...there's this Elvis recording of "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" in Las Vegas, in which the King inexplicably bursts into laughter in the middle of the song. The backup singer continues to belt out her "ooooh"s until the end, when the Pres says, "18 years down the drain, boy I tell ya." I've looked for the track for ages now, and it's finally on the World Wide Webstacles.The explanation is, apparently, that Elvis had a tradition of altering the line, "Do you stare at your doorway and picture me there?" into a joke line; in this case, "Do you gaze at your bald head and wish you had hair?" Suddenly, he notices a bald man in the front row, and the laughter snowballs from there. Which is kind of great. *Note: this track has been cut, so it doesn't have the "18 years down the drain" line at the end.
Elvis Presley - "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" (Vegas 1969, laugh version) [mp3]
The world's a stage and each must play a part,
~Andrea
[Thanks ickworld]
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Howdy... actually, my site is Ickmusic (http://ickmusic.com). Ickworld is my personal site.... ;-)
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