TCBCast: An Unofficial Elvis Presley Fan Podcast

Justin is joined this week by Tony Plews, author of Walk a Lonely Street: Elvis Presley, Country Music and the True Story of Heartbreak Hotel , to explore Elvis's impact on the United Kingdom: on the charts, in culture, and on future generations of British acts. Then, Justin forgoes a Song of the Week to let Tony tell the heartbreaking true story behind Irving Berlin's "White Christmas."  Tony's b...

Justin is joined by special guest Rabia for a broad discussion and re-assessment of Elvis's time in Hollywood. They cover some of Elvis's best and most underwhelming performances, memorable costars, scenes and songs, insights on history and cultural changes be mined from the films and their crews, and how to contend with acknowledging the elephant in the room that is 1968's "Stay Away, Joe." (Spoi...

For this month's Patreon-picked topic, Justin ropes Bec back in for a relaxed, loosely chronological listen to Elvis's progression as a vocal performer in his first decade of making recordings: from the thin-voiced teenager whose only real training consisted of timidly singing along with pop records, to the full-throated man who works himself up to the semi-operatic final notes of "Surrender," and...

Justin is joined this week by special guest co-host Bec Wyles! They talk a little bit about her history and perspective as an international Elvis fan, then jump right into the deep end with a look back at the Nashville 1971 sessions, as featured in the recently released "Back in Nashville" set by Sony Legacy. (We STRONGLY recommend picking up or listening to this collection on your platform of cho...

On November 22, 1961, 60 years ago to the day from the release of this podcast, "Blue Hawaii" released into theatres. Its soundtrack album had already come out one month earlier and both were destined to become among the most commercially successful and well-loved of all narrative films and soundtracks featuring Elvis Presley. On this very special 60th anniversary bonus, TCBCast listeners get to h...

This week, Justin and Gurdip are digging into the tragically short-lived life and career of R&B songwriter and singer Chuck Willis, whose "I Feel So Bad" and "See See Rider" wove in and out of Elvis's career. Also, initial reactions to the new Back in Nashville set and answering a listener email about the Jethro-Tull-esque flute part that dominates the 1968 version of "Don't Be Cruel." Then, for S...

Director Baz Luhrmann has revealed the first initial glimpses of the new biographical film, apparently titled "TCB," set to be released on his social media accounts as part of his Elvis Monday series of posts, so Justin & Gurdip immediately hopped on a call as soon as possible to record initial reactions and speculations.

Due to a family emergency, Justin is out this week, so this episode brings you a collection of previous Songs of the Week, comprising almost two hours of dedicated Elvis song history, including: I'll Remember You, Runaway, I Don't Want To Be Tied, Inherit the Wind, Santa Bring My Baby Back to Me, Promised Land, Let It Be Me and I Need You So. The guys will be back next week as usual but don't forg...

This week, as voted by TCBCast Patreon supporters, Justin and Gurdip are diving into the 1974 spoken word release "Having Fun With Elvis On Stage"... is it as bad as everyone has said or has it been misunderstood all these decades? (Spoiler alert: yeah... yeah, it's bad.) For Song of the Week, the winning patron-poll songs both happen to be from the same 1970 session and same album, Elvis Country,...

Justin's out this week due to a scheduling hiccup, so Gurdip and his guest of choice Jaime Kay are content to just sit back and celebrate the fact that, hey, Elvis's music is REALLY good! They reflect on some of their all-time favorites, as well as personal memories of becoming Elvis fans through their family members. No featured Songs of the Week this week due to the last minute schedule change....

First up this week is a farewell to the heartbeat of the TCB Band: the incomparable Ronnie Tutt, who passed away this week. Then, inspired by TCBCast Patreon supporters' recent topic suggestion covering The Milton Berle Show, Justin & Gurdip head right into Elvis' next TV appearance on The Steve Allen Show on July 1, 1956 (as well as briefly touch on his appearance on Hy Gardner Calling later that...

After threatening to review it since nearly the start of the show's run, just in time for Halloween, Justin & Gurdip finally review Don Coscarelli's 2002 horror-comedy-drama cult hit "Bubba Ho-Tep," starring Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis. It leads to a heated debate over whether protagonist Sebastian Haff is really supposed to be Elvis, and which host believes what might surprise you! Then, for S...

65 years ago this year, Elvis made two appearances on Milton Berle's popular variety program, once on board the U.S.S. Hancock and another back in Los Angeles. As voted by the TCBCast patrons, Justin & Gurdip are looking at both, and offering perspectives on the fallout from the latter performance, which gave way to the first major wave of controversy and backlash against Elvis. The two Songs of t...

