Bloggerhythms

It's a good thing that I don't live within walking distance of a used record store or I'd have to enter rehab to wean myself off of a potentially deadly addiction. Last week I visited  Siren Records  - in the small but very hip town of Doylestown, Pa - a well-known and much-loved retail outlet that has been in business at least thirty years, probably longer. The establishment is so popular that you need reservations to shop there on Record Store Day . I've found some good stuff on Siren's shelves in the past, and my visit there last week was no exception. They charge $5.99 a piece for used CDs that are in very good to mint condition, but if you buy five of them you'll pay only $20 for the whole pile. So much has been written about Elvis Presley's legendary, eponymous, major label debut for RCA that anything I add will most likely be redundant, but here are some thoughts on this gem I found in the store's abundantly stocked shelves. Even t...

A week before its actual screening on August 16, 2022 I bought tickets online to see Elvis - the first film I saw in a theater in at least two and a half years. At the time of my purchase, I had no idea that date eerily coincided with the 45th anniversary of the day Elvis Presley died way back in 1977. It's a day I remember well. My wife picked me up at the train station after work that day and told me the tragic news while driving home. Needless to say, I was shocked. The death of the King of Rock & Roll at age 42 is the epilogue to director Baz Luhrmann's excellent film about Presley, a man who has now been gone from us longer than he was alive.  The long, over two-and-a-half hour movie discusses all of the events that turned a shy, polite, mama's boy into someone who at one point was probably the most famous man in the world. Despite its length, the movie is fast paced so it holds your interest. It helps if you know something about P...

Despite its melodrama Elvis Presley's 1968 hit single, "If I Can Dream," is one of the finer performances of his career and has always been a particular favorite of mine. The song was written especially for The King by Walter Earl Brown two months after the Martin Luther King assassination, and the connection between the future classic and MLK should be obvious. The world debut of "If I Can Dream" was as the finale to a TV special Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, and NBC originally wanted to be a Christmas show. Instead, the superstar rebelled, so the hour-long program became  Singer Presents .... Elvis . It aired on December 3, 1968 and earned the highest rating of any show that season with 42% of all viewers watching TV tuned in that evening. Today, the legendary hour is more commonly known as the  '68 Comeback Special , and it completely revitalized his singing career.  The vocal and arrangement utilized one of my favorite musica...