Ral Donner ... and other Elvis sound-a-likes ...

As one can imagine, there were many Elvis sound-a-likes from the mid '50s to the mid '60s ... but none better than Ral Donner ... who had four Top 40 songs enter the BB charts in 1961 ... I suspect many radio listeners thought it was Elvis when they first heard Donner ...

I recently got a copy of Castle's 2-CD (56 track) You Don't know What You've Got Anthology ...

The first disc (which is mono) contains all of his released Gone material ... along with both sides of his '59 Scotti (1310) single and his '63 Tau (105) single ...

The second disc (which is stereo ... except for one track) contains 15 of his Gone tracks and 13 unreleased tracks ... including a killer version of Gene Pitney's Half Heaven, Half Heartache which apparently was recorded (but not released) before Pitney's ...

IMHO, Donner's '61 Takin' Care of Business LP on Gone is superior to each of the two Elvis LPs from the same time period ... Elvis Is Back and Something For Everybody ...

 

I will be strong, and resist.

But the one track that appears often on comps, "you don't know what..." sure is good.

I believe there have been grey market comps of dozens of different Elvis sound-a-likes, but I've never heard one.

 

Ral(ph) Donner rocks!
http://rcs.law.emory.edu/rcs/artists/d/donn0700.htm

I have Sequel's 1991 Ral Donner (39 track) set compiled by the late Bob Hyde.



On the subject of Elvis sound-a-likes one must mention the superb
TERRY STAFFORD (Suspicion)
http://keepkey.yochanan.net/terry.htm

 

Terry Stafford's Suspicion is a great song ... superior to Elvis's earlier LP version (which I also like) ... he had only one other BB chart record ... I'll Touch a Star ... which I am sure that I have heard but can't recall if it was done in the "Elvis style" like Suspicion ...

 

Conway Twitty sounds a lot like The King on It's Only Make Believe.

 

Terry's SUSPICION Lp on Crusader is Elvis all the way...pretty good, actually... So was Ral....

Elvis was so prolific in the early '60s that strong Lp cuts were regularly ignored(and later used in the mid-'60s, when there wasn't much strong material, along with the usual soundtrack dross). "Suspicion" was a logical choice for hit status, as was "Girl Of My Best Friend," which Donner did well with.

Many copied Elvis a little-or a lot, heh...--including Eddie Cochran and Buddy Holly. Kind of inevitable, really. Jody Reynolds' "Endless Sleep" could have been Elvis, which is also true of Charlie Gracie's "Butterfly"...although "Fabulous" is more Elvis-like, when you think about it.

The list goes on and on...Johnny Restivo's "The Shape I'm In"(with Paul Simon sitting in!); many of Jack Scott's Carlton sides had Elvis in mind; and at one point, there was even a guy calling himself 'Vince Everett' and recorded some things, didn't sell much, though...

 

The ones that I have heard ... I like ... surprised he didn't have some success ...

 

I read somewhere that Elvis inspired Twitty when Twitty got out of the service in the mid '50s ... his Mercury sides (pre-MGM) are even more Elvis-like ...

 

"Lonely Blue Boy" might as well be Elvis...

Can't discuss Elvis sound-alikes without mentioning Bobby Bare's "The All-American Boy," cut for Fraternity and miscredited to Bill Parsons. This is a friendly satire of sorts, about Elvis going into the Army, but it's all in fun(unlike Stan Freberg's "The Old Payola Roll Blues," with is fascinating but mean-spirited and stodgy).

 

I recall reading somewhere that one of the tracks on the Sequel CD...maybe "(What A Sad Way) To Love Someone"...is a different take than the 45, but I don't have the 45 so I'm not certain that's it.

I like Ral too..."She's Everything" is great, as are "School of Heartbreakers" and many others.

 

Lennon a la Elvis in "Starting Over".

 

Mike C. pointed that out in Oldies On CD ... he also stated that the Sequel CD "also [has] a lot of songs mastered from records." ... there may be some vinyl transfers on the Castle CD ... but if there are ... they aren't obvious to me ...

 

The stereo version of "You Don't Know What You Got" that was first issued was a different take than the 45. Good version, though, and Ral's Gone material is pretty solid.

Another one to remember(though it's not obvious)is Roy Hamilton's "Don't Let Go," which sure seems Elvis-influenced. Roy did more pop than R&B; this was the exception. Like the above, the mono 45 and the stereo mix don't match; different takes, but both enjoyable.

 

You Can Have Her sounds more Elvis-esque to me ... Hamilton was pretty MOTR for the most part ... but could bring it when he wanted to ... Don't Let Go and You Can Have Her are among my favorites ... there is a Hamilton LP ... Have Blues, Will Travel ... I think ... that has both songs ... and really rocks ...

 

It practically is; it's just a remake, with new lyrics, of "Danny," a song Elvis recorded (but that wasn't used) for King Creole.

 

There are many good Hamilton Lp's(not sure about CD's, haven't investigated them).

"Don't Let Go" is a great record, period..."You Can Have Her" is good, though my preference is for the Righteous Brothers. He had some good singles, but was always a bit low-profile, which is probably why, despite his success, he's hardly heard anywhere today.

 

Counrty singer Ronnie McDowell who did the singing in John Carperter's "Elvis" movie which stars Kurt Russell as EP http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079103/

 

A couple of them are for certain, but most sound like new stereo mixes to me...a mixed (not pun intended) blessing, since the collection is farily cohesive and clean sounding, but I'd really rather have had the original mono mixes forr everything. Just my preference...

 

Ral Donner did the spoken Elvis narration overdubs on the film This Is Elvis. Even in his normal speaking voice, he sounded like Elvis. No doubt, Ral was a talented singer. But, he was not well-promoted...

Bob

 

The same could easily be said for Jimmy "Orion" Ellis, another artist that did not manage to escape the shadows of Elvis. While Ral Donner died of cancer in 1984, Jimmy "Orion" Ellis was gunned down in 1998 robbery attempt. What a strange twist of fate for an Elvis impersonator...

 

Are you referring to the Sequel CD ... or the Castle CD? ... cuz the Castle CD has mono mixes of all of the released Gone material and stereo mixes of most of the released Gone material as well as unreleased Gone (?) material ...

To my knowledge, none of the Gone material was ever released in stereo (even though much of it was apparently recorded in stereo) ... so unless there were stereo mixes made at the time (and preserved), the stereo mixes would be "new" ... maybe done by or under the supervision of Bob Hyde ...

Regardless, the stereo mixes on the Castle CD sound good to me ... even though they may not be exact replicas of the original mono mixes ...

 

Sequel.

 

I was not a fan of McDowell's singing on that film (just my opinion of course). Sorry to threadcrap.