Commerciality of Elvis

Neil. · Post by **Neil.** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 4:15 am

Hi y'all - as the River In Reverse discussion has gone on to talk about Elvis's commercial success, I thought I'd start it as a new discussion.

As a diehard fan, I'm constantly frustrated at how few people know his stuff, and how underappreciated he is among the general public.

He's absolutely up there with The Beatles, Bowie etc. in terms of quality songwriting over many, many years - the quality rarely wanes. But still people only know Oliver's Army and, if you're lucky, Pump It Up. So many of his songs should be rock/pop standards, familiar to everyone, but they ain't. Gah!

So what's it going to take to make people (especially the younger generation) realise that he craps from a great height on most of the other shite people are listening to?

I think the options are:

1) A surprise smash hit feature film by a particulary cool director and with a very cool cast (unknowns whose first hit this is), and dotted throughout with ten of Elvis's songs. The songs would be so well-placed and timed with great cinematic sequences that the soundtrack CD would fly off the shelves, finally getting Elvis into people's heads (and lots of DJs who don't play him now would be pretending they were into him all the time).

2) Elvis does an acoustic-only album which brings out what an amazing singer he is, and how amazingly he puts emotion across. It would cost very little to make, so a large part of the budget could go on TV adverts - the way the dreadful Katie Melua became an (unaccountable) smash a few years back, by relentless TV ads.

3) If he allowed some of his songs to be used in adverts, a particularly stunning ad using one of his songs could relaunch him into public recognition (e.g. the way Sammy Davis's "Rhythm of Life" is being used in the Guiness ads)

4) A duet with a cool young artist with millions of fans. If he did something with Thom Yorke (who's an Elvis fan) he might get a shedload of new, curious listeners - who'd be blown away by his amazing back catalogue.

Any other ideas?

Neil

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 4:32 am

Elvis has always done what he wants to do. He is appreciated by people who matter in his mind. If he had wanted to solely appeal to the masses he would have done so. He was very big from 1978 to 1980. When he decided to do Almost Blue he decided he was going to follow his own musical path. He could have regurgitated Oliver's Army etc but where would this have left him creatively?

What annoys me is when I see him at Hammersmith Apollo (only that venue!) where people chatter away until he rattles out Oliver's Army, Alison and Pump It Up and these people shut up because those are the songs they can sing along to.

Whilst it's a while ago now, I think the marketing for "She" was a joke. Why release the single when the film had almost finished its run? Surely it would have been better to release it after a couple of weeks when it was obvious it was a big hit as a film and people still had the song in their head

He could have had a lot more commercial success on the back of that single which would have led to more sales of The Very Best of.

I don't think he'll ever get massive commercial success again. But he has a loyal following who love his music and will introduce people to it.

lostdog · Post by **lostdog** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 4:46 am

You've got to remember that EC's lack of commercial success is not just about lack of marketing or media presence - you only have to look at the amount of press TRIR has got to know that that's not true. Most of his contemporaries would kill for that kind of coverage. He has been going for 30 years and is still headlining major gigs and putting out any kind of record he wants on a major label - only a select few artists can say the same.

So...... most people know him, are aware of him, but have made the choice that he is not their thing. As much as we all love him, you have to respect the fact that many more people don't: it's called personal taste and you have to accept it. I'm sure Elvis does.

thepopeofpop · Post by **thepopeofpop** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 5:35 am

Oh Elvis could be more commercial. It doesn't matter if most people don't like him that much. There isn't any artist that is popular with everybody.

People thought Randy Newman wasn't commercial until he started writing stuff for movies, now he's raking in megabucks.

Elvis doesn't want to have the level of success that means he plays huge stadiums to people who only want to hear "the hits". In countries where he did have big hit singles (UK, Australia etc) he does get people at his shows who only want to hear Olivers Army or Pump it Up, as verbal gymnastics notes. Elvis could have gone down the road of predictable commercial success - all he had to do was make Get Happy sound like "Armed Forces"... it didn't even have to be a good album, it just had to sound like what his most recent success was. But he didn't want to be stereotyped as that kind of artist and he didn't want to be straitjacketed by the expectation of having to play "all the hits" for a huge audience. '

I respect him for taking the option to pursue his interests instead of maximum commercial gain. But don't think that RIR is uncommercial just because "people aren't that interested in Elvis". A lot of the "problem" is that most people don't have a clue who Allen Toussaint is. A friend of mine is a professional music reviewer, and HE didn't know who Allen Toussaint was (until I told him) so what hope does the average listener have? At least now a few more people will have been exposed to Allen's music.

And frankly, Elvis is doing pretty well in the US right now. WIWC and TDM charted OK. Inexplicably, he can't sell for shit in the UK right now - which is weird since his "Best Of" hit #4 in the UK in 1999. Apparently he's persona non grata there now though. What's all that about?

