In 1977, near the end of his life and in poor health, Elvis Presley had a laugh with Charlie Hodge during “Are You Lonesome Tonight?”
There are a number of instances of Elvis Presley cracking up while performing the monologue in “Are You Lonesome Tonight.” For example, on August 26, 1969 in Las Vegas, Elvis could not keep it straight as the soprano backing vocals from Cissy Houston (Whitney’s mom) made him start laughing. Another gem occurred near the end of his life while performing in 1977, apparently in Omaha on June 19, 1977.
The Omaha performance was filmed for a CBS TV Special. Reporters noted that the the ailing and puffy-looking Presley gave a subdued performance that lacked the enthusiasm of his earlier shows. But there were still flashes of energy and the King’s charm.
In the clip below, Charlie Hodge comes out to hold the microphone while Elvis plays guitar and sings “Are You Lonesome Tonight.” Hodge often held the microphone for the King, but the proximity of the men during the touching song and the spoken-word segment leads them both to cracking up.
One may point out that it is near the end of Elvis’s life when he appeared not to be in good health. In fact, in a little more than two months, the King would be dead. But still, especially considering his condition during this period, his charisma and voice comes through to make an entertaining performance.
As for the man holding the microphone, Charlie Hodge was a man of many talents beyond holding a microphone. He was a singer, musician, arranger, and close confidant of Presley. As a member of Elvis’s “Memphis Mafia,” he helped Elvis in a number of ways, including with music arranging. As you can tell from the video, the two men were very close, with Hodge living at Graceland for seventeen years. After Elvis’s death, Hodge continued to help promote the legacy of the King.
John Prine and Justin Townes Earle, who both passed away in 2020, shared the stage in 2015 on Prine’s song, “Far From Me.”
During a year of much loss, it was sad to lose such beauty with John Prine and Justin Townes Earle both dying in 2020. They were both unique talents, and brought such humanity with their songs, often touching on sad parts of life, but with love and a touch of humor. Five years before their death, they shared a stage in Houston and performed Prine’s song, “Far From Me.”
In “Far From Me,” the singer recounts the ending of a relationship as the singer realizes it is coming to an end and cannot do anything about it. He sees things are different between the two of them, even as he tries to maintain the relationship the way it once was.
And the sky is black and still now On the hill where the angels sing Ain’t it funny how an old broken bottle Looks just like a diamond ring But it’s far, far from me.
Justin Townes Earle did a beautiful cover of the song on the John Prine Tribute album, Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows, The Songs of John Prine. And on May 15, 2015, the two men appeared on stage together in Houston, Texas at the Cullen Performance Hall to perform “Far From Me” together. Check it out.
What is your favorite cover of a John Prine song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Musicians from three music schools in Belgium met on a field to cover Bruce Springsteen’s “Waiting on a Sunny Day.”
More than 200 musicians from three Belgian schools came together recently to perform Bruce Springsteen’s “Waiting on a Sunny Day” in a field. The musicians came together for the joy of playing the uplifting song, and they came together to send a message to Springsteen.
The musicians hope the video of their performance will somehow make it to Springsteen and that it will inspire Springsteen to travel to Belgium for a concert. As they explain on a website about the event, “[W]e hope that Mr. Springsteen will appreciate the result and will come to do us the honor of a concert in the Belgian fields because we want to prove that you don’t have to be a big music business company to reach the greatest artists in the world.”
I suspect Springsteen would like the video. I know I do. The song is joyous in concert and it also sends an uplifting message when musicians gather to play it on an open field. I also like that the video is professional but not too professional. The musicians are not overly coordinated in their dress or the way they move as in many videos involving large groups and music. It’s a wonderful interpretation of “Waiting on a Sunny Day.”
What do you think of the Springsteen cover? Leave your two cents in the comments.
In 1964, Connie Smith recorded “Once a Day,” creating one of the perfect county records out of the song written by Bill Anderson.
Connie Smith’s 1964 recording of the song “Once a Day” is one of those perfect moments in country music. Smith is one of the great voices in country music, and here she has a perfect song. “Once a Day” was written by Bill Anderson specifically for Smith. The song features catchy music and country heartbreak wrapped up with a clever chorus that would be humorous if were not for the aching it describes.
Connie Smith released “Once a Day” on August 1, 1964 when Smith (born in Indiana in August 14, 1941) was barely twenty-three. According to Wikipedia, the record become the first number one debut on the Billboard Hot Country songs by a woman. It stayed at number one for eight weeks, a feat not duplicated by a female artist until Taylor Swift did it in 2012.
The clever hook in the song is that the singer misses a former love and cries only “once a day.” That does not sound too awful. But then she reveals that the “once a day” is “all day long.”
Once a day, all day long; And once a night from dusk ’til dawn; The only time I wish you weren’t gone, Is once a day, every day, all day long.
Below, a young Connie Smith performs “Once a Day” in 1965 on the WSM Nashville syndicated TV show The Bobby Lord Show. Check it out.
Smith, who is married to Marty Stuart, also played guitar on the hit recording of “Once a Day.” She recorded a number of wonderful songs through her career. But she never had a song that was as big of a hit as “Once a Day.”
