Elvis - A Lighted Candle

[renenutet]

Which song has a special meaning for you, and why?

As for me, I like Let's be friends. Because he's offering the listener's friend.

[maia]

I have TWO...Bridge Over Troubled Water because is so the way he lived his life, and How Great Thou Art because of the deep passion for God he expressed when he sang it.

[Rainbow Light]

While there are many great songs of Elvis' which could have so much meaning for lots of people - purely because of the powerful way Elvis performed this at the end of the 68 Special it would have to be:

IF I CAN DREAM - Beautiful song given it's FULL POTENTIAL to shine across the world as a beacon to ALL thanks to Elvis who put his heart and soul into it and then some!

Idealistic perhaps but the words represent one man's vision towards a more accepting, more tolerant and less prejudiced way of life for all.

[ElvisWoman]

There are a lot of his songs that have special meaning to me--and I get "lost" in his voice a lot...I can say that "If I Can Dream" stands out among the songs that has special meaning.

The way he performs that song is very powerful--like he's reaching out to us to get us to really listen--deeply.

I have this song to listen to now whenever I want--bought "Elvis Inspirational" yesterday. I highly recommend it.

Victoria

[Barbara Lea]

I Love the Song Just Prenend I Cry everytime I hear it, I can feel and see Elvis singing this song to just me. How Great Thou ARE! is my Favorite Gospel Song, I can just picture Elvis Before the Throne of God Singing this. Another Gospel favorite of mine that Elvis sings is WE CALL ON HIM! I can feel the Angush in his voice, as he is asking the Lord to be with him and give him Strenght. Barb

[renenutet]

Yes, just pretend is one of my favourites as well !

[Wanda June Hill]

I like all the songs you all do! It's hard to choose-but I really like the tender way he sings I Met Her Today-and then I like Honkey Tonk Angel if that's the title, he says that in the song. And of course, no one can sing gospel like him...Joshua Fit the Battle is special. wjh

[maia]

Yeah! I Met Her Today (the originally released version) is one of my very favorites as well. His tenderness on some of the lines (and phrasing) is almost supernatural in HEART.

Joshua Fit the Battle is a masterpiece of black gospel phrasing...Elvis is blacker than black with this one!

[Rainbow Light]

Definitely agree on all these songs for the various reasons stated.

For personal reasons, would also add in "Lead Me, Guide Me" which relate to Elvis' music bringing me back from a sort of spiritual 'backslide' early last summer. To put it into words would trivialise the experience so would prefer to leave it as personal but yes, would include this for sure.

[Wanda June Hill]

Hi, I just heard a song I had never heard Elvis sing before-he was just 18 years old and it was scratchy and one of those "down in the cellar echoin' ones"he made way back when-he wasn't signed with Sun yet and he was trying out songs for Sam Phillips the dj said. Elvis was playing guitar and no one else was playing. It was a song they never did record because Elvis couldn't quite get it the way Sam wanted it, I guess. Whatever, it was so sweet and he was so young-so very young you could tell he was a child! But ever so often that voice would peek out and then there was the future sound that he would work on until he had it going good. My friend has Serius radio in her car-she listens to county usually but she put Elvis on for her daughter who is 17 and a big Elvis music fan. She picked me up for lunch-we do that about once every 3 months-after she had dropped her off somewhere else. And I got to hear that! It was so great-my friend only knows that I like Elvis-I've never told her I knew him or anything about that...she will be very surprised-just hope she isn't angry at me or some such thing. Oh well, anyway, I can't get over hearing him at such a young age-he really was trying and hoping just as he said-I believed him but to actually hear him at 18- I had heard him when he was 19 -20 doing One night with you and changing the lyrics to say, "when you broke my leg" because a girl was hanging on to his leg while he was on stage-that was on a film clip. His voice was pure, sweet and so young! It was a love song but I didn't catch the title-he didn't ever record it on record the dj said. Then he played the laughing version of Are You Lonesome Tonight-it was almost like planned just for me because it made me feel good to hear him-and my friend hadn't heard it and she laughed too. She thought he was so cute-that laugh-. So maybe I won't lose her friendship over keeping secrets...especially that one....hope not. wjh

[Lighthouseseeker]

friendships mustn't end so easily,and in your case, I don't think so Wanda ..you're a very nice person to be a friend of..

