We could throw in Shake, Rattle, & Roll as well. Despite some other fine recordings of the song, Chuck's version is my favourite, and it could have been cool to hear Elvis sing it in his arrangement:
That would have been fantastic. I don't know if they were personally familiar with each other, but a fresh new recording with Elvis and Chuck would have been great. I get the impression that Elvis may possibly have been on board with that idea, probably the two most important figures in early rock and roll ... I don't know if Chuck would have been on board. I may be completely wrong, but from what i have heard and read Chuck wasn't fond of the possibility of being outshined, and it is said he often chose substandard bands, so that it was obvious he was the star .... whether that is true or not I don't know, but that is the word I have heard on the street. Anyway. Elvis and Chuck making an album together doing classics, in say ... 71, would have been stellar 1. Promised Land 2. Nadine 3. Milk cow Blues Boogie 4. Memphis Tennessee 5. One Night 6. Sweet Little Rock and Roller 7. Mess O' Blues 8. Bye Bye Johnny 9. Long Legged Girl (With The Short Dress On) 10. You Never Can Tell Idk, just a rough idea of some songs that might suit both, to be rerecorded by them both.... Definitely an interesting hypothetical.
And to think that My Ding-A-Ling kept Burning Love from reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
I don’t like the idea of doing an entire album of Chuck Berry tunes. One or two nods to Chuck is one thing, an entire LP is another. Elvis was one of Chuck’s contemporaries, a fellow pioneer of the rock and roll genre. It would have been an odd creative message for Elvis to go backwards and cover so much Chuck Berry material.
I have to agree with you here, even though it is Elvis's great vocal versatility and genre hopping nature that I admire the most about his song choices.
I don’t disagree, but it made for a number of disjointed albums during the 1970’s. More focused A&R and a stronger producer would have helped create more cohesive projects.
I certainly agree that there should not have been an Elvis covers Chuck album, but a well thought out "joint" album with songs from both their historical catalogs (perhaps even newer songs) with both their input would have taken on a different shape..... At the end of the day it never happened, and would have never been likely to.
We all know that the Colonel would never have let anyone share billing with his boy on an album but it is a great what if. I think a "Duets" album would have been great. It might have even made Elvis excited to get into a studio again. A song with Chuck Berry, Johnny Cash, ONJ, Barbara Streisand, Dolly Parton, the list is endless but it makes for some great fantasy pairings. I think a lot younger musicians at the time would have jumped at the chance to do a song with Elvis.
The bold-faced part is what I would certainly have liked to see. I can just imagine the possibilities - Springsteen, Zep, heck imagine how interesting things would have been doing a track with the NY Dolls (all of whom were huge Elvis fans)! Never would have happened in a million years but wow.
I've read that story on wikipedia also, and if it's true all I have to say is that someone must have been yanking Cliff's chain, messing with him because they knew he had puritanical attitudes. Prior to this I have never heard of anyone thinking that "honky tonk angel" was slang for "prostitute," and in the context of all the classic country songs in which the term appears it most definitely does not mean that. A honky tonk angel is a barfly, a woman who hangs around in bars, drinks a little too much, and (in the slang of the day) is "easy." That's all. Prior to this thread, I did not know that Elvis recorded his version of the song prior to Conway Twitty releasing his. So it's one of those cases where Elvis recorded a song roughly around the same time as someone else, but the other person got the hit with it and Elvis' version appears to be a cover of someone else's hit even though it's actually not (cf "Bringin' it Back"). At any rate, I sure cannot sign off on the idea some of you guys have floated, that Elvis' version is better than Conway's. Elvis does a fine job, but the Twitty version is definitive. I think for me part of it is that the song doesn't really fit Elvis' persona. As we've talked about, he tended to choose songs that had a consistent POV and consistent themes. I think he's "miscast" as a guy who threatens to cheat or hangs around in bars. That's not to say I don't like Elvis' performance, but I think Twitty does it better.
Chuck did not mind sharing the stage with someone he perceived as an equal. The main reason he employed substandard bands was that he was incredibly cheap. It was less expensive for him to hire local pickup musicians in each town he visited, than to have a regular salaried touring band he took on the road with him. As Keith Richards once put it, "Chuck is all about bucks." So likely the biggest obstacle to a hypothetical Berry/Presley collaboration would have been the battle between Chuck and the Colonel about money.
"Promised Land" is a gem but couldn't somebody have told Elvis how to correctly say "steak a la carte"?
Absolutely! Since it's in the realm of fantasy, two or three "Duets" albums would have been cool. A couple of songs with contemporaries like Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, etc. Then a couple with well established artists like Barbara Streisand, Cher, Frankie Valli,etc. I get chills just thinking of a duet with Elvis and Roy Orbison or Charlie Rich. Then some songs with the young artists like Linda Ronstadt, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Seger. I would also throw some groups into the mix like Zepplin. As much as Elvis liked to sing in harmony, can you imagine him doing a song with The Statler Brothers? It makes for some great fantasy albums.
He's emulating the way Chuck pronounced it. You need that extra syllable or the lyrics don't scan correctly with the melody.
Wow. I never knew Roy's work until now. Have these 1969 Roy Hamilton recordings have never been released on CD? I can't find them on Spotify or Amazon. I think these sessions would be an amazing listen. PS - I've been lurking on this thread for months. Love what I have learned from you guys! Thank you so much.
Yes, but they're all needledrops. https://www.amazon.com/Tore-Up-RCA-...ds=tore+up+roy+hamilton&qid=1569965745&sr=8-2
On a side note. You know that no matter how great the music could have been on a duets album, the artwork would have been predictably cringeworthy. I can picture every other artist having sat for a professional photography shoot with a poorly cropped, flat head, sweaty Elvis in a jumpsuit with chopped off microphone cord (that he apparently carries around like a teddy bear) in the center of the photograph.
Chuck meant to say it that way, just like he meant to say “motorvating” and “it’s way too early for the Congo.”