TCBCast: An Unofficial Elvis Presley Fan Podcast

Bec's back for 2026 and as we're working up an exciting meaty topic we decided to take it a little lighter to start with (kind of!) as Justin & Bec react to the official theatrical trailer for EPiC, then take a look back at a UK-exclusive Camden released in 1975 entitled "The U.S. Male." Featuring a "greatest hits" of sorts from several other prior Camden compilations, this unusual release from within Elvis's lifetime was a gateway into Elvis's music for numerous Brits, but does it cohere and hold up? And can the duo come up with tracklists that better suit the "US Male" theme? For Song of the Week, both hosts highlight gospel numbers, with Bec swinging in with "Somebody Bigger Than You and I" off the "How Great Thou Art Album" which overlaps Elvis's long affection for music originally by Bill Kenny & The Ink Spots and his love of spirituals. Then, Justin tells of the inspirations behind "Peace in the Valley," how Thomas A. Dorsey came to write it, and the world events which led to Elvis's performance of the song on the Ed Sullivan show (and subsequent recording) in 1957. If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.

Gurdip & Justin kick off 2026 with an exploration of the many songs written by iconic rock and roll songwriting/producing duo Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller that were recorded by Elvis, and ultimately provide their Top 5 lists of their personal favorites. From Hound Dog to Jailhouse Rock, Trouble to Bossa Nova Baby and beyond, it's all discussed in here - as well as a light overview of their careers, songs and productions before and after working with Elvis. The guys also catch up on several weeks of listener emails, break down the new "Wearin' That Night Life Look" remix from the upcoming soundtrack of Baz Luhrmann's EPiC, and of course dig into two Songs of the Week. Gurdip celebrates the New Year by telling us the history behind "Auld Lang Syne" which Elvis performed in concert twice in the 1970s during New Year's Eve shows, then Justin finds his thrill on "Blueberry Hill," the 1940s hit that was revived by rock legend Fats Domino in 1956 and subsequently covered by Elvis on the "Loving You" album and occasionally brought into his setlist during the 1970s. We highly recommend the compilation "Elvis Sings Leiber & Stoller" which is available on digital storefronts (with added "Three Corn Patches" which was missing from the original physical release), "Hound Dog: The Leiber & Stoller Autobiography" and Ace Records' wonderfully curated compilation series "The Leiber & Stoller Story" bringing together a mix of well-known and lesser-heard songs written and produced by the two musical partners. If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.

Ryan & Bec's annual "solo" New Year's show is a DOOZY! Ostensibly presenting a few of their favorite preferred live performances over their studio counterparts, the two hosts go full celebration mode instead, breaking out the booze, and before you know it, Ryan's stretched the parameters of the topic, Bec's forgotten the meaning of the word "live," and they're both having giggle fits over innuendo. For Song of the Week, Bec rings in the new year with a reminder that "There Is So Much World to See" from 1967's "Double Trouble" - and Ryan forgets that Christmas will be over by the time this episode comes out, so we get one more holiday hit tackled, as he discusses the story behind songwriter Michael Jarrett and Elvis's 1971 Christmas cut "I'll Be Home on Christmas Day"  If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.

Part 2 of our "Spinout" Extravaganza continues! Ghosty Wills taps out at the top of the show, but the rest of the team powers through to explore "Spinout"'s musical sequences and the histories behind them, from the Elvis competitor who cut "Stop Look and Listen" first, to the beautiful 19th century melody behind "Am I Ready," and how the woman who wrote the title track, finally settled a long dispute over the title of the film. Then the team surprises Felix with the three bonus tracks featured on the soundtrack album: "Tomorrow is a Long Time," "Down in the Alley," and "I'll Remember You." The gang also discusses international titles for "California Holiday," listens to some hilarious Elvis outtakes, and finally, close out reflecting back on both "Spinout" and "Clambake" and whether they hold up this year - both as Elvis films, and as holiday watches. From all of us to all of you, we wish you a very Happy Holidays and Merry Clambake! 

