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Justin is joined this week by musician Matthew Zeiss, professionally known as ZEISS, who is also the director of the forthcoming documentary "Moody Blue: Between the Lines," which was announced with a trailer during Elvis Week 2026 and is set to premiere in August 2027. Featuring new interviews with Glen Hardin, Jerry Scheff, Estelle Brown, Larry Strickland, Brent Maher, Layng Martine Jr, Letitia Henley Kirk, Shirley Dieu, archival interviews with James Burton and Mark James, and more yet to be announced, "Moody Blue" the documentary will explore Elvis' creative process in the less-commonly-explored late 1970s, including the abandoned 1977 Nashville session. Zeiss & the TCE band have also recorded new interpretations bringing their own influences and love of Elvis' music to the known demos selected for that session like "Energy," "By Day by Day" and "That's What You To Do Me," as well as covering several studio tracks from the Jungle Room sessions to craft one possible imagined alternate "Moody Blue" album. But come to find out, they would never have undertaken either project to begin with if not for an episode of TCBCast... the guys also talk plenty about numerous songs and demos Elvis was pitched, considered recording, or were written for him, including a fascinating rarely-discussed Mark James song that has also been uncovered by Zeiss, which the "Suspicious Minds" writer had explicitly told author Ken Sharp that he intended as Elvis' first possible disco hit. The duo also geek out about EPiC, mull over future Elvis projects such as EPE's announced hologram show, where tribute acts and AI-generated songs often fail at capturing the soul of Elvis' music despite technical accuracy, and much more. The trailer for Moody Blue: Between the lines is viewable on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbKD6X7Zc3U Moody Blue, ZEISS' album, can be heard on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/album/21XXQzTPXyLNE6SlGnzdEc

Following immediately on the heels of our discussion on Elvis and "Coat of Many Colors," John Michael Heath relates the story behind Kris Kristofferson writing his religious-themed 1973 #1 hit  "Why Me Lord." Then, to help us understand Elvis' cover better, explores the relationship between two of Elvis' favorite gospel groups, The Statesmen Quartet and The Blackwood Brothers Quartet, and in particular the friendly rivalry between their respective bass singers, Jim "Big Chief" Wetherington and J.D. Sumner (the latter of whom famously featured on Elvis' live performances of the song) as well as Elvis' admiration of both men. Then for his Song of the Week, Justin ponders the heartwrenching story told within Curly Putman's country classic, "Green, Green Grass of Home," the cinematic inspirations that gave Putman the premise, and of course Elvis' version recorded in 1975, though the song is perhaps most well known to the wider public through Tom Jones' hit 1966 recording.  If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.

In this special two-part episode of TCBCast featuring John Heath, Justin and John reflect on the life and music of Dolly Parton, yet their main focus is on the discrepancies between the legendary story of Elvis seeking to record "I Will Always Love You"... and history.  Source interviews, articles and books, as well as verifiable facts about how Colonel Parker's music publishing involvement was handled - and subsequently ignored - during the relevant time periods before and after the critical July 1973 Stax sessions, provide corroborating evidence (including from Dolly herself as well as credible accounts within Elvis' circle) that the dramatic story the world has become familiar with and has been repeated endlessly on social media was not as it seems...  ..Yet the true story, and the real song Elvis wanted to record, is also much more revealing about how Elvis and Dolly were deeply connected by their real life experiences of extreme poverty, a strong religious background, their generous spirits, and flashy senses of personal style. This episode is being split into two parts, part 1 focuses on this story, part 2 will be Songs of the Week; as you'll understand by the end, there's simply no tidy way to transition tonally from the closing of this part of episode to the accompanying Songs of the Week, and in fact Justin and John took a short couple minutes break to reset tonally so that they could tackle "Why Me Lord" and "Green Green Grass of Home" with as much enthusiasm as possible. Keep an eye out - those will be in your feed soon! The clip of the Elvis-y vocal interpretation of "I Will Always Love You" featured midway through the show is by Torben Otten.  Some of our most critical sources for this episode include: Alanna Nash's Revelations from the Memphis Mafia, Peter Guralnick's Careless Love and The Colonel & The King, Dolly Parton's Songteller: My Life in Lyrics, Dolly on Dolly edited by Randy Schmidt, Norbert Putnam's Music Lessons: A Musical Memoir, INTERVIEW magazine (1989), Playgirl (August 1978) and Playboy (October 1978) magazine interviews with Dolly Parton, Alan Fortas's Elvis from Memphis to Hollywood, Elvis Information Network's Ask Marty Lacker column, the ASCAP and BMI repertoire websites, and Keith Flynn's website.

