Roots Of Elvis

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Wednesday, 20 October, 2004

Roots Of Elvis is the first book by long-time Elvis Presley fan David Neale.

There are plenty of books about Elvis already, of course -- more than two-thousand titles, in fact! -- but Roots Of Elvis is something different! It does not retell the story of Elvis's life; it is not a tell-all exposÈ by someone who once saw Elvis across a room; it is not the tale of an ex "friend" or family-member!

Roots Of Elvis instead examines the very thing that made Elvis tick: his music. More intriguingly, Roots Of Elvis looks at the origins of Elvis's music.

David Neale has spent some ten years searching for the original versions of numbers that Elvis later recorded himself. The search has uncovered more than 450 titles! All these titles are listed in Roots Of Elvis.

Here's an example of an entry:

Can't Help Falling In Love (Peretti/Creatore/Weiss)

Recorded by Elvis on Thursday, 23 March, 1961
Original: A. Delcroix, 1903
Elvis's version can be heard on Blue Hawaii; ELV1S 30 #1 Hits

Based on Plaisir d'Amour (Pleasure of Love), a song dating from 1785, with original words by Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian and music by Johann Paul Aegidius Martini (Schwarzendorf). The words first appeared in de Florian's novel CÈlestine and, because of its context there, the song was also know as Romance du Chevrier (Romance of the goatherd). It was later adapted in English as The Joy of Love. Recorded innumerable times by everyone and his mother, the very earliest recording seems to have been made by A. Delcroix (listed on label as "Mons. A. Delcroix" -- very French!) on Odeon 33089 in 1903. Can't Help Falling In Love is an adaptation of the original tune with new words, written for the film Blue Hawaii, by George Weiss.

What's been said about Roots Of Elvis

Received your book yesterday - as you Brits say 'Absolutely Brilliant'; Pete, Jen and Dakota, Apache Elvis.

There have been many other books about Elvis, but we recommend this book as being one which deserves a special place on your bookshelf; Elvis The Reality FC, New Zealand.

There's a lot of information there; Peter Nazareth, Professor of English and African-American World Studies, University of Iowa.

You have history in your pages; Eve Bradford, Elvis fan, USA

An Elvis collector's must-have! Bill Burk, Elvis World, and author of the "Early Elvis" books.

Boy, you have done some great research -- have never seen another books like it! Great to look up special songs and see more info about them, who recorded them first and so on. Great, great book, well put together in every way - a book everybody should understand has a lot of research behind it, not a book written in a weekend, as some books are. Stein Erik Skar, author of "Elvis, The Concert Years 1969 -- 1977."

I think all serious fans knew that Elvis covered many songs but I had no idea just how many until I just finished reading one of the most interesting books that has come out on Elvis in many, many years -- ROOTS OF ELVIS by David Neale. I was shocked to learn just how many songs that Elvis did in fact cover. David has to be commended for the incredible amount of research that he did on this book. And the time he must have spent finding all of this valuable information! You have to give the guy a lot of credit for tracking all of this down and making it available to us. This book IS A MUST for fans who are truly into Elvis Presley's music and want to know where his musical roots came from. Paul Dowling, Worldwide Elvis

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