MERRY CLAMBAKE! Featuring Justin Gausman, Olivia Murphy-Rogers, Rabia, Felix, John Michael Heath, David "Ghosty" Wills, Garrett Cash and Darin Evans.  Part 1 opens with the revelation of how we tricked Felix into thinking he would have to watch Clambake again, then primarily covers our overall thoughts on the Norman Taurog-directed 1966 flick about a singing racecar driver, "Spinout." Sharing numerous overlaps with 1967's "Clambake", such as co-stars Shelley Fabares and Will Hutchins, "Spin-bake" puts the differences between the two Elvis films in sharp relief - and the earlier movie brings out a whole new world of fascinating themes to explore, from the way "Spinout" handles gender norms & expectations, to its origins as a deeply meta Elvis spoof, plus major cultural references, including allusions to the contemporaneous book & film "Sex and the Single Girl" by Helen Gurley Brown via Diane McBain's character.  Unlike previous years' Christmas episodes, this discussion is much more free-flowing rather than having an overly structured beat-by-beat recap, so having seen "Spinout" is strongly recommended! Part 2 will emphasize the song sequences of "Spinout" more linearly, as well as touch on the film's soundtrack and bonus tracks (which Justin & Gurdip also reviewed in 2023) more strongly through its cinematic lens.   

Gurdip joins Justin for one last shorter pre-Christmas episode as we look back on 2025 and what 2026 may hold for Elvis fans, briefly discuss the EPiC teaser & poster, the news of Making of G.I. Blues FTD's release, and the passing of Raul Malo, lead singer of the Mavericks, who took influence from Elvis's work - discussed back on Episode 275 of TCBCast. Following up from Justin's previous Song of the Week, listener Rob sends in an email taking a crack at translating "Lilla klocka ring igen," the Swedish version of "On A Snowy Christmas Night" and Gurdip shakes off the rust for a classic round of Elvis trivia. For Song of the Week, Gurdip brings the brief "Wheels On My Heels" from 1964's "Roustabout" while Justin tackles the history behind Johnny Tillotson's "It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin'," which Elvis covered on the iconic "From Elvis in Memphis" album. If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.

As we await the epic holiday two-parter for this year's Christmas episode, Santa may have just slipped a little something into your stocking a little early! Over at the TCBCast Jukebox, Gurdip and Justin settle in next to the tree to unwrap more Elvis-themed novelty songs that have come out both within Elvis's lifetime and beyond, this time with more of a holiday twist than usual. Tacky Elvis impressions, maudlin and overwrought post-1977 tearjerkers and - weirdly - a couple genuinely catchy ones; this list of Elvis novelty songs runs the gamut! Originally released as a bonus on the TCBCast Patreon in 2023, this episode marks the first time the guys revisited the topic of Elvis novelty songs since 2020. And never fear - there's still one more lighter episode on the slate yet to come just before the big Christmas drop!  

Ryan Droste & Bec Wyles took a brief aside from their upcoming main episode to bring their impressions of and insights on the first official teaser trailer for EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert from Neon & Universal, which has been confirmed for a February 27,. 2026 release date with a one-week IMAX exclusive engagement prior starting Feb. 20. Link to the teaser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsD6nCbQDcA

