Elvis International Magazine July 2010 Issue
Elvis International Magazine continues to put out a high quality product in an era where such a thing has become a rarity. It is my opinion that Elvis International Magazine, and JAT Publishing, are the two leading Elvis Presley related publishers in the market today.
As usual, Elvis International Magazine has continued their high quality standards, and released the issue on beautiful hard stock color paper, bound in an almost book style format. After acquiring several issues, they begin to appear as it’s own encyclopedic library. The advertisements are beautifully represented, with a strong ( and appreciated ) lack of tacky products which continue to flood the collector market.
Kjell H. Bjornestad, and Darwin Lamm, have done their usual level of excellent editing, and Carol R. Stephens has done exemplary artistic layout and design. In fact, Stephens work on the artistic layout and design may be one of the crucial factors that puts this magazine above the rest. She has a keen eye for knowing “what makes a magazine interesting to look at”. This is a great talent and should not be taken for granted. The original artwork by renowned Elvis artist Betty Harper always makes the magazine unique to look at. This team is really onto something, and I’m glad to see their momentum gaining speed and making each issue better and better. However, do not let that sway you from picking up back issues. The magazine has always been good.
July Issue :
Alan Hanson’s article about Elvis’s chart history is far more fascinating than it sounds. In fact, I actually learned more about Elvis’s chart history from this article than I have in attempts to compile the same information out of several Billboard books and vintage charts. Hanson actually brought a little known fact to light in his research, one that I haven’t known in over 20 years of Elvis research.
Page 7 : Paragraph 2
“Billboard published 963 weekly Top/Hot 100 charts between March 3, 1956, when “Heartbreak Hotel” first appeared, and Elvis’s death in August 1977. A Presley song was listed on 824 of those charts. That means that over a 22-year recording career, Elvis had a spot on Billboard’s top chart 85.6 % That’s an average of more than 17 out of every 20 weeks. Certainly , no artist before or since can even approach that track record.”
- Alan Hanson : Elvis International Magazine July 2010
Thus, this is conclusive evidence that we are able to “learn” from the publication. And this is a major decisive factor between the decision to purchase the magazine among older fans. And an important reason to consider doing so. It was also proven again by the next article.
An eye opener ( with beautiful layout and photography) by Phil Arnold regarding Elvis’s first engagement in Las Vegas in 1956. For decades it has always been believed that his stint in Vegas was a complete failure, and left him emotionally scarred and his confidence shaken. Elvis’s 1956 stint in Las Vegas is interesting for three reasons.
First, a recording of his last show of 1956 exists and is available to the public.
Second, there is film footage of him performing in Las Vegas 1956, and a plethora of photographs.
Third, most biographies or books on Elvis feature maybe a couple of paragraphs or a page at most detailing his engagement in Las Vegas. This made Arnold’s full fledged article stand out immediately to researchers and “50s Elvis” fanatics, who have always been curious about the engagement beyond the stereotypical tales of “ Elvis went to Vegas and flopped” notion , and that Elvis met Liberace.
Instead, Arnold focuses on something we never hear about. That Elvis, actually had a good time when he was there!
Joseph Karetta writes an interesting article about the ‘The Day He Didn’t Meet Elvis’ called “ My Odyssey To The Lisa Marie In 1976”. Karetta gives in depth detail about getting a private first hand tour of the jet while it was landed, and Elvis was out. Karetta and his friends had free reign, and saw some incredible things on board. As far as time capsules articles go, this one is first rate.
On a side note, as the eye witnesses and members of Elvis’s life sadly pass away at the hands of time, it will be eye witness accounts by fans such as Karetta that we learn new things about the late King Of Rock And Roll.
Darwin Lamm’s Q&A with Joe Esposito is one of my least favorite columns in the magazine. No disrespect to Mr. Lamm. My criticism is mainly caused because anytime we hear from Esposito, George Klein, or Jerry Schilling, it tends to be almost a script. But keep in mind, this is only my opinion on this issue. But, we rarely ever learn anything new, or anything of interest from them. Esposito was crucial in the 1980s for providing first hand insight into the day Elvis died, and Mr. Lamm is without doubt, a crucial figure in the history of “Elvis World”. No disrespect is meant to either gentleman, I just wish we could learn something of substance from Esposito in his elder years and see an in-depth biography with new information regardless of how light or dark it may be.
However this is not the fault of Mr. Lamb, but Mr. Esposito for not choosing more colorful story content from reader submissions. But, I must state clearly, I did not know Elvis, and I was not there. As a result, it’s not my business to dictate what these people say or do. And I do certainly commend Esposito for his contributions to the newest Jerry Osborne & Barbara Hahn book “Like Any Other Soldier”. But speaking from a fan perspective, I would like to see Esposito, Klein, and Schilling open up a bit more before times runs out, as they were crucial eye witnesses to parts of history that must be obtained.
