TCBCast: An Unofficial Elvis Presley Fan Podcast

Justin and Bec certainly INTENDED to take things light this week going for an "easy" topic spotlighting their favorite Elvis songs by year recorded, but you know how it goes... they begin breaking down the performances as they go and it turns into a fun exploration across the entire spectrum of Elvis's career. For Song of the Week, Justin gives attention to another great but underappreciated 1969...

Inspired by the now-iconic "Vegas Rehearsal" scene from Baz Luhrmann's Elvis, and winning the Patreon poll for topic this month, Justin and Bec sit down to try to unpack Elvis's working relationships with his musical producers, what people really meant when they described Elvis as his own producer, and if that moment in the movie was really based on something that really happened (spoiler: like mo...

Hey all - as discussed in the intro to this, we're taking a one-week hiatus, partly for Justin's birthday, partly due to some necessary & unavoidable schedule shuffling on our back end. We'll be back next week with a split episode between Bec & Justin on Elvis as Producer/Arranger and Gurdip & Justin on Songs of the Week. This week, rather than dropping an old Songs of the Week compilation as we w...

On this week's TCBCast, Gurdip and Justin briefly touch on some recent Elvis news such as the confirmation from Baz Luhrmann that he's seeking to release the Viva Las Vegas remix from the film, a new preview track from the forthcoming Elvis On Tour box set, and we take time to give gratitude to listener & patron Rick, who incredibly generously donated his collection of Elvis material and memorabil...

On September 24, 2002, BMG unleashed what would become perhaps the most successful Elvis Presley release of the 21st century: 30 #1 Hits. To celebrate two decades since its milestone release, Justin and Gurdip look back at how producer David Bendeth overcame obstacles like deteriorating master tapes, poor documentation and missing elements to deliver a vibrant compilation that while massively succ...

Justin and Bec follow up an episode from last November, loosely tracing Elvis's progression as a vocalist through his more mature years as he slowly (but surely!) leans less on imitating others and begins to find his own true voice. It's an incredibly meaty topic and goes everywhere from the differences between in-studio recordings of the 60s and live recordings of the 70s to considering why ETAs...

Gurdip plays catch-up with the incomparable Ms. Jaime Kay as she dusts off her seat and regales him with tales of her visit to Memphis and Elvis Week 2022, including an encounter with Priscilla Presley and Jerry Schilling. Then, Justin cracks open the TCBCast vault to bring out not only a little extra bonus discussion on UK-exclusive LPs with author Tony Plews, but also a long-lost Song of the Wee...

Picking right back up where they left off, Justin, Gurdip and Darin continue examining the material recorded in March 1962, now beginning to fully take shape as the album that would come to be known as "Pot Luck." There's still a lot of Latin-flavored pop mixed in with country ballads, but things get really heated (and fun!) when Darin and Gurdip go head to head over "Suspicion" and the difference...

Guest Darin Evans joins Gurdip and Justin for an in-depth look at Elvis's 1961-1962 output which eventually led to the release of the album Pot Luck in May 1962. What starts with a Blue Hawaii reject and several sessions simply held for the purpose of recording singles eventually begins to take shape as the severely overlooked followup to 1961's "Something for Everybody." Top songwriters like Doc...

Today we're marking 45 years since the passing of Elvis Presley. On this episode, Gurdip and Justin take a look at the final recording sessions Elvis Presley ever had, a once-passionate and perfectionist creative now distracted and unfocused for a myriad of reasons, yet still able to pull together five memorable recordings in October 1976. Then, for Song of the Week, as voted on by TCBCast Patreon...

In a valorous attempt to capture the now much more elusive Elvis Presley in his natural habitat, Felton Jarvis and RCA bought the recording studio to Graceland, turning the tropical-themed den into an impromptu space for the band, winding cords down and out the back of the house to a van where the equipment sat. Justin and Gurdip explore how, over the course of 6 nights in the spring of 1976, Elvi...

Justin is joined this week by record collector (and TCBCast Patreon backer) Julius Adame to review Elvis's 1959 compilation "For LP Fans Only" while Gurdip is out. Together, Julius and Justin rediscover how surprisingly cohesive this package, intended to keep demand high while Elvis was overseas in military service, still holds together. They also discuss at length how a younger fan like Juilius g...

Gurdip and Justin, freshly reinvigorated, nostalgically dig up their very first box sets that served as their gateways to Elvis's discography: 1985's 50 Years, 50 Hits for Gurdip and 1999's Artist of the Century for me, and compare/contrast the packages, realizing that whether decked out with liner notes or bare-bones design, the music is powerful enough to speak for itself. To really bask in the...

