There are songs that, when you hear them, cause you to stop in your tracks, close your eyes and become one with the music.
“Black Velvet” by Alannah Myles is that song for me. The song, released in 1990, was written by Canadian songwriters Christopher Ward and David Tyson.
One afternoon, “Black Velvet” came on the radio when I was in the car with my eldest grandson. I immediately turned up the volume and started tapping on the steering wheel with the beat.
He looked at me, questions in his eyes.
“This song is about Elvis Presley,” I told him.
A blank stare.
“People used to paint his likeness on black velvet,” I said.
Still a blank stare.
“What’s black velvet?” he asked. “And who’s Elvis Presley?”
How do I explain the impact the Elvis Aaron Presley had on an entire generation? How do I sufficiently explain the effect this sexy country boy from Mississippi had on the rock and roll scene back in the day?
Elvis was a little before my time but there’s no denying his explosion on the entertainment scene changed music. There were talented Black artists who wrote and sang these rock-and-roll songs before Elvis. This Mississippi singer had the opportunity to make it on the national stage.
Songs like “Nothing like a Hound Dog,” “Love Me Tender,” and “Jailhouse Rock” might seem old-fashioned these days, but when they hit the airwaves, they were like a seismic jolt.
My mom said the heart throbs for her generation were Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin in their tuxedos and smooth voices. When Elvis showed up in jeans and a slicked back, black pompadour, the girls went crazy.
When he shook those hips on the Ed Sullivan show, the network refused to let him be filmed from the waist down.
The first time I heard “Black Velvet,” I didn’t know what the song was about. Then one day I saw a black-velvet painting with Elvis’s likeness in an antique store.
That’s when I knew – people loved this man so much, they’d paint his likeness on one of the most luxurious fabrics in the world. Velvet suits Elvis’s voice perfectly. That Mississippi twang was a totally Southern voice, dripping with sugar, a little bit of whiskey thrown in for effect.
“Black Velvet’s” lyrics sum up Presley’s presence. Elvis did have that “little boy smile,” and he did establish a new religion – rock and roll that brought a whole generation to their knees. His songs were raw, full of emotion and light years away from any of 1950s tunes.
He reinvented himself in Las Vegas in the late 60s and early 70s, where his sold-out shows brought in over 2.5 million fans. His private retreat, Graceland, brought in over half a million visitors yearly before Covid. The only other house to see more visitors is the White House.
As the song says, Elvis was gone too soon. He died on Aug. 16, 1977 at the age of 42. He was in the midst of another comeback, having switched from jeans to white, jewel-studded jumpsuits.
His fans still grieve for him, whether they remember him from his go-go movie “Viva Las Vegas” to his surfer flick “Blue Hawaii.” Some might remember a trim, black-leather clad King still sporting his signature lip curl, long sideburns and growly voice.
Still others picture Elvis performing in Las Vegas, overweight and bloated, but where the women still screamed his name. Still others will remember Elvis whenever they see his likeness painted on black velvet.
There’ll never be another one like The King.
This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.