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Elvis Presley: Musical milestones
During his lifetime,
Elvis Presley:*recorded 104 singles that hit the Top 40 of the
Billboard pop chart.*had 18 number 1
Billboard hits, including four singles in 1956 that occupied the top of the charts for a cumulative total of 25 weeks. The total (18) is surpassed only by The Beatles, who had 20 number 1 hits.*had 38 Top 10
Billboard hits. This total is currently unchallenged; the closest competitor,
Madonna, has 35. (The Beatles had 34 Top 10 hits during their career.)
Until the record was broken by Boyz II Men's "End of the Road" in November 1992,
Elvis Presley's double-side "Don't Be Cruel/Hound Dog" was the undisputed champion of singles in terms of weeks spent at number one. The record spent 11 weeks at the top starting on August 18, 1956.
These are other records set by Presley's recordings:
- From March 1956 to November 1959, every week there was at least one Elvis song on the singles chart.
- From 1956 to 1962 Elvis set the record with 24 consecutive top 5 hit singles (singles listed with B-side songs and original U.S.A. release dates):
- "Heartbreak Hotel" / "I Was the One" - released 1/27/56
- "I Want You, I Need You, I Love You" / "My Baby Left Me" - 5/4/56
- "Don't Be Cruel" / "Hound Dog" - 7/13/56
- "Love Me Tender" / "Any Way You Want Me" - 9/28/56
- "Too Much" / "Playing For Keeps" - 1/4/57
- "All Shook Up" / "That's When Your Heartaches Begin" - 3/22/57
- "Teddy Bear" / "Loving You" - 6/11/57
- "Jailhouse Rock" / "Treat Me Nice" - 9/24/57
- "Don't" / "I Beg Of You" - 1/7/58
- Elvis also charted 9 consecutive #1 singles:
- "Wear My Ring Around Your Neck" / "Doncha' Think It's Time" - 4/1/58 (the first single to debut on the chart in the top 10)
- "Hard Headed Woman" / "Don't Ask Me Why" - 6/10/58
- "One Night" / "I Got Stung" - 10/21/58
- "A Fool Such As I" / "I Need Your Love Tonight" - 3/10/59
- "A Big Hunk O' Love" / "My Wish Came True" - 6/23/59
- "Stuck On You" / "Fame And Fortune" - 3/23/60
- "It's Now Or Never" / "A Mess Of Blues" - 7/5/60
- "Are You Lonesome Tonight" / "I Gotta Know" - 11/1/60
- "Surrender" / "Lonely Man" - 2/7/61
- "I Feel So Bad" / "Wild In The Country" - 5/2/61
- "His Latest Flame" / "Little Sister" - 8/8/61
- "Can't Help Falling In Love" / "Rock-A-Hula Baby" - 11/22/61
- "Good Luck Charm" / "Anything That's Part Of You" - 2/27/62
- "She's Not You" / "Just Tell Her Jim Said Hello" - 7/14/62
- "Return To Sender" / "Where Do You Come From" - 10/2/62
All the above 24 singles also sold over 1 million copies each as well. That is another record yet to be broken.
Since 1962, the closest anyone has come to matching this was
Madonna in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with 19 consecutive top 5 hits.
Also, on the official United Kingdom Top 40 chart, "It's Now Or Never" reached number one in the week of Sunday, January 30, 2005, 27 years after Presley's death.
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NewsThe 20th Century's Industrious Designer
: Photo: Courtesy Library of CongressIndustrial designer Raymond Loewy was a giant in his field. He produced innovative designs in every area from fashion to locomotives. If you admire the Streamlined Moderne style of Art Deco, you've probably admired a Loewy design. You like logos? Then, you like Loewy.
That's enough from us. Take a look for yourself.
Left: Loewy poses in a mocked-up designer's office with modern dιcor, around 1934. At his side is a model of his 1932 Hupmobile, one of the first streamlined automobiles.: Sketch: Courtesy Library of CongressLoewy made this preliminary sketch for the Cornell-Liberty Safety Car, designed for the Cornell Aeronautical Research Laboratory and the Liberty Mutual Life Insurance Company, in 1956.: Rendering: Courtesy Loewy Design Loewy designed the 1961 Avanti for Studebaker.: Photo: Library of CongressLoewy designed this car for Jaguar ? or maybe a Mr. Bruce Wayne of Gotham City.
