For all its imperfections, 'Wild In The Country' is a very watchable reminder of a road not taken and of a promise Elvis was never allowed to fulfil ... In Praise of Wild In The Country by Paul Simpson.
EP, Elvis Articles, By Paul Simpson March 6, 2010 - 4:37:27 PM Read more

Hound Dog was Elvis' first great protest song. Social rebellion had been implicit in many of his greatest Sun performances - especially Good Rocking Tonight - and became explicit in Baby Let's Play House where his sexy, yet sinister vocal directly challenges the mores of Fifties America, warning his girl that college, school and Cadillacs didn't make her a better person. But 13 years before In The Ghetto, Elvis' aggressive, dynamic cover of Big Mama Thornton's R&B hit, was an epic expression of a working class hero's righteous anger against those who had judged, misunderstood and patronised him. Elvis' Hound Dog is, Rolling Stone proclaimed, 'a declaration of independence from one generation to its cold, rigid elders'.
Elvis Articles, By Paul Simpson August 22, 2009 - 8:19:09 AM Read more

The second Elvis album I ever bought was Burning Love And Hits From His Movies, back in the early 1970s on cassette, from the downtown independent record shop where the staff always looked too hip to be selling Elvis records. I could have been repelled, disgusted and baffled. Instead I was hooked by Colonel Parker's frankly mad wheeze. All the other singers and groups I knew had their thing - you always knew what their singles would roughly sound like - but Elvis was a law unto himself. Who else could take you from the childish, cloying, meek How Would You Like To Be? to the pertinent anger of Big Boss Man in just two tracks?
Elvis Articles, Elvis Reviews, Elvis CD Reviews, By Paul Simpson May 1, 2009 - 3:24:06 PM Read more

After Sidney Lumet had finished The Fugitive Kind, his adaptation of Tennessee William's play Orpheus Descending, he wondered if he should have cast Elvis Presley not Marlon Brando in the starring role ... Elvis was different. We can all agree on that. But that difference did not just apply to his looks, his voice, his talent. It also applied to his personality, what Lumet called his 'simplicity, lyricism and strange otherworldly quality'.
Elvis Articles, By Paul Simpson March 13, 2009 - 3:37:22 PM Read more

Some Elvis songs are still so fresh, so moving, they can be hard to listen to. And for me, the one song that still gives me goosebumps because of the power of the performance and the song's personal relevance to the King is If I Can Dream. It's widely known that the song almost never happened. Steve Binder, producer of the 1968 NBC TV Special that resurrected Elvis' career, was so desperate to avoid ending the show with a Christmas song - that he told Earl Brown, 'Write me the greatest song you ever wrote'.
Elvis Articles, By Paul Simpson December 13, 2008 - 10:07:21 AM Read more

In Hollywood, there is a genre of film called the exploitation movie, an umbrella term describing a movie where quality is sacrificed for cost and the moviemaker appeals to his audience by bizarre themes (drug use, wanton violence, kinky sex), adherence to a formula (as in beach party or zombie films) or the exploitation of a popular act, character or personality – for example Tarzan, the Norwegian ice skating queen Sonya Henje or, for that matter, Elvis Presley ... These films exist primarily to make a profit.
Elvis Articles, By Paul Simpson August 15, 2008 - 6:04:04 PM Read more

For reasons I cannot entirely fathom, I have been increasingly drawn, in the past year, to The Trouble With Girls on DVD. One of Elvis' late, neglected movies - released in the U.S. on a double bill with a cheesy horror flick called The Green Slime - it was shot when his hopes of being the next James Dean had been virtually extinguished. Yet the King seems more animated than usual on celluloid - certainly more engaged than he is, in, say Paradise Hawaiian Style - and utterly at home in this small town period piece.
Elvis Articles, By Paul Simpson May 10, 2008 - 11:39:43 AM Read more

The second greatest known unknown about Elvis - after the enigma about why he, a soft spoken Southerner tolerated the faux Colonel Tom Parker - is his relationship with his still born twin, Jesse Garon Presley.
Elvis Articles, By Paul Simpson November 24, 2007 - 9:42:00 PM Read more

Sometimes, the simplest questions are the hardest to answer. Laura Viddy, interviewing me for a forthcoming TV special, asked one two word question which floored me: 'Why Elvis?' I came up with ten reasons.
Elvis Articles, By Paul Simpson August 16, 2007 - 12:03:00 AM Read more

If there's one question that divides Elvis fans even more than Colonel Parker's legacy, it is the vexed question of movie soundtracks. I know many ardent Elvis fans who started out drawing a metaphorical line in the sand - King Creole and no further - but have, almost against their will, been dragged into a quagmire where, after a while, they find themselves humming the infuriatingly catchy chorus of Harem Holiday.
Elvis Articles, By Paul Simpson September 29, 2006 - 12:50:00 PM Read more

'One day things will be different' - Elvis Presley. We know a lot about Elvis Presley. But the most significant of the many things we don't know about him is how, when and why he came to believe that, as he vowed to himself when he was a skinny, poor, boy in the poorest state of the union, one day things would be different.
Elvis Articles, By Paul Simpson August 4, 2006 - 12:09:00 PM Read more

Suppose is not the greatest song Elvis Presley ever recorded but it is, for me, one of the most underrated. At a time - the mid 1960s - when you can almost hear the self-belief seeping from him on some recordings, Elvis was unusually intrigued by this quiet chilling ballad. Some fans have suggested this song may have inspired John Lennon's utopian anthem Imagine. Suppose was recorded in the summer of 1967, Imagine was recorded - and released - in 1971.
Elvis Articles, By Paul Simpson November 5, 2005 - 1:57:00 PM Read more

Elvis Presley is still vastly underrated as a singer. His vocal technique is often reduced to a quiver of the lip and an 'uh-huh-huh' by some, while many still insist that he didn't have the phraseology of a Sinatra.
Elvis Articles, By Paul Simpson May 20, 2005 - 3:08:00 PM Read more

Bruce Springsteen once famously said that Elvis Presley freed people's bodies, the way Bob Dylan freed people's minds. Loathe as I am to argue with The Boss, this tribute doesn't accurately measure Elvis's impact.
Elvis Articles, By Paul Simpson September 17, 2004 - 12:23:00 PM Read more

Two things happen to almost everyone who discovers Elvis Presley. Our first impulse is to talk Elvis over with someone who has already made that discovery. Our second reaction, which comes slightly later, is to introduce someone else, usually a friend or a colleague, to Elvis' world.
Elvis Articles, By Paul Simpson December 15, 2003 - 3:07:00 AM Read more

Was Elvis' musical output in the 1970's aimless, obsessive or something else?  In his latest article for Elvis Australia, Paul Simpson, noted author of The Rough Guide to Elvis, provides a thought provoking analysis of an emotionally distraught singer and how it affected his musical recordings.
Elvis Articles, By Paul Simpson September 15, 2003 - 10:42:00 AM Read more

Elvis's stepbrother David Stanley admitted the other day that even he found it hard to explain why his big brother was so enduringly popular. What is that Elvis has that other's don't?
Elvis Articles, By Paul Simpson June 12, 2003 - 11:20:00 AM Read more

Most people's lives appear simple when you're not living them. Even a life as controversial as Elvis Presley's as told by most biographers fits a fairly simple graph.
Elvis Articles, By Paul Simpson April 11, 2003 - 12:52:00 PM Read more