Tag: Elvis Presley

Marty Brown Sings “The Little Drummer Boy”

The LIttle Drummer Boy

Country singer Marty Brown recently performed a live version of the Christmas classic “The Little Drummer Boy.” Accompanied by harmonica and fiddle, Brown shows his great singing voice especially when he takes the song into the higher register. Check it out.

A previous Chimesfreedom post recounted the history of the song and TV special of “The Little Drummer Boy.”

If you want more holiday music from Marty Brown, check out this home recording of “Blue Christmas.” The video is completed by Brown doing his Elvis Presley imitation starting at around the 50-second mark. Check it out below (and for more on Elvis’s connection to “Blue Christmas” check out this story).

What is your favorite version of “The Little Drummer Boy”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • Blue Christmas & the Elvis TV Special
  • “The Little Drummer Boy” on TV and in Song
  • Longing for the Freedom of My Chains: Dobie Gray’s “Loving Arms”
  • Mahalia Jackson: “Silent Night”
  • George Strait Sings a Marty Brown Song: “To the Moon” (Song of the Day)
  • ‘Fairytale of New York’ at Shane MacGowan’s funeral

    • (Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

    How a Bull Moose, a Bear, and a Beetle Gave Elvis a Hit Song

    Teddy Bear On February 15 in 1903, the first Teddy bears appeared in a toy store window.  The name for the bears was inspired by the man who was the president of the United States.

    Morris Michtom, who owned a toy store, had written a letter to President Theodore Roosevelt asking permission to use the name “Teddy” for his bears. The president gave his approval. Other toy makers soon followed Michtom’s lead in naming stuffed bears, leading to the popular Teddy bear.

    The Inspiration for the First Teddy Bear

    The stories of the details about the event that inspired Michtom’s letter vary somewhat.  But it is clear that Michtom got the idea from President Roosevelt’s encounter with a bear.  While hunting in Mississippi in 1902, President Roosevelt, who would later found the Bull Moose Party, showed mercy to a bear.

    Some stories today claim the bear was a cub tied to a tree, but it more likely was an old bear. Either way, the incident illustrated another side of Roosevelt. Political cartoonists portrayed the event by illustrating a cub, showing the tough Roosevelt as a softy at heart.

    “(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear”

    The most famous song about Teddy bears was released more than five decades later in 1957.  That year, a rock icon showed his softer Teddy bear side.

    Elvis Presley sang “(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear” in the movie Loving You (1957), his second film and his first in color. The song went to number one on the charts that year.

    “Boll Weevil” And Its Connection to “(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear”

    Kal Mann and Bernie Lowe wrote “(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear,” but part of the inspiration for the song came indirectly from an insect. Wikipedia and other sources report that the song’s roots go back to a traditional blues song, “Boll Weevil.”

    In “Boll Weevil,” a boll weevil talks to a farmer, threatening the cotton crop while looking for a home. The song has been around since at least the 1920s, and it may have its origins in Roosevelt’s time.

    One of the most famous early recordings of “The Boll Weevil” was by Lead Belly in the 1930s.

    Can you hear “Teddy Bear” in Lead Belly’s song? If not, listen to singer-songwriter Brook Benton‘s version of “The Boll Weevil Song,” which became a hit in 1961.

    Now you hear it, don’t you? And now you know, how a bull moose, a bear, and a beetle helped give Elvis Presley a hit song.

    Cartoon by by Clifford Berryman via public domain. What are your favorite songs about bears and bugs? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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  • Mingo Sanders and Teddy Roosevelt’s Dishonorable Discharge
  • Anniv. of Civil War’s Start: Elvis’s American Trilogy
  • Lonely Street: The Sad Story Behind “Heartbreak Hotel”
  • Longing for the Freedom of My Chains: Dobie Gray’s “Loving Arms”
  • Chuck Jackson Was There Before Elvis: “Any Day Now”
  • Lisa Marie Presley and Elvis: “I Love You Because”

    • (Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

    The Impromptu Million Dollar Quartet

    Elvis Lewis Cash Perkins On December 4, 1956, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash gathered at the Sun Record Studios in Memphis, Tennessee.  The gathering was not planned, but because of the fast thinking of a recording engineer, it created a unique moment in music history.

    How the Gathering Started

    On that date, Carl Perkins was in the studio to record a follow-up to his hit “Blue Suede Shoes.” A still-unknown Jerry Lee Lewis, whose “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” would be released in a few weeks, played piano for Perkins.

    During the session, Johnny Cash dropped by. And the 21-year old Elvis Presley, who already had left Sun for RCA, stopped by with his girlfriend to say hello. Soon, the singers began jamming together.

    Recording engineer Jack Clement had the smarts to run a tape of the session, although the tape would not be heard for decades. But Sam Phillips called a local reporter to take a picture. The local paper used the caption that is still how we remember the session: the “Million Dollar Quartet” (which also later inspired a Broadway musical).

    The session includes Elvis playing piano and the group running through a number of songs. Near the end, after Presley got up to leave, Lewis took over the piano and continued playing and singing.

    Did Johnny Cash Sing With the Group?

    In the recordings, you do not hear Johnny Cash’s voice up front, which has led to some speculation about whether he stayed around to sing with the other three men. In his autobiography, though, Cash explained that he was there the whole time but was furthest from the mike and singing higher than normal to be in key with Presley.

