Best Cover of a Song Associated with Elvis Presley

[Hugh Weldon]

Dave Edmunds who I did a birthday youtube for the other day did a fine version of 'Baby Lets Play House'.

(Coincidentally it just occured to me that perhaps Tammy Wynette's 'I don't want to play house' was an answer record to that. I don't think it's a cover as her then-husband Billy Sherrill has the writing credit on my copy.)

Candi Staton previously mentioned for 'In the Ghetto' also of course covered 'Suspicious Minds'.

A quick glance at Amazon turned up this tribute album track list from among many - anyone familar with anything here? (I must say 'Wear my ring around your neck' is a new one on me)

1. All Shook Up - Billy Joel
2. Wear My Ring Around Your Neck - Ricky Van Shelton
3. Love Me Tender - Amy Grant
4. Burning Love - Travis Tritt
5. Heartbreak Hotel - Billy Joel
6. Are You Lonesome Tonight? - Bryan Ferry
7. Suspicious Minds - Dwight Yoakam
8. (You're The) Devil In Disguise - Trisha Yearwood
9. Hound Dog - Jeff Beck/Jed Leiber
10. That's All Right - Vince Gill
11. Jail House Rock - John Mellencamp
12. Blue Hawaii - Willie Nelson
13. Can't Help Falling In Love - Bono

[Dayna]

I Got A Woman was also covered by Roy Orbison

[Paul]

'Viva Las Vegas' by the Dead Kennedys is an enjoyable thrash, and is far preferable to the tawdry Elvis original.

I also like Candi Statton's take on 'In the Ghetto', one of the King's last ever Great Records.

[Charlie]

How about "Polk Salad Annie" by Tony Joe White? I don't know if Elvis's came out first but there wasn't much in it and Tony Joe claims author's perks with his version by almost out-Elvising Elvis. (I wonder if they ever met. They had such a lot in common they might have hated each other at first sight!)

Tony Joe's 'Polk Salad Annie' came out a long time before the Elvis cover, and has a special place in my heart because it was the first record I wrote about in Record Mirror when I blagged my own column.

On the other hand, two of the most uncomfortable interviews in my life were both with Tony Joe. You'd think I would have learned from the first one, but there was a 35-year gap in between them and I thought he might have become more tolerant of people asking questions. He hadn't.

As for whether he ever met Elvis, I don't know. You can imagine them sizing each other up like boxers before a fight, seeing who could curl his lip the furthest. My money would be on Tony Joe.

[Gordon Neill]

Charlie asked:

Best cover of a song first recorded by Elvis? It's a very interesting question, because I can't think of any that actually improve on Elvis.

I've been mulling this over for a few days, and I've finally found the answer. It's a trick question. No one has ever improved upon an Elvis original. Which is a surprising answer. I'm not an Elvis fanatic. I've got a greatest hits or two, but I can (and do) laugh at him. But the fact of the matter is, no-one ever did a better version of any of his songs. How odd. I was certain that there must be another answer.

Even odder, the only other person I can think of in this category is Jerry Lee Lewis. Nobody cut the Killer. And he also started out on Sun. Did they put something in the water in Memphis?

[uiwangmike]

There are plenty of cases where I prefer the originals of the songs he covered - Hound Dog, Reconsider Baby, One Night, etc - even though his version were often great too.

I can’t think of any cover I've heard by Elvis where I’d rather hear his version than the original (unlike with Jerry Lee Lewis). But speaking of this, I came across this splendid website that catalogs Elvis’s covers.
http://users.pandora.be/davidneale/elvi ... index.html
I was astonished to see just how prolific he was. I had no idea, for example, that he’d done a cover of El Paso. Not that I especially want to hear it, though I daresay it’s better than Tom Russell’s recent version. It’s full of other fascinating information. I didn’t know (but maybe everyone else does) that His Latest Flame had been Del Shannon’s failed follow-up to Runaway. And as remarkable to me as this site’s recent revelation that Frank Crumit did the first recording of Frankie and Johnny is the discovery that the violent life of Stagolee was first presented to the world by Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians, who I first heard in the 50s on a 10-inch called Songs of Inspiration, which included You'll Never Walk Alone (first recorded in 1945 by Frank Sinatra, by the way). And finally, if you've been getting bored with all this trivia, Wakey-wakey!! Here's a quiz question: Which song did Elvis record that had originally been done by Billy Cotton and His Band?

