TCBCast: An Unofficial Elvis Presley Fan Podcast

Justin Gausman
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TCBCast: An Unofficial Elvis Presley Fan Podcast

"Elvis is history," Carl Perkins once said, "and anytime anyone or anything becomes history, whether it be Pearl Harbor or Elvis, it will never go away. The world will never tire of his songs." TCBCast is an unofficial fan podcast featuring co-hosts Gurdip Ladhar and Justin Gausman, along with regular guest co-hosts Ryan Droste and Bec Wyles, plus an array of Elvis fans and experts setting out to better understand that history, and those songs. Tackling topics from throughout Elvis's lifetime and beyond, TCBCast seeks to offer thoughtful, intelligent, heartfelt and honest discourse on Presley's career, his influences, the people who made his work possible, and the cultural phenomenon surrounding his iconography. TCBCast is not associated with or endorsed by Graceland, Elvis Presley Enterprises, Authentic Brands Group or Sony.

  1. 3 DAYS AGO

    TCBCast 351: The Worst Elvis Movie? "Double Trouble" TCBCast Review, Part 1

    This is it! We've finally decided to just do it and visit the one Elvis movie often considered to be among the worst of his narrative feature films, 1967's "Double Trouble," directed by Norman Taurog for MGM from a script by Jo Heims, and co-starring Annette Day, Yvonne Romain, John Williams, Monty Landis, Leon Askin, Norman Rossington, Chips Rafferty and The Wiere Brothers. It's classic TCBCast, just Justin and Gurdip on their own. Justin digs deeper than most and read through "The Choice," the obscure original 1960 novel that "Double Trouble" was VERY loosely inspired by (enough to merit a "story by" credit for author Marc Brandel, but that's about it.)  Then, the guys dig into the "comedy" renowned for its story about killers lurking in the shadows hunting a rich heiress, bumbling jewel thieves, slapstick police officers, a mysterious femme fatale and waiting patiently for the age of consent. Promoted as a fun romp across "mad mod Europe," yet filmed entirely on set in the United States (not counting second unit) and mostly just set in Belgium, "Double Trouble" is perhaps one of the most contentious narrative films in the Elvis canon. And yet... one of us ends up liking it more than you might expect? You'll just have to listen and find out... 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.

    1h 29m

  2. FEB 14

    TCBCast 350: "A Valentine Gift For You" (1985) Album Discussion

    This week, to mark the Valentine's Day holiday, Gurdip, Bec and myself gave a listen to the one explicitly Valentine-themed Elvis compilation, released 40 years ago amid celebrations of Elvis's 50th birthday. Far from being a mere collection of famous love songs, some surprising deep cuts make the grade, but also a lot of songs about broken hearts, which confounds Gurdip. For Song of the Week, Bec digs into the title theme from 1961's "Wild in the Country," and Gurdip matches with another movie title track, this time from 1967's "Double Trouble." Justin, however, takes the opportunity to examine the history behind one of the few songs Elvis ever publicly declared among his favorites, "Padre," which he recorded in 1971 but wasn't released until 1973. Plus, if you're needing something to listen to today, we've got a special Valentine's Day playlist made up featuring songs from this album and a mix of other romantic tracks: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0eW2fGlc0x0CyAeTJIL9gw?si=dc41503407554785 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.

    1h 46m

  3. FEB 11

    TCBCast 349: The "Almost Famous" Elvis Hot 100 Hits, Part 2 (feat. Chris Jones)

    Following on from Part 1, Justin, Olivia and guest host Chris Jones (of the "Hall of Songs" podcast) explore Elvis's Hot 100 hits that never made it to the Top 40, closing out the movie era with tracks from Speedway and Live A Little, Love A Little and moving into the 1970s, a decade that surprisingly offered Elvis far more pop success than may often be perceived, as only 5 of his single A-sides charted outside the Top 40 (and only the Christmas and gospel singles not charting whatsoever in the Hot 100). Also touched upon are the three posthumous Hot 100 hits that never reached the Top 40: The Elvis Medley, and the remixes of A Little Less Conversation and Rubberneckin'. For Song of the Week, Chris is inspired by having recently watched "The Big Lebowski" to pick Elvis's 1966 home recording of the Sons of the Pioneers cowboy classic that opens that film, "Tumblin' Tumbleweeds," while Olivia goes deep on the extensive history behind Elvis's version of the apocalyptic spiritual "I, John," rooted almost entirely in Black gospel tradition until Elvis's 1971 recording released on the "He Touched Me" album in '72. Visit hallofsongs.com or find it on your podcast platform of choice to hear more of Chris and his buddy Tim. 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.