: Rendering: Courtesy Library of Congress
Loewy approached the Pennsylvania Railroad in the early 1930s and told railway execs he wanted to design locomotives. Loewy's T-1 steam engine was the Pennsy's last before switching to diesel.
: Photo: Courtesy Loewy Design
Loewy poses with an early model of his GG1 electric locomotive for the Pennsylvania Railroad, 1935.
: Credit: Courtesy Loewy Design
President John F. Kennedy thought the Air Force's paint scheme for the Boeing 707 Air Force One was too royal: He wanted a look that was appropriate for a president, not a king. On the advice of first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, the White House contacted Loewy, who redesigned the exterior livery and the interior cabins.
: Sketch: Courtesy Library of Congress
Loewy played around with 18 design ideas for a new Standard Oil Company logo. Loewy OK'd a version only slightly different from the eventual, final version (next slide).
: Credit: Courtesy of Loewy Design
Loewy designed or redesigned well-known logos for scores of corporations.
: Credit: Courtesy Loewy DesignLoewy modernized the traditional Coke bottle, as well as designed its new larger sizes and "no deposit, no return" bottles and cans. His countertop dispenser for restaurants and soda fountains is an icon of postwar Americana. : Credit: Courtesy Loewy Design
Loewy simplified the old Lucky Strike cigarette logo and changed the dark green pack to white. The underlying reasons for the change were the American Tobacco Company's desire to attract more women to the brand with a brighter package, and also that the green ink gave off an odor.
However, with the United States entering World War II, the company marketed the move as patriotism, claiming it was made to conserve the metals used make green ink. Advertisements trumpeted the slogan, "Lucky Strike Green has gone to war," and millions of packs were distributed to GIs. American Tobacco didn't forget its plan to market to women, as this ad in Ladies Home Journal makes evident.
: Credit: Courtesy of Loewy Design
With a hemline that low, you would guess this outfit has to be prewar or postwar, because the fashion industry conserved fabric with high hemlines during World War II. As a matter of fact, this Loewy modern black ensemble with matching accessories appeared in Vogue in 1939.
: Credit: Courtesy Loewy Design
Loewy created this quasi-futuristic jukebox for United Music Corp. in 1958. You might have selected from a mixed-bag playlist of 45s like these 1958 hits:
"Don't" Elvis Presley
"Great Balls of Fire" Jerry Lee Lewis
"Johnny B. Goode" Chuck Berry
"Good Golly Miss Molly" Little Richard
"La Bamba" Ritchie Valens
"Fever" Peggy Lee
"Poor Little Fool" Ricky Nelson
"Rebel Rouser" Duane Eddy
"All the Way" Frank Sinatra
"26 Miles (Santa Catalina)" The Four Preps
"A Wonderful Time Up There" Pat Boone
"Tequila" The Champs
"Catch a Falling Star" Perry Como
"He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" Laurie London
"Twilight Time" The Platters
"Witch Doctor" David Seville
"All I Have to Do Is Dream" The Everly Brothers
"Purple People Eater" Sheb Wooley
"Yakety Yak" The Coasters
"Splish Splash" Bobby Darin
"Volare (Nel Blu Dipinto Blu)" Dominico Modugno
"Rockin Robin" Bobby Day
"Tom Dooley" The Kingston Trio
"To Know Him Is to Love Him" Teddy Bears
"The Chipmunk Song" The Chipmunks/David Seville
"Jingle Bell Rock" Bobby Helms
: Photo: Courtesy Hagley Museum and Library
Loewy also created this 1950s Charcoal line china for Rosenthal.
: Credit: Courtesy Loewy Design
Loewy designed this classic bedroom set for Mengel Furniture.
: Photo: Gottscho-Schleisner/Courtesy Library of Congress
Loewy looks over a model of Imperial House in 1959, a planned apartment complex for Manhattan's Upper East Side.
: Credit: Courtesy Loewy DesignLoewy created this prototype store for a bakery chain in New York in 1937. The white porcelain-covered steel siding and semicircular window endings gives it an air of "Radio Deco.": Photo: Courtesy Loewy Design
Earth was not room enough for Loewy: He created this model for the living quarters of the NASA Skylab space station.