The guys are off this week for Justin's birthday, but we're canonizing a re-edited audio version of a livestream Justin did back in April, but never released on the main feed, discussing Elvis's less-considered hits that charted between #31-#40 on the Billboard charts, reading a section of Albert Goldman's Elvis biography for TCBCast Book Club, and spotlighting "Angelica," the song Elvis was origi...

Elvis's shortest album (with the longest title) also known later as simply "Elvis Sings Flaming Star," was one of the earliest LPs Justin ever owned, so the guys are taking a not-so-objective look at this 1968 promo release that brought together a number of then-previously-unreleased cuts, including Tiger Man, Too Much Monkey Business, Do the Vega and more! Then for Song of the Week, Justin was so...

The incomparable Jaime Kay is back to regale us with tales of her trip to Memphis during Elvis Week 2021, including her time emceeing a discussion with Ginger Alden, visiting Tupelo and Circle G, and brief sidebars on her trip this past May to Graceland and Sun Records. Then, Gurdip busts out the gate with the bluesy Song of the Week "So Glad You're Mine" from 1956, but things really fire up when...

No less than five* different releases from the official Elvis collector label Follow That Dream have featured recordings by a man with a distinct voice simply named "Jimmy Breedlove." But upon looking further, revealed is a man produced by Jesse Stone, who worked with Winfield Scott, sang for LaVern Baker, Ruth Brown, Ivory Joe Hunter and Big Joe Turner, who signed to Epic Records like Roy Hamilto...

As requested by TCBCast patrons, it's now the silly hour as Justin & Gurdip take a look at some of their all-time favorite recorded moments of Elvis being goofy, losing it on stage or in the studio, or delivering a punchline.  Then, for Song of the Week, as voted upon by patrons as well, Gurdip cruises down to "Memphis, Tennessee" to check out Elvis's cover of a Chuck Berry classic, and while Just...

Gurdip's back! Inspired by Justin Song of the Week last week, the guys celebrate Elvis' recording of "That's All Right" and taking a closer look at both the events in Elvis' life during the week or so leading up to July 5, 1954, but also the music of the period, to show that while some of the DNA of Elvis' music was fully present already, nothing on any of the three major charts sounded quite like...

This week, Justin is joined by Chris Jones, co-host of the Hall of Songs Podcast (HallofSongs.com), to follow a wide variety of rabbit trails across the spectrum of Elvis' musical career. First up is news about the newly unveiled Back in Nashville box set focusing on Elvis' 1971 recordings, then we dig into many of the trails Elvis has led us down over the years: country, blues, rock, pop, genre-b...

This week's episode of TCBCast, just in time for Elvis Week 2021, features Justin & Olivia taking a close look at the 1957 LP "Loving You," which serves as both the soundtrack for the film of the same name, but also as the third proper Elvis studio album. Does it hold up as either, decades later, or has its movie connections left it lumped in with later soundtracks? Elvis news this week include an...

Gurdip & Justin are on a one-week hiatus due to family commitments, but never fear! Songs of the Week are here!  Whether you've just recently began listening or haven't revisited older episodes in a while, here are the histories behind songs from TCBCasts 35-39, including I'll Take Love, Guitar Man, Just Pretend, Crawfish, I Want You I Need You I Love You, For the Heart, Charro!, and Gurdip's look...

As voted upon by the TCBCast Patreon community, Gurdip & Justin are taking an in-depth look at not only 1977's "Moody Blue" album, the last released before Elvis' death that August, but also the scheduled January 1977 sessions that Elvis failed to record at, and the demos for songs planned to be recorded then. Then, for the patron-voted Songs of the Week, Gurdip tackles the heavily doo-wop inspire...

Gurdip, Justin & John wrap up their coverage of the 1973 TV Special "Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite" including memorable numbers like "An American Trilogy" and "What Now My Love" before beaming over to Song of the Week. John selects "Help Me" from the "Promised Land" album, recorded at the 1973 Stax Sessions, Gurdip goes all-in on "Make Me Know It" from 1960's "Elvis is Back!" and Justin closes u...

Join Gurdip Ladhar amid a real-time midlife crisis on this week's TCBCast! While Gurdip's struggling with the realization that Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It" no longer applies to him, special guest John Cappadona and Justin catch up on his history as an Elvis fan and then take a look at the latest news before shaking Gurdip out of it enough to sit him down in front of the TV for our ex...