[Rainbow Light]

Yes, I'd second that and don't believe your friend would be mad at you for not telling her you had known Elvis and am sure she would understand your reason for not mentioning it.

[Wanda June Hill]

Thanks kids, for the hope and inspiration. In the past we learned the hard way about people/friends and Elvis. We were naive then, people were trying to go through us to get to him and we had to learn a quick lesson about that so have been cautious for some many years. I have lost friends-because of him and for no reason that I can think of other than I followed his rules and regulations and that was-keep quiet about my personal life-he didn't mind me "giving him" for gifts-IF I asked, told him who and if he wanted to do it. Sometimes he didn't...and I never asked or tried to change his mind-couldn't have anyway, probably. I always asked first, and set up a possible time for it-at his convience. A few times he thanked me because he "found a friend" and a few times he joked about it and was kind of embarrasing for me when even my aunt hit on him! She was a wild lady anyway, and I didn't know her that well and she had been in the same retirement home as my grandmother-her mom. I told Elvis she was there too and he called her-not that I asked him to-he just did out of the goodness of his heart-after all he had met my grandmother and liked her-she was a tough bird and easy to like. But my Aunt! I was shocked-though I shouldn't have been-she was just like right out there all her life. Elvis was laughing, he didn't quite know what to say about it, but he said she was "damn open about tellin' me what she'd do if she could get her hands on me-Gawd...I didn't know what to say-bein' she was your aunt and all.." I really was suprised and then I said, well, you did that one on your own! And he said "won't again, bet on that!" And he didn't ever call her again.
He did send her an autographed picture of himself in a bathing suit-via Blue Hawaii era. Anyway, back to my friend, I'm hoping she will be okay with it-we are "horse buddies" and she will, I hope understand why I didn't bring him up. I know she likes his music and she knows I do too-and she knows I saw him in Vegas but that's it.
We have a close open relationship otherwise, so maybe. I'm going to give her a book and tell her and she can read about it...that might work better. We'll see. won't be the first time if she doesn't. I'm used to that though it still bother s me. After Elvis died, people we used to think were friends just stopped calling...some of those who didn't are still friends and wrote for out book. Others were different-we went separate ways and our phone that used to ring constantly stopped ringing. ...that was the hard part to get used to-but we moved and started a different life and it's been great since. We've just found it's better to keep quiet in most cases....but now, here we go again-I hope things will be different. All we can do is try. Thanks again, it's good to know that most people do understand and they are all ready to love and appreciate Elvis more today than they were for several years after his death. The time is right.
wjh

[Rainbow Light]

Agree and think the time is right. Yeah, maybe that's the best thing to do is let your friend read the book and see what she makes of it, what her reaction will be - for your sake I hope it will all turn out ok, Wanda - all to the best to you!, Sue

[Blue Moon]

I have so many favorites, it's hard to keep a short list. Buy my favorites are It Hurts Me, You'll Think of Me, I'll Hold You in My Heart, Reconsider Baby (can Elvis sing the blues!!) and the TTWII live version of Just Pretend.

But most often I play his gospel, with some of my favorites being If I Can Dream, You'll Never Walk Alone, Who Am I, American Trilogy & Stand By Me. Stand By Me was particularly meaningful to me recently, as I was going through a time of dispair. I played that song over & over again, as every time I listened to it I was reminded that God is with me through the dark times.

With regard to the laughing version of Are You Lonesome Tonight, I heard an interview of Kathy Westmoreland where she talks about a man's toupee falling off in the middle of that song, which is why he is cracking up & add libbing. Then she went on to talk about in the early days of Vegas a gong was played at the end of You've Lost that Lovin' Feeling. Each night the gong got bigger, with this little Asian guy hitting the gong. Well on the last night, the gong was huge. They had not rehearsed the gong, and when little this guy hit it, the vibrations were so strong, it threw him into the orchestra pit. She said Elvis had a hard time maintaining his composure after that. Very funny story. The whole interview is very touching. I had tears at the end. If interested, it is on a DVD called Behind the Image Vol. 1 and you can get it at www.behind-the-image.com.