Gurdip and Bec open the episode reflecting on the passing of actress and singer Shelley Fabares, who starred in three films with Elvis - Girl Happy, Spinout and Clambake - and sadly passed away on August 22, 2026. They also take time to remember beloved country singer-songwriter-actress Dolly Parton, who also passed away on August 25.  For the main topic, they're looking back on the final official US Camden LP, 1972's "Separate Ways" which both of them owned in various formats over the years. Meant to emulate the success of "Burning Love and Hits From His Movies Volume 2" which paired a recent popular single with a hodgepodge collection of assorted other recordings, "Separate Ways" gave listeners who were unable to find the single otherwise the title track and "Always On My Mind" but is otherwise largely comprised of tracks from the early 1960s, with a couple 50s songs sprinkled in. Gurdip's Song of the Week invites everyone to "Come Along" as he spotlights the song featured over the opening credits of the 1966 film "Frankie and Johnny." Meanwhile Bec goes for the breezy "Where Do You Come From," which was recorded for the "Girls! Girls! Girls!" soundtrack (but not featured in the film) and eventually selected as the B-side to the much more famous "Return to Sender."  If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.

On this episode, Bec has been hard at work compiling information, sources and versions of songs in order to tell the history behind one of her all-time favorite Elvis songs: "What Now My Love." Originally written by French musician Gilbert Bécaud and lyricist Pierre Delanoë, "Et Maintenant" became beloved around the world both in its original language, and with its localized English lyrics by Carl Sigman. With research assistance from friend of the show Helene de Roux, Bec explores what nuances are lost in translation and what strengths are found in Elvis' interpretation to match the power and passion of Bécaud's original performance, as well as numerous other versions by artists across a multitude of genres and backgrounds. But before that incredible story, Justin and Bec also discuss the latest Elvis news hot off Elvis Week, with EPE's announced hologram show in Vegas, rock critic Dave Marsh's passing, and upcoming FTDs. Sadly, this episode was recorded JUST before the news broke about Shelley Fabares' passing, as well as Dolly Parton, so those will be addressed in the next episode. Plus, in his Song of the Week, Justin makes the case that 1970's "Cindy, Cindy," once relegated to the 1971 "Love Letters from Elvis" album has been overlooked as one of the finest, purest rock and roll recordings of Elvis' 70s era, with that song's history easily showcasing the interplay between black gospel and hillbilly folk music in the South that provided the musical blueprint for rock and roll. If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.

Justin and Olivia are joined for our special Elvis Week episode by John Humphrey, drummer for alt-rock/post-grunge/metal band Seether ("Broken," "Remedy," "Fine Again," and more) as well as The Nixons (most famous for their 1996 hit "Sister"), who turns out to be a massive, nearly life-long Elvis fan with just as much enthusiasm and appreciation for digging deep on Elvis' music to match any TCBCast guest we've had before. The duo naturally pick John's brain all about his love of collecting Elvis albums, his thoughts on recent projects like EPiC and the 2022 film, Elvis' impact on rock music long after his death, which of Elvis' drummers is John's favorite, lessons learned navigating fame and the music industry from Elvis' precedent, what his bandmates think of Elvis, the most treasured item in his personal collection, and much more. Please check out seether.com for upcoming tour dates (as of this show's release, their fall 2026 tour spans across the United States) and to learn more about where pick up their music and merch. Thanks again to John for generously sharing his passion, enthusiasm, insights and time with us to remember Elvis. We hope all of our listeners have a peaceful, reflective and joyful day celebrating Elvis' legacy and impact on music, popular culture and our lives.

Gurdip joins Justin this week for a more unusually meta conversion, pondering how their Elvis fandom has waxed and waned over the years, how doing TCBCast has sustained and grown their interest in Elvis' life and career, how the internet has changed the way fans interact with each other, challenges that can make fandoms (of all types, of any interest) frustrating, and how to get back into the groove and nourish your appreciation and curiosity for learning about the subjects you love most. Plus, the guys catch up on a bunch of wonderful listener emails prompting interesting discussions about how TCBCast hosts do their research, Elvis' mid-60s slump, the strengths and weaknesses of King Creole, and finally, near the end of the episode, the duo randomly decide to dip into their personal lists of all-time favorite Elvis movies - both subjective personal favorites they love to revisit, and the ones they think are the best.

TCBCast's resident doo-wop king, Gurdip Ladhar, has been lured from hiding with the promise of getting to discuss Elvis' finest doo-wop-inspired records, as Gurdip, Bec and Justin discuss their top 5 each and ponder whether or not Elvis' cross-genre habits can be neatly put inside the boundaries of what was less of a genre and more a retrospective label applied to describe common fads in songwriting and arrangements for vocal groups within rhythm & blues and pop music that converged most prominently and popularly in the 1950s-1960s.  For Song of the Week, Bec builds a "House of Sand," looking into the upbeat and lightweight production number from 1966's "Paradise Hawaiian Style." Then finally, Justin tackles the history behind Elvis' version of "Your Cheatin' Heart," first released on the "Elvis for Everyone" album in 1965 despite being recorded in 1958, which doo-wop version of the song inspired Elvis', and why Hank Williams' landmark original posthumous hit remains one of the finest country records of all time.  If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.

