Nashville Gets A Share Of Elvis Week In 2007

Next year's Elvis Week commemorating the 30th anniversary of the King's death will go beyond the usual Memphis events to honor some of Nashville's own Presley lore.

Besides a Beale Street parade and the usual vigil at Graceland in Memphis, the week's calendar features a special concert at Nashville's historic Ryman Auditorium 196 miles away to benefit Belmont University's music business scholarship program.

"We like to say Elvis may have lived in Memphis, but he made his music here," Belmont spokeswoman Pamela Johnson said.

The studio most closely associated with the King's early career was Sun Records in Memphis, where producer Sam Phillips recorded Presley's first records and nurtured his rise to fame before he signed with RCA in 1955.

But Nashville's RCA Studio B, where the concert and scholarship fund were announced, was built for Elvis, she said, and he recorded many hits there, such as "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" and "It's Now or Never."

Thanks to a partnership with the Curb Family Foundation, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum now runs tours of the studio, which is restored to its 1970s condition, and Belmont students practice recording using the old analog equipment.

Gordon Stoker, who sang backup for Elvis as part of The Jordanaires, was at the Monday announcement, telling stories of recording with Presley at Studio B.

Still in the studio is a broken wooden cabinet that once held some faulty recording equipment that provoked Elvis to show off his temper, Stoker told The Associated Press.

"He kicked it and burst it in," Stoker said. "He hauled off and cussed it. ... I asked the Country Music Hall of Fame never to repair it."

Most Elvis Week events take place in Memphis, but every year sponsor Elvis Presley Enterprises includes a few others on its official calendar, such as those in Presley's birthplace of Tupelo, Miss., spokesman Todd Morgan said.

Elvis Presley Enterprises controls the worldwide marketing of Presley's name and image and is now a subsidiary of CKX Inc., which also owns the "American Idol" TV show.

"We're happy to cooperate with Belmont by listing the event for them," Morgan said. "They've got one of the best music business programs in the country and they wanted to do something for their scholarship program."

The music business school has another tie to Elvis. Cecil Scaife, for whom the new scholarship fund will be named, helped start the academic program in 1971 and also worked with Elvis as the first promotions manager at Sun Records, according to a news release from the school.

Belmont has not released a list of performers for the concert, but Johnson said it would feature Elvis songs performed by other prominent artists. Elvis performed on the Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman in 1954 as he rose to stardom.

The school hopes to make the concert an annual event and inspire tie-in events, like screenings of Elvis films, around the city.