Monday, July 30, 2018

30 July 2018 - The Oak Ridge Boys - Elvira

A lot of you know there used to be two authors of this blog, as well as Wicked Guilty Pleasures.  I miss writing with Scott Colvin - he brought a different feel to his postings than I did, and he kept me motivated.

But I have to correct a slight inaccuracy on one of his posts today, and it's a commonly held one.

In 2014, he posted what he called a cover of an Oak Ridge Boys classic, "Elvira", by Little Big Town.  And, the song was definitely "Elvira", and a pretty interesting version of it.  But the Oak Ridge Boys themselves covered the song, which was previously performed by Rodney Crowell (whose version is probably closest to the Little Big Town one), as well as Kenny Rogers and the First Edition...... and written and recorded in the mid-60s by Dallas Frazier.

He didn't write it about Cassandra Peterson, either - Elvira Ave. is a residential street in Nashville, Tennessee.  And there's no Hungry House Cafe there.  I checked.

Let's be completely honest, though - the Oak Ridge Boys owned this song, and they made it a classic.  Scott got that part spot-on. No other version has such great harmonies, or nearly the energy of this version.  These are some of the best harmonies ever recorded!