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When Elvis co-starred with Mae on the Ed Sullivan show in 1956, he told her that she had taught him how to sing. (Chuck Berry, one of rock and roll’s greatest lyricists, later covered the song.) The lyrics are certainly as direct as any rock and roll classic: “There’s an eight-beat combo that just won’t quit/ keep walkin’ till you see a blue light lit”. Her energetic cover is also driven by a memorable saxophone solo but is let down by the backing vocalists who sound like bad Jordanaires impersonators.Ī sassy, genre-transcending vocalist, hailed by Nick Tosches, no less, as one of the “unsung heroes of rock and roll”, Morse memorably cut House Of Blue Lights in 945, a performance that has, despite the dated arrangement, some of the soul Elvis wanted in his music. Even now I’ll go back and I can’t play note for note what I did back then.”Īnother artist who had previously covered Stone’s most famous composition was Ella Mae Morse. As the Rolling Stone wrote: “I’d have died and gone to heaven just to play like that – how the hell was that done?” It’s possible that even Moore couldn’t say, as he recalled: “The solos were strictly ad lib. Moore’s guitar solo helps, driving the song forward with a mysterious force that mesmerized a young Keith Richards. Fontana on drums and Floyd Cramer at his sharpest on piano, Elvis’s Money Honey rocks harder than the Drifters’ original. With Bill Black on bass, Scotty Moore on lead guitar, D.J. The tempo and the vibe are similar, but right from the start, Elvis’s vocal is more aggressive, challenging and cynical, as the landlord’s demand for “money honey” leads the narrator to discover that his mercenary girlfriend has replaced him with a richer man and concluding that, to avoid future complications with rent and romance, he will follow her example. His transformation of Money Honey is not as radical as his blistering take on Arthur Crudup’s My Baby Left Me, but it is certainly not a pastiche or a copy.
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He acknowledged his mentor’s influence at four of the most creative recording sessions in his career: his first at RCA’s New York studios on 10 January 1956 (when he also recorded Heartbreak Hotel) at Radio Recorders in Hollywood on 6 September 1957 when he cut White Christmas at Studio B Nashville, on 3 April 1960 when he worked wonders with Such A Night and, lastly, in January 1969 when he gave everything he had, vocally, in a soaring rendition of Without Love at American Studios. As he told Sam Phillips: “You know, if I could sing like that man, I would never want for another thing.”
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The significance of this scream is best described by Greil Marcus: “It’s the scream of surprise – the scream of a man watching a door blow out, the scream of a man who’s been to the other side and is ready now to reach back and pull everyone over.”Īn 18-year-old truck driver called Elvis Presley was one of those who McPhatter pulled into a new world. Inspired by a shared joy of discovery, McPhatter screams to encourage Taylor on. Despite McPhatter’s sublime vocal, it is more of an ensemble performance, with the other Drifters weaving their harmonies in the background, and a superb saxophone solo from Sam ‘The Man’ Taylor driving the song to a frenzied climax. The Drifters’ performance is astonishing enough in its own right to earn the song the number 252 slot on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 greatest songs of all-time. The familiar suggestion is, to use a technical term scholars of popular music don’t use often enough, rubbish.Īll you have to do to refute this canard is listen to the respective versions back to back. You have probably read that Presley’s cover of Jesse Stone’s Money Honey is identical to the classic Drifters version, cut in 1953, with Clyde McPhatter on lead vocal, which reached No1 on the US R&B charts, selling two million copies. It is also an object lesson in what you might call the misunderestimation of Elvis. His take on Money Honey is unique, unforgettable and unalloyed genius. “You know the landlord ring my front door bell” has to be one of the most memorable entrances Elvis ever made into a song. In this EIN Spotlight respected author Paul Simpson takes a close look at this classic track from Elvis' first album. 'Money Honey' - Unique, unforgettable, unalloyed genius - EIN Spotlight by Paul Simpson