As I mentioned in earlier posts in this series, neither of my parents was a big music fan…I don’t remember them ever playing music in any of the different houses that we lived in. We did have a old record player, however, and when I was about ten years old I discovered a few records that belonged to my mother. For the next four years or so I wore those few records out playing them over and over again. The records were a diverse selection of popular music from the late 50s and early 60s and they represent my earliest musical memories.
Most of my mother’s records were 33 and 1/3 RPM albums but she did have one 45 RPM Extended Plan (EP) record, Peace in the Valley, by Elvis Presley. I didn’t know the history of the EP at the time but I now know it was released in April 1957 as his first gospel release. Out of all of my mother’s records it is the one I would most like to have today. I really didn’t have any idea about the religious aspect of the songs but I absolutely fell in love with his voice. I listened to this record so many times that I probably wore out the vinyl! Let’s listen to the title song from the EP and you can see what I’m talking about with respect to the voice of Elvis Presley…….
Amazing, right? As a bonus, here is a great live performance of the song from the Ed Sullivan show in 1957 (that’s the amazing Jordanaires on backup vocals)……
Stay tuned tomorrow….I plan to feature Elvis in my first Time Machine Tunes (TMT) post.
thebestmusicyouhaveneverheard 