Delirious was always one of those songs that I never really liked a whole lot. It's forever been one of Prince's most popular and catchy tunes, but for me... it was always just kinda ho-hum. Nothing special... nothing great.

It also always reminded me of Elvis, and Hound Dog.

I was wondering if any of you ever heard of Elvis being a Prince influence. We all know about so many others being influences, but I never hears Elvis mentioned before.

It's easy to imagine Elvis singing this song. It fits perfectly.

Delirious came out in 1982. I thinik Elvis died in 1980. Can you imagine how much of a hit this song would have been for Elvis??

I'm sure it would have went to the top of the pop charts if it was released in 1980 by Elvis, instead of in 1982 by some "still emerging black pop star" from Minneapolis.

I also wondeer if Elvis would have recorded it. It's somewhat known that Elvis wasn't a fan of African-Americans... in fact once allegedly stating that "All a black man could do for me is shine my shoes".

Public Enemy even called him out in their song "Fight the Power".

Elvis was a hero to most
But he never meant shit to me you see
Straight up racist that sucker was
Simple and plain
Mother fuck him and John Wayne.

I'm not trying to go off on a tangent here... I'm just wondering if to you, delirious sounds "Elvisy", if Prince ever cited Elvis as an influence, and/or if you think Elvis would have taken it from Prince has Delirious been written a few years earlier... and your thoughts on how HUGE of a hit it would have been for Elvis, in comparison to what it was for Prince.

I don't really care..I don't like Elvis.

Rinluv said:

If u dont care why did you comment

Rinluv said:

If u dont care why did you comment

Delirious was always one of those songs that I never really liked a whole lot. It's forever been one of Prince's most popular and catchy tunes, but for me... it was always just kinda ho-hum. Nothing special... nothing great.

It also always reminded me of Elvis, and Hound Dog.

I was wondering if any of you ever heard of Elvis being a Prince influence. We all know about so many others being influences, but I never hears Elvis mentioned before.

It's easy to imagine Elvis singing this song. It fits perfectly.

Delirious came out in 1982. I think Elvis died in 1980. Can you imagine how much of a hit this song would have been for Elvis??

I'm sure it would have went to the top of the pop charts if it was released in 1980 by Elvis, instead of in 1982 by some "still emerging black pop star" from Minneapolis.

I also wondeer if Elvis would have recorded it. It's somewhat known that Elvis wasn't a fan of African-Americans... in fact once allegedly stating that "All a black man could do for me is shine my shoes".

Public Enemy even called him out in their song "Fight the Power".

Elvis was a hero to most
But he never meant shit to me you see
Straight up racist that sucker was
Simple and plain
Mother fuck him and John Wayne.

I'm not trying to go off on a tangent here... I'm just wondering if to you, Delirious sounds "Elvisy", if Prince ever cited Elvis as an influence, and/or if you think Elvis would have taken it from Prince had Delirious been written a few years earlier... and your thoughts on how HUGE of a hit it would have been for Elvis, in comparison to what it was for Prince.
[Edited 6/21/09 15:27pm]

Delirious was always one of those songs that I never really liked a whole lot. It's forever been one of Prince's most popular and catchy tunes, but for me... it was always just kinda ho-hum. Nothing special... nothing great.

It also always reminded me of Elvis, and Hound Dog.

I was wondering if any of you ever heard of Elvis being a Prince influence. We all know about so many others being influences, but I never hears Elvis mentioned before.

It's easy to imagine Elvis singing this song. It fits perfectly.

Delirious came out in 1982. I think Elvis died in 1980. Can you imagine how much of a hit this song would have been for Elvis??

I'm sure it would have went to the top of the pop charts if it was released in 1980 by Elvis, instead of in 1982 by some "still emerging black pop star" from Minneapolis.

I also wondeer if Elvis would have recorded it. It's somewhat known that Elvis wasn't a fan of African-Americans... in fact once allegedly stating that "All a black man could do for me is shine my shoes".

Public Enemy even called him out in their song "Fight the Power".

Elvis was a hero to most
But he never meant shit to me you see
Straight up racist that sucker was
Simple and plain
Mother fuck him and John Wayne.