Though I am not a fan of American Idol, I do applaud Elvis International Magazine for doing their article “American Idol Visits Graceland”. The reason being, it is crucial to try and reach out to that new , younger generation of Elvis fans which is exploding worldwide. After doing a recent poll on the social network site Facebook, I determined the average age of Elvis Presley fans to be 35 years old, and 64% female. However, the age range varied widely from 18 to 80 years old ( I do not friend people under the age of 18 on Facebook) . But the ‘under 45’ age bracket came in strongest. Though I was vehemently opposed to the concept of Elvis Idol and it’s ridiculous prize of recording the bogus Paul Terry King songs, I do not take issue with American Idol’s endorsement of Elvis Presley. In fact, I cannot think of a greater challenge for contestants than to perform Presley songs as very few people have ever accomplished the feat with success. Nor can I think of a better way to introduce Elvis to a nationwide T.V. audience which does so in a respectful manor. Even if most of the contestants are annoying to listen too, at least they make an honest effort to show some appreciation for what created the medium they are allowed to exist in.
Gerard Montz wrote a article dedicated to collector’s who dream of owning items that may or may not exist, he compiles an impressive list of items that I have never even thought of. Generally, Elvis collecting in the high money market, can consist of lost master tapes, formerly owned Elvis memorabilia, or severely rare records. Montz reminds us that there is another side to memorabilia collecting that is often overlooked. To find out, check out the magazine.
My favorite article in the magazine, sadly suffers from one crucial error that was made on assumption instead of research.
“Collecting The King : Sony/BMG Misses The Target Again” by Robert Alaniz, is the kind of article that sits at the very heart of Elvis Revisited – Discovering Elvis. The absolute necessity for Sony/BMG to get their act together and stop rehashing the same stuff with a new cover every year. And while doing this, paying little promotion, or time to significant and important re-issues of critical Presley music.
The article is an essential ‘must read’ for all fans of Elvis, except for one critical error.
Page 56 : Paragraph 4
“With all the limitations of marketing Elvis Presley in today’s music industry , I’m sure Sony/BMG are aware that Elvis’s core fan are people in their 50s, 60s, 70s (which by the way , are probably the only people that still buy CD’s – most young people download music). And as hard as they may try to market Elvis to a young audience, the bottom line is that the younger people will probably only want Elvis’ biggest hits. And you can only do so much with that.” – Robert Alaniz July 2010
Okay, Mr. Alaniz is totally correct the way Sony/BMG is making marketing errors that border on being ridiculous. But he has made an assumption here that is not true.
First, the majority of Elvis fans are actually in the ‘18-45 year old’ age bracket who buy music, and collect Elvis.
Second, this age group does buy compact discs. However, the problem is with Sony/BMG lack of Elvis output that is non-repetitive. Young consumers are savvy enough to know when they are being sold the same thing twice. I hope that Mr. Alaniz would agree with my opinion on this matter. Also, with the boom in vintage music among young people, it has creating a growing interest in Elvis Rarities, Forgotten Albums, and Bootlegs. But, (and I stress this), this is not that well known of a phenomenon but I can vouch that it is happening, and in a very big way. Aside from FTD who’s releases are very expensive for young buyers, Sony/BMG ignores this release area completely. One has to remember, that Elvis fans ARE Elvis fans. This means that they are not content hearing Elvis’s music come out of a little box (I-pod) that will eventually fall in a Urinal or crash and stop working. Elvis fans like things like “Album Covers” and hard media. They like to ‘collect’ or ‘own’ something that is real and tangible.
Which leads to point number 3, believe it or not, a huge portion of Elvis sales regarding his music, is actually people buying vinyl. There is an enormous amount of young people who are enthusiasts about vintage clothing, hairstyles, furniture, cars, music etc. And for them, vinyl is an absolute must. It has to be original, and it has to be a record. With the recent surge of Elvis vinyl hitting the market, the prices on his albums and singles have dropped severely. This is good for new collectors, bad for old collectors. The point being though, young people can afford to buy – for the sake of argument – a nice original copy of the 1956 album Elvis for $20 , when a few years ago it would have been at least $100.
Since the majority of the vinyl purchased is used, it does not appear on chart ratings or sound-scan returns. Thus, the business and older fan base is unaware. I only bring this point up to help it be known, as this is the age group and fan base I deal with in particular.
I , in no way, shape, or form have any issue with Robert Alaniz, and I think the article he wrote was one that desperately needed to be written. Aside from the above mentioned discrepancy, Every point that he makes is solid truth, and the more articles , blog posts, and journal entries that stress what Mr. Alaniz is saying, will do nothing but hopefully cause good.
I encourage all my readers to go to the following website and place an order for current issue, back issues, or subscriptions of Elvis International Magazine. You will be glad you did. It’s a phenomenal piece of work in a world ruled by far inferior publications.
Steven B. Roberts