This week, Bec decided that it's been a while since she's gotten to talk about '70s concert material, so we're discussing the legendary August 19, 1974, show in which Elvis abandoned his usual setlist and completely changed directions. Opening with "Big Boss Man" instead of "See See Rider", filling out the show with tons of newer and more contemporary material like "Good Time Charlie's Got the Blues", "Promised Land" and "It's Midnight" and forgoing most of his iconic hits in favor of more unique and intimate performances just for his Vegas audiences.  We sit down with the soundboard recording and try to reckon with how Elvis chose to make such a bold move, whether fans and audiences appreciated it, and why he abandoned it so quickly to fall back into the comfortable professional grooves that would carry him to the end of his life. And before all that, Bec also fills us in her trip to see Priscilla Presley's recent live talk in Sydney. For Song of the Week, somehow without coordinating it at all, each host picked one of the only two songs written for Elvis by Stanley Gelber, the lawyer-turned-pro songwriter who submitted a handful of demos to Hill & Range in the 1960s, landing an Elvis cut with Bec's pick of "My Desert Serenade" from the Harum Scarum soundtrack. Then Justin rings in the holiday season with Gelber's other song, "On A Snowy Christmas Night," a holiday track that had coincidentally been submitted not long after Harum Scarum (roughly around when Elvis did "If Every Day Was Like Christmas") but somehow wound up in the demo pile later in 1971 for Elvis to record - despite Hill & Range no longer having the rights!  If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.

In this episode's Song of the Week, Justin stumbled into the dark story involving Tommy Dilbeck, the country songwriter behind Eddy Arnold's signature hit "I'll Hold You In My Heart," which Elvis transformed into a bluesy jam at the American Sound 1969 sessions that worked so well it landed on the acclaimed "From Elvis in Memphis." But is the song merely one of romantic longing, or, given what we now know, a hint at a more subtly obsessive message that no one had previously picked up before?  Content warning: potentially upsetting descriptions of domestic violence drawn from period news reports between about 03:30-04:45. Then John pulls double-duty, spotlighting two significant home recordings from 1966, "Hide Thou Me" and "Show Me Thy Way, O Lord," during a period in which Elvis was seeking material for his upcoming gospel project - what would become the "How Great Thou Art" album - and returning to the work of one of his favorite gospel groups, The Statesmen Quartet, to consider songs for potential inclusion. John also gives a quick primer on who the Statesmen were, and how they influenced Elvis's choice of gospel material. If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.

They say Elvis was the King of Rock and Roll, so Gurdip and Justin are joined by John Heath (EAP Society, Atomic Wax) to put forth their picks for the most underrated rockers that Elvis Presley ever recorded: from overlooked singles to forgotten album cuts, 50s to the 70s, in the studio and live, there may just be one in here that you've underrated, too! Although Gurdip has to bow out after this meaty and outrageously fun episode, as a very special Thanksgiving/holiday kickoff treat, a slightly shorter Episode 386 featuring "I'll Hold You In My Heart," "Hide Thou Me" and "Shy Me Thy Ways, O Lord" as Songs of the Week will be dropping into your podcast feed ASAP.  If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.

John Michael Heath joins Justin this week as guest host as they discuss some of their favorite alternate versions of Elvis songs as they appeared in the original movies he starred in, frequently with added instrumentation, backing vocals, or often completely different performances altogether than what was commercially released on record. For Song of the Week, John looks back at "Pieces of My Life," the introspective Troy Seals-penned song off the "Today" album that landed as the B-side of "Bringin' It Back" as a single, and that Elvis only performed live once in Asheville, North Carolina. The song Justin intended to pick for song of the week, however, ended up having an extra twist to it that he wasn't expecting that needs a bit more digging - wait to hear that next episode! If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.

Released in 1978 on the Pickwick label, at first glance the budget album "Mahalo from Elvis" could have seemed like any number of other slapdash repackaging of old recordings in the wake of Elvis's death. However "Mahalo" not only represented the first official release of the five post-show songs from "Aloha from Hawaii" filmed for inclusion in the continental US broadcast, but had originally been compiled by RCA's Joan Deary for release in late 1973.  As an album that could have potentially been part of the lifetime canon of Elvis's album releases, has "Mahalo" been overlooked? Eventually certified Gold by the RIAA, many later-generation fans - including Justin - had it in their vinyl collection early on as a formative part of their Elvis musical experience. Bec and Justin decided to revisit the record and see how it holds up. For Song of the Week, Bec takes the baton from Olivia pick last week, highlighting another Don Robertson-penned number, the stunning "There's Always Me" from 1961. Justin, on the other hand, tries really hard not to let the potential for innuendo get out of hand as he digs into what sets Elvis's version of the country weeper "It Ain't No Big Thing (But It's Growing)" apart from numerous others before and after his.  If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.

