Song 185 - Suspicious Minds - Elvis Presley

Some of my favourite Elvis tracks were made popular to me through other artists. Suspicious Minds was recorded by Fine Young Cannibals in the 1980s and I think this is the first time this song was brought to my attention.

Written by Mark James in the late 1960s, the song was given to Elvis in 1969 when James himself failed to create a commercial hit for himself. The song came to Elvis after his 1968 Comeback Special, after a period of hiatus, where his records had failed to reach the chart and his album Speedway had failed to break the top 70. The 1968 Come Back was a live concert recorded in June that year, which aired at Christmas. Although the music wasn't hitting the high note, Elvis' personal life was booming with the birth of Lisa-Marie, his only daughter. The 1968 Comeback Special opened up the opportunity for Elvis to record at the American Sound Studio in Memphis, which was where Mark James had been recording his material.

Elvis would lay down the track in January in 1969, and although there was initial hesitation on Mark's part that Elvis had made the track too slow, he was blown away by the final version.  Suspicious Minds is the first of two songs that had been written by Mark James, the second being Always On My Mind.  I bet Mark never realised at the time of writing the song that his conflicted feelings between his childhood sweetheart and first wife, would become the last number one for Elvis in the United States when it was released in the autumn of this year.

To hear Suspicious Minds 
Suspicious Minds, performed by Elvis

Written by: Mark James
Performed by: Elvis Presley
Album: From Elvis in Memphis

Song 184 - Love me tender by Elvis Presley

If anyone ever learnt to play a keyboard in the 1990s, they probably learnt how to play Love Me Tender in volume 2 of the music books that went with them. I remember learning and hearing my mum play Love Me Tender on the keyboard. I also remember the afternoon I spilt tea all over the keyboard,  that definitely wasn't a tender moment between mother and child! Anyway, let's get back to Elvis.

Love Me Tender replaced Hound Dog as a number one hit in 1956. Adapted from a Civil War song, Aura Lee, which dates back to 1861, Elvis is jointly credited with writing the song with Ken Darby, who wrote under the name of his wife Vera Matson.  However, this joint accreditation was more to do with the publishing deal that Elvis's record label had which entitled him to 50% credit for the song production if he recorded it.  However, I don't think this affected the relationship between Elvis and Darby, as the latter would talk about Elvis's brilliance and his ability to be able to take a song and make it his own. Darby, himself, was a magnificent musician and composer in his own right. Having read about him in relation to this song, he belongs in my jukebox in his own right. 

Elvis first performed Love Me Tender on the Ed Sullivan Show on September 9th 1956, shortly before the single was released and a month before the film was released.  The single debuted at number 2, the first time a song had debuted on a chart in this position and would take the top spot from Hound Dog, staying at the top for five weeks.   The song reached number 11 on the UK Chart. The succession of number ones meant the Elvis was top of the charts for 16 years, a record that stood until 2004. 

Like many of Elvis's timeless hits, the song has been recorded by many artists since Elvis's recording. For me, the song stood out in the film Backbeat, which is an adaptation of the Beatles'early years in Hamburg and tells the story of the untimely death of Stuart Sutcliffe. If I hear the song at the right moment, tears will glisten in my eyes as there is something authentic in Elvis's voice and you feel the love & passion in his voice.

For me, out of all Elvis's songs, this is the one I wanted to put in the jukebox on the anniversary of his death.  When his death was announced 40th year ago,  it shocked the world so much that 40 years of conspiracy theories and sighting of Elvis has kept the King alive in so many people's hearts. I didn't really understand why people were so disbelieving in death. But now, having lost people central to my universe, I can understand it better now. To have one more day....

To hear Love Me Tender 

Love Me Tender by Elvis Presley

  

Song 165 - Maggie May by Rod Stewart

Arise Sir Rod! With the 90th Queen's birthday honours list being announced yesterday, the news that Rod Stewart had been knighted for services to music made me really happy; and for me Maggie May is the iconic hit that I always think of when I think about Rob, as well as one of my oldest friends, who has always been one of the biggest Rod Stewart's fans that could possible be.

Written in 1971 by Stewart and Martin Quittenton, Maggie May was originally the B side to the single Reason to Believe  until many radio stations in the USA started to play the B side instead of the intended single. Promoters weren't fools and they reversed the single; allowing Maggie May to be released  as a single in October; where it reached number 1 in the charts of both the UK and the US. A feet that has only been achieved by a number of bands including The Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel. The song would remain at the top of the UK chart for six weeks and was voted as one of 500 Greatest songs of all time by Rolling Stone magazine in 2004.

In an interview with Q magazine, Stewart confirmed that the song was written about his first encounter with a woman at a jazz festival in 1961, and the lyrics reflects the conflicting emotions of a 16 year old boy's feeling towards his older lover. Interestingly enough the name Maggie May comes from an old Liverpool Folk song about a prostitute who robbed a sailor at the docks, the folk song is known right around the world and The Beatles did their own version of it on their last studio album Let it be in 1970. (Honestly, I don't plan all these Beatles references.)

