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ELVIS'S SUITCASE OF 78s (320kbs-m4a/137mb/60mins)
BBC Radio 6 Music broadcast: 16th August 2023
In January 1968 Elvis Presley selected 26 of his favourite old 78 records, which he had owned since he was a teenager, wrapped them in newspaper, packed them in a small suitcase and headed for Nashville, where he asked his friend and guitarist Scotty Moore to dub his treasured records on to reel to reel tape, so he could listen to them at home without running the risk of scratching or breaking them.
Once the 78 singles were copied Elvis asked Scotty to send him the tapes but keep hold of the records, as he didn't want to run the risk of them being damaged - and he said he'd drop by one day and pick them up.
But Elvis never got around to collecting those records and 47 years later, those old 78's are still there in that old suitcase in Scotty's house.
Chris Isaak, a huge fan of both Scotty Moore and Elvis wanted to find out more about the collection of records that meant so much to Elvis, so he visited Scotty at home in Nashville to explore the contents of `Elvis's Suitcase of 78's' - a great collection of the songs that inspired a teenage Elvis Presley, offering a fascinating insight in to the music he treasured.
The records date from 1948 to 1957 and reveal a lot about the type of music Elvis listened to in his formative years – many of them he would subsequently record himself and it's interesting that there is such a variety in the styles of music on those records from rockabilly and pop to gospel and doo wop.
ELVIS AND DEWEY: RED HOT AND BLUE - 2. EPISODE 2 (320kbs-m4a/66mb/29mins)
BBC Radio 6 Music broadcast: 7th December 2018
Paul Gambaccini continues the fascinating story of a pioneering disc jockey who played a part in the birth of rock 'n' roll in Memphis and early career of Elvis Presley.
A full two years before Alan Freed "discovered" rock 'n' roll, Dewey Phillips was playing rhythm and blues on WHBQ to an audience of black and white listeners. His zeal for rhythm & blues and country set the stage for both Elvis' subsequent success and the rock 'n' roll revolution of the 1950s. Significantly, Dewey captivated a huge white audience with previously forbidden "race" music.
Dewey was the first DJ to introduce an Elvis record on the radio in July 1954. On his Memphis radio show Red, Hot & Blue, he played an acetate of the first single That's All Right (Mama) cut for him by the owner of Sun Studios, Sam Phillips (no relation). Legend has it that Dewey played the song anywhere from seven to eleven times in a row and he interviewed Elvis that night.
Elvis always acknowledged his debt of gratitude to Dewey - not only for his first radio exposure but also for the influence on his musical development through hearing the exciting mix of blues and country records every night.
The programme includes extracts from Dewey's radio and TV programmes of the 50s and early 60s. Interviewees include Louis Cantor - author of Dewey And Elvis - who worked on Memphis radio station WDIA; Charles Raiteri - another Memphis radio veteran; Humes High School classmates of Elvis: George Klein and Jerry Schilling; and an archive interview with the late Memphis musician and producer Jim Dickinson.
First broadcast in 2009.
ELVIS AND DEWEY: RED HOT AND BLUE - 1. EPISODE 1 (320kbs-m4a/65mb/28mins)
BBC Radio 6 Music broadcat: 6th December 2018
Paul Gambaccini tells the fascinating story of a pioneering disc jockey who played a part in the birth of rock 'n' roll in Memphis and early career of Elvis Presley.
A full two years before Alan Freed "discovered" rock 'n' roll, Dewey Phillips was playing rhythm and blues on WHBQ to an audience of black and white listeners. His zeal for rhythm & blues and country set the stage for both Elvis' subsequent success and the rock 'n' roll revolution of the 1950s. Significantly, Dewey captivated a huge white audience with previously forbidden "race" music.
Dewey was the first DJ to introduce an Elvis record on the radio in July 1954. On his Memphis radio show Red, Hot & Blue, he played an acetate of the first single That's All Right (Mama) cut for him by the owner of Sun Studios, Sam Phillips (no relation). Legend has it that Dewey played the song anywhere from seven to eleven times in a row and he interviewed Elvis that night.
Elvis always acknowledged his debt of gratitude to Dewey - not only for his first radio exposure but also for the influence on his musical development through hearing the exciting mix of blues and country records every night.
The programme includes extracts from Dewey's radio and TV programmes of the 50s and early 60s. Interviewees include Louis Cantor - author of Dewey And Elvis - who worked on Memphis radio station WDIA; Charles Raiteri - another Memphis radio veteran; Humes High School classmates of Elvis: George Klein and Jerry Schilling; and an archive interview with the late Memphis musician and producer Jim Dickinson.
ARCHIVE ON 4: ELVIS PRESLEY COMEBACK SPECIAL (320kbs-m4a/130mb/57mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 1st December 2018
Paul Morley tells a parallel story of Elvis and America, from the vantage point of the King's finest hour in 1968.
"I've got to do this sooner or later," Elvis says sheepishly, "so I may as well do it now."
And so the 1968 Comeback Special begins: his quiff defying gravity and his leather jumpsuit chafing, as he bursts into an elemental rendition of Heartbreak Hotel. It had been one of his first singles thirteen years before, initially recorded when he was still a teenager living in the Jim Crow South at the beginning of rock and roll.
Much had happened in the meantime: JFK, the Beatles, the hippies and Detroit soul. And Elvis had become a different person, depressed, addicted and increasingly irrelevant.
So by 1968, after his stint in the army, the uninspired films and the years of absence from the stage, the Comeback Special was an opportunity to resuscitate Elvis's career, to claw back his status as a powerful, credible force.
And it did, fleetingly. He was fabulous, and his discography is never better showcased than on that day.
But it also marked the point at which it became clear that the King was fragile.
He was thirty-three, a new father, and he would never be this good again.
Paul Morley believes the 1968 Comeback Special shows us Elvis at his best. But also that it offers a vantage point from which to look backwards, forwards and outwards to a changing America - remembering where the hillbilly kid had come from and poignantly aware of where he would end up.
Featuring historian Mary Frances Berry, filmmaker Eugene Jarecki, writer Luc Sante and theatre artist Greg Wohead.
Producer: Martin Williams.