: Study: Courtesy Loewy Design
Loewy's 1970 study for a NASA space station appears influenced by sets from the 1968 film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, though it is a much smaller module.
: Credit: Courtesy Loewy Design
Loewy sifts through his designs for NASA.
: Photo: Courtesy Loewy Design
Raymond Loewy and his daughter Laurence enjoy a moment in 1982. Laurence was a prize-winning journalist who later headed the Raymond Loewy Foundation and served as CEO of Loewy Design. She died Oct 15, 2008, at age 55.
David Hagerman, the COO of Loewy Design says, "Laurence hoped RaymondLoewy.org would help introduce a new generation of design enthusiasts to her father."
Published: Wed, 05 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT - Source: Wired.Com - Read the articleEuropeOn song: Tom Jones talks to Simon Hattenstone
Tom Jones has two recurring nightmares. In the first, he is wrongfully accused of murder. In the second, he has hidden a body in the attic, the house has just been sold and the body is about to be discovered. He wakes up in a bath of sweat. The nightmares confused him for years. "I haven't killed anybody. I've never wanted to kill anybody. I've tried to analyse it, and I think, since I started making hit records, I've thought, 'Jesus Christ, this is the best thing that's ever happened to me.' But always you think this is going to fall apart. Something will happen. There is a skeleton in the closet." He stops. "Which there isn't. But in my mind I think they're going to find that out, and that's going to finish me."Jones, now 68, has a lovely way of telling stories, as if every thought has hit him for the first time.Perhaps there's another reason for the nightmares. His biggest hit, Green, Green Grass Of Home, was about a man facing execution. Another huge single, Delilah, tells the story of a jealous boyfriend killing his girlfriend. His new album is called 24 Hours and the title track is about another man on death row ? though it can just as easily be read as the sombre reflections of an elderly man looking into the abyss. It's a landmark album for Jones ? his most personal, and the first for which he has a joint writing credit on most of the songs.We first meet in a London hotel. He is wearing black, as he often does. Black polo neck, black trousers, black shoes, strange black hair that looks as if it could be woven from acrylic, and black goatee. He is accompanied by his son and daughter-in-law, Mark and Donna Woodward, the svengalis behind his renaissance over the past 20 years. Mark looks like a greyer version of his father ? how Jones might look if he'd chosen a more sober career. Jones also introduces me to a handsome elderly man with snow white hair, Don Archell, his personal assistant, and to the singer Cerys Matthews, with whom he duetted on the hit record Baby, It's Cold Outside. Jones orders the first of his vodka martinis, and he's off.If there's one thing Tom Jones enjoys as much as singing, it's chatting. He's seen so much, met so many people, had such a lucky life, of course he wants to talk about it, he says. He loves being interviewed. "Look, if I go into a pub, I'm doing an interview because people want to know things. And I love my life, I love my achievements, I love talking about it . If somebody wasn't asking me, I'd go and find someone and say, 'Guess what I did?!' It's a Celtic thing. The people in Wales, they all talk, and I love it."So he talks about drinking with Robbie Williams' dad in Los Angeles, his grandson's skills on the ski slopes , the time Otis Redding told him that soul singers try to sing like Jones. "I said to Otis, 'You're joking ? I'm trying to sound like you.'" Jones spent so many years in Vegas, singing epic ballads, that it is easy to forget he was one of the great white soul singers. Go to YouTube and watch him battling it out note for note with Stevie Wonder on Superstition, Aretha Franklin on See Saw and Tina Turner on Nutbush City Limits, and you see just how raw, radical and soulful he was.He grew up in Pontypridd in a Welsh mining community. His earliest memories are of tugging on his mother's sleeve at family weddings, asking when he could sing, and her saying he had to wait to be invited. He was five or six, and impatient. Even then, he says, when he got up, he was aware of the effect he had on the little girls. They made eyes at him, asked him what school he went to. He can't remember his voice being much different ? even then, he wanted to belt them out. "Some kids, they sing very high and then their balls drop and their voice drops. I can't remember that ever happening to me. It was higher, but it didn't change dramatically."He was useless at school. Not interested. He thinks he was slightly dyslexic, but says he might be making excuses for himself ? perhaps he was just thick. Even