Jerry Hall blogs on Elvis for Ten Alps
22nd December 2009
Imagine if Elvis had become a `Songfella’
Gospel music was always the greatest love of Elvis’s life. Even when he became the biggest rock n roll star in the world, he still relied on gospel music for inspiration and guidance.
Elvis loved to spend time with a few friends around a piano singing and listening to the gospel music that nourished his heart and soul and reminded him of the spiritual heritage instilled in him by his precious Mama.
And the day he signed with Sun Records he was also invited to join a local Memphis gospel quartet he had auditioned for several times. Imagine how different the world would be if Elvis had accepted that invitation and chosen to become a gospel singer.
I have always loved Elvis, ever since I was a child growing up in Texas. I was brought up listening to his music and watching his films.
I have great memories of my mother and 4 sisters playing his records and dancing around the house for hours. Elvis was so beautiful and sexy, there was something magical about him but I especially love his voice when he sings gospel songs, it gives me goose bumps.
Long before he was proclaimed the `King of Rock n Roll’, Elvis Presley was just a poor kid from Tupelo, Mississippi who was fascinated by the power and the passion of gospel music. Elvis’s earliest musical memories were as a 2 year old standing at the front of the congregation in the Pentecostal church his family attended every Sunday in Tupelo, listening to the choir singing gospel music, imitating their voices and their movements. The church would regularly play host to many of the leading gospel quartets of the day and Elvis grew to love their music.
When Elvis was 13, the Presley family moved to Memphis and Elvis regularly attended `all night sings’ and gospel conventions at the city’s Ellis Auditorium where 5,000 people would enjoy performances from dozens of the South’s most popular quartets. Often Elvis couldn’t afford a ticket for these events, so he would sneak in the back door. Even after he became a huge rock star Elvis would regularly return to the `all night sings’ and join his favourite gospel groups on stage.
The gospel Elvis loved wasn’t just confined to church. It was also popular on local radio stations, where DJ’s like BB. King and Rufus Thomas would feature both gospel and R&B. Inspired by what he heard on the radio Elvis began attending a Baptist church lead by gospel singer and songwriter Reverend W Herbert Brewster. The music at Reverend Brewster’s church was a potent blend of styles and in keeping with the strict segregation principles of the day Elvis and his white friends had to sit in a small group at the rear of the church, separated from the mostly black congregation – the opposite of the seating arrangements found at white Pentecostal services.
As gospel music became more popular musicians like Sam Cooke and Ray Charles began adapting traditional songs, keeping the basic rhythms but changing the lyrics to make them more commercial. Equally important to the way these new gospel and R&B singers looked was the way they moved and Elvis was fascinated by their dance moves, many of which he would later incorporate in to his own performances. Elvis began buying clothes from boutiques on Beale Street in Memphis frequented by black jazz and R&B performers and he was one of the few white guys in town wearing similar clothes to those worn by his musical heroes.
One of Elvis’s favourite gospel groups was `The Blackwood Brothers’, some of whom attended the same church as Elvis’s family. They had a junior group called `The Songfellas’ and in 1955 Elvis auditioned for the group.
On the same day that `The Songfellas’ invited Elvis to join their quartet he was signed to Sun Records, so he tearfully declined the offer to become a gospel singer. It’s fascinating to think how different Elvis’s life might have been if he had accepted The Songfellas invitation.
When Elvis began recording his first album he invited another of his favourite gospel quartets, `The Jordanaires’, to be his backing group and over the next 13 years they performed on dozens of Elvis’s biggest hits.
In December of 1956 Elvis dropped by Sun Studios and met up with Carl Perkins. They were soon joined by Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis and jammed on gospel songs in what became known as `the million dollar quartet’.
In 1957 Elvis took The Jordanaires with him when he appeared on the Ed Sullivan TV show and instead of performing his latest rock n roll hit Elvis and The Jordanaires performed an acappella version of his mother’s favourite hymn, `Peace in the Valley’. That same year when Elvis began filming `Jailhouse Rock’ he spent the first day on set sitting at a piano singing gospel songs with The Joradaniares, much to the annoyance of the film executives keen to begin filming with their rock n roll star.
That communal singing of gospel music around a piano became a regular feature of Elvis’s daily life, right up until his death. Because he was unable to attend church, gospel singing became his worship.
In 1958 Elvis was devastated by the death of his precious Mama. He took leave from the army to arrange her funeral, which included his favourite group The Blackwood Brothers singing his mother’s best loved gospel songs.
When Elvis was shipped to Germany to continue his army service he arranged to rent a large house in which he installed a piano so that he, and his entourage, could continue his gospel singing sessions.
When Elvis returned from the army in 1960 he recorded his first album of gospel songs, titled `His Hand In Mine’. He recorded 2 further gospel albums in his life, `How Great Thou Art’ in 1967 and `He Touched Me’ in 1972.
Although Elvis spent 13 years churning out movies and soundtrack albums he never gave up his gospel singing sessions and on may occasions while recording an album he’d spend days just gathered around the piano in the studio singing gospel songs.
Following the success of his 1968 TV special, which included a gospel section at Elvis’s insistence, he began making plans to return to live performance and when he performed in Las Vegas in 1969 he had 2 sets of gospel singers on stage with him, The Imperials and the Sweet Inspirations. Elvis would warm up for each performance by singing gospel songs in his dressing room and then each night he’d invite family and friends up to his suite and host gospel singing sessions until dawn, a routine that continued for the rest of his life.
According to those close to Elvis, at the time of his death he was planning to record another gospel album and undertake a tour performing just gospel songs. Despite his overwhelming popularity Elvis was always a troubled soul and took great comfort and guidance from the gospel music he first heard as a child in church with his beloved Mama.
