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mahatmakanejeeves

(57,472 posts)
Mon Apr 9, 2018, 03:52 PM Apr 2018

Died, on this day, in 1997, Mae Axton.

Yep, Hoyt Axton's mom.

Mae Boren Axton



Mae Boren Axton

Mae Boren Axton (September 14, 1914 in Bardwell, Texas – April 9, 1997 in Hendersonville, Tennessee) was known in the music industry as the "Queen Mother of Nashville." She co-wrote the Elvis Presley hit single "Heartbreak Hotel." with Tommy Durden She worked with Mel Tillis, Reba McEntire, Willie Nelson, Eddy Arnold, Tanya Tucker, Johnny Tillotson, and Blake Shelton.
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Music career

Boren is credited with writing approximately 200 songs. "Skid Row", a song recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis, is perhaps her most famous song after "Heartbreak Hotel".

"Heartbreak Hotel"

Boren was the link between Elvis Presley and RCA Victor. She introduced a 19-year-old Presley to Colonel Tom Parker after a performance in Jacksonville, FL. She worked on behalf of Bob Neal to promote Presley and pressured RCA Victor's Nashville division head Stephen H. Sholes to sign Presley. In 1955 Boren co-wrote the Elvis Presley hit-song "Heartbreak Hotel" with Tommy Durden. Durden presented the idea to Mae Axton, from a newspaper article he had read about a man who had killed himself, leaving behind only the message "I walk a lonely street." It was Boren who suggested there be a Heartbreak Hotel at the end of the man's lonely street, thus creating Elvis' first #1 record and one of the greatest rock and roll hits.

Mae Axton Biography at AllMusic

Mae Axton Credits at AllMusic

Well, here's her best-known composition, and also one of the best covers of that song. Another Capitol classic:



MusicProf78
Published on May 12, 2016
Stan’s Elvis parody, with the also-posted “Rock Island Line” on the flip side of the single

Billboard Chart Peak: 79

CD audio, originally issued on 45rpm: Capitol 3480 - Heartbreak Hotel (Axton-Durden-Presley) by Stan Freberg, conducted by Billy Liebert, echo by Mammoth Cave

Check out the daily music posts on my Facebook group: 1950s HITS--EVERY DAY! https://www.facebook.com/groups/82419...

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"Rock Island Line" by Stan Freberg Listen ad-free with YouTube Red

Echo by Mammoth Cave? I have my doubts.

And Stan Freberg? He died three years ago on Saturday:

Stan Freberg

Stan Freberg (born Stanley Friberg; August 7, 1926 – April 7, 2015) was an American author, recording artist, voice actor, comedian, radio personality, puppeteer and advertising creative director, whose career began in 1944. He remained active in the industry into his late 80s, more than 70 years after entering it.
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Capitol Records

Early releases

Freberg began making satirical recordings for Capitol Records, beginning with the February 10, 1951, release of "John and Marsha", a soap opera parody that consisted of the title characters (both played by Freberg) doing nothing but repeating each other's names (with intonations to match the moods). Some radio stations refused to play "John & Marsha," believing it to be an actual romantic conversation between two real people. In a 1954 follow-up, he used pedal steel guitarist Speedy West to satirize the 1953 Ferlin Husky country hit, "A Dear John Letter", as "A Dear John and Marsha Letter" (Capitol 2677).[citation needed] A seasonal recording, "The Night Before Christmas"/"Nuttin' for Christmas", made in 1955, still remains a cult classic.

With Daws Butler and June Foray, Freberg produced his 1951 Dragnet parody, "St. George and the Dragonet", a #1 hit for four weeks in October 1953. It sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc.

Another hit to receive the Freberg treatment was Johnnie Ray's weepy "Cry", which Freberg rendered as "Try" ("You too can be unhappy … if you try" ), exaggerating Ray's histrionic vocal style. Ray was furious until he realized the success of Freberg's 1952 parody was helping sales and airplay of his own record. Freberg reported getting more angry feedback for this than from his other parodies.

After "I've Got You Under My Skin" (1951), he followed with more popular musical satires, such as "Sh-Boom" (1954), a parody of the song recorded by The Chords. At the end, he yells "STELLA!" at a woman, imitating Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire. The B side of that record was a parody of "C'est si bon", broadcast in 1955 on the TV show Sam and Friends. Other songs include "The Yellow Rose of Texas" (1955), where a "Yankee" snare drummer gets out of hand on the recording; "Rock Island Line", based on the 1955 Lonnie Donegan skiffle version, with interruptions by Peter Leeds; and "The Great Pretender" (1956).es out of control, and Elvis eventually rips his jeans during the performance.

With Foray, he recorded "The Quest for Bridey Hammerschlaugen", a spoof of The Search for Bridey Murphy by Morey Bernstein, a 1956 book on hypnotic regression to a past life and an LP of the first actual hypnosis session.

Here are Stan Freberg and Speedy West:

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