on the sports field, he couldn't concentrate ? sure, he'd play rugby because he had to, but all the while he'd be watching the time, telling himself in a few minutes he could be down the shops buying himself an air gun or at home singing. He boxed, but didn't much care for getting hit.At 13, he contracted tuberculosis. He was off school for two years, most of the time spent in bed. Thank God for TB, he says. If it hadn't been for the illness, he might have ended up down the mines, like his father. "The doctor said to my parents, ' Whatever you do, you can't put this boy in a coal mine because he has weak lungs .' And the weird thing is, with weak lungs I've become a fuckin' singer."The illness changed his attitude to life. "When I used to get up for an hour a day, I would stand at the front door and see my mates playing, going up the hills. They'd shout, 'All right, Tom' but I couldn't get out the door. There was a lamp-post at the end of our street, and I'd look at it and think, once I can walk from this door to that lamp-post, I will never complain about another thing in my life. And that was it. And if I do, if the thought ever enters my mind, I see that lamp-post."He returned to school for a year and left at 15 to work as a labourer's mate. "Hod carrying, mixing cement. Up and down ladders. Good, strong legs." A year later, he was married to Linda, living in her mother's house with baby Mark. They wanted more children, but a miscarriage left her infertile.Fast-forward another year and Jones is doing shifts on building sites by day and singing at working men's clubs by nights. The women loved him, but it was the fellas who really came to watch and judge. Big, tough, emotional men, they made for a demanding audience. "On Sunday nights it was men only. You'd have to make sure you put a bunch of ballads in there. The men loved them. Especially in Wales."All the time he really wanted to sing edgier songs. First, there was the new rock'n'roll of Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis, then there was the blues. "I was liking black singers without realising. And the blues. Big Bill Broonzy. I heard this song, 'If you was white, you's all right, if you was brown, stick around, but if you's black, oh brother, get back' and I thought what a great line that is." Jones' voice is lilting, even by Welsh standards, and every few minutes he breaks into song to illustrate his point. He can't help himself.It was when he got himself a band, and started to play rock'n'roll and blues and soul, that women went crazy for him. By now, Linda didn't like turning up to his shows. They made her feel uncomfortable, and she had Mark to look after, anyway. "She said, 'Go on, I know what those girls are like and I don't want to see it. As long as you come home here.' So that's what happened."In his mid-20s in 1964, Jones, still known as Tom Woodward (his mother's name was Jones), headed off for London, championed by the people of Pontypridd. All he had was his looks, the moves he had learned as a teenager and the voice. "My mates would say, 'You can sing, you've got to go to London,you've got to show these fuckers how to put it together.'" He hated leaving Linda and Mark at home, Linda working at a battery factory to make ends meet ? he considered it demeaning to be supported by a woman. Working in the mines or factories of Pontypridd was drudgery, certainly not a career. He promised himself that when he became successful, he would ensure that his family never had to work again. One of the things of which he is most proud is that he was able to retire his father from the mines at 50.Three days later, on Saturday, we meet at Bethnal Green Working Men's Club in east London, where he is having his photograph taken. It's a throwback to his early days ? a huge red heart on the stage, carpets that stink of stale beer, and a few elderly men dotted around supping on pints. Jones is here with his mini entourage ? Don, Mark and Donna, and their ageing staffordshire bull terrier, Leroy. Leroy and Jones are not dissimilar ? both have been round the block a few times, yet exude a puppyish verve. Leroy likesnothing more than lying on his back and being given a good tickle. I would imagine the same could be said for Jones.Jones is all in black again ? this time in a frilly shirt rather than polo neck. After six decades in the business, he still gets self-conscious when having his picture taken. He asks if we'd mind leaving the room while he psyches himself up. When we return, he's fiddling with his silver crucifix, trying on a new shirt ? white this time ? and singing along to one of the songs. After the shoot, he fancies a drink. Two vodka martinis, please. He asks if I went on somewhere else the other night. He and Cerys had a bit of dinner and a few drinks, he says. "She left about 12.30 to 1am." But she was going to leave at 8pm? "Exactly!" he says with delight.Matthews later tells me she doesn't get much chance to go out now that she's a mother of two. "Tom is very persuasive. We had so much fun ? we didn't stop laughing. He's a riot and a good friend, as well as being an old school gentleman." She has never sung with anybody like him, she says. "It's the best feeling in the world. His instincts are natural, his passion is absolute. I once asked him what his ideal day would be and said don't let it be about music. 