March 25: Elvis & the USS Arizona

On this date in History ..... 1961:

Elvis Presley performs a charity concert to raise money for the building of the USS Arizona Memorial in Hawaii. 

 

The fundraising for the memorial had slowed down tremendously. Elvis’s concert raised over $50,000 but more important than that, it lit a second fire under the fundraising efforts and the donations again began pouring in, reaching the $500,000 that was needed.  One year later, on Memorial Day in 1962, the memorial was dedicated. Two days after the concert, Elvis began filming the movie “Blue Hawaii”. 

 

In 1973, Elvis’s 1973 pre-broadcast rehearsal show for the “Aloha from Hawaii” concert was free but asked that attendees pay what they could. The money went to the Kui Lee Cancer Fund in Hawaii.

February 16: Elvis Presley's Gospel Awards

On this date in History ..... 1968:

Elvis Presley’s album, “How Great Thou Art” is certified gold. It went 2X Platinum in March 1992, and 3X Platinum in October 2010.  It won a Grammy for “Best Sacred Performance” category. In his lifetime, Elvis only won three Grammy awards and all three of them were for his gospel albums.

 

 

The church shown on the album cover is the First Church of Christ in Sandwich, Massachusets.
 

“As described in The New Rolling Stone Album Guide, Elvis was 'arguably the greatest white gospel singer of his time [and] really the last rock & roll artist to make gospel as vital a component of his musical personality as his secular songs'.” (quote source: biography.elvis.com.au)

 

 

December 19: Carl Perkins....Blue Suede Shoes

On this date in History ... 1955:

Carl Perkins records “Blue Suede Shoes”, a song that is considered one of the first “rockabilly” songs that led to the birth of rock and roll. 

 

Johnny Cash first suggested Perkins write a song about blue suede shoes when Cash had an airman refer to the military shoes as blue suedes. Perkins told Cash he had no idea how to write a song about shoes! 

 

Perkins was playing at dance and overheard a young man tell his date, “Hey! Don’t step on my suedes!” Perkins noticed the man’s suede shoes were blue, but his thought was how the kid was dating “a pretty young thing like that and all he can think about is his blue suede shoes.” He went home and in two weeks had a song written and recorded. When writing the song, he spelled it “Blue Swade” and said, “I couldn’t even spell it right!” 

 

Perkins became the first country singer to hit the R&B charts with the song and earned Perkins a gold record. Elvis Presley's version reached #20 on the charts, not coming close to Perkin’s version which topped the charts.

 

November 28: Grand Ole Opry

On this date in History ..... 1925:

The Grand ‘Ole Opry begins broadcasting live from Nashville TN. 

The four-and-a-half hour show became one of the most popular shows in the South and launched the careers of many famous names such as Gene Autry. The show began just five years after commercial radio emerged in the U.S.  National Life Insurance Company built a radio station as a public service …. the call letters WSM stand for their motto of “We Shield Millions”. 

The music was geared toward instrumental.  Vocalists took a back seat to musicians until Roy Acuff's performance in 1938 of “The Great Speckled Bird” forever changed the Opry.
 

In 1954, Elvis Presley played the Opry, only to be told by the manager that he should return to Memphis and resume his truck driving career, prompting Elvis to never return.  However, Garth Brooks commented that the greatest thrill about playing on the Opry was knowing that he played on the same stage as Elvis.

Grand Ole Opry's first Carnegie
Hall appearance in 1947

In 1947, Ernest Tubb took a troupe of Opry singers to Carnegie Hall and just two years later, more Opry stars went on a European tour of military bases.




Being inducted into the Grand Ole Opry’s Hall of Fame, the oldest and most enduring hall of fame, marks an artist as one of the elite of country music.