i watched a documentary on elvis presley on whyy and learned something that i would like to share with you. its one of those things that as soon as i saw it, i knew i was going to hang on to it for the rest of my life.
no, it wasnt how to sing or thrust your hips or make it in the music biz. it was a life lesson derived from pure happenstance.
basically, its just an example of swallowing your pride and realizing sometimes you just gotta do what you've gotta do. in his up and coming years and immediately after an appearance on the milton berle show, elvis received a lot of ridicule from critics. they said that he couldnt sing and that his dancing was sinful and influencing teen delinquency. he was overwhelmed with negative press and backed into a corner, forced to defend his singing and performing style. about two weeks later he was scheduled to appear on the steve allen show. they were thisclose to canceling him because they didnt like the controversy surrounding the future legend. however, the producers agreed to let him perform on the show provided that he wear a tuxedo instead of his usual sexy and cool attire and sing on stage with a real live hound dog, who would also be wearing a tux and top hat. completely humiliating, right?
well, he wasnt happy about it, but he did it. and you know what, its actually a great clip. because even though the idea was completely ridiculous and humiliating, you never really see it that way when he performed. its because of the way he handled it. he serenaded that hound dog, grabbed it by its droopy jowls, took it over the top and the crowd loved it. in doing so, he completely owned the moment and no one who watched it would have thought any different.
he went on to win three grammy awards, be inducted into four different music hall of fames and his face has been on a postage stamp.
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