Elvis and Mac Davis

    Mac Davis born 21st January 1942.His biggest hit was Baby Don't Get Hooked On Me and he first saw Elvis perform way back in 1956 on the back of a truck in Lubbock Texas . Lubbock being the home of Buddy Holly and as Mac said Buddy and Elvis were his two inspirations to write music. Another of Macs biggest hits Hooked on Music has in the first verse a reference to the first time he saw Elvis. Mac started writing for Elvis in 1967 in partnership with Billy Strange who worked with Elvis on the movie songs in the sixties. Billy and Mac wrote songs like Charro , A Little Less Conversation, Clean Up Your Own Backyard , Nothingville ,Dont Cry Daddy , Memories and his most famous In The Ghetto. I loved hearing Mac's story about the success of A Little Less Conversation going to number one in 2002. He said I was in shock i could'nt believe it. A friend of mine called me and said , hey Mac one of your songs has gone to number one in the UK. I knew nothing about the Nike promotion. Then later, my wife and I were watching Oceans Eleven and didnt realize they had used this version in the movie. It sounds so good. I thought the revamp they did was amazing. It was originally written for the 68 special but not used.
    Interested to hear Mac say that the lyrics were changed in A Little Less Conversation by Elvis or by those in Hollywood to fit the scene in Live A Little Love A Little and he said at the time he was a bit annoyed that they had changed his favorite verse in the song. Its a groovy night and i can show you how to use it. .Here is the original movie version with Elvis and the beautiful Celeste Yarnall . This computer will prove to you that the planets are wrong.

         
                 “Elvis’ records were always lesser than what he was vocally,”Billy Strange

   Charro a western had Elvis as Jess Wade a role originally offered to Clint Eastwood. The title song written by Mac , was the only song Elvis performed in the movie. Mac told a story about hearing a guy whistling this tune in a bathroom one time and was amazed, because it had always been a dream of his, to hear some person, unknown to him whistling a song he had written and I couldnt believe the song would be Charro as i dont remember much about that song myself. I had to ask him the name of the song because i couldnt remember the name.

    Clean Up Your Own Backard was a song performed in Trouble with Girls . Interesting to note alot of the songs recorded for this movie stayed unreleased for a considerable amount of time bar this one. Songs like Signs of the Zodiac and Swing Down Sweet Chariot, Almost and Violet.

   Nothingville or as I think it was referring to Hollywoodville. They treat me like a country clown. Its a Rats race at a snails pace ! Mac said he always thought that was one of his favorite lines in any song he had written. It was specificly written for the TV Special with Memories.

Poor Mans Gold another written by Mac but Elvis only ever sung one line from it in the studio. I loved how Pete Storm completed it and thought i would add it here for a novelty song .