Pas Souvent
“Once a Day” has been covered by artists such as Dean Martin and Van Morrison. After Smith initially released her original version, the song was so popular that Smith recorded a French version of the song.
Smith released the French version, “Pas Souvent,” credited to both Bill Anderson and French lyricist Pierre Delanoë, in 1966. Give it a listen.
Great stuff, no matter the language. Leave your two cents in the comments.
In 1993, Bruce Springsteen performed moving renditions of the Louvin Brothers song “Satan’s Jeweled Crown” at several concerts before he stopped playing the song.
Although I love Bruce Springsteen’s work with The E Street Band, my heart also has a soft spot for the different directions Springsteen took in the 1990s. In addition to some amazing solo work that decade, he released two albums on the same day in 1992 with a band that was not the E Street Band. Subsequently, he toured with a new band.
As Springsteen sought rejuvenation by temporarily surrounding himself with (mostly) new backing musicians, he often tried different directions. For example, at a handful of stops on his tour with the band, Springteen chose an unusual cover, the Louvin Brothers’ song “Satan’s Jeweled Crown.”
Springseen has only performed “Satan’s Jeweled Crown” six times, all while touring in 1993. Below, Springsteen performs “Satan’s Jeweled Crown” backed by several vocalists.
The YouFube video states that the performance is from Stockholm Olympic Stadium in 1993, but the song is not on the setlist from that show and more likely from shows around the same time in England, Germany, or Ireland. Check it out.
The Louvin Brothers
“Satan’s Jeweled Crown” is a cover of The Louvin Brothers song that appeared on their 1959 album Satan is Real. Songwriter Edgar L. Eden wrote “Satan’s Jeweled Crown” as a religious song, where the singer rejects the temptations of Satan with the help of God.
There is not much about songwriter Edgar Eden on the Internet, with his name only coming up as the writer of “Satan’s Jeweled Crown.” So it is unclear if he wrote anything else. Yet, even if all he left us is “Satan’s Jeweled Crown,” it is a beautiful work. The chorus of the song recounts the casting off of the jeweled crown given by Satan:
Satan’s jeweled crown, I’ve worn it so long; But God, for my soul, has reached down; His love set me free, He made me His own And helped me cast off Satan’s jeweled crown.
Springsteen’s Version
As most Springsteen fans know, the characters in the Boss’s songs have a complicated relationship with religion, and rarely are conflicts so clear. Perhaps that is why Springsteen made some small changes to the lyrics of his version of “Satan’s Jeweled Crown.”
For example, Springsteen begins with the first verse instead of the above chorus that begins the version by The Louvin Brothers. So, Springsteen instead begins with: “If I could be king and ruler of nations . . . I’d rather know that I have salvation. . . ” Whether intentionally or not, this opening takes a Springsteen fan back to “Badlands,” where Springsteen sang about people not finding happiness in being rich or being a king (“a king ain’t satisfied / ‘Til he rules everything”).
After the opening verse of “Satan’s Jeweled Crown,” Springsteen changes the words in the Louvin Brothers’ chorus to replace the reference to “God” with “you” (or “You”): “Then You, for my soul reached down / Your love set me free, You made me your own.”
One may then interpret that the singer is singing about a lover who saved them. Or the “You” could still be God or a reference for whatever religion one practices. It is a tweak to the words that does not undermine the song in many ways and perhaps makes it more inclusive at the same time.
Springsteen also tweaked the second verse, changing the description of the singer’s life from “reckless and evil” to “wasteful and sinful.” He also changes the Louvin Brothers’ “drinking and running around” to eliminate the drinking part: “Yeah, I just keep moving around.”
Springsteen may have learned the song from Emmylou Harris’s recording of the song, which she entitled with a slight alteration, “Satan’s Jewel Crown.” Her version appeared on her 1975 album Elite Hotel. Either way, he clearly was aware of her version.
Like Springsteen, Harris begins the song with the verse instead of the chorus (changing “if I were king” to “if I were queen”). The changes that Springsteen made to the Louvin Brothers’ second verse also are similar to changes earlier made by Harris to that verse. Still, he made some alterations to Harris’s version too, using “wasteful and sinful” versus Harris’s “sinful and needless” (in contrast to the Louvin Brothers’ “reckless and evil”).
There is one big difference between Harris’s version and Springsteen’s. Harris kept the reference specifically to “God” in the chorus. So Springsteen’s change to “You” likely was original to him.
Many Rivers to Cross
Springsteen and the same singers during the May 28, 1994 Stockholm concert did perform Jimmy Cliff’s “Many Rivers to Cross.” (You also can see that Springsteen is in a different outfit for this performance, confirming that the “Satan’s Jeweled Crown” video is not from the same show.
Yet, it is another amazing and somewhat unusual Springsteen concert performance.
These covers show one side of the many sides of Bruce Springsteen. While his albums have gone in a variety of musical directions, he has never released a gospel album. Such a gospel album project was in the works as recently as 2008, but never released. These performances above, however, show what a treat it would be if Springsteen were to ever release an album devoted to gospel music.