    1h 23m

  4. FEB 6

    TCBCast 348: The "Almost Famous" Elvis Hot 100 Hits, Part 1 (feat. Chris Jones)

    Chris Jones from "Hall of Songs" (hallofsongs.com or on any major podcast platform) joins Justin and Olivia for an exploration of Elvis's Billboard Hot 100 hits that charted outside of the Top 40; meaning #41-#100. Exploring Elvis's career through this unique angle shines a light on less-known songs, and some surprising famous ones that didn't go as high as you might think, while also revealing surprising insights about different periods of his music. All this is inspired by Chris and Tim Malcolm's upcoming new project "The Almost Famous," where they look at songs that only ever peaked at #41 on the Hot 100, of which Elvis has two and they may one day cover! Part 1 covers roughly 1956 through early 1968; we ran a bit long with our Songs of the Week so Part 2 - releasing Tuesday, Feb. 11, will cover 1968-2003 plus SOTW.  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.

    1h 36m

  5. JAN 28 · BONUS

    TCBCast Bonus - Billboard Top 20 February 1, 1969: The Week "If I Can Dream" Peaked

    After an intensive holiday season, we're taking a week off, so from the TCBCast Patreon archives we bring an episode from December 2023 when Bec and Justin convened to explore the Top 20 hits during the week in early 1969 that "If I Can Dream" peaked at #12, the highest it would reach on the Hot 100. What kept Elvis out of the Top 10? Turns out a lot of really iconic music! Unlike our usual Billboard charts episodes, the duo decide to go for broke and cover all of the Top 20, not just to include Elvis, but numerous other iconic songs of 1969 from acts as far reaching as Dusty Springfield, Jay and the Americans, The Turtles, Marvin Gaye, Sly & the Family Stone, BJ Thomas, Tommy James & the Shondells and many more. Then, we jump in our time machine back to November 2021's bonus episode and hear Gurdip and Justin's "Songs of the Month," as Gurdip spotlights a very Elvis-and-Buddy-Holly-influenced rockabilly cut from Buddy Knox, "Party Doll," while Justin picks "Three Cigarettes in an Ashtray" a beautiful but an otherwise largely overlooked Patsy Cline tune occasionally encountered in a famous video game, and which manages to have a TON of Elvis connections.  If you enjoy this kind of discussion and what we do on 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 month, patrons are getting an album review of Chuck Berry's "Berry Is On Top" and a discussion on the 3rd episode of the CMT TV Series "Sun Records." We'll be back next week!

    1h 36m

  6. JAN 21

    TCBCast 347: Ranking Elvis's Animal Songs

    TCBCast is a zoo this week! In old-school TCBCast fashion, Gurdip and Justin are ranking the songs that Elvis did mostly all about critters of the world, from hound dogs to snowbirds and everything in between. It's wildly unscientific, please don't take it too seriously! The idea is to get you thinking about the lyrics to Elvis's songs more closely. As we mention, you would be SHOCKED at how many animals get mentioned in Elvis songs you wouldn't expect - and not all movie songs, either!  For Song of the Week, Gurdip re-lives his frustrations as a young Elvis fan with RCA's handling of the clearly lyrically incomplete release of "Mexico" from "Fun in Acapulco," while Justin gets funky with the Lord listening to "Seeing is Believing" from the "He Touched Me" 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. (PS we have been made aware that somehow we all missed the "alligator" of Polk Salad Annie - don't come for us!!)

    1h 42m

  7. JAN 15

    TCBCast 346: The "Lost Album" Sessions of 1963/64

    Gurdip and Justin delve into the recording sessions from May 1963 and January 1964 which produced songs initially spread out across numerous singles and albums over a five year span. While the music reflected a more polished Nashville-tinged pop sound that Elvis had been subtly building upon in the early 60s, giving us such iconic recordings as "Devil in Disguise," "Memphis Tennessee" and "It Hurts Me," fans at the time never quite got the chance to take full stock of what Elvis was artistically doing at this moment in time. But decades later, the material comprised the retrospective compilation "For the Asking" aka "The Lost Album." The guys sit down to look back on all of it. For the first Songs of the Week of 2025, Gurdip surprises with a short excursion to hear Elvis' live on-stage gag performances of "The Mickey Mouse Club March." Then, Justin spotlights "Look Out Broadway," the aspirational showtune from "Frankie and Johnny" that makes numerous Gilded Age pop culture references and features vocalists Ray Walker and Eileen Wilson chiming in as other characters... in one of the very few traditional musicals Elvis ever made in his film career! 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.

    2h 5m

