Yet ANOTHER Top 100 (or so) Songs I Absolutely Must Have With Me on 1/48/50

#271) "If I Can Dream" by Elvis Presley - Sometime in the 1990s, we thought fit to put Elvis Presley on a postage stamp, and got into a national debate about which Elvis it should be - young, sexy, boundary-pushing "Elvis the Pelvis" of the 1950s, or fat, bloated, drug-addled Elvis, who through most of the 70s lumbered onto stage in a purple cape suit, breathing heavily and sweating up a storm, but whose magnificent voice never failed him even when it was clear his body had. The U.S. Postal Service actually let people vote for their favorite stamp, and in the end, young Elvis won out. Not too surprising, I guess.

Young Elvis may very well have been the best looking dude of the 20th century (his aesthetic surely remains a gold standard for many women today), but the King's best music came during the fat years, when he simply stopped giving a shit, started singing the music he wanted to sing, which for Elvis was a lot of different types of songs, most of them arranged in a specific gospel-based style that gave him a platform to showcase his voice and stage presence.

This musical trend began in 1968, with the televised live concert known as the "Comeback Special", which aired on NBC on December 3. Elvis wasn't out of shape yet, still looked the part, still looked pretty good, actually, maybe the best he ever had (certainly the best he ever would).  He performed some of his classics and some new music, and he closed the show with "If I Can Dream",  a powerful song worthy of his voice and delivery that also echoed the hopeful and idealized sentiment of the era, signaling to the American public (a public quite different from that which was only allowed to watch him from the waist up thirteen years earlier) that the King of Rock and Roll hadn't gone anywhere, just grown up a bit, and was now paying attention to things going on, along with everyone else.

Great song. Great performance. Pity that "hopeful and idealized sentiment" went largely ignored.

"There must be peace and understanding sometime, strong winds of promise that will blow away the doubt and fear..." 




#272) "Memories" by Elvis Presley - Another song that debuted on the '68 Comeback Special and was eventually released as a single, as love ballads go - by the King, or anyone else - this is about as good as it gets.

"Sweet memories, of holding hands and red bouquets, and twilight trimmed in purple haze / And laughing eyes and simple ways, and quiet nights and gentle days with you..."



#273) "Unchained Melody (Live)" by Elvis Presley - Performed weeks before his death in 1977, this is, for a variety of reasons, one of the worst live performances of any song, by anyone, ever.

It's also one of the very greatest, for all the same reasons, and maybe a few others.

"Are you still mine...?"