Roots Of Elvis

Author: David Neale

Publisher: iUniverse

ISBN: 0-595-29505-3 (paperback, 224 pp.)

So here I am, reviewing my own book!

I had for a long time been curious about some of the more well-known early versions of Elvis songs, but at the beginning of the 1990s my interest was piqued by a programme on the Belgian radio, called The Originals. The programme dealt with original versions of many popular songs and included amongst these were some of Elvis's numbers, too. A CD was released in conjunction with the programme of "originals versions" of Elvis songs and a book was soon published, covering hundreds of titles, but with just fifty or so that were also recorded by Elvis. Unfortunately, I immediately saw that there were errors in both the CD and the book, so I decided to do some research myself. I had no idea how many numbers had indeed been recorded by someone else before Elvis got around to recording his version, but I guessed that I would reach a total of a hundred or so. That number was soon reached, then two-hundred, and so on. With the advent of the Web, the search was made somewhat easier and I decided to publish my results in a special web site, Elvis Presley, The Originals. This elicited some feedback (not a great deal, unfortunately, and very little from Elvis fans!) and a number of requests as to whether the information was in book form. As a result, when I felt I had gone far enough, I decided to indeed put the information into printed form and Roots Of Elvis is the result.

No, the photo on the front cover is not a hitherto unseen photo of Elvis! That's me when I was about six years old in Wales. Why that photo? Well, the reason is intimated in the introduction of Roots Of Elvis! The brief introduction leads into a series of indexes: the main one is called the Titles Index and here the reader finds the main reason for the book, with each title listed with the its composers, the date on which Elvis recorded his version, the name of the original recording artist(s), the date of the original recording and an indication of where Elvis's version can be found. This information is further expanded with an anecdote relating to one or more aspects of the title: this might relate to the original artist, the composer, the song itself, or Elvis's version and is often unexpected and fascinating, offering links to Marilyn Monroe, President Woodrow Wilson, a French novel called Romance Of The Goatherd and many other facts that make the search into these originals so interesting.

A number of other indexes follow this main body, allowing easy retrieval of composers and performers, as well as a more general index. An Addendum contains two titles that were found at the last minute, indicating that the search continues! Readers need not worry that their book will soon become outdated, however. In addition to a Web page providing corrections to a few printing errors in Roots Of Elvis, I also continue to maintain Elvis Presley, The Originals, where updates can be found by date, so that the book can be easily kept up to date (and there are no longer many updates!).

As far as I am aware, this is the only book to deal with the subject of the roots of Elvis's music on this scale. During the course of my research I discovered that many books refer to the better-known "original version," but that these are often incorrect! As an example, Al Jolson did not record the original version of "Are You Lonesome Tonight," nor was his recording made in 1927, although this is what I read in countless Elvis books! Roots Of Elvis dispels a few myths, provides a lot of answers and unearths some great information -- a real treasure-trove for anyone interested in twentieth-century music (even though some original versions date back to the nineteenth century and some of the songs themselves a lot further!).

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