John Heath of EAP Society joins Justin for an extensive (but still HIGHLY abbreviated!) discussion about the history of the music industry in Memphis before and during Elvis' career, from early blues recordings made by Ralph Peer to Sam Phillips' Sun Records, from indie labels inspired by Sun's success to the monumental Stax Records, how Chips Moman's American Sound came together, and up through Elvis's Jungle Room recordings as the city's music industry wound down in the late 70s. It's all explored through a playlist of about two dozen tracks compiled by John, linked below.

If you've been exploring the 2024 Sony box set release "Memphis," you will find this a great supplemental discussion. There are no specific songs of the week this week, just a ton of amazing music history to delve into.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0a1G2qR6gFfQT13UzrBTLg?si=09505e6244c44da8&fbclid=IwY2xjawEdLxBleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHTrNyBF-6SkoS9goKzglqEqOstRBysdp99mM1miKBy5StaEBDUZ1HVJJjw_aem_hAjH3ZILor4p4CAcxsoarw&nd=1&dlsi=f85c2bdb288d4a43

You can also find the final track intended for this playlist, which is not on Spotify, on YouTube at this link (current as of release): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ipqz1oIt4TA

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 by John Michael Heath of EAP Society (youtube.com/EAPSociety) to give their first impressions of the new Sony Legacy box set, "Memphis" which released today, August 9, 2024. 

Marketed as "a comprehensive collection" of 111 recordings of Elvis made in his adoptive hometown from his time at Sam Phillips's Sun Records through to Chips Moman's American Sound, the iconic Stax, live at the Mid-South Coliseum and at his home, Graceland, "Memphis" is said to contain "newly mixed versions of the select recordings, pure and without overdubs" overseen by award-winning engineer Matt Ross-Spang and producer Ernst Jorgensen. 

Spoilers: there's good news for those who want to re-experience the 1973, 1974 and 1976 material in a different light than you may be familiar with, and a faithful collection of the Sun material... but this set's presentation of the 1969 American Sound music is a different story altogether. And that "pure and without overdubs" claim? Well, you'll hear.

The guys also answer listener feedback on this episode, including several about a recent Song of the Week, but since this discussion ran long, Justin and John will be back later with a separate, full length episode for the main topic intended to supplement and compliment the "Memphis" set, focused on the history of the music industry in Memphis, how Elvis was influenced by it, and how he in turn helped reshape it. 

Justin was out last week, so we've pulled this from deep in the archives buried in the back of the TCBCast salt mines: Gurdip and Justin's 2022 review of Pat Boone's landmark 1963 Elvis tribute record "Pat Boone Sings Guess Who?" No, we're not joking! 

This may be the most we're ever gonna talk about Pat Boone at one time so we crammed in a few of his other hits into the discussion on top of this... album? Experience? Prank?

It's the project that got Boone inducted into Colonel Parker's Snowmen's League of America and features arrangements by credible jazz pianist Paul Smith. Part spoof, part homage... if you can only say one thing, well you can't say that Pat Boone was never in on the joke!

Then, from the July 2022 edition of TCBCast Now, Justin heads west for our "Song of the Month" segment, selecting Marty Robbins' iconic 1959 showdown ballad "Big Iron," while Gurdip was inspired to pick Englebert Humperdinck's sweeping 1968 recording "A Man Without Love" by a recent movie viewing. Both songs Elvis was likely to have been familiar with, released during his lifetime from contemporaries!

Next week on TCBCast, we'll be bringing our first impressions of the "Memphis" box set which releases THIS FRIDAY, August 9 - plus EAP Society co-host John Michael Heath will be joining in for a special episode about the history of Memphis' music industry. 

If you like this kind of content, you can hear more bonus content just like this that we do for our supporters over at Patreon.com/TCBCast. We kindly thank all our Patreon backers - 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!

Ryan & Justin convene to revisit one of their all-time favorite live Elvis albums, "On Stage 1970," which was conceived as an album full of new songs, compiled from a mix of Vegas shows from February 1970, padded out with a couple leftovers from the August 1969 engagement.

Both of the guys had the album early in their respective fandoms and have a huge appreciation for this period of Elvis's career, just a few months prior to the famous "That's The Way Is It" run in August 1970. The duo also briefly touches on the bonus tracks included on the 1999 expanded edition, the 2010 Legacy edition, and "The On Stage Season," the FTD release which featured a high quality soundboard of the closing show from February 23, 1970, which gives a better idea of what an Elvis show during this period felt like front to back than the sort of fantasy concert presented by the album.

For Song of the Week, Justin goes back into the history behind Bob Wills' "Faded Love," which Elvis cut in mid-1970 for the "Elvis Country" album, which stretches as far back as an incredible, heartbreaking true story from the mid-19th century that inspired "Dear Nellie Gray," the song whose melody that became Faded Love. Ryan, on the other hand, takes it light with the breezy "There's A Brand New Day on the Horizon" off the 1964 "Roustabout" soundtrack.

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. 

Gurdip was really feeling the season, so in between prepping for next week's meaty episode with Ryan on "On Stage 1970", Justin and Gurdip had a breezy little classic TCBCast-style discussion about the Elvis songs that evoke memories or give them vibes of warm summer days. 

The guys also quickly tackle two Songs of the Week, with Gurdip giving "Once is Enough" from "Kissin' Cousins" the second chance he feels it deserves, and Justin simmering with the understated (and oft-overlooked) Don Robertson-penned ballad "Love Me Tonight" from the early 1963 sessions that should have led to a studio album (later known as The Lost Album or For the Asking), but instead the song was buried as a bonus on the soundtrack for "Fun in Acapulco."