Olivia, Ryan, Bec & Justin continue their exploration of 1968's "Live A Little, Love A Little" discussing the final act or so of the film, including the musical sequences "A Little Less Conversation" and "Almost in Love," as well as digging more into the major differences between the novel it as based on, "Kiss My Firm But Pliant Lips." Where in the film we see Elvis' juggling two jobs as photographer, in the novel, the equivalent protagonist is trying to juggle two jobs and two women, and the gang weighs the climax of the novel where it all comes to a head with the adaptation's more simplified (and somewhat confusing) but perhaps more thematically interesting resolution.  Plus, they glean historical context such as what scene Elvis was filming when news broke that Dr. King had assassinated, and other insights on the making of the film from the highly recommended biography of Norman Taurog, "Elvis' Favorite Director" by "Live A Little, Love A Little" screenwriter Michael Hoey. Also discussed are more of "Kiss My Firm..." author Dan Greenburg's works, including two Elvis-themed children's books from decades later, one called "Elvis the Turnip and Me" and another "Attack of the Evil Elvises," as well as possible insights (and disappointing discoveries about Greenburg) on real-life inspirations for Bernice & Alice from his 1972 memoir, "Scoring." Be sure to also check out Ryan's new Substack over at https://substack.com/@mrdrostehistory If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.

As selected by TCBCast's patrons as the next movie starring Elvis to review, the gang is gathered to talk about what is, coincidentally, Olivia's favorite Elvis movie: "Live A Little, Love A Little." While Justin and Gurdip had previously done an episode all the way back in 2018 about the film, this time around we've got Ryan, Bec, Olivia and Justin all on board to talk about re-experiencing the film in 2026, with added context as Olivia has also picked up a copy of the Dan Greenburg novel the film is adapted from, "Kiss My Firm But Pliant Lips." We discuss co-star Michele Carey, the stacked supporting cast including former superstar Rudy Vallee, Dick Sargent, Don Porter, Sterling Holloway, Eddie Hodges and Celeste Yarnell, as well as recount details from screenwriter Michael Hoey's biography of director Norman Taurog, "Elvis' Favorite Director." This first part of the two-parter covers the first hour or so of the film and the featured songs "Wonderful World" and "Edge of Reality," but as the film's narrative diverges from the back half of the novel substantially, part two will dig more into the differences, as well as the other two musical sequences. If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.

Justin is joined for this episode by Ryan Droste, who, hearing the call of duty as TCBCast's American-history-teacher-in-chief, swung by to discuss Elvis' Independence Day concerts; briefly the 1955 and 1956 performances early in his career, but primarily the July 4, 1976, show in Tulsa, Oklahoma, celebrating America's 200th anniversary. Fifty years later, on America's semi-quincentennial, the guys revisit the soundboard recording, as heard on FTD's 2017 release The Bicentennial Show. Staying on theme, the duo's Songs of the Week highlight America as well: Ryan's pick of "Hawaiian Sunset" from the soundtrack of Blue Hawaii pays homage not only to the 50th state, but to an earlier Sammy Kaye song of the same name that songwriters Sid Tepper & Roy Bennett clearly were drawing influence from. Then, finally, Justin looks into the story behind "America the Beautiful," its writer, Katharine Lee Bates, the trip to Peaks Pike, Colorado, that inspired the poem, our readings of its other, less famous verses and, of course, Elvis' performances of the song version in 1975/1976 intended to celebrate the bicentennial.

Inspired by a listener email, Justin and John Heath (of EAP Society and Atomic Wax) got into a vigorous debate over whether Elvis's musical output in the years following his return from the US Army were creatively stagnant, or a different sort of ambition, with Elvis intentionally exploring new sounds and styles, finally trying to marry the country, blues and rock and roll he had already mastered with traditional pop stylings he had aspirations toward but not perfected during the 1950s. Across hit singles and albums like "Something for Everybody," "Pot Luck," and the "lost" album from the 1963 sessions, as well as soundtracks such as Blue Hawaii, Fun in Acapulco and Viva Las Vegas, the guys try to trace Elvis' creative journey, comparing Elvis' artistic flourishes, direct influences and creative engagement during the period before the slog of poor Hollywood movies hampered his investment in material. Finally, Justin prompts John to jump in a time machine and play armchair producer, suggesting some theoretical material that Elvis might have shown even greater investment, bringing himself more fully to the proceedings - and just to be fair, Justin does the same! If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. This episode's debate continued into a short post-show, exclusive to our Patreon backers!