'Well, it couldn't be my ideal day if I couldn't get up and do a show,' he said."When Jones came to London in 1964, he hooked up with aspiring manager and song writer Gordon Mills. It was Mills who suggested changing the name to Jones ? very Welsh, very laddish, very Henry Fielding. Six months on, Jones felt he was wasting his time recording demos for stars to turn into hits. He made a demo of a song written by Mills called It's Not Unusual and was told it was going to be recorded by a young singer called Sandie Shaw. He knew he'd done the song more than justice, that it was perfect for him, and decided he would return to Pontypridd if he couldn't make it his. "Thank God Sandie Shaw listened to the demo and said, ' Whoever's singing this song, it's his song', so God bless her."Another vodka martini. A toast to Sandie Shaw. Jones has an incredible memory for dates. He'd do brilliantly on Mastermind with Tom Jones as his specialist subject. "I recorded It's Not Unusual on November 11 1964, it came out on January 22 1965 and it was number one by March 1, which was St David's Day. Tremendous!"There are a couple of things people know about Tom Jones: he has always been something of a ladies' man ? women throw their knickers at him ? and he is still married to the woman he wed at 16. It's not that he boasts about his conquests; others do that for him. There have been countless kiss'n'tells, most famously Mary Wilson of the Surpremes who claimed they had enjoyed a two-year fling; there was the paternity case (he paid out because, he says, he could not prove the boy was not his son ? there has been no relationship); and there have been the former associates who have done the dirty on him.For the first time on the new album, he addresses his infidelities in the remarkable confessional The Road, when he sings that however far and often he has strayed, he has always returned home. It is both a love song and an apology, isn't it? "Well, I never admit to anything, you know what I mean." I can't help laughing. Tom, you admit plenty in this song.He recites the lyrics as if standing at the pulpit. "'I have felt weakness when I was strong, felt sweetness when I was wrong.' Linda wouldn't say to me, 'What d'you mean by that?' No, she wouldn't do that. The thing that she likes more than anything else is, 'But the road always leads back to you.' And that 's the truth. I will never leave my wife. It never entered my mind." They've been apart a lot, he says. "But we are still in love with one another. You know, we're not sexually like we were, but we are still in tune with one another, we can still have fun with one another, we still talk. She's still the Welsh girl I married."He says Linda is shy, agoraphobic. When he has well-known friends around, she hides. I also heard she once beat him up after hearing about one of his affairs. "Oh yeah!" he says, almost enthusiastically. "She's actually thrown things at me." Sometimes, he says, she settles for harsh words. "The funniest thing is, we were having a bit of a barny one night in LA ? sometimes it can start off really nice, a nice dinner, back to the music room, put on the old records that we used to dance to when we were teenagers, and it's all lovely, lovely, lovely, and then it becomes, 'Well, what about when you did this?' "Would that be about Mary Wilson? "Exactly. Things like that. So she said, 'Let me tell you something, but you've got to stand there, and you've got to promise me that you will not try and get hold of me.' And I thought, 'Jesus, what's she going to tell me ? that she's been with an old friend of mine or what?' So I'm expecting the worst, and we're both well oiled by this point. 