    Cash also revealed it was the first time he had heard Jerry Lee Lewis.  Cash explained why Elvis left after Lewis took over the piano. “If you’re wondering why Elvis left right after Jerry Lee got started,” he explained, “the answer is simple: nobody, not even Elvis, ever wanted to follow Jerry Lee.”

    Available Recordings

    The above recording is listed as a “complete” session of the session. There are a number of CD versions, including a 1990 release.  Then the songs were reordered for a later 2006 release that also included some additional tracks.

    No matter which CD version you hear, I love the recording of the men jamming and laughing together. I periodically listen to the CD of the session the whole way through.

    Although we know of the great talent of these four men, it is often easy to forget the joy they found in the music. But that joy radiates through this recording.

    What is your favorite part of the Million Dollar Quartet recording? Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • The 1977 Johnny Cash Christmas Show
  • The End of Maryland’s Death Penalty and “Green, Green Grass of Home”
  • Johnny Cash Imitating Elvis
  • It’s “Rock & Roll Time” When Jerry Lee Lewis Releases New Music
  • Columbia Records Drops Johnny Cash: “God’s Gonna Cut You Down”
  • Elvis Goes Into the Army: March 25, 1958

    • (Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

    Lisa Marie Presley Performs in Elvis’s Jungle Room

    Lisa Marie Presley Graceland

    Lisa Marie Presley recently performed for the first time in her childhood home, Graceland. As part of an exclusive for Ram Country on Yahoo Music, Presley performed in Elvis Presley’s famous Jungle Room, where Elvis recorded music for some of his last albums.

    In this video, Lisa Marie Presley sings “Weary” from her 2012 album Storm & Grace in the Jungle Room while her husband, Michael Lockwood plays the oldest guitar from Elvis Presley Enterprises’ collection. Elvis used the guitar several times in the movies, including in Loving You (1957), King Creole (1958), and Jailhouse Rock (1957). [July 2014 Update: Unfortunately, the videos of Lisa Marie Presley recording in the Jungle Room are no longer available. So we have replaced the missing video with a video of her discussing her return to Memphis and playing in the Jungle Room, followed by a video of her performing “Weary” at WFUV.]

    Below is Lisa Marie Presley performing “Weary” at the studios of radio station WFUV in New York.

    What song would you like to hear Lisa Marie Presley sing at Graceland? Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • Lisa Marie Presley and Elvis: “I Love You Because”
  • Duet From Elvis and Lisa Marie: “I Love You Because”
  • Longing for the Freedom of My Chains: Dobie Gray’s “Loving Arms”
  • Chuck Jackson Was There Before Elvis: “Any Day Now”
  • Townes Van Zandt Covered an Elvis Song About a Shrimp?
  • Did Elvis Perform “If I Can Dream” Facing a Christmas Stage As In Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” Move?

    • (Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

    Columbia Records Drops Johnny Cash: “God’s Gonna Cut You Down”

    Last Johnny Cash album with Columbia On July 15 in 1986, Columbia Records dropped Johnny Cash from its label after a relationship that lasted more than two and a half decades. According to the Los Angeles Times, Rick Blackburn, head of Columbia-Epic-CBS Nashville, explained, “This is the hardest decision that I’ve ever had to make in my life.”

    Cash had signed with Columbia in 1960, after the label convinced him to leave his first label, Sun Records. During the next few decades, Cash of course had a great career with Columbia, where he recorded many of his classic songs.

    But by 1986, the industry had changed and Cash was no longer producing hits. Cash’s final album with Columbia was Rainbow (1985). The album included Cash’s cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” and “Casey’s Last Ride,” which was written by Kris Kristofferson.

    Cash did not stay unemployed for long, and he was soon signed by Mercury Records. And then in 1994 he released his first album with producer’s Rick Rubin’s American Recordings label, beginning a major comeback that included several albums before Cash passed away.

    “God’s Gonna Cut You Down”

    I don’t know what Cash said when he heard that Columbia was dropping him, but I like to imagine it was something like, “God’s Gonna Cut You Down,” the title of a traditional folk song that he later recorded with American Recordings.

    “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” appeared on American V: A Hundred Highways (2006), which came out after Cash’s death. In the song, the singer recounts how one cannot escape God.

    “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” has been recorded by a number of artists, with some using the different title of “Run On.”

    As Cash and Rubin did with other songs, their version of “God’s Gonna Cut You Down”/”Run On” sounds quite different from other versions.  For example, the Cash version differs significantly from this version of “Run On” from another artist who started with Sun Records, Elvis Presley.

    The Blind Boys of Alabama recorded a version of “Run On” that appeared on Spirit Of The Century (2001).

    But the version of the song that most people have probably heard is a song from Moby’s mega-selling album Play (1999).  Moby’s song incorporated sampled vocals by Bill Landford & The Landfordaires.

    In the end, both Cash and Columbia Records managed to run on and do fine. Had Cash stayed with Columbia Records for the rest of his life, he might never have made the brilliant music he did with Rick Rubin at American Recordings.

    And in 2007, Columbia got a new co-head: Rick Rubin.  Rubin then left Columbia in 2012 to revive his American Recordings label imprint.

    What is your favorite version of “God’s Gonna Cut You Down”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • Longing for the Freedom of My Chains: Dobie Gray’s “Loving Arms”
  • Is Kris Kristofferson’s Greatest Song “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down”?
  • Johnny Cash Imitating Elvis
  • Ira Hayes Won’t Answer Anymore
  • A New Johnny Cash Album: “Out Among the Stars”
  • The Impromptu Million Dollar Quartet

    • (Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)