This week, Justin and Olivia wrap their discussion on the 2005 Broadway musical "All Shook Up" as they take a closer examination of the second act of the show as it flounders in its half-hearted attempts to make social commentary while still surprising with the inclusion of Elvis deep cuts like "Power of My Love," "I Don't Want To" and "There's Always Me" in its narrative. From there, the duo hit their Songs of the Week. Tying in with the musical's lead character Chad, a roving roustabout himself, Justin tackles the brief history behind the title theme to Elvis's 1964 film "Roustabout." Then Olivia goes on a wonderful deep dive into the symbolism and storied history of "La Paloma" as its Spanish composer Sebastián Iradier comes into contact with Cuban music, brings it back to Europe and writes a song that goes on to explode in popularity around the world, becoming a standard in Mexico and also somewhat associated with Hawaii, being brought to the islands by Europeans - leading to its further adaptation as "No More" for Elvis in "Blue Hawaii" and "Aloha from Hawaii." If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.

Olivia & Justin look back at a unique event in Elvis's posthumous legacy from 20 years ago - the EPE-endorsed 2005 Broadway show that utilized Elvis's music to tell the story of Chad, a 1950s motorcycling roustabout who travels from town to town bringing rock and roll and romance to small town America, Natalie, the mechanic who falls in love with him, and the numerous other characters brought to life in this show penned by writer Joe DiPietro. Crammed to bursting with more Elvis hits than you can shake a stick at, "All Shook Up" received middling reviews on Broadway at a time not particularly generous to jukebox musicals, yet has since become a standard for smaller theatre companies and schools to license... but how does the story really stack up, either to other musicals, or to Elvis's own musical films? Is Elvis's legacy represented well? Is his music used effectively? We sat down with a filmed version of the original Broadway production, the script and soundtrack album to try to figure it all out. We ran a bit long on Song of the Week so this is being split across two parts, breaking right in the middle of the discussion where the intermission would be in the musical itself.  If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.

Justin and Bec decided that since it's been a while since we've covered MGM's "Kissin' Cousins" on TCBCast (and since Bec hadn't seen it since she was a kid) that they'd tackle the very limited number of recordings remaining from the September 1963 instrumental and October 1963 vocal overdub sessions for the film soundtrack while also giving Bec a chance to give her thoughts on the movie. Where she landed may just surprise you! Naturally, the pair discuss some lyrics and songs cut from the movie and album, bonus songs on the album that are carried over from the May 1963 sessions, as well as a few demos that have surfaced which were submitted for potential inclusion. For Song of the Week, Justin keeps to the theme of the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee and gives a very brief overview of the history of "On Top of Old Smokey" leading up to Elvis singing it in character in the film "Follow That Dream." Bec, on the other hand, has revelation as she realizes what "Queenie Wahine's Papaya" is actually about - and shares the fun research she did on fruit innuendo.  If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.

Our deep-dive on the history behind "Don't Be Cruel" continues through Elvis's television appearances on the Ed Sullivan show, live concerts such as the Louisiana Hayride, the Mississippi-Alabama Fair & Dairy Show, and the USS Arizona Memorial fundraiser, and the revealing insights heard in the Million Dollar Quartet recording. Justin and Olivia catch back up with Otis Blackwell as he rides the success of "Don't Be Cruel" to launch a career writing and arranging for other artists in the late 1950s, and we discuss why Elvis Presley appears as a co-writer on the song. We leapfrog over Elvis's movie career, as "Don't Be Cruel" doesn't show up again until the filming of the '68 Comeback Special but from there we're able to trace its appearances in Elvis's live setlists up to his final concert in 1977. We then discuss a number of covers including ones by Billy Swan, The Judds, Cheap Trick and more before finally closing out with Otis Blackwell as he remembered and paid tribute to Elvis, and finally got his chance to fulfill his lifelong musical dream at the very end of his career.

