one on charts.

From his early childhood, Elvis loved gospel songs after his parents took him to performances by the Statesmen Quartet.

Elvis sings gospel

In 1957, he made his first gospel album “How Great Thou Art’. From this, you can listen to “Run on”. No older recording is available, so you can now watch a recording from 1972.

His style increasingly becoming a mix of soul, rock and country, Elvis had been revived by his recent work. He craved challenging projects. He was invited several times to perform in films that went beyond the character of 1960s sneak peeks. Manager ‘Colonel’ Tom Parker held it all off; the latter felt that Elvis should cash in on his renewed repertoire, now that it was once again attracting full audiences. In 1973 alone, he was booked for 168 concerts.

Continuing exploitation

From 1973, things went downhill. Elvis had repeatedly overdosed on barbiturates and had been hospitalized in a coma. Elvis abhorred drug use, but when his body doctor Nichopoulos prescribed them to him, he trusted their medicinal effects. In October, his divorce was pronounced. Priscilla had already left Graceland in 1971 with their little daughter Lisa-Marie (who, incidentally, died recently). He did not recover from the blow of the divorce. During his performances, he wore increasingly desperate costumes and screaming girls were long gone. These performances were sometimes toe-curling. Sometimes Elvis couldn’t get out of his words, sometimes he stood stock-still and didn’t know any lyrics, without an extra dose of pep pills.

Despite all this, six more albums were released between 1973 and 1976, partly with old material. Eight songs from these still made it into the top 10. They include ‘My boy‘ (1975), “Moody Blue” (1976) and -praised and reviled – “Hurt”(1976). This is seen below in one of Elvis’ last performances in 1977.

Elvis dies

On 16 August 1977, his then-girlfriend found him dead the bathroom floor; he was due to fly to Memphis later that afternoon for a gig. Two days later, at was buried in the presence of thousands of fans. Investigations revealed that died of excessive medication. His doctor had prescribed him 10,000 doses of tranquilizers and amphetamines in 1957 alone. This doctor was acquitted of involvement in his death but after all he was removed from office.

Apart from his doctor, manager, “Colonel” Tom Parker (1909 – 1997) also played a bad role. Friends of Elvis described it as a fraud as Parker was only after Elvis’ money. He managed all business contacts, appropriated 30-50% of all revenues and prevented Elvis from breaking new ground. He also prevented Elvis from performing abroad, a great desire of his. Parker, born as Dries van Dijk had moved to the US from the Netherlands without any documentation; he had lived for years on the frayed edges of society as manager of circuses, among other things. Once he became manager of several artists, no one asked for his passport any more. As an illegal with a made-up name, he could not travel abroad. In the 2022 film ‘Elvis’, his relationship with the “Colonel”, played by Tom Hanks, plays an important role.

After Elvis’ death, the memory of his person and of his music has rightly lived on to this day. The albums are still sold, most of his fortune has been lost through mismanagement.

Elvis; the concert

I’m going to let Elvis shine one more time. “Elvis, the concert” was an extremely successful show that went around the world several times from 1997. The last time, in 2012, the show also landed in Ahoy, Rotterdam. Elvis could only have dreamt of that. How was this possible? Several high-quality ‘multi-track’ recordings of concerts in the early 1970s were available. Elvis’ voice was filtered out off these tracks. He and, the musicians are projected on large screens, cleverly edited and accompanied live by a band, some of which consisted of members of his original backing band. Sometimes you also see the original backing band (just watch the drums), but you don’t hear it. You can see here the recording of the concert in 2002, marking the 25^ste anniversary of Elvis’ death^[1] .

Elvis was exploited as a ‘cash cow’ and was given incredible amounts of stimulants and narcotics to do so. He should have been coached and given more rest as well as artistic stimuli. Then he would have been together with Priscilla and Lisa-Marie, and he could have established his fame as the ‘King of Music’ worldwide. It only didn’t happen.

^[1] You can watch a full replay of this concert here

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