We'll be paying tribute to the late Jerry Lieber and the late Nick Ashford and their writing partners on tomorow's "Believe Your Ears" music podcast, with some rare music clips for both. But I thought this bit of trivia might be a good way to kick off the week.
Many years ago, a Brazilian Elvis LP included this phonetic "English translation" of Lieber and Stoller's immortal lyric to "Jailhouse Rock." I must have laughed for 20 minutes the first time I saw it reproduced, in Norton Records owner Billy Miller's early rock fanzine Kicks. It was funny then and hasn't lost any of its kick today. And yes, I'm familiar with the books and articles detailing similar mispronunciations in other American rock songs, like "S'cuse me while I kiss this guy" instead of "S'cuse me while I kiss the sky" in Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze." This is the grandfather of all that. In the immortal words of the late, immortal Tonight Show host Jack Paar (Carson's predecessor), I kid you not.
But there's nothing quite like this one. Here's Elvis singing the original from the movie of the same name (slightly different than the studio recording). Feel free to follow the lyrics and sing along.
One more time!
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