Following on the heels of "I'm Comin' Home" being featured in Baz Luhrmann's Elvis, Gurdip and Justin sit down with the very underrated and under-discussed 1961 album "Something for Everybody." Recorded in a single March 1961 session just ahead of the filming of Blue Hawaii, "Something for Everybody" has slipped under the radar of many... but it's one of our favorites! For Song of the Week, Justin...

Gurdip and Justin sit down with the digital version of the soundtrack album for Baz Luhrmann's "Elvis," to explore the remixes, covers and remasters of classic Elvis recordings, as well as finding as many musical Easter Eggs as they can. Then, Song of the Week makes a grand return! Inspired by a similarly-themed track from the movie's soundtrack, Gurdip picks "I'm Gonna Get Back Home Somehow" from...

On this super special episode of TCBCast, many of our Patreon backers who have had the chance to see Baz Luhrmann's Elvis sent in their reactions to the movie, both emailed and recorded. You'll get to hear a wide range of thoughtful opinions on the movie from the Elvis fans who are among our most engaged listeners and supporters. Then, as a book-end to TCBCast 222 with Bill Bryan, Justin sits down...

There are a lot of people saying a lot of things. Some would make him out to be the hero, the villain, the victim, the perpetrator... in their story of who Elvis was. Baz Luhrmann's Elvis is not Gurdip's, Justin's, Ryan's or Bec's Elvis. And we know plenty of people are happy to tell the world right now how it's not their Elvis, either. But we're here to tell you, Baz Luhrmann's Elvis is a beautif...

Join the TCBCast gang for part one of the most in-depth analysis of Baz Luhrmann's Elvis yet to be done. In part one, Gurdip, Justin, Ryan and Bec explore how the film sets itself apart by giving the audience a unique, fantastical point of view from which to witness its events, the significance of Captain Marvel's lore to this telling, the use of historical figures to properly contextualize the pr...

Justin sits down with filmmaker Bill Bryan for a lengthy, standalone episode (No Song of the Week!) delving into the actors who have played Elvis prior to Austin Butler, from as early as Kurt Russell in 1979 to as recently as Drake Milligan (both in CMT's "Sun Records" in 2017 and also before that in "Nobody," Bill's own officially authorized biographical short film about Elvis's high school talen...

No, you're not mistaken. This is a proper TCBCast dropping on a Sunday - because ya'll are getting a double dose of the show this week! In this episode, Gurdip and Justin catch up on the very latest news from Baz Luhrmann's Elvis, including Eminem's big single "The King and I," before Justin sits down with Rabia, who appeared on the show last December. Rabia gives us a breakdown and essentially a...

Gurdip returns just in time to cover the winning subject of our Patreon poll: the impact and our memories of the 1992 box set "The King of Rock and Roll: The Complete 50s Masters." As the centerpiece of the early "Elvis in the 90s" campaign run by BMG, The 50s Masters set, once described by Rolling Stone as a "Rosetta Stone of rock," was hugely formative in many Gen-X & millenial fans' appreciatio...

Recorded, edited and published as an early access bonus to the TCBCast Patreon within hours of the Sydney premiere on June 5, the fabulous Bec Wyles, who was in attendance at the invitation of WB, sat down with Justin for her in-the-moment, unprocessed and unfiltered reactions to the film. Baz Luhrmann's Elvis is an audio-visual barrage that overwhelmed even a quick-minded Elvis expert like Bec so...

Justin and Bec power through a mostly spur-of-the-moment episode to read listener emails, catch up on the latest in the barrage of media around Baz Luhrmann's Elvis, including what we've heard from the soundtrack on the Red Carpets at the Cannes and London premieres. For Song of the Week, Justin rings in Pride Month with "Riding the Rainbow" from 1962's Kid Galahad, while Bec selects "Doncha Think...

Recorded well before both Trailer 2 and the world premiere of Baz Luhrmann's Elvis at Cannes, Gurdip and Justin get caught up pre-premiere news and answered a patron's nostalgic email regarding the 20th anniversary of the A Little Less Conversation remix, then get down to business reviewing The Sweet Inspirations' self-titled 1967 album, which gave them their biggest hit single, "Sweet Inspiration...

All hands are on deck for our initial reactions and emergency breakdown of the second theatrical trailer for Baz Luhrmann's Elvis. Just as in our previous breakdown, we spend time exploring what creative choices indicate to us about the direction, themes and tone of the upcoming feature film, as well as provide historical context, speculation, and pointing out details you might have missed! Plus,...