Olivia and Justin discuss the latest announcements regarding EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert, including confirmation of an early 2026 theatrical release AND a soundtrack album, read a bit of listener feedback, and give their brief impressions on Priscilla Presley's "Softly As I Leave You" before going into our Songs of the Week. Olivia's up first, prompted by the book, to look at the history behind "Softly" - originally an Italian ballad titled "Piano" and she unpacks how it made its way from Italian singer Mina to English singer Matt Monro and then across the Atlantic. And how exactly did Elvis Presley land on his unique interpretation with an added tragic narrative layer? Then the duo tackle Justin's Song of the Week, the long-awaited "Don't Be Cruel," exploring the history behind songwriter Otis Blackwell's inspirations, how "Don't Be Cruel" fits into the wider story of both country and rhythm & blues that was manifesting as what we now know as rock and roll in the mid-1950s, what appealed to Elvis about Otis's demo, what makes "Don't Be Cruel" potentially Justin's favorite Elvis song... and why the single of Hound Dog and Don't Be Cruel is the perfect 1950s rock and roll single.

Gurdip, Bec and Justin decided to crack open a time capsule from the early 1980s and inside sat the album that has become possibly the most divisive Elvis bootleg ever released. Intended as a spoof of cash-grab compilations of "hit" Elvis movie songs by RCA in the 1970s, an infamously crass compilation bringing together some of the "worst" of Elvis's film songs at first glance seems to be going for mere shock value, but the contents of the album and the story behind its compilation do reveal in-jokes from deep within the Elvis fandom at the time. The question then becomes, did the jokes reach their intended target or did they fly over everyone's head and simply pile on more mockery and add to the problem? Justin reflects on Greil Marcus's contemporary account of the album from 1985, which frames it as part of an ironic, playful punk recontextualization amid a cultural reckoning with Elvis as an object of mass attention, but also ponders whether that read misses the forest for the trees. And what of the songs themselves? Do such songs as "US Male" and "Beach Boy Blues" deserve to be labeled as among the "greatest sh*t"? We discuss it all within! For Song of the Week, Gurdip blasts through the breezy "Carny Town" from Roustabout, while Justin meditates on "We Call on Him," the inspirational number written explicitly for Elvis released as an Easter single in 1968. If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy. If you'd like to support us another way, please drop a positive review on your favorite podcast platform!

Following the apparent roaring success of Baz Luhrmann's "EPiC" at the Toronto International Film Festival, Justin and Bec decided rather than merely recap reviews and discuss the hype (though there is a bit of that, too!), to look backwards toward the original 1970 and 1972 films "That's The Way It Is" and "Elvis On Tour," and the component elements that have made "EPiC" possible. The duo ponder whether the voracious (and vocal) collector mindset that has taken over the fandom, demanding immediate access to every scrap of available content, has caused some fans to miss the narrative and artistic voices of the directors and creatives who sought to create genuinely artful and thematically resonant documentaries while capturing Elvis as a phenomenon and as an artist. Going further - what to make of other fan-focused releases derived from the same components like "The Lost Performances" and "That's The Way It Is: Special Edition" that delivered on the promise of new footage but lost the sense of authorial voice and storytelling in favor of Colonel Parker's preferred, and more readily digestible, "personal appearance film" style? Also... why is Baz Luhrmann on Justin's sh*tlist now? For Song of the Week, Bec checks Girl Happy's ho-hum rock pastiche "I've Got To Find My Baby" off the list while Justin has "Words" with Elvis's cover of the Bee Gees' 1968 hit.