I'm not trying to go off on a tangent here... I'm just wondering if to you, Delirious sounds "Elvisy", if Prince ever cited Elvis as an influence, and/or if you think Elvis would have taken it from Prince had Delirious been written a few years earlier... and your thoughts on how HUGE of a hit it would have been for Elvis, in comparison to what it was for Prince.
[Edited 6/21/09 15:27pm]

MantuaPharoah said:

Whoa...Elvis was NO racist, he was brought up in the deep south and lived alongside blacks, he LOVED their music and used to wander up Beale Street listening to all the blues music, and he was heavily influenced by gospel too. He was great friends with Mohammed Ali, I have NO idea where you got that quote from! But I know a LOT about Elvis and I've never heard such a thing. Exactly the opposite! Prince was asked during the Musicology tour if Elvis was an influence, he said something along the lines of "I admired great musicians and songwriters, more than 'performers'" (bit of a slight there I thought, and a little ungracious) but he was almost certainly influenced by Elvis to some degree, EVERYONE has been influenced by Elvis to a degree. Delirious is reminiscent of early Elvis, I doubt he would have recorded it later in his career though, he was kind of past the rock'n'roll stage by then! He'd already DONE that.

PS Public Enemy are WRONG, no idea where they got their info from either.. probably just made it up - and who hates John Wayne...
[Edited 6/21/09 17:04pm]

Jeffiner said:

As far as Elvis being deep into black music, i.e. blues and gospel, there is no denying that. Also I'm aware of Elvis being fairly good friends with blacks before and during his time as a performer in mainly black clubs and juke joints. Most white establishments at that time, BEFORE Elvis became "known", wouldn't book Elvis mainly because to them, he sounded "too black". So Elvis honed his act in black clubs mainly because blacks were the only ones who gave Elvis a chance to "do his thing" as it were. I too have heard of the sentiment of Elvis being a racist. And of him making that comment about blacks shining his shoes...That's been documented over the years. So I'm sure that's where Chuck D of Public Enemy got that from. The reason Public Enemy also mentions John Wayne is because he too was also rumored to not like blacks. As far as P and the song Delirious, sure, that's an obvious nod to Elvis. Especially in P's vocal delivery. He intentionally evoked Elvis, no doubt. But the music to Delirious is MORE old school up tempo gospel than anything else. P also evokes that gospel element in his vocals as well on that song in spots. P did the same type of Elvis vibed songs with the b-side "Horny Toad" and the unreleased track for Vanity6 "No Call U". P obviously dug Elvis as a performer to a degree because he showcased this in some of his dancing during the Purple Rain tour.
[Edited 6/21/09 17:57pm]

Let me get back onto the subject just a little bit... I don't want it to be a "was Elvis a racist" string.

I think that if Elvis had recorded Delirious just before his death in 1977, it would have been a HUGE hit.

I understand that the song wasn't released by Prince until 1982, but I also think that with the little props that "black pop" was given back then, Elvis' version would have been much more of a successful single than Prince's version. I'm sure alot of that has to do with status of the artist.

Elvis was HUGE. Prince in 1982 was experiencing moderate success.

I just think the song fits Elvis well, and I'd be curious to know if Elvis would have recorded it.

Pharoah..my fellow West Philly Breddren...you went all over the place on this one..but to answer your question..to me NO..it wouldnt have worked..Delerious is one of my favorite songs, i also like its "twin' horny toad...elvis was dead and gone by the time pop-synth came into play so thats that

blackguitaristz said:

I've never heard that, but I wonder who it was 'quoted' by? There have been a lot of hate books written about Elvis, and I wonder if it WAS said, if it was in some kind of joking way or misquoted you know? Sometimes things get misconstrued, because he had people around him at Graceland who were black, people working there etc, right up to his death. And by them 'working' there, that meant they were friends, he trusted them and they were part of the family. His 'cook' was a black woman, oh oh... let's not get into the fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches!! He never seemed to forgot his roots, So that would really surprise me. I didn't know that about John Wayne...that's bad news. Yeah, I think some of his 'performing' was influenced by Elvis too

Jeffiner said:

Hey... I found this.

http://www.snopes.com/mus...esley1.asp

Apparently, it's not true. It's a shame when things get said, and rumors fly. Imagine the damage that these "rumors" cause if you're a celebrity. As a matter of fact, imagine another group... like Public Enemy... "cementing" a rumor like that in a SMASH HIT song like Fight the Power. That "rumor" then becomes truth to a following of people, and to dare I say... a race.

Well, who really knows... but if it was indeed untrue, it's a shame that 52 years after the alleged comment, it's still perceived to be true by many. Wow.