on BBC4 - about the very early days and first album; it was Elvis and then The Beatles - sadly there's been nobody of real musical mass consequence ever since.

I know it was an old show (2001) but it told me a lot I never knew - that Presley was absolutely devoted to the music in the early days and totally dominated even Sam Phillips. Wonderful that Colonel Tom Parker wasn't allowed to speak in the studio - and quite right too; shame he was allowed to take over the Elvis musical direction or we'd have been spared those ghastly films and horrid soundtrack songs. (With very few exceptions - Viva Las Vegas was a great track).

JK2006 wrote:
sadly there's been nobody of real musical mass consequence ever since.
I take that's more your opinion than fact?

I'm probably too young to appreciate Elvis, he just sounds like all those terrible parodies of him, I guess I heard it all round the wrong way. Being that he was just a performer, not a writer, seems like an unlikely superstar of music to me as well.

Always On My Mind is a great song though, absolutely beautiful and makes my chin go all wobbly.

I think it is a case of everything coming together in one package so that billions - not millions - become entranced. Sinatra did it. Presley and the Beatles did it. Crossing out of music but, as a result, bringing people who really don't like music into the fold.

Funnily enough Always On My Mind was Willie Nelson's original for me. I was going to cover it long before the PSBs but never got round to it.