'OK, come on, what is it?' She says, 'If you couldn't sing, you wouldn't have a friend in the world' and runs out of the room. Well, I fell on the floor in a heap. She thought that was the worst thing she could ever say to me ? I thought it was hilarious."Does he think there's any truth in it? "Maybe! No, nah." I ask if she has had affairs. "Not as far as I know ? Best not to go into it. We don't discuss it, never have." He pauses. "That has never been discussed either, if you know what I mean ? the not discussing it. Should we have another?"I'm beginning to sink into a happy blur, while Jones is remembering more and more dates: 1968, Copacabana, New York ? the first time he had knickers thrown at him. "There was a supper club, and the singer sang at the same level as the table and chairs, right on the floor. And the more people you drew into the club, the smaller the area in which you performed ? like some of the northern clubs. At one point I'm performing in a tiny area and I'm sweating ? I was always a good sweater. So because they'd had dinner, they had napkins on the table, so they see me sweating and hand me their napkins, I hand them back and they'd keep them. So this one woman stood up ? up with the dress, down with the drawers. Took 'em off and handed them to me." What did you do? "I wiped my brow and said, 'Sweetheart, watch you don't catch cold.' Because you always learn in working men's clubs, no matter what happens, you've got to try to make some fun out of it." When he went to Vegas for the first time later that year, the women started throwing hotel keys as well.In the 70s, his income tax rose to 98 %; Jones and Linda packed their bags and moved to Los Angeles, where they still live. By now, he was known for his tight trousers, hairy chest, snake hips and libidinous thrust as much as for the voice. Was he as horny as he appeared to be, or was it an act? Hell, no, he says, appalled, it was ? is ? for real. Was any other performer as sexually charged as him? "Well, the only one really was Elvis Presley. I knew him very well, and he said I see in you what I feel myself. You see, Elvis was a macho man, he was a good-looking fella, but he was still strong. That's why he was always doing karate in those movies, it was a male thing that he felt. So, not to pick on Mick Jagger, but [Elvis] said how the fuck ? what do people see in the Beatles and the Stones and these British bands? He said thank heaven for you coming out of Britain, that you feel the same thing. I said, 'Well, you are partly to blame, it was watching you ? you rubbed off on me so much that you gave me confidence to do it.'" Does he get excited on stage? "Oh yeah!" Sexually excited? "Well, you don't get physically aroused, because you concentrate so much."I ask if it is true that at his shows he was provided with both a dressing room and a love-making suite. He looks sheepish, and stutters into a non sequitur. "Well, well ? I ? no ! Well, we can't go into that ? but I do love to drink. Though not before a show ? "His friendship with Elvis provided him with some of his most cherished memories. They never performed together publicly, but they often went to Elvis's hotel suite for a sing-song when they were both playing Vegas . "He'd say, 'I'll get the group up and we'll do something' and I'd already done two shows. There were two songs he loved at the time. A song Kris Kristofferson wrote called Why Me and Roberta Flack's Killing Me Softly. Once he latched on to something, he wouldn't let it go. So we're at the suite, comparing gospel I learned in Wales with gospel he learned in Mississippi. We must have sung The Old Rugged Cross a dozen times with an electric piano and his vocal group, the Sweet Inspirations. He'd say, 'D'you think I'd like Wales, Tom, if I came over ?' I said, 'You'd love the male voice choirs.' I had this vision of taking him up the Rhondda valley and having him sing with all the choirs."For the last two years of Presley's life, Jones never saw him. He knew he'd become addicted to diet pills and had turned in on himself, but he didn't know how desperate he was. In 1977, Presley died and Jones still regrets that he didn't make more of an effort to help him. Towards the end he had stopped taking calls. "I didn't know Elvis was sick. I thought he was just getting lazy ? he was getting heavy and pushed people away from him. The first thing that hit me after he died was I should have gone and seen him. Priscilla called me, and said, 'When you show up, you give him a spark. He's got this competitive spark in him again.' So I thought maybe I could have given him that shot again. Maybe."Presley's death coincided with a downturn in Jones' fortunes. He came to be regarded as a kitsch crooner, a parody of his former self, and went without another hit in Britain for 15 years. He continued to sell out shows, but the venues were smaller. The knickers and door keys began to pall. People stopped talking about the voice. "The thing that I don't like about it, it became a joke. People go, 'Oh Tom Jones, knickers.' You want another?"Two more vodka martinis."Since then I've thought it's positive, it's not as if they're throwing bottles at you. But it did become a bit of a joke. Girls would run to the front even when I'm doing a ballad. You're trying to create a mood, doing the Green, Green Grass Of Home, and underwear lands straight on you, and everybody laughs. I once did a radio show with Howard Stern in New York