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Click above to listen to the Elvis tribute "Rock On And On And On"
MY DEAR FRIEND BUDDY MICHAEL
way out in North Carolina tunes in to Jeanne Grebin's live, Memory
Brothers' webcast every Wednesday night. He posts Facebook comments in
real-time and occasionally requests a song or two.
Bud's latest request was "Rock On And On And On" - a song I hadn't performed in years . . . hmmmm, maybe decades!
Nevertheless I do vividly remember the day that I wrote it. It was
August 16, 1977. How do I remember that specific date? Well, it was the
day that Elvis died.
Kevin Conner and I were starting the second week of a two-week stint at
the Black Steer in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. In the late afternoon, I was
backing out of my parking spot at the Maple Manor Motel in my old,
Chrysler station wagon.
I had intended to get a quick bite at Chau Hong's Restaurant before we had to head to the club when it came over the radio:
"Here is a news bulletin. 42-year-old singer Elvis Presley has died at Baptist hospital in Memphis . . ."
Stunned, I sat in my wagon and listened to the rest of the shocking
news. I then slowly pulled back into my parking space, headed to my room
and grabbed a pencil and a sheet of motel stationery.
With my appetite suddenly extinguished, a pall suddenly descended on my
otherwise cheery, summer day. The only thing I could think of doing was
to start writing a tribute to my great musical hero, Elvis Presley.
* * *
At the time, I had just been recruited as a new artist for an old
country label, Chart Records out of Nashville. Chart Records had been
floundering during the '70s as many of its major artists such as Roy
Clark and Lynn Anderson had defected to larger labels. So the new owner
of Chart, Big Jack Rodamaker, recruited a bunch of newcomers such as
Billy Cole, Billy Brown, Yvonne DeVaney, Steve Bledsoe, Holly Holiday
and myself as new artists in an attempt to resuscitate the label.
Chart Records' producer, Arnold Rogers, had been looking for a song for
me to record for my debut single with the label. So I called Big Jack
and told him about my Elvis tribute. The week after our Eau Claire gig,
he flew me to Nashville; and we recorded this song using an all-star
lineup of musicians including D.J. Fontana, Elvis's original drummer!
The single went out to 3,000 radio stations along with promotional
inserts and comment cards (see below.) Most of the responses from the
music directors were good, and we received considerable airplay.
However, we soon found out that there were certain radio stations that
didn't take kindly to Elvis tributes as they felt the tributes were
trying to cash in on the King's death!
When the dust settled and it all got sorted out, the tribute that became
a million seller was Ronnie McDowell's "The King Is Gone" which was
recorded in the same studio, Music City Recorders, using the same
session players as I had. But their release beat me to the punch by one
week!
At that time Ronnie McDowell was an unknown singer who released "The
King Is Gone" on Slim Williams' indie label, Scorpion Records - a
one-room record label hardly bigger than a broom closet - right down the
hall from Chart Records' office.
"The King Is Gone" went on to sell over 5,000,000 copies and launched a
30-year recording career for Ronnie that included four #1 records,
"Older Women," "In A New York Minute," "You're Gonna Ruin My Bad
Reputation" and "All Tied Up."
(For some fascinating background on Slim Williams, Ronnie McDowell and "The King Is Gone," click here.)
In 1980 I was invited to one of Ronnie's recording sessions at Music
City Recorders by studio owner Jack Logan. I found Ronnie to be a very
humble and amiable fellow.
* * *
Nonetheless, the whole Elvis tribute experience back in 1977, along with my first real record release, is still a very special chapter in my life with lots of fond (and some bittersweet) memories.
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