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January 8, 2010, 1:19 pm <!-- date updated --><!-- <abbr class="updated" title="2010-01-08T17:23:08-05:00">? Updated: 5:23 pm</abbr> --><!-- Title -->
On the King?s Birthday, Give a Listen to a B-Side
<!-- Byline --><ADDRESS class="byline author vcard">By JON PARELES</ADDRESS><!-- The Content -->
Courtesy of Sony Music Archives Elvis Presley
Happy 75th birthday to Elvis Presley, who made it so gloriously tough for all the rock and pop stars in his wake to escape some precedent he had set. Sex appeal and grotesquerie. Ambition and inertia. Aggression and acquiescence. Class warfare and decadence. Innovation and schlock. Even an overbearing manager whose decisions were not always in his best interest.
Behind them all were the gifts that no outlandish jumpsuit or mumbled aside could fully eclipse, starting with his voice: bluesman, crooner, country boy, hymn singer, all fused into a pop that now sounds natural and inevitable. He knew and connected with a full spectrum of American music, from the earthiest blues to the most high-minded affirmation. He had charisma and timing that made every performance fascinating, even the ones that were stuporous or tossed off, with their infinite gradations of earnestness and irony. His hits, of course, are indelible ? go ahead, YouTube ?Heartbreak Hotel? from 1956 ? while his repertory beyond them, from an era of singles plus filler for albums, is a hodgepodge of keepers, novelties and regrettables. But he could always pour it on, even in a B-side like this one from 1964 (lately reissued in the set ?Elvis 75: Good Rockin? Tonight?): ?It Hurts Me.?
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On the King?s Birthday, Give a Listen to a B-Side
<!-- Byline --><ADDRESS class="byline author vcard">By JON PARELES</ADDRESS><!-- The Content -->
Happy 75th birthday to Elvis Presley, who made it so gloriously tough for all the rock and pop stars in his wake to escape some precedent he had set. Sex appeal and grotesquerie. Ambition and inertia. Aggression and acquiescence. Class warfare and decadence. Innovation and schlock. Even an overbearing manager whose decisions were not always in his best interest.
Behind them all were the gifts that no outlandish jumpsuit or mumbled aside could fully eclipse, starting with his voice: bluesman, crooner, country boy, hymn singer, all fused into a pop that now sounds natural and inevitable. He knew and connected with a full spectrum of American music, from the earthiest blues to the most high-minded affirmation. He had charisma and timing that made every performance fascinating, even the ones that were stuporous or tossed off, with their infinite gradations of earnestness and irony. His hits, of course, are indelible ? go ahead, YouTube ?Heartbreak Hotel? from 1956 ? while his repertory beyond them, from an era of singles plus filler for albums, is a hodgepodge of keepers, novelties and regrettables. But he could always pour it on, even in a B-side like this one from 1964 (lately reissued in the set ?Elvis 75: Good Rockin? Tonight?): ?It Hurts Me.?
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