and Roger Daltrey was going in after me, and he said, 'I just had to walk through a room full of knickers back there, I thought you must be on the show.' And I thought, ' Oh fuck, it's even got to Roger Daltrey' ? all he could think to say about me was not love the way you sing or hate the way you sing, but knickers."I'm staring at Jones through my martini glass. His teeth are so white. "Oh yeah, they were capped," he says. His hair ? so black."Oh yeah, that's dyed." His skin ? so firm. "Oh yeah, I had the fat removed from under my chin. That's basically why I wear the goatee because it covers the scar. If I went for laser treatment, I could get rid of it, but I thought, fuck it, I'll wear a goatee. And my nose, that was straightened. Then, with the eyes, they took the heaviness out of the lids. Thank God the plastic surgeon said you've got to be careful because you've got to look like you, you can't look like someone else." A toast. To the plastic surgeon.In 1986, Gordon Mills, his manager, died. Jones was devastated. He had lost a close friend, and his career was in a trough. And that was when his son Mark came into his own. Ever since Mark had been in his late teens, he had toured with his father, helping out with the lights and design, even the song choices. Mark himself was a fine singer, but he got red-light fever if he had to perform ? the studio light went on and he lost his bottle. But what he loved more than anything was dreaming up strategies that might revive his father's career. "Mark said to me, 'Well, what do we do now for a manager?' and I said, 'Why don't you have a go?' Donna, his wife, was Bill Cosby's secretary and she was always talking about things she thought I should be doing, so I said, 'Why don't you both do it? We can do it all together ? '"Mark looked at Jones' act ? the knickers and the tight trousers and the old repertoire ? and told his father that there was a good reason people didn't talk about the singing any more. " When I see those old clips, I see why people didn't take me more seriously, vocally ? cos your trousers are too tight. Not tight in the waist," he says delicately. "And I've always had big legs, so where are you going to put all that stuff. So there it was. When I look at it, I think no wonder people went, 'Oh!' when I came on stage."Mark realised that what had been problematic for Mills ? Jones' versatility ? could prove a virtue. If Jones could sing anything, why not hire trendy producers and record some of the contemporary songs he performed in his shows. In 1988, Jones had a massive hit with the Prince song Kiss, produced by techno pop stars Art Of Noise. A new young audience was entranced by the voice. "There was no baggage for them. You want another?"A toast. To Mark, Prince, Tom's stamina and his not-so-tight trousers.Monday morning, 8.15am, BBC radio studios in London. Jones isn't used to early mornings, but you wouldn't know it. He fair bounds in ? all in black, new jumper . "You go on anywhere, on Saturday?" he says.No, straight home, I tell him. And you? "Ah, nothing much. Don and I had a meal, and some red wine." A second later he realises he's forgotten something. "And a few champagnes. Have I got time for the khazi?" They tell him he's due on any second. Ever the professional, Jones holds it in. Wogan and Jones ? both of them knighted ? are chatting way in the studio. Meanwhile, Don Archell is reminiscing about drinking way back when ? "Oh yes, he was up there with the Richards in the old days ? Burton and Harris. I couldn't keep up with him, no way. I don't know how he did it. In Vegas, we used to be up till 7-8am. I'm glad it's not like that any more." Don still accompanies him around the world ? 200 shows a year. Home for Jones is LA, home for Don is Luton. "Mind you, I'm hardly ever there."What's Jones like as a man? "As you see him. Every day. Never changes. Same mood. Never loses it. So laid back." Wogan says it's amazing that after all these years Jones is so fashionable, with artists such as Duffy and MarkRonson keen to recapture the retro feel. The funny thing is that at his peak in the 60s and early 70s, Jones was never really cool ? not like today. In 2000, he released Reload, an album of covers recorded with other artists and bands including Robbie Williams and the Stereophonics. It went on to sell four million ? his biggest album. In 2005, he was estimated to be worth £175m.I ask Mark, who is the boss ? him or his dad? "Well, it's a proper relationship." Does it feel like a traditional father/son relationship? "It depends what you're doing. We were always friends, but if we weren't a proper manager/artist relationship at some point in the day, it wouldn't have worked for long." Does he have to make the decisions for Jones? "He relies on it. I know what he can sing."Jones is talking about the new