Released on Cleopatra Records
Review By Hunter Bush
Track list:
1. Is It So Strange
2. One Night
3. Lonely Blue Boy
4. First In Line
5. Baby, Let's Play House
6. Love Me
7. Pocketful of Rainbows
8. Fever
9. When It Rains, It Really Pours
10. Always On My Mind
11. Loving Arms
12. Like a Baby
13. Girl of My Best Friend
14. Young and Beautiful
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In a well-known deleted scene from the 1994 film Pulp Fiction, Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) and Vincent Vega (John Travolta) have a discussion about Elvis and The Beatles. "Beatles people can like Elvis" Mia explains "and Elvis people can like The Beatles, but nobody likes them both equally." Surprising no one, Vincent is an Elvis man. Glenn Danzig, co-founder of seminal East Coast horror punk band The Misfits - and recently director of his first feature film Verotika, based on his line of adult oriented comics of the same name - is also unsurprisingly an Elvis man, having long been known by the potentially self-assigned nickname "the evil Elvis". Now, as the title of his latest record promises: DANZIG Sings ELVIS.
Elvis Presley came onto the music scene in 1954 and music was never the same. Hell, culture was never the same. Elvis' number of Billboard Hits is still a yardstick by which modern musicians are measured, Michael Jackson's honorific had the qualifier "...of Pop" because Elvis was already "The King", and Elvis impressions became their own cultural phenomenon! Elvis impersonation competitions have existed for decades and have become their own financial ecosystem to the degree that CKx Inc. (the company that owned Elvis' estate and likeness) was charging organizers a fee to put on any such contest that sold tickets. The lip curl, the hair, the sunglasses, the jump suits, the karate; Elvis may have left the building, but he'll never leave popular culture.
And then there's Glenn Danzig. Young Glenjamin (not his real name) was born in northern New Jersey and grew up loving music (he took piano and clarinet lessons), sci-fi and horror. With a professional music career beginning in the 70's, he is most famous for either co-founding The Misfits or the video for Mother 93 Live which was a staple of MTV in the early 90s. There's never been any doubt that Danzig was an Elvis fan. He's covered Presley songs in the past, The Misfits' were sonically inspired by the music of The King's heyday, and their distinctive "devilock" hairstyle was a mutation of the duck's ass pompadour Elvis favored. In general Danzig's vocal style is a combination of Elvis' baritone crooning and that one scream Jim Morrison did, so DANZIG Sings ELVIS should be an absolute lead-pipe cinch.
I don't expect Glenn Danzig to sound just like Elvis. Hell, at 65 I wouldn't even expect Danzig to sound exactly like Danzig anymore! Which isn't a knock - he is a human being after all, despite any claims to the contrary, and no one can keep things going full steam forever. My problem is that he rarely sounds fully engaged; he's hitting the notes but with the energy of a competent karaoke session. Elvis is known, among so many other things, for the emotion and pathos he could manifest vocally in his songs and by the time you reach the tenth track on DANZIG Sings ELVIS you're thinking it would be really great if Danzig were able to truly Get There for the chorus of Always on My Mind, but he just doesn't. It's not a bad version, but it would've really brought the house down if there were a little more heart behind it.
That aside, some of the songs really land well. Lonely Blue Boy (recorded as Danny by Presley for the King Creole soundtrack) is a stand out, as are Danzig's versions of Like a Baby, Girl of My Best Friend and his oddly colder version of Pocketful of Rainbows (a phrase I never would have imagined hearing Danzig utter in a million years) and largely most of the rest are solid. The only track I see myself skipping is Danzig's cover of Fever. Recorded by Presley in 1960, Fever is probably the most oft-covered song on the album. Originally recorded in 1956 by R&B singer Little Willy John, its most famous version is probably Peggy Lee's from '58, but for my money you can't beat The Cramps' cover from 1980. Unlike Peggy's, The Cramps' or countless other versions, Danzig's just brings nothing new to a very familiar table.
My biggest issue with the album overall is inconsistent mixing making the instrumentation on some of the tracks battle for your attention with Danzig's voice. Songs like Baby, Let's Play House and album closer Young and Beautiful are examples of this with the vocals and instruments all competing in the higher treble range, giving those songs an oddly nasal quality. I almost attributed this to the slapback reverb - present throughout the album - as that is a common byproduct of using that type of effect, but songs like Girl of My Best Friend, and album opener Is It So Strange manage to avoid that pinched sound with the usual instruments while other songs utilize piano / keys to fill out the tonal range.
