SONG TITLE: CRYING IN THE CHAPEL
PERFORMER: ELVIS PRESLEY
SONGWRITER: ARTIE GLENN
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1960
COMMENTS: Elvis Presley led a tremendously turbulent life. Some of it was
good turbulence and some bad, from the constant screams of adoring fans to
the trauma of his mother's untimely passing. He was not only a maor
entertainer, but the symbol of a generation, a movement, a time. He was
praised and villified, worshipped and cursed.
This would be a great burden and responsibility for the best educated and
most well adjusted person in our midst, and Elvis absolutely was not that
person. He had in many ways a very low opinion of himself, that he was
just
white trash from Missisippi. He carried a heavy emotional burden.
Religion was the only thing that ever seemed to bring him any peace of mind.
It wasn't enough after awhile, but you could hear sometimes in his gospel
records a feeling of calmness and contentment never to be heard in his
secular recordings.
Nowhere did these feelings come out more than in this recording. He sang
much of this song in the upper end of his register, very tenderly, and you
can hear the relief he felt in laying off his burdens.
This song was an excellent vehicle for Elvis' mood altering. It is
exceptionally well written, certainly not a genre exercise. It has a
catchy
and memorable tune, a gently contemplative testimonial rather than
TESTIFYIN'. Also, the lyric is a perfect expression of Elvis'
common-as-an-old-shoe working class humility. "Just a plain and
simple
chapel, where humble people come to pray."
You don't even have to beleive in Jesus at all to be moved by music this
beautiful.
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