RCA RECORDS 
In 1956, Sun Records was able to show off by hosting an impromptu jam session by the Million Dollar Quartet, having a genuinely stupendous line-up: Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis (Sun-signed artists all, though Elvis was by now at RCA). (May 2011) * * * After Elvis Presley signed with RCA Victor Records, his first single on the new label, “Heartbreak Hotel” was released on January 27, 1956. The song was Elvis’s first #1 pop single and first million-selling record; it went on to become the biggest selling record of the entire year. (June 2013/1) * * * After they moved East, the band’s name was changed to the Coronados; Ruben changed his name slightly to Reuben Ortiz, and Steven Ortiz masqueraded as a brother-in-law, rather than a brother, by the name of Steven Coronado. Sources vary, with some saying that Anita Ortiz of the Ortiz Trio, continued in the Coronados; but at least by 1965, Reuben’s wife Ginger Ortiz was on board. The Coronados recorded a few 45’s and one album, called Hey, Love!; their music was released on Jubilee Records and RCA Victor Records.
(August 2013)
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This is not to say that Elvis Presley was only a songbird – far from it. In the article on “Love Me Tender”, Wikipedia goes on to say: “As with nearly all his early RCA recordings, Presley took control in the studio despite not being credited as producer. He would regularly change arrangements and lyrics to the point the original song was barely recognizable. This, arguably, justified the co-writing credit in this case.
“Ken Darby described Elvis Presley’s role in the creation of the song: ‘He adjusted the music and the lyrics to his own particular presentation. Elvis has the most terrific ear of anyone I have ever met. He does not read music, but he does not need to. All I had to do was play the song for him once, and he made it his own! He has perfect judgment of what is right for him. He exercised that judgment when he chose “Love Me Tender” as his theme song.’”
(April 2015/1)
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The Under Appreciated Rock Band of the Month for September 2016 is LIGHTNING STRIKE; I know them from a 1988 RCA Victor Records album, Lightning Strike that I picked up years ago. This was an early attempt at a punk and hip hop fusion that works really well to these ears. “Beat Street” was actually the second choice by Lightning Strike for their first single. As related by Paul Fischer: “Debut single was due to be live favorite ‘Exocet Alley’, a blast of Rick Rubin-esque rap-rock via Sigue Sigue Sputnik, which derided Jeffrey Archer in the lyrics.” Jeffrey Archer is a Conservative Party politician in England who had been caught with a prostitute in 1986. In July 1987, Archer launched a high-profile libel suit against one newspaper who reported the story, the Daily Star; and the record label decided to pass on the release. In the Paul Fischer interview, Eddie Auffray reports that Lightning Strike worked for two years on demos for a second album on RCA, but the label wasn’t interested. As a self-titled album, Lightning Strike by Lightning Strike suffers from a name problem. Many websites show the band name as Lightning, and the album name as Strike. Even the record label on one of the RCA releases got it wrong. (September 2016) * * * Continuing the overview of Iggy Pop and his seminal proto-punk band the Stooges from earlier in the year, here is a band that (until the present century) left behind just three studio albums, with a total of only 23 songs. By comparison, the Beatles’ Abbey Road album alone has 17 songs. For those who are fans, that can be extremely frustrating – and I know that all too well as someone who writes about Under Appreciated Rock Bands who often (though not always) don’t have a recorded output that is even that large. Iggy Pop started his prolific solo career quickly enough, but Iggy’s solo albums are as different from his work with the Stooges as Elvis Presley’s music after he got out of the Army is from his early rockabilly sides at Sun Records and RCA. (September 2017) |