Elvis Impressionators

Listen to “CommercialAppeal”

Even though last week was Elvis Week, we’ve had Elvis on the mind since back in July when we first started considering how to cast this script from our friends at Red Deluxe. Many many phone calls later we found our magic four Elvis “impressionators.” My fav is Elvis #3 who coined the term “impressionator” during the session.

Now it’s amazing when dealing with an icon like Elvis what you are up against. One reference we used for the Elvis-talking voice was the album “Having Fun With Elvis On Stage.”

The album is unique among Elvis albums from not actually containing any songs: it consists entirely of tape byplay recorded between songs from Elvis’s concerts.

While listening to these archival recordings of Elvis’s in between song banter, we were amazed to find ourselves thinking that Elvis didn’t sound like Elvis. When you think about Elvis talking, you think about a voice with a husky swagger, a little bit of a sneer and a lot of attitude. Well the King actually doesn’t sound like that on his own recordings.

So what does Elvis-talking sound like? Our client pointed us to this reference, which is also not Elvis at his best. But we’d like to think our voice actors did a bang up job impersonating (impressionating?) Elvis impersonators. Meta-casting at its best.