My love of Elvis came on three levels, one the most obvious, I like his music. I have never heard a sound like Elvis. It doesn’t matter if he was young Elvis, overweight Elvis, or movie Elvis, the fact is Elvis Presley could sing, his voice was simply AMAZING!!! My favorite Elvis song is That's All Right Mamma and Trouble. Today, most young artist now little about Elvis, but they should know that they owe a great deal of their success to him. As John Lennon once said"There was Elvis and then everyone else".
The second reason is the story of Elvis’s upbringing. Elvis is the American Dream. Elvis was born in a 1 room shack in Tupelo, Mississippi. His family struggles to survive during his entire childhood. It wasn’t until Elvis made it big that his parents were even able to eat an entire meal. Person after person told Elvis he would never make, his music and rock n roll for that matter was just a fad. Elvis never let any of that stop him form pursuing his dream. God meant for Elvis to be who he was. The first time Elvis went in to a studio to record a record the secretary at Sun Records thought he had a unique sound and kept a recorded sample. Elvis waited almost daily by the phone, but it would be 5 months before it rang. Sun Records owner Sam Phillips had Elvis come in to try some recordings with Guitarist Scotty Moore and Bassist Bill Black. The recorded for nearly 7 hours. Exhausted, tired, and hearing nothing that he really like Phillips told everyone to take a break while he went into the next room to get more tape. Elvis was nervous and scared. Moore tried to settle Elvis by getting him just to “jam” a bit. Elvis broke into That’s All Right Mamma. Phillips flipped and ran back into the booth to record it. Phillips took a copy over to Dewey Phillips Radio Show. The played That’s All Right Mamma 19 times on the radio and Elvis’s life was never the same. All though it would be a couple of years before he was a household name.
The third reason that I like Elvis so much has to do with my Mom. Our mutual love for Elvis was a bond we shared right up until she passed away. I would play my Mom’s Elvis records and 8 tracks for hours at a time. My Mom actual met Elvis one time and he kissed her on the cheek. Her best friend at the time ended up dating one of Elvis’s body guards and went on tour with him. My mom would often call me every time there was an Elvis movie or special on and she often got me various Elvis gifts. On of my greatest memories is her having the chance to see me play Elvis in a play I did in college, she was so excited.
My love for Elvis came full circle when cel
ebrating my marriage to my beautiful wife. We honeymooned in Hawaii and stay on Kauai. Kauai is home to the legendary Coco Palms hotel where Elvis filmed his 1961 classic Blue Hawaii. The hotel was literally about 400 yards from where we were staying. The only problem was a hurricane in 2001 leveled the hotel and it has not been repaired since. My wife and I took a bike ride down to the hotel; I thought at best I would take a picture in front of the hotel sign, at least that’s what I told my wife. I had every intention of jumping the fence or sneaking in some how, I had to stand where Elvis stood, I could not pass that up.
Lucky for my wife who didn’t want to bail me out of jail on our honeymoon, th
ere was a sign that said there were tours of the hotel still available. We called the number and set up a tour for 2pm that day. Just the two of us and another guy showed up so it was like having our own private tour. The property manager was giving tours just make a little more money. Most of the hotel was condemned, but to me it was the Hawaii equivalent of Graceland (a place I have yet to visit). He had known Elvis and knew the place. He took us to the room that Elvis stayed in and I stood right where Elvis’s bed had been..no comment. He took us to the dining room where Elvis had his own table in the corner and much to our surprise we found out that part of Pirates of the Caribbean 4 was filmed there. Johnny Depp is my favorite actor was that was an added plus. But the best part of the tour came when we stood at the front of the famous lagoon where Elvis was married in Blue Hawaii. Sandy and I stood there, kissed, and then took a picture (That ended up being the picture we used on our thank you cards). I felt like a kid at Disneyland and as weird as some people might think it, I could swear I felt Elvis there as well as my Mom.
The experience was incredible on so many levels. Later that night I showed the movie Blue Hawaii to my wife Sandy and she was excited to see all the spots in the movie we had just visited. That made my love for Elvis even more special. A bond that I had once shared with my Mom I now shared with my wife. She loves the place now and we plan to re-new our vows there on our 5 year anniversary. My life has come fully circle!
