Advertise on podcast: TCBCast: An Unofficial Elvis Presley Fan Podcast

Oh yeah, we went there. Gurdip & Justin sit down with the 1978 compilation album, intended for children but so often cited by Elvis fans who were around at the time as one of the worst and most misguided projects Colonel Tom Parker ever spearheaded... but is it, really?! Closer examination may be necessary! (Note: the guys ponder why the presence of an elephant in the artwork; Bec reached out after the fact and reminded us that Colonel Parker's favorite animal was, in fact, the elephant!) Also discussed is the newly surfaced Forth Worth, TX footage of Elvis from early 1958 (available here through the University of North Texas: https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc2049375/m1/?fbclid=IwAR1d8oliLIWVkU29QBzgdovqXuai1MqaWMZClyo3eYU3hHMPQjYTj8typek) and the upcoming release of numerous demos from songwriter Randy Starr on the Bear Family Records label "Randy Starr - Presley Style" as well as a rarely-seen or discussed November 1957 article about Elvis from TAN magazine that was dug up by friend of the show John Michael Heath. For Song of the Week, Gurdip knocks out another classic 50s track with the early country ballad "I'm Counting On You" that featured on Elvis' debut LP, while Justin sifts through the web of interconnected gospel songs that connect to "You Better Run," which Elvis was recorded and filmed singing during the rehearsals for "Elvis On Tour" in 1972 and also performed in concert at least a couple more times later in the 1970s. Source for the TAN magazine scan: https://archive.org/details/sim_tan_1957-11_8_1/page/30/mode/2up?view=theater

One for the money, two for the show, three to get ready... For our main topic this week, Justin's extensive Song of the Week takes priority, as the guys dig into the history of "Blue Suede Shoes," originally written and recorded by Carl Perkins and famously associated with Elvis throughout his career and beyond. What was Carl tapping into when he wrote it in 1955, why did it have such appeal, and has it been overplayed? Numerous versions by both Perkins and Elvis over the years are covered and discussed. The story doesn't stop there - Justin's dug up what he believes to be some history behind when the soft, delicate dyed leather itself leapt the gender line and was introduced into men's footwear after decades of being associated with women and European nobility.  Then Gurdip, for his Song of the Week, selects "I Love You Because," the country-pop ballad that Elvis toyed around with alongside Scotty and Bill during that first professional Sun session that would later explode with "That's All Right."  An irreplaceable source this week was the book "Go Cat Go: The Life and Times of Carl Perkins, the King of Rockabilly" by Carl Perkins and David McGee and is highly recommended reading. Here's a link to the auction site with photos of Elvis' blue suede shoes as worn on the Steve Allen Show: https://rockhurstauctions.com/1956_Elvis_Presley_Owned_and_Worn_Blue_Suede_Shoes-LOT7513.aspx If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.

Valentine's Day's coming up soon, so Justin and Bec decided to round up their favorite Elvis songs about love and relationships, and Bec even wrangled Gurdip and Ryan's lists from them as well. It's a total gush-fest over some of the most expressive and memorable romantic recordings Elvis ever made. For Song of the Week, Bec stays on theme, picking the more downbeat "Something Blue" from the album "Pot Luck" while Justin spotlights "Tell Me Why," one of Elvis' more underrated and obscure 1957 recordings, left unreleased until surfacing on a single in the mid-1960s. If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.

The TCBCast gang is off for one week, but we've got something special from the archives: one of our earliest previously Patreon-exclusive unofficial commentaries, for the 1992 heavily-Elvis-inspired rom-com "Honeymoon in Vegas" starring Nicolas Cage, Sarah Jessica Parker and James Caan, written & directed by Andrew Bergman (Blazing Saddles, The Freshman) with a soundtrack jam-packed with covers of Elvis songs and the movie itself containing numerous original Elvis recordings as well. Gurdip and Justin sat down with the film back in early 2021 for the first time in years to see if it held up. "Honeymoon in Vegas" is, as of this upload in 2024, available to buy digitally on a handful of platforms including Apple & Amazon - or you can do like we hosts did and cue up our old DVDs (or even VHS!) to watch along - or just enjoy the listen! And let us know if you watched it when it first came out. whether you've seen it recently, or if you're a fan of the Elvis-inspired soundtrack, as always you can email us at tcbcast@gmail.com If you enjoyed this, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast! Patrons get exclusive access to an archive of three years of bonus content just like this, with more commentaries, bonus movie and album reviews, early access to new episodes and more! If you are unable to support us via Patreon, but want to support us another way, please make sure to leave a positive review or mention our show to another like-minded music/movie history enthusiast.