Maggie May comes from Rod Stewart's third solo Album Every Picture Tells a Story, also release in 1971. The album gained critic success when it was first released and had stayed one of the most important albums of his career. Featuring a mixture of rock, blues, country, solo and pop, the album took the number 1 slot in both the UK and the US. As well as the single Maggie May, Rod also included covers of That all right (Mamma) (The first single that Elvis released) and Tomorrow is a long time (Bob Dylan) and shows the range of Rod's voice.

With a career that dates back to 1961, it is perhaps no surprise that he has been knighted for his services to music. I recently caught up with my friend, the Rod Stewart fan, who had just purchased a vintage record player and is currently building up a record collection of vintage Rod Stewart's album, and we muse at the success of this music legend, and his ability to develop his style of music to fit the age of his voice, and having sold over 100 million records worldwide, whatever his formula is, it is obviously working.

When I heard the news of the knighthood, I thought back a moment of madness, we had as  children, when my friend asked our local record store if she could have the promotional material they had used to for the new Rod Stewart album and after they agreed taken it back to her bedroom so she could proudly hang it from her celling (I think it was a cupboard spanner). We all thought she was a bit bonkers with her loyalty to Rod Stewart back then, but I think now, she had an appreciation for a music icon that we stupidly didn't get. I should have realised sooner that there was something in her choice of music especially as, for her, Rod supports the wrong Scottish football team.

Enjoy Saturday's choice of music:
Maggie May by Sir Rod Stewart

Written by Rod Stewart and Martin Quittenton
Released: October 1971
Album: Every Picture tells a Story

Song 135 - Loving arms - Tom Jans

Some of you are probably looking at this song choice and going who? Tom Jans was an American singer-songwriter from San Jose, California. To be honest with you, up until I did the research for this song, I wouldn't have been able to tell you who Tom Jans was, but I have loved his song Loving Arms since I heard it being performed by The Beautiful South on Later with Jools Holland. If I had been asked a week ago, who wrote this track, I probably would have said the Dixie Chicks!

Tom Jans started his music career by playing coffee-houses in San Francisco where he was introduced to Mimi Farina by Joan Baez. Farina and Jans formed a duo and became a support act for Cat Stevens and James Taylor. They recorded one album together, Take Heart, but unfortunately hardly anyone noticed it and the duo spilt. From there, Jans moved to Nashvillie to become a songwriter for the publishing house Irving/Almo. Loving Arms was Jans' first hit as a writer and the song was initially recorded by Dobie Gray and then Elvis Presley in 1973.

Jans did try and launch his own album with his own songs; but his solo albums were not as successful as this song that so many artists have covered. I think this is the beauty of the arts, that sometimes it is the unknown heroes that create some of the most beautiful songs in the world.

 If it wasn't for the Beautiful South, I wouldn't have heard this song and for years I didn't have a recording of this song. However, when Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbot reformed and release their album What have we become?, the last track of the Album was Loving arms and some how a missing part of my music collection was complete.

To hear different versions of the song,

Elvis from his Good Times Album, 1973
Loving arms

Dixie Chicks from Wide Open Spaces, 1998
Loving arms

Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott from What have we become, 2014
Loving Arms

Tom Jans from Best of Tom, 1970-1972

Loving arms

Song 8 - Fever - sang by Peggy Lee, Elvis and many more...

The best thing about reading this blog is that I am not trying to sing these songs to you so I can't ruin them for you. We were in the car two days ago and "Fever" came on the radio as we drove onto Lothian Road as it has been re-released by Elvis and Michael Buble.  "... You give me fever, fever when you touch me, fever when you hold me tight. Fever in the morning and Fever all through the Night." You have to imagine the deep husky voice of your choice and the delicious rhythmic baseline beat. It is listening to a very expensive liquor travelling through you body making you feel heat in all the right place. When the tune came on the radio; I turned to hubby and said this is a universally sexy song and regardless of whether it is a female or male voice; it sends shivers down my spine.

Written by Eddie Cooley and John Davenport; it was first released by Little Willie John in 1956; but has been released by many artists over the year; with Peggy Lee's version probably being the most famous especially as the song is credited as be her signature tune. Peggy Lee recorded the song in 1958. Other artists of note that have recorded the tune include Elvis, Madonna and Beyoncé.

The song is described as soul, rhythm and blues song and even if you couldn't sing in a husky voice, if you are anything like me even being able to snap your fingers to the beat of the blues base line would make you happy. There used to be a soul club in Edinburgh that we went to during university in a back street off the West End of Princes Street and the lyrics of the song makes close my eyes and sway to the deep dusky beat.

Peggy Lee's version:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JGb5IweiYG8   

Elvis's version
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OSeyfWTLnWg