ELVIS' BIRTHDAY

REMEMBERING ELVIS ON HIS 76TH BIRTHDAY

My all-time favorite Elvis song is "Trouble" from the movie "King Creole".

When I was a teenager and madly in love with Elvis, all of the Elvis fans would be in the auditorium at lunch time to play the newest Elvis records. We considered ourselves rebels. Lorraine Smith would always be the first to have his new records. I can remember my great disappointment when Lorraine announced she was no longer an Elvis fan--she was a Pat Boone fan--and her turnabout was because of a really shameful reason--her new boyfriend thought Elvis was too "hoody"! [My disappointment was mostly because we wouldn't have the Elvis records as quickly! The rest of us solemnly swore that we would NEVER change no matter what anybody thought!]

We would listen to the records endlessly, feverishly writing down the lyrics, and performing the songs, a la Elvis. On Saturdays, in the summer, if I were lucky to get to town, I would go to the record store and play them endlessly and the records were always on my birthday want list!

When Elvis' third movie "King Creole" came out, Lorraine and her clique were able to go to Columbus to see it; I, along with the others less fortunate, had to wait for it to be shown at Chakeres Fayette Theater. Yes, I was there, screaming with all the others. I wanted to read the book by Harold Robbins, "A Stone For Danny Fisher", on which the movie was loosely based. The librarian told me I would have to have my parents' permission to check out the book, as it was "adult". Mother promptly wrote a note, but the librarian thought it was forged; my brother Bode came to the rescue; checking it out in his name and handing it to me in her presence! He snarled, "If she'd old enough to ask for it, she's old enough to read it!"

After seeing the movie, I went to Evelyn Evans, the Bloomingburg "beautician" (as they were known then), showed her a picture of Elvis, and asked her to cut my hair that way. The following Monday, in the auditorium at lunchtime, I asked Mr. Sabin to borrow his jacket and bow-tie and I performed the hip-swiveling choreography to emulate Elvis doing "Trouble". [Several of my classmates remember that performance to this day.] At my last birthday party, I did a karoake to "Trouble" but with less fervor than in 1958!




"Trouble"

If you're looking for trouble,
You came to the right place
If you're looking for trouble
Just look right in my face
I was born standing up
And talking back
My daddy was a green-eyed mountain jack
Because I'm evil, my middle name is misery
Well, I'm evil, so don't mess around with me.

I've never looked for trouble
But I've never ran
I don't take no orders
From no kind of man
I'm only made out
Of flesh, blood and bone
But if you're gonna start a rumble
Don't you try it on alone
Because I'm evil, my middle name is misery
Well, I'm evil, so don't mess around with me
I'm evil, evil, evil as can be
Repeat refrain.