These issues may be a consequence of time or budget or just of Danzig undertaking this kind of project at 65, but regardless they shouldn't deter you from listening to DANZIG Sings ELVIS, a record that shows a softer side of the usually self-serious Glenn Danzig. His fandom of The King aside, Danzig clearly has genuine affection and admiration for Presley and his work, and from a man who has made a career of depicting himself the way Glenn Danzig has, to show that kind of sentiment is a mighty shift. I hope that, whatever Danzig may have planned for the future - more films? new Misfits material? - he continues to deliver the unexpected.
You may forever have to choose between Elvis and The Beatles, as Mia Wallace posited, but you'll thankfully never have to choose between Elvis and Glenn Danzig again. With DANZIG Sings ELVIS, the musclebound cat-daddy from Lodi, New Jersey joins the illustrious list of Notable Elvis Impersonators and before you get all shook up because Moviejawn published an album review, I present to you:
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The Best* Elvis Impersonators in Film:
*Rated on my patent-pending Hunka Burning Love scale which has yet to be approved by the scientific community, practitioners of the dark arts, or the estate of Elvis Aaron Presley.
Hunka Burning Love
Forrest Gump (1994) - There isn't much Elvis here, but it's a fun scene as a young Presley (Peter Dobson) imitates the child Gump's (Michael Conner Humphreys') leg-brace-hindered motions. Bonus points: apocryphally Kurt Russell is uncredited as the voice of the future King.
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007) - Also light on Elvis (Jack White), though he does appear mildly unhinged doing karate backstage.
Hunka Hunka Burning Love
Rock-a-Doodle (1991) - Chanticleer the rooster's story is clearly based around Elvis' own and Glen "Rhinestone Cowboy" Campbell similarly based his voice work and singing on Elvis, with whom he was personally acquainted.
Honeymoon in Vegas (1992) - As part of a convoluted attempt to get back his semi-kidnapped wife, Jack (Nicolas Cage) masquerades as member of The Flying Elvises. Bonus points: an Elvis man in real life, Cage was once married to Presley's daughter Lisa Marie.
Hunka Hunka Hunka Burning Love
3000 Miles to Graceland (2001) - The highest Elvises per capita on this list, four crooks (Kevin Costner, Christian Slater, David Arquette & Bokeem Woodbine) in Elvis costumes rob a casino hosting an Elvis convention. Many an Elvis costume is worn, including by star Kurt Russell making his 2nd appearance on this list!
Man on the Moon (1999) - Jim Carrey plays Andy Kaufman including Kaufman's legendary Elvis impersonation.
Hunka Hunka Hunka Hunka Burning Love
True Romance (1993) - Clarence's (Christian Slater's) spirit guide is none other than The King himself, credited as "Mentor", played by Val Kilmer.
Lilo & Stitch (2002) - Cute and fluffy, yet not to be messed-with alien Stitch (Chris Sanders) plays ukulele and pantomimes along to Elvis records and it's fucking cute, y'all.
Hunka Hunka Hunka Hunka Hunka Burning Love
Bubba Ho-Tep (2002) - An aging Elvis Presley (Bruce Campbell), believed to be an Elvis impersonator, must fight against an ancient Egyptian mummy in a nursing home. Hail to The King indeed.
Elvis (1979) - The alpha and omega of on-screen Elvis impersonations, this TV movie directed by John Carpenter stars Kurt Russell, making his 3rd and final appearance on this list as Elvis Presley and co-stars Kurt Russell's glorious hair.
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Thank you for your time, thankyouverymuch.
DANZIG Sings ELVIS is now available to stream or download.
Rock-a-Doodle is streaming on Amazon Prime.
Forrest Gump, Walk Hard, Pulp Fiction and Honeymoon in Vegas are streaming on Starz Amazon.
Walk Hard is streaming on Showtime Amazon.
3000 Miles to Graceland is streaming on DirecTV.
True Romance is streaming on IMDbTV.
Lilo & Stitch is streaming on Disney+.
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This piece was written for Moviejawn where you can find tons of other excellent movie-centric writings, a shop where you can subscribe to the quarterly physical zine and also listen to the I Saw It In a Movie, Cinematic Crypt or Hate Watch / Great Watch podcasts!
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