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. 

After 5 1/2 years, TCBCast returns to the subject of books about Elvis as a full episode! Gurdip and Justin did an early episode of the show about some of their favorite reads on the life, career and phenomenon of Elvis, but this time Bec gets to open up her extensive Elvis library to talk about her favorites, and Justin gets to talk about some of the ones he's read and appreciated most in the intervening years. These aren't necessarily recommendations to rush out and buy immediately after listening, as a few that are referenced are quite difficult to find nowadays (especially the FTD books) but there are definitely a few that you may want to pick up afterwards.

For Song of the Week, Bec picks "I'm Falling in Love Tonight", the Don Robertson ballad that the songwriter himself got to play on for the "It Happened At the World's Fair" soundtrack, while Justin highlights "Take Good Care of Her," which Elvis had a Top 10 country hit with in 1974.

One of the news items we reference at the top of the show: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/graceland-elvis-presley-scam-naussany-branson-missouri-rcna157155 

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. 

Originally recorded in August 2022 as a TCBCast Patreon exclusive, Bec and Justin sit down with the 1993 NBC TV movie "Elvis and the Colonel: The Untold Story," starring Rob Youngblood as Elvis and Beau Bridges as Colonel Parker, directed by William Graham, the real director behind Elvis's own 1969 movie "Change of Habit." 

Recorded a mere two months after the release of Baz Luhrmann's Elvis, watching this first attempt at a biopic about Elvis through the lens of Colonel Parker ends up feeling like watching a low-budget knock-off despite arriving almost 30 years earlier. Our duo (including one host who watched it twice in preparation) tries to give the attempt its best case possible, giving it as much leeway as other, more beloved depictions... but if you haven't seen this unintentionally hilarious project before, it has to be seen to be believed! 

If you enjoyed this, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast! Patrons get exclusive access to an archive of over three and a half years of bonus content just like this, with more commentaries, movie & TV reviews, album discussions, early access to new episodes and more! We sincerely thank all our past and current patrons for their support. 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.

TCBCast will be returning with a brand new episode next week!

Justin, Bec and Gurdip managed to coordinate a quick but fun Song of the Week, news & listener message episode (though naturally recorded JUST before "In The Ghetto" off the "Memphis" box dropped). The gang briefly discusses the Memphis Recording Service "Las Vegas On Stage February 1973" box set, Bec pleads forgiveness for a "verbal typo" on her most recent episode, and then examine a provocative editorial about Elvis, Graceland and America sent to us by one of our patrons.

For Song of the Week, Gurdip goes flying high on a "Harem Holiday," Bec puts on her Sunday best to listen to both the 1966 and 1968 versions of "Where Could I Go But To The Lord" and Justin delves into "Put the Blame On Me" off the "Something for Everybody" album (and subsequently featured in "Tickle Me.")

Link to Michael Bertrand's editorial: https://theconversation.com/could-elvis-graceland-hold-a-key-to-bridging-americas-cultural-divide-230841

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 by guest host Chris Jones (former host of the wonderful "Hall of Songs" podcast, you can find him as @jonesca17 on social media) to explore the surprisingly heartfelt and thought-provoking world of songs that either reference or are about Elvis, explicitly or implicitly. Spanning a wide array of genres, eras and artists, each of us pick five of our favorites to examine the common themes that begin to surface like fame, commercialization, celebrity obsession, mythology, religion, the Deep South, America, transportation/travel, class, race relations, and the closeness of family.

For Song of the Week, Olivia selects "Drums of the Islands", a "Paradise Hawaiian Style" track that's rooted in real Polynesian culture. Justin chooses to delve into "Only the Strong Survive," Elvis' cover of Jerry Butler's classic 1968 hit, and Chris takes us home by covering Elvis' down and dirty 1971 version of the iconic holiday blues number, "Merry Christmas Baby."

A special episode playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1yrvYGYK6c7W8ysEwbh7nM?si=f9e75a2706694579

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. 

This episode begins with a TCBCast-mini-style intro with Gurdip and Justin discussing the passing of singer-songwriter Mark James and the news of Sony's "Memphis" box set, out August 9, 2024. 

Then, Gurdip taps out and Bec taps in for a fun exploration of some of our favorite deep cut Elvis concert rarities - the songs he almost never pulled out, from ones done only once (like Oh Happy Day or Rubberneckin') to those done at best for maybe a handful of shows (Memphis Tennessee, anybody?)

For Song of the Week, Bec ponders "(Such An) Easy Question" which Elvis recorded in 1962 but that was also reused in the 1965 movie "Tickle Me." Then Justin closes us out with a quick exploration of "I Will Be Home Again," the Golden Gate Quartet homage that Elvis and Charlie Hodge harmonized on for "Elvis is Back" in 1960.

For those who haven't seen it yet elsewhere, Sony released a behind the scenes mini-doc about the new "Memphis" set on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8XGKNVko-g

Our live rarities playlist (on YouTube, since other streaming services don't have FTDs or bootlegs!): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLg-DEia9bCgaA-7wTppzt2tTFXJkHaXGA

Interview with Orlandus Wilson of the Golden Gate Quartet sourced from: http://tofuhut.blogspot.com/2009/02/glisten-work-of-father-3-more-info-on.html and its archived version on the Internet Archive.

Selah Jubilee Quartet version of "I Will Be Home Again" available to hear here: https://archive.org/details/78_i-will-be-home-again_selah-jubilee-quartet-lou-singer-bennie-benjemen-raymond-levee_gbia0077522a

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.