Justin and Bec take a closer listen to Elvis' sessions from March 1972 at RCA Studio C in Hollywood, which gave us iconic hits like "Burning Love," "Always on My Mind" and "Separate Ways" along with several cuts relegated to B-sides and later LPs. They also ponder what might have been, looking at the cancelled 1972 album "Standing Room Only," that would have been largely comprised of this studio material mixed with live tracks from a Vegas engagement earlier that year. Bec is in the hotseat for a round of Elvis trivia early in the episode, then for Song of the Week, she picks the deep cut "I Want You With Me" from 1961's "Something for Everybody" while Justin digs into "I've Got Confidence" from a different 1972 album, "He Touched Me"! If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.

Gurdip & Justin ring in 2024 by looking at one of the earliest posthumous albums from 1978, "A Canadian Tribute," created to celebrate Elvis' 1957 tour of Canada and the songs Elvis recorded that have Canadian connections. Gurdip, as our resident Canadian, had this one in his youth so the guys decided to see if it holds up as well as it did back in the day.  The guys also discuss the announcement of Lisa Marie's new book, coming this October completed by Riley Keough, additional information on the Elvis Evolution experience scheduled to premiere this November, and the announcement that EPE has acquired what is claimed to be the original 1954 acetate of "That's All Right" played on the air by Dewey Phillips, the authenticity of which has been called into question in numerous fan groups and most prominently by our friends at EAP Society (please check out their video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDKGo5lpx40) Gurdip grills Justin on a different type of Elvis trivia, and for Song of the Week, he takes on "Are You Sincere" from the 1973 "Raised on Rock" album, while Justin ponders "What Now, What Next, Where To?" - a solid 1963 cut that undeservedly languished as a bonus track on the soundtrack for "Double Trouble." If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.

Marking Elvis Presley's 89th birthday (and 6 years and 300 episodes of TCBCast), Justin, Gurdip, Ryan and Bec gather to give their thoughts on writer-director Sofia Coppola's adaptation of Priscilla Presley's autobiography. The gang dig in and ponder whether it's any better or offers anything more than the other previous depictions of the Elvis & Priscilla story: e.g. the 1988 TV adaptation, the 2005 CBS miniseries, the handful of scenes in Baz Luhrmann's "Elvis"... but ultimately pitting it against its source: Priscilla & Sandra Harmon's original 1985 bestselling book "Elvis & Me." As we expect most of our listeners will already be familiar with the story of "Elvis & Me," the discussion is more broad, generally covering the main beats. While there is minor discussion on Elvis news at the start, since this particular topic was always going to bit a bit chunkier, the first Songs of the Week of 2024 will arrive on TCBCast 301.  Warning: this episode contains audio of a fictionalized portrayal of sexual violence from the 1988 TV movie starting at around 2:16:30. Please skip about a minute around there if this may be upsetting for any of our listeners in any way. We apologize for not including a warning in the episode itself as we usually would. If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.

Happy New Year!! Justin is out sick so episode 300 is delayed! So what is this? Well if you add up all the various bonus episodes along the way we've well blown past 300 long ago anyway so the number's arbitrary, so give us this weird one! Gurdip is joined by John Michael Heath from EAP Society to briefly discuss news and the recent "Elvis: Now In Person 1972" FTD 4-CD set and book by David English and Pal Granlund, as well as to bond over gospel and doo-wop. Plus - a round of Elvis Trivia returning this week as John is in the hotseat! There's no Song of the Week this week - just a fun, lightweight discussion. The gang will be back next week for the proper 300! Want to hear more from John and Jamie Kelley? Visit youtube.com/EAPSociety If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting the show over at Patreon.com/TCBCast. If you are unable to support us via Patreon, but want to support us another way, please make sure to leave a positive review or mention our show to another like-minded music/movie history enthusiast.

