ELVIS ARTICLE – ELVIS HISTORY
1960
In the first quarter of this year Elvis lived the last moments of his duties to the country, doing it with the rank of Sergeant. Elvis left German territory on March 2 aboard a plane headed for New Jersey. Presley wanted to quickly regain his number 1 “status” in the world of music, so after two weeks off, he decided to get back to work. On May 20, he traveled to Nashville to record some songs for what was to be his next album, which would appear published under the title “Elvis is Back“, as well as the two singles that he was going to perform on the Frank Sinatra Show: “Welcome home Elvis“, a TV special that the Colonel had prepared and that was recorded on March 26 at the Fontenebleau Hotel in Miami. This program appeared on the air on May 12.
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Before the broadcast of this special, Elvis would return to the recording studios three more times, on April 3 and 4 to complete “Elvis Is Back“, on March 27 and 28 to record “G.I. Blues“, and on May 6 to finish this soundtrack. The premiere of this film took place on November 23.
6 weeks later, Elvis began filming his next feature film: “Flaming Star“, which was released in American theaters on December 21. On August 8 he would record the soundtrack for this film and on October 30 and 31 he recorded what would be his first Gospel album: “His Hand In Mine“. He ended the year with the recordings of his new film, “Wild In The Country“.
Three would be the singles that appeared during that year and that gave Elvis three new number 1s, demonstrating that his absence from the world of music had not diminished his popularity one iota, and thus recovering his status as “King“, although things would never be the way he left them in the 1950s, as the music scene, for better or worse, had undergone a spectacular change.
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THE BILLBOARD IN 1960
With this year, 1960, a new decade began in the world of music in which we can see the fall of Rock n’ Roll in which the RIAA barely certified twenty gold records.
Rock n’ Roll experienced a new tragedy when on April 17 Eddie Cochran died in a car accident, in which Gene Vincent and Sharon Shesley were also injured. Despite this new setback, Rock n’ Roll is still giving its last throes with “Only The Lonely” by Roy Orbison (number 2 in the US and number 1 in the UK), Johnny Burnette with “Dreamin” (number 11) and “You ´re Sixteen” (number 8) or Paul Anka, who with “Puppy Love” was number 2.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQJ3DBtYg5E]
A curious thing happens this year, and that is that the greatest hits were captured by artists of color. Thus we have, for example, Ray Charles with “Georgia On My Mind” (number 1), Sam Cooke with “Chaing Gang” (number 2) or “Stay” by Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs, which rose to the top of the Billboard. This song was brought back to the fore by Jackson Browne in 1977, with his album “Running On Empty“.
Other examples from that year are “Save The Last Dance For Me“, a composition by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, which brought The Drifters to number 1, Jackie Wilson with “Dagging Around” or Chubby Checker, whose song “The Twist” reached number 1 making this famous dance fashionable.
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Several country singers such as Marty Robbins also triumphed this year with his song “El Paso“, number 1 on both lists and winner of a Grammy that year. Texan Johnny Preston, number 1 for 3 weeks with “Running Bear“, and Percy Faith who with the central theme of the movie “A Summer Place” was at the top of the charts for 9 weeks.
Other double-charters that year included Italian singer-actress Connie Francis with “Everybody’s Somebodys Fool” and “My Heart Has A Mind Of Its” and Brenda Lee with “I’m Sorry” and “I Want To Be Wanted“.
In this year 1960 we also find people related to Elvis achieving their little hits, like his old bassist Bill Black with his Bill Black Combo and the song “White Silver Sands“, which was number 8, and the pianist Floyd Cramer, who with the instrumental “Last Date” achieved a gold record and was number 2 on the Top 100 and number 3 on the Rhythm and Blues charts.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oyG7mOdwUc]
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But it would be, without a doubt, Elvis, who after his return to civilian life would have more songs at the top, nothing more and nothing less than three of his songs reached number 1: “Stuck On You“, “It’s Now Or Never” and “Are You Lonesome Tonight“. And it is that Elvis, as the song says “was still the King“.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viV24hMLcjY]
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Information provided by César Valle (Torrelavega – Spain)
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