[Tom McPhillips]

I know this really isn't in the spirit of the thing, but Pavarotti and Pietra Montecorvino did much better versions of O Sole Mio than Elvis (There's no Tomorrow)....

well it is a song associated with EP.....

I'll get my goat now, it's the one eating the anorak....

[will vine]

Albert King devoted some time and effort to covering a whole host of Elvis songs on "Blues for Elvis - The King Does The King's Things". Produced by Duck Dunn, it should've been a cracker.....something alas is missing.........Hound Dog is pretty good though.

[NormanD]

Here's a quiz question: Which song did Elvis record that had originally been done by Billy Cotton and His Band?

Was it "I've Got A Lovely Bunch Of Coconuts", or "Knees Up Mother Brown"? Never mind the DeVotchKa singer sounding like David Byrne - Elvis copying Alan Breeze is closer to the mark.

Instead of getting on with the dinner (time here 19:26) I've been scanning a Billy Cotton discography site, thinking of miserable 1950s Sunday lunchtimes and the smell of over-cooked cabbage.

If Ritchie Forster doesn't intervene with the correct answer (and sending it me down the line), you'll have to tell us Mike.

[Rob Hall]

Here's a quiz question: Which song did Elvis record that had originally been done by Billy Cotton and His Band?

Was it "I've Got A Lovely Bunch Of Coconuts", or "Knees Up Mother Brown"? Never mind the DeVotchKa singer sounding like David Byrne - Elvis copying Alan Breeze is closer to the mark.

Instead of getting on with the dinner (time here 19:26) I've been scanning a Billy Cotton discography site, thinking of miserable 1950s Sunday lunchtimes and the smell of over-cooked cabbage.

If Ritchie Forster doesn't intervene with the correct answer (and sending it me down the line), you'll have to tell us Mike.

I've got a little more time Norman, as I sit here listening to United not doing terribly well against Barcelona: it's "South Of The Border".

[Hugh Weldon]

Wakey wake.....hee!

Come on, was that originally done by Billy Cotton? I doubt it. A quick click reveals versions by Sinatra and Gene Autry.

Maybe uiwang was dazzled by this vision of loveliness at an impressionable age?




Chuck Berry of course also did a rather rude version

[Rob Hall]

Written by Jimmy Kennedy; recorded by Billy Cotton in 1939, according to numerous sources.

[Gordon Neill]

From http://users.pandora.be/davidneale/elvi ... list7.html

South Of The Border recorded by Elvis on Sunday, 18 March 1962
Written by: Kennedy; Carr
Originally recorded by The Billy Cotton Band in 1939
Hear Elvis's version on: There's Always Me Volume 2 (unofficial compilation CD)

After a false start to Take 4 of his own Mexican-tinted composition "You'll Be Gone", Elvis sings a couple of lines of "South Of The Border" before getting back to the "You'll Be Gone." Jimmy Kennedy, who wrote "South Of The Border" after having been inspired by a holiday postcard the he had received from Tijuana, Mexico. Despite the middle-American sound of the number, it was written by two Britons and recorded first by that British entertainment establishment figure, Billy Cotton. The song became hugely popular and was recorded by more than 300 artists. The number was also used in 1939 as the title song to one of Gene Autrey's popular films. Numerous other recordings of the number were made around the same time, including those by Kenny Baker (Victor) and Shep Fields (Bluebird).

[Hugh Weldon]

OK you got me guys. I wonder who the vocalist was, before Kathy's time obviously.

[uiwangmike]

Did Kathy Kirby ever perform with Billy Cotton? Maybe she was on his TV show? As yesterday's birthday boy remarked, old men forget . . . But as I recall Sunday afternoons between 2-Way Family Favourites and The Clitheroe Kid, the regular female vocalist on Bill's radio program was Kathy Kay.
I've Got a Loverly Bunch of Coconuts could have been worked seamlessly into Blue Hawaii - a great cover opportunity missed for Elvis.