Jake wrote:

> Okay. But am I wrong in thinking, as I thought most of the naturalized
> world did, that the point of Elvis was he brought R&B (and yes,
> country and his awful showtune renditions) ALL to the white populace?

Well, what I was thinking of, when I said show tunes, was his 
wonderfully lugubrious version of "Blue Moon". What a brilliant deep 
down dirge. Between his and the Marcels' version, there's worlds of 
distance, and still they both blow me away. The performance and the 
concept behind it make all the difference, especially with a first-rate 
song to build upon.

> BLUES for chrissakes, which was originally (oh god) a BLACK man's
> music and whites didn't want to hear it from some black guy but they'd
> hear it from a greaser-trucker who had no prior music experience but
> loved his mama?

It's not so much a point of bringing all these genres to the masses 
individually that made it work, it's the effortless melding of these 
roots, often within a single song, that brought him notice. Elvis 
didn't think "black music", "white music". He just thought "I likes it, 
uh uh". Basically. ;)

> Definitely a performer. But a stupid actor. Even
> though I love those movies.
>
Even then, "those movies" are not all created equal. Elvis started out 
very promisingly as an actor. King Creole, Flaming Star, Jailhouse 
Rock, Wild in the Country...but unfortunately there's almost 30 more...

> Everything is out there for a reason.
>
For better or for worse. Very true.

Rick