album. He loves the fact that, along with the more reflective songs, it's a statement about the here and now ? that he's still around, and plans to be for some time. The opening song, I'm Alive, is a dance track every bit as celebratory as its title. He directs me to the lyrics ofanother song, Seasons. "What I like about that song is that I walk on and 'make my memories'. I'm still making my memories, I'm not just thinking of old memories."A week later Jones is on Jools Holland's BBC2 show, Later. No sign of Leroy, but Mark is on stage giving his father instructions. Profile to profile, deep in discussion, they look as if they could be auditioning for a Welsh Sopranos. As the other acts perform, Jones stands in front of his band, straight-backed and still, waiting his turn. When he gets his chance, there is a transformation ? the blood seems to be flowing faster. There's a technical hitch, and he is asked to start again. "Do we have to stop?" he pleads. I'm reminded of the little boy tugging at his mother's sleeves. He sings three songs from the new album, and at the end of each his face creases into ecstasies.Back in the changing room, he's buzzing. He thinks his voice now is better than it ever has been. "I've only lost a little bit on the high end, thank God, and I've gained a tremendous amount of bottom end. I couldn't have sung 24 Hours in that low key when I was in my 20s. And it's become richer. When you experience life, you read more into things. When you're younger, you're charging, and you think, 'Right, I'll hit the shit out of this, smacking everything.' I still do to an extent, but there's pathos."It's notable how many times, over the days, he's thanked God. Well, he says, he was raised a Presbyterian and though he doesn't attend chapel, he has never lost his faith. "I pray every night by the bed before I go to sleep. I say, 'Look after my family and my friends and band members and all the people who work with me, and thank you for giving me this voice. Please may I keep it for as long as I live.'" ? Jones' new album, 24 Hours is out on November 17Pop and rockguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Published: Sat, 25 Oct 2008 00:07:11 GMT - Source: Guardian.Co.Uk - Read the articleLiteraturePJ Proby: Three Week Hero
I've especially enjoyed sharing some of my enthusiasms for obscure musical acts here on Boing Boing as the guest blogger. This post is about PJ Proby, crazed crooner and rock and roll hellion. I am a massive, massive fan of this guy's music. I've been fascinated by him for years and would LOVE to make a documentary about him. No one plays the sad, apologetic lonely guy better than PJ Proby. His voice can make a grown man cry, but you'd almost have to be half-mad to sell a song like he can. And half-mad PJ Proby probably is... Once famously blacklisted in the UK for repeated splitting his blue velvet trousers onstage, it's tempting to call PJ Proby the "Zelig of rock and roll." Despite the fact that today almost no one remembers who the guy is/was, he was a peer and fellow performer of The Beatles, Tom Jones, Cilla Black, The Rolling Stones, Jackie DeShannon, Marc Almond, St. Etienne and many others. His sister dated Elvis Presley and Proby himself sang the "vocal guides" imitating Elvis that the King would then re-record during his Hollywood movie phase. His first British TV appearance was as a special guest on "Around the Beatles." His 1968 album "Three Week Hero" featured none other than a young Led Zeppelin (or the "New Yardbirds" as they were then known) warming up as his backing band and he appeared as "The Godfather" touring with The Who during their 1997 "Quadrophenia" production. Van Morrison even wrote a song called "Whatever Happened to PJ Proby?" I could go on and on, he's led a very colorful, albeit very self-destructive life, but I'll leave the bio for the links and concentrate on all the great PJ Proby performances you can find on YouTube after the jump (and trust me, this isn't the best stuff that's out there). "You Can't Come Home Again (If You Leave Me Now) | "Around The Beatles" (1964) | "Hold Me" (first UK hit single) | "That Means A Lot" (Lennon-McCartney composition) | "Somewhere" | ""What's Wrong With My World?" | PJ Proby/Marc Almond duet "Yesterday Has Gone" (1996) | Interesting Marc Almond interview on the difficulties of working with PJ Proby | "Niki Hoeky" (audio only) (Can someone out there please post a video of this?) | Official PJ Proby site | Get Hip to His Conflagration | The Fall and Rise of PJ Proby | How P.J. Proby's life is falling apart at the seams (Recent article about the 69-year-old singer's legal troubles) | St. Etienne's Bob Stanley on the Pop Mavericks...
Published: Sat, 18 Oct 2008 03:50:11 GMT - Source: Boingboing.Net - Read the article
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