Like socks. underwear and an ugly sweater from a relative you never see, you didn't ask for it but you're getting it anyway.  The biggest gathering of guests on a single episode of TCBCast ever convene for the strangest of holiday events: Clambake. We know exactly what you're thinking, but it turns out there's SO MUCH MORE we didn't talk about last year, there's less overlap than you might expect in terms of things to learn about 1967's "Clambake." We even managed to squeeze a Song of the Week in mid-show for "A House That Has Everything," digging into its roots as Mexican melody "Te Quiero Dijiste" and its other English adaptation "Magic is the Moonlight." And you know, even these end-of-year holidays aren't often so much about the holiday itself - it's the coming together with the people you care about. Speaking of which, here's who all makes an appearance: Gurdip, Justin, and Bec  Rabia and Felix from Suddenly: A Frank Sinatra Podcast John Michael Heath from EAP Society David "Ghosty" Wills from We Say Yeah: A Cliff Richard Fan Podcast  And special guests Olivia Murphy-Rogers, Darin Evans and Garrett Cash. The entire listening audience gets to vote whether this tradition continues next year, email "Clambake Yes" or "Clambake No" to clambake2024@gmail.com. Chapters:  0:00: Preshow 8:23: Official Introductions & Clambake Memories 31:44: Will Hutchins Memories w/Ghosty Wills 51:00: "Who Needs Clambake?" 1:01:17: Gildersleeve and Good 1:23:28: Shelley Fabares Discussion 1:31:18: Song of the Week: A House That Has Everything 1:50:24: Confidence, Agent Elvis and Italian James Bond 2:09:50: Clambake's Story Is Broken... But Didn't Have to Be! 2:23:25: Shortnin' Bread... and Bikinis, Too! 2:49:17: Post 'Bake Clarity 2:58:13: Clambake Down Under, GOOP and Daddy Issues 3:06:12: Soundtrack, Bonus Songs & Metacommentary 3:38:44: In Praise of Jeff Alexander 3:47:12: Arthur H. Nadel & The Lost OTHER Agent Elvis 3:58:25: Closing Thoughts & A Very Merry Clambake To All

Gurdip & Justin react to recent Elvis news, including Elvis' current charting holiday hits, the release of streaming data for "Agent Elvis" on Netflix for the first half of 2023, and Baz Luhrmann's statements that he intends to eventually, "one day" create an episodic version of his "Elvis" film. They guys also reflect on both the year 2023 for TCBCast, and the last six years of the show.  For Song of the Week, Gurdip selects "Long Legged Girl (With the Short Dress On)" from 1967's "Double Trouble." For Justin, the question is: how do you handle discussing "Silver Bells," one of the most famous Christmas songs of all time that everyone's heard? You try to ignore all the noise, talk about the movie it was written for, one which quite never became a perennial holiday favorite, and the songwriters' hilarious original title. We'll have one more episode of TCBCast dropping later this week - before Christmas - and it's a doozy. Stay tuned! If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting the show over at Patreon.com/TCBCast. If you are unable to support us via Patreon, but want to support us another way, please make sure to leave a positive review or mention our show to another like-minded music/movie history enthusiast.

This week, Gurdip and Justin finally do an episode they've been threatening to do for some time now, exploring the work of Italian DJ Agostino Carollo, aka "Spankox," who in the late 00s began remixing Elvis songs that had fallen into the European public domain and ended up getting the endorsement of EPE/Graceland for his first two albums, making them technically official releases... an endorsement subsequently lost for the third, holiday-themed project.  The guys cover those first three albums, and also touch upon an obscure 2003 Elvis-inspired movie project, "DJ Hound Dog," that Spankox worked on and produced before turning in his "Baby Let's Play House" remix, as well as what else he's been remixing in recent years since he has mostly stopped producing new Elvis mixes. Even people who don't like remixes might find this episode interesting and funny - and if you really don't like these remixes specifically, you may feel a little schadenfreude by the time we get to "Christmas Remixes." In the news segment, the guys also briefly discuss the announcement of "Priscilla" coming to digital platforms (FYI this episode was recorded prior to the announcement of Cailee Spaenee being nominated for a Golden Globe), "Elvis' Golden Records" rising up into the Top 50 country albums chart earlier this month, and Justin give my initial impressions of the new book "Elvis and The Colonel: An Insider's Look at the Most Legendary Partnership in Show Business" by Greg McDonald and Marshall Terrill.  For Song of the Week, Gurdip picks the home recording "Sweet Leilani," most famously done by Bing Crosby, and Justin decided to go with the holiday season theme and highlight the lesser-appreciated "It Won't Seem Like Christmas Without You" from the 1971 "Elvis Sings the Wonderful World of Christmas" album.  If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting the show over at Patreon.com/TCBCast. If you are unable to support us via Patreon, but want to support us another way, please make sure to leave a positive review or mention our show to another like-minded music/movie history enthusiast.

Ryan and Bec take the reins this week for a fun-filled episode as both dig into their favorite Elvis performances that were professionally filmed, from TV appearances, network specials & documentary films. Ryan also gives his thoughts on the Christmas at Graceland NBC special, and both react to news from Baz Luhrmann about his future Elvis-related projects. For Song of the Week, Bec explores the history behind "I Believe in the Man in the Sky" from the "His Hand in Mine" album, while Mr. Droste takes us back to "Poison Ivy League" from 1964's "Roustabout." If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting the show over at Patreon.com/TCBCast. If you are unable to support us via Patreon, but want to support us another way, please make sure to leave a positive review or mention our show to another like-minded music/movie history enthusiast.