Neil. · Post by **Neil.** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 6:45 am

I dunno, guys - how do you know what his feelings are? As a songwriter, I'd want my songs to be heard by as many people as possible. I'm not talking about making money so much as knowing that you're giving happiness to people with your amazing music. It must be galling to hear so many crap bands getting airtime (and large followings because of it), when your own stuff is still only appreciated by a hardcore of loyal fans, rather than the general public. At least people know loads of Queen songs, Beatles songs, Elton John songs, Bowie songs. They get airplay. Very few people know more than one or two Elvis songs, when they should be in the popular consciousness like the hits of those other artists.

thepopeofpop · Post by **thepopeofpop** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 7:34 am

Neil. wrote:I dunno, guys - how do you know what his feelings are?

He's said this stuff in interviews. For example:

"I don't have that many hits. Though my morbid dread is getting lumbered with that crass track that suddenly becomes popular and you have to play it forever more" and,

"But once you've had some success everyone measures you by these ludicrously inflated terms. You have to play Madison Square Garden for five nights! And then there's nowhere to go except down. So there's something to be said for staying out of that race. As long as I make a living and no one takes away my house and puts me in debtors' prison, I don't really care." Musican Magazine, 1989 http://www.elviscostello.info/articles/ ... 0301a.html

That's just one interview, but it's typical of his comments.

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 7:57 am

thepopeofpop wrote:And frankly, Elvis is doing pretty well in the US right now. WIWC and TDM charted OK. Inexplicably, he can't sell for shit in the UK right now - which is weird since his "Best Of" hit #4 in the UK in 1999. Apparently he's persona non grata there now though. What's all that about?

Well he's based himself primarily as recording and trying out his new material in America. Recent (and recentish) examples include in 1995 when he tried out his new material on 5 nights at the Beacon in New York, 2005 when he (understandably) recorded and toured The Delivery Man in America and toured a leg with Emmylou Harris, this year ditto with The River In Reverse and Allen Toussaint. The UK is not his main market anymore. He feels the UK doesn't appreciate him. But he tours good sized venues over here and plays great sets.

I wouldn't say he's persona non grata here though. He's still picked up by "the adult" music stations. He's not going to get the airplay on mainstream radio.

Poor Deportee · Post by **Poor Deportee** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 8:58 am

"Monkey to Man" was a truly infectious pop tune that should have been a hit. It had a hilarious video to boot. That it wasn't a hit proves to me that EC simply does not register on the consciousness of music programmers for radio or TV. And that's the real key, surely.

As much as EC waxes philosophical, he clearly did want hits for much of his career....at least until Spike. He has also ranted about the failure of record companies to promote his work.

I'm sure, being quite wealthy nowadays, he is genuinely less interested in that than he used to be, but I'm sure the general commercial failure since his early boom years has been at least a minor irritation for a good chunk of that time.

Just my opinion...

martinfoyle · Post by **martinfoyle** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 9:35 am

Elvis truly doesn't care about commercial success anymore and he doesn't need to. He's content to record whatever he wants to, at no great expense, and then deliver the finished master to the record label. He makes a few pr appearances and that's it. The album will be bought by his 200,000 or so fanbase and the label will make their money back. Then it'll become a handy catalogue item for the label, reverting back to Elvis after a few years. Sure it would be nice if he had a huge hit. Still, music fans will keep on discovering him and that's probably enough for Elvis.

hes a fine figure of a ma · Sat Jul 22, 2006 2:29 pm

Elvis has a few years yet before the fawning begins, thats whe he will truly know he is finished .I can see it now on the BRITs the year 2020 Elvis will be wheeled out along with Morrisey as the last great white dopes.
( Mr Weller sold his soul this year)

Elvis dont do it you know you dont need it.

I say f***em all if they dont have the ears / brain cells to know what we know.

thepopeofpop · Post by **thepopeofpop** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 10:42 pm

hes a fine figure of a ma wrote:I can see it now on the BRITs the year 2020 Elvis will be wheeled out along with Morrisey as the last great white dopes.

Elvis will 66 then. Hopefully he'll still be writing great songs - the odds are that he quite literally will be the greatest living (and still working) songwriter in the world by that time (unless somebody new and brilliant comes along). He'll certainly have a lock on the "greatest songwriter from the 20th century still working" tag as most of other contenders will be in their seventies, eighties or nineties.

Bob Dylan is 65 right now, and is doing pretty well in the credibility stakes. Paul McCartney is 64. Of course, they'll be 79 and 78 respectively in 2020. Paul Simon will turn 79 in late 2020. Mick Jagger will be 77 (fancy that) as will Randy Newman. Neil Young will be 75. Assuming they are all still alive of course.

Even Bowie will be 73, Paul Weller 58 and Morrissey will be the spring chicken of the bunch at 57. I could write a very amusing parody of Morrissey at 57, but I'll save it for another day.

I'm hoping that Elvis will be powering along Johnny Cash style at 66. That doesn't mean he has to work with Rick Rubin or anything, incidentally, unless he really wants to.