Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Chips Moman, a producer...

...and songwriter, died at age 79. From his obit in the Times (my emphasis):

Perhaps his greatest triumph as a producer came in 1969, when Elvis Presley, who had not had a hit record since 1965, did an end run around his controlling manager, Col. Tom Parker, and decided to record at American Sound, where Mr. Moman tapped into Presley’s roots in country and blues music.

The sessions yielded four hit singles — “In the Ghetto,” “Suspicious Minds,” “Don’t Cry Daddy” and “Kentucky Rain” — and two career-defining platinum albums: “From Elvis in Memphis, ” which The Daily Telegraph of London in 2009 called “the pinnacle of Presley’s midcareer return to glory,” and “From Memphis to Vegas/From Vegas to Memphis,” a mixture of live and studio recordings.

At a news conference after the sessions, Presley said, “We have some hits, don’t we, Chips?” Mr. Moman replied, “Maybe some of your biggest.”

You know, Elvis was really quite a performer. That video was from 1970 when the King was making a "comeback" at the ripe, old age of 35! (Presley died in 1977 at age 42; can you believe it? I'll never forget where I was when I heard the news.)

Oh, and by the way, Elvis:

...was born with dirty blonde hair. It got darker as he got older but after he started to become famous around 1956 he began dying his hair a jet black color. In his first movie, "Love Me Tender," you can see his natural hair color, and by his second movie, "Loving You," you can see he had dyed it.

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