2007

SG History 101 - Elvis Presley

In recent months, we have looked at some popular secular singers who helped to influence and popularize gospel music among large audiences, such as Tennessee Ernie Ford and Stuart Hamblen. It occurs to me I’d be remiss in exploring that part of gospel music history if I didn’t examine the impact made by one of the most popular entertainers of all.

And of course, that would be the late, great Elvis Presley. Now Elvis' story has been told repeatedly, and I don't intend to retell his entire musical story here. I would simply like to examine Elvis' much-publicized love for gospel music and his contributions musically to
the genre.

And why not? Growing up in rural Mississippi, and spending his adolescent years in Memphis, TN… Elvis was certainly in the right place to be impacted profoundly by gospel music… and as his career progressed, it became obvious that gospel music was a big part of Elvis' musical persona. And as such, he would become a rather large shadow over the development of gospel music in the 1950s and 1960s, because of both his gospel recordings and his association with some of the leading gospel singers of his day.

Let's then examine Elvis Presley's role in the development of gospel music.

For Elvis, it all started when he was a small boy in his family's Assembly of God church in his native Tupelo, MS. His mother Gladys recalls that young Elvis sang along with the songs in church as early as the age of three. The young Elvis enjoyed church primarily for the music made there, but he also was enchanted by the often animated presentations of the ministers as well.

In 1948, at the age of 13, Elvis moved with his family to Memphis, always a city known for its eclectic nature in music, from the blues and jazz performed there to the gospel music that was quite a pervasive influence in the city. The churchgoing Presleys began attending the First Assembly of God church in Memphis, pastored by the Rev. James Hamill. It was there that Elvis continued to get an earful of great gospel quartet music, particularly after the famous Blackwood Brothers Quartet relocated there in 1950.

Elvis became a big Blackwood Brothers fan, and it didn't hurt that the quartet attended his church. Nor did it hurt when Elvis befriended one of the Blackwoods, tenor Roy Blackwood's son Cecil. Cecil's older brother RW also was a member of the quartet. Elvis and Cecil became friends at Humes High School there, and the Blackwood family was very kind and supportive to Elvis' musical ambitions, which were beginning to flower during his high school years.

During those teen years, Cecil would sing with a gospel quartet led by the pastor's son, Jim Hamill, known as the Songfellows. The Songfellows had some talented youngsters… besides Cecil Blackwood and the young Hamill, they also had a fine young bass in Kent Higginbotham and a good pianist in Eddie Reece. Elvis became interested in joining the Songfellows, and eventually auditioned to join the group.

Unfortunately for Elvis, his singing style then was too individualistic for the young quartet. He was told that he needed to sing harmony better if he was going to be a part of the quartet. It may have been just as well, though, because by that time, Elvis had joined the Sun record label in town, and he would be singing secular music anyway.

But Elvis never stopped loving gospel music, or the sound of it. As his career was beginning to take off with Sun, he happened to encounter another gospel quartet that was beginning to make a name for itself at that time as well, not just singing gospel songs, but singing some pop and country music, and backing up bigger name singers on stage and in the recording studio. Elvis, however, loved the gospel quartet sound of the Jordanaires, and brashly told the group that if he ever started to make it big in the music business, that he wanted them to sing on his records!

By 1956, Elvis had gotten a major record deal with RCA, and was beginning to make the music that he would forever be best known for. But true to his word, he badgered his producer at RCA, Chet Atkins, to put the Jordanaires on his records. Chet balked at first, preferring to use Ben and Brock Speer of the famous gospel singing Speer Family at first, along with Gordon Stoker of the Jordanaires, but as Elvis' career became more successful, Atkins began to yield to his young star's requests, and by the end of 1956, the Jordanaires had become the regular backup singers for Elvis.

Despite the fact that his first hits alarmed some church ministers and their congregations, Elvis was determined to record gospel music at some point. And in April 1957, Elvis released an EP of four of his favorite gospel songs. Entitled "Peace In The Valley", the record took its place alongside all of Elvis' other releases as a huge hit. On subsequent TV appearances, Elvis sang songs from that EP… and that helped improve his image among the older generation who had considered him a "threat" to decency and decorum. Backed as usual by the Jordanaires, the EP's four songs are charming, straightforward renditions of some of the more popular gospel songs of the time.

But Elvis was not content to do merely an EP of gospel songs, he wanted to do a whole album of them! Those ambitions were put on hold when he joined the Army in 1958… but when he returned from service duty two years later, he soon got his wish! He went into the studio with the Jordanaires again, and providing his own piano accompaniment, recorded an entire LP in two days. This classic, "His Hand In Mine", became one of the top selling gospel albums by any artist. It contains songs that had been a part of Elvis since his childhood, and also songs made popular by his favorite quartets, the Blackwood Brothers and the Statesmen, another quartet that was a great influence on the musical style of the youngster. Elvis had always said that the Statesmen's famous lead singer, Jake Hess, was his favorite singer, while it's also been said that the stage movements of the quartet's renowned bass singer, Jim "Big Chief" Wetherington, were a big influence on Elvis' onstage demeanor as well.

