[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfkLnZhhoTY]
I missed the King's birthday, which was January 8, but I wanted to go ahead and get a post up for him anyway. This is positively one of my favorite Elvis performances. I love the style here; that New Orleans brass band sound is so great. I love the whole set up for this performance, too, from King Creole. Maxie Fields (a young Walter Matthau) challenges the bus boy Danny (Presley) to get up and perform after hearing he's a pretty good singer, believing that he can't live up to the hype. Danny accepts the challenge somewhat begrudgingly, and he proceeds to tear it up in true Elvis style, starting kind of low key and working into the big moment. The long, icy stare he gives Fields as he's being announced is impressive acting.
There have been and probably will ever be few artists out there that come close to matching the success Presley had in his short career. The number of albums released, films starred in, concerts performed, and halls of fame inducted into are so out there, it's hard to imagine someone measuring up to that. There have been some that came close, but no one has had quite the impact on pop culture that Presley had.
A belated happy birthday to the King!
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