Posts

Showing posts from January 19, 2011

Cowboy Jack Clement & RCA Studio B

Image
Pat Boone, Cowboy, and Chet Atkins Jack Clement Newsletter December Question: Ron from Nashville, TN asked: Do you have any favorite stories, memories, or interesting notes associated with RCA Studio B from the recordings you produced there? I have a lot of memories of working and playing in RCA Studio B.  The first time I recorded there I was working at Sun Records in Memphis.  That was around 1957.  I had not yet learned to love the Sun Studio and I had written a couple of songs that I felt needed a dose of the Nashville Sound.  I had always wanted to meet Chet Atkins anyway, so I took my piano player and my favorite guitar and drove to Nashville.  We recorded a session in the RCA Studio with one of Chet's bass players.  It wasn't known as Studio B then because Studio A was still about 10 years in the future. I moved to Nashville from Beaumont, Texas in January, 1965 and rented 2 offices in the new RCA Studio building which is about 15 feet from the Studio B build

Don Kirshner - The Man With A Golden Ear Dies At 76

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news , world news , and news about the economy Don Kirshner, the impresario behind Brill Building pop, the Monkees, the Archies and his own music-television show, has died of heart failure. Kirshner was 76 and died in Boca Raton, Fla., according to a statement from his publicist. Called “the man with the golden ear” by Time magazine in 1966, he wrote songs with Bobby Darin as a college student. In the late 1950s he co-founded Aldon Music, a publishing company whose songwriters included the hit-making teams of Gerry Goffin and Carole King, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, and Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield. “Kirshner was like a father figure to us all,” Mann was quoted as saying in “The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll” (1980). “Everyone’s first thought, as we sweated over our battered old pianos, was whether Donny would be pleased.” After selling Aldon to Columbia Pictures, Kirshner moved into TV. He supervised the music for “The M

Remembering Carl Perkins Today!

Image
Carl Perkins & I in Memphis - August 1991 Carl Lee Perkins (April 9, 1932 – January 19, 1998) was an American rockabilly musician who recorded most notably at Sun Records Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, beginning during 1954. His best known song is "Blue Suede Shoes". According to Charlie Daniels, "Carl Perkins' songs personified the rockabilly era, and Carl Perkins' sound personifies the rockabilly sound more so than anybody involved in it, because he never changed." Perkins' songs were recorded by artists (and friends) as influential as Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and Johnny Cash, which further cemented his place in the history of popular music. Called "the King of Rockabilly", he was inducted into the Rock and Roll, the Rockabilly, and the Nashville Songwriters Halls of Fame; and was a Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipient. We miss you Carl!

Carl Perkins 50th Anniversary Edition Sun Records Limited Edition CD

Image
Carl Perkins 50th Anniversary Edition Sun Records Limited Edition CD Track Listing: Blue Suede Shoes Boppin The Blues Gone, Gone, Gone You Can't Make Love to Somebody Honey Don't All Mama's Children Dixie Fried Pink Pedal Pushers Matchbox Everybody's Tryin' To Be Be My Baby Roll Over Beethoven Glad All Over

Elvis Plaque From Civic Arena Up For Auction!

Image
 The We Remember Elvis Fan Club paid for a plaque that went up at the Civic Arena on Elvis Presley' birthday in 1982. But now, with the arena closed, the plaque is among the arena items up for sale to the highest bidder. On more mornings than she cares to remember, Priscilla Parker woke up early for flea markets where she sold donated items to come up with the $1,157 needed to buy a plaque commemorating Elvis Presley's three concerts at the Civic Arena. She and four girlfriends founded the We Remember Elvis Fan Club, and their plaque went up at the arena on Elvis' birthday in 1982. But now, with the arena closed, the plaque is among the arena items up for sale to the highest bidder. "It should be placed someplace where masses of people can see it and remember Elvis," Parker, 71, of Dormont, said. "All they want to do is tear things down and destroy stuff." The city-county Sports & Exhibition Authority gave its blessing to every item included

John Wilkinson As Judge For Ultimate Elvis Contest In Memphis

Image
We got this email from friend Teresa Campbell this morning and wanted to share it with you. Hello!, ELVIS FRIENDS!!! I hope that you are all well... Have talked to two very good friends of John Wilkinson (an original member of the TCB Band, I'm sure we all know) in this past week, and I wanted to pass on to you what was said. We started talking about John and his relationship with 'ELVIS', personally and professionally, and reminded each other that John was the only member to have played in all the concerts from '69 thru '77 without missing one single concert...remarkable!!!...the ONLY ONE to have accomplished such a feat...(along with 'ELVIS' of course...!!!) That's some record!  And my two friends and I got to talking about 'why not have John Wilkinson' on the panel in judging the ETA contestants?!...who else, having never missed a concert in all those years, would be a better judge on the panel than John???!!! I'm just passing on a

Zsa Zsa Gabor Selling Her Home Which Elvis Once Owned

Image
Zsa Zsa Gabor and her husband are selling their Los Angeles mansion for an asking price of $28 million, putting on the market a home once lived in by Elvis Presley, her spokesman said on Wednesday. The hillside house in the exclusive Los Angeles neighborhood of Bel Air was built for the late aviator and industrialist Howard Hughes, said John Blanchette, a publicist for Gabor. Presley lived in the house -- which has 26 rooms and a pool -- decades ago when he was acting in movies filmed in Los Angeles, Blanchette said. It is built into a hillside and overlooks the city. Gabor, 93, the star of 1950s films "Moulin Rouge" and "Lili," had her leg amputated on Friday because of a gangrene infection after hip replacement surgery in July. She is recovering in a Los Angeles hospital where doctors have said they are "guardedly optimistic" about her prospects. "We only use two rooms, all the other rooms are locked up. It doesn't make sense for two people

Lisa Marie Will Join Mama Presley In Vegas As Priscilla Is Honored As Woman Of The Year!

Image
Priscilla Presley is bringing daughter Lisa Marie and other family members to Nevada Ballet Theater’s Black and White Ball at Aria on Jan. 29 when she is presented with the Woman of the Year award.