After that album, Elvis became involved with moviemaking and recording soundtracks for those pictures, and not only was he not recording gospel music, his overall record career went into a temporary downturn. But even in those years, Elvis made a point of associating with gospel singers. Elvis always enjoyed singing late at night… and he usually preferred to sing gospel songs when he was just trying to relax, and not necessarily entertain. At that point in time, it was not unusual for Elvis to invite the professional gospel singers he knew to his Graceland mansion for those late night "jam sessions". It was not unusual for Elvis to "burn the midnight oil" with those gospel singers until 3 or 4 in the morning on some occasions. Clearly, Elvis did this because he loved gospel music, and he loved to be associated with it. Certainly he was not doing it for the notoriety!

Another habit Elvis developed was attending the National Quartet Convention incognito… simply because he wanted to be there. This went on until well into the 1960s, when the reaction of Elvis' rabid fans to seeing him there became too much of a disturbance for the convention to deal with. But Elvis enjoyed being around the music, and the singers.

By 1965, RCA was having a hard time finding suitable material from Elvis to issue a single… so the company went back to the sessions that produced the "His Hand In Mine" album and pulled out a song that was not on the original album. That song, "Crying In The Chapel" became Elvis' only top 10 hit between 1963 and 1969… proving that Elvis singing gospel-oriented songs still had what it took to sell records.

By 1967, Elvis was becoming bored with his recording career, yet it wouldn't be for another year or so before he could get out of the movie deals that had helped stall his career as a singer. He got RCA to let him bring the Jordanaires back into the studio with him, along with the hot new quartet that his favorite singer Jake Hess organized just a few years prior, the Imperials, and the combined quartets gave Elvis a choir-like vocal backing on his new RCA album, "How Great Thou Art", the title song of which would be a staple of Elvis' stage repertoire for the rest of his life. The album also included the "Crying In The Chapel" single to presumably boost sales. Not only did the album sell well, but of all the albums Elvis Presley ever made, it was the only one that ever won the coveted Grammy Award for excellence. Some of Elvis' fans still maintain that it was his finest album. Surely his rendition of the title song is one of his all-time greatest vocal performances.

By 1968, Elvis' recording career was back on the rise. And he used that occasion to make a prime-time TV special for NBC that would feature his latest vocal persona. But still, even with that, the most popular segment of that special was the gospel music medley, complete with dance choreography, that impressed nearly everyone who saw it, not only Elvis' longtime fans, but "hip" music publications like the new "Rolling Stone" magazine that had been dismissing Elvis as passe and "washed up".

By 1969, Elvis was touring again… but not with the Jordanaires. Although they enjoyed working with Elvis, during those years they had become the most sought after studio backup group in Nashville… and they preferred to stay home and make money to going on tour for months on end. So Elvis needed another backup group. Well, there was no doubt that he would choose another gospel quartet, and to almost no one's surprise, the Imperials became Elvis' new backup group on record and on stage.

Being a very polished and professional quartet, the Imperials worked well with Elvis, singing his hits as well as accompanying him with authority on the gospel numbers he still loved on stage. In 1972, Elvis recorded his third gospel LP, "He Touched Me", with the Imperials… and it not only featured a stirring rendition of the Bill Gaither-penned title song, but it included a rewrite of the country hit "There Goes My Everything" ("He Is My Everything") as well as uptempo numbers such as "I'John" and "Bosom Of Abraham", a song that Elvis would always sing to warm up with prior to recording sessions. This album, too, would be a critical and commercial success.

But in 1972, the Imperials found themselves torn between going on tour with Elvis and going with country star Jimmy Dean. The Imperials chose Dean, and once again, Elvis needed a new backup group. And again, Elvis went to the gospel scene. He contacted a longtime friend, bass singer extraordinaire JD Sumner, who Elvis knew and idolized since his teens. (Elvis always wanted to be a bass singer, but couldn't) Elvis was shocked to learn that he could use JD's quartet, the Stamps, if he wanted to. Elvis agreed, but insisted that Sumner, who was no longer onstage full time with his quartet, sing along! So Elvis got JD Sumner… and the Stamps Quartet… to be his new vocal backup, and they would remain such until Elvis' untimely passing at the age of 42 in 1977.

Many fans of gospel music were critical of Sumner and the Stamps for becoming a part of the traveling Elvis show, singing as they did in venues like Las Vegas casinos and the like, but Sumner, who was very fond of Elvis in addition to being very independent as to what he did and sang and where he did it, was quick to point out that he and his quartet performed gospel music on their featured portion of the programs, and that they and Elvis sang gospel music to more people than perhaps anyone before them or since.

In my opinion, Elvis Presley did quite a bit for gospel music, not only bringing it forward to people who would not otherwise hear it in a compelling and powerful way, but also by his support and constant public touting of the great gospel music singers of his day.

And only the most hardened of cynics could hear Elvis Presley's versions of "Peace In The Valley", "How Great Thou Art", or "He Touched Me", and not conclude that he loved that music, and he loved to sing it. So the name Elvis Presley will always be associated in some way with good gospel music.