The legendary Elvis Presley released a single titled “Little Sister in 1961. Written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, the song enjoyed success on the Billboard Hot 100, where it reached number five on the charts in the United States and number one in the U.K. charts. A fun fact about “Little Sister” is that one of the lyrics references “Jim Dandy,” which was a 1956 song by artist Lavern Baker. The year after “Little Sister was released, Lavern Baker recorded a response to “Little Sister” titled “Hey, Memphis,” where she’s directly addressing Elvis Presley. In her recording, she uses the same melody as the one used in “Little Sister,” and Baker sings her song from the point of view of the little sister in the Elvis recording.
If you’re a rock and roll fan and particularly enjoy hard rock or metal, you may be a fan of Queens of the Stone Age. This group recorded a song called “Little Sister” in 2004, and if you’ve ever wondered if it has any relation to Elvis’s recording, the answer to that question is yes. The Queens of the Stone Age singer Josh Homme said that he liked the “amalgam of imagery” that Pomusput forward in the song, and he especially enjoyed the sexual twist that Elvis put on it with the line “little sister don’t you do what your big sister done.” In the video we’re sharing below, you’ll see Elvis rehearsing this epic song in a 1970 documentary that was filmed, “Elvis: That’s The Way It Is.”
The documentary was directed by Denis Sanders and documents Elvis’s Las Vegas summer festival during the summer of August 1970. This was Elvis’s first non-dramatic film he ever made since his film career began in 1956. The documentary gives a clear view of Elvis’s return to live performances after he had spent many years doing nothing but making films. In this video, Elvis performs “Little Sister” as a part of a medley with the Beatles’ hit “Get Back.” When you watch this clip, it’s heartbreaking to think of The King of Rock and Roll being so young, vibrant, and handsome.
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Elvis Presley was a talented and unique human being who left the world way too soon. In this video, we get a behind-the-scenes look at how it was to work with Elvis when he was putting it all together.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WiVzo2iJ8M&feature=emb_title