Bec & Justin continue their exploration through Elvis' creative journey during his military service. The piano-driven tracks on Elvis' 1958-59 home recordings from Germany notably feature much heavier distortion due to the tape recorder likely having been set either on or directly next to the piano, which Elvis plays heavy-handedly, but they remaing intriguing listens.  While Elvis backs off from gospel, we instead hear him now exploring further ideas for his upcoming albums and singles, such as the operatic "There's No Tomorrow," the underlying public domain melody of which would become "It's Now or Never," "Soldier Boy," and "Such A Night." Elvis also sings songs that would not surface again until many years later in his recording career such as "I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen," "I Will Be True" and "The Fool."  But perhaps most fascinating are, as usual, the songs that Elvis never revisited professionally: "Apron Strings," a song originally demoed for him but later recorded by Cliff Richard, the mysterious "The Titles Tell," long known merely as "Number Eight," and of course, Elvis' poignant version of "Earth Angel" by doo-wop group The Penguins, among others. Finally - after having investigated for ourselves, do the recordings align with the widely-discussed insinuation that Elvis' time in the military was what turned him from dangerous rocker to smooth pop star... or is the story more complicated? Also, Justin sneaks a mini-Song of the Week midway into the episode, discussing briefly a little about Danny & The Juniors' iconic 1950s party song "At the Hop," which Elvis references during these home recordings.

Across this episode and the next, Justin and Bec are taking an extensive look at Elvis' home recordings made during his time in the US Army while serving in Germany. Though none of them surfaced until after his death, as we learned from "The Colonel & The King" last year, Elvis was explicitly encouraged by his manager to record material at home in secret. Excerpts from the tapes have appeared on such releases as A Legendary Performer Vol. 4, A Golden Celebration, Home Recordings, and Memphis Recording Services' "Made in Germany" - and by sheer coincidence, on the day we recorded the episode, the official Elvis collector's label Follow That Dream announced an upcoming 2026 box set "Elvis - Soldier Boy" that will feature two books and new restorations of these home recordings. What we hear on the tapes is a a fly on the wall glimpse of a deeply private celebrity during a period of intense homesick and loneliness, coping with the grief of having lost his mother and being away from everything he's come to know as a successful musician and film star... but also a determined, fully invested artist developing his skills. Plainly evident is Elvis exploring concepts and styles with friends, family and creative collaborators like Red West and Charlie Hodge, for his return to his career upon the end of his military service.  Songs like "Like A Baby" and "Are You Lonesome Tonight" foreshadow Elvis' singles and secular "Elvis is Back" album from 1960, while his love of gospel continues to be evident as "He Knows Just What I Need" and "His Hand in Mine" similarly nod toward the coming gospel album. Yet there on these tapes that Elvis never again touched (on known recordings, anyway): Hank Williams' "I Can't Help It If I Still In Love With You," Nat King Cole's "Mona Lisa," and Don Gibson's "Oh Lonesome Me," and many more! Was he just fooling around with songs he'd heard, or was he seriously considering these for his upcoming albums? And with material like "Are You Sincere," "Stand By Me" and "Danny Boy" popping up here, too: how do these home recordings fit into the larger puzzle of Elvis' musical journey from pre-Sun Records all the way to the Jungle Room? We ponder all that and more. A technical note: Aside from clips from the above box sets/compilations where specifically mentioned, most of the audio from the home recordings you'll hear is audio that has been "re-balanced" on a per-track basis for the purposes of education, analysis and historical interest. While the new FTD set is not available yet, and MRS's release was a decently faithful restoration of the tape, other releases have featured excessive noise removal, so much of what you hear in this episode are careful adjustments that aim to retain full content and quality while making the vocal nuances a bit clearer as though the tape recorder had been a bit closer to Elvis & the other vocalists' mouths rather than closer to the instruments. Hopefully you may hear little inflections or details you hadn't ever heard before!

This week, we're heading down to New Orleans circa 1958 to revisit the soundtrack and recording sessions for the iconic musical drama "King Creole." The Dixieland aesthetic gave Elvis an opportunity experiment, melding his now-signature rock and roll style with a small jazz ensemble, creating a soundtrack LP that had a distinct sound all its own. Although few outtakes remain, the songwriter demos for nearly the entire soundtrack provide insight on how Elvis and the band further developed such classic songs as "Trouble," "Hard Headed Woman" and "Crawfish" into the final forms heard in the film. Bec also takes the opportunity chat a bit about her appreciation for the movie itself, highlighting some of her takeaways from her most recent viewing, and posing questions about the Michael Curtiz-directed film as one of Elvis' best starring roles. For Song of the Week, Justin provides a little insight on what influences may have led Elvis to experimenting at home in the mid-1960s with an early 1950s pop ballad, "My Heart Cries for You." Finally, Bec rounds out the episode with a reflection on the intimacy of the underrated "I Miss You" which was also a home recording of sorts - as it was recorded professionally by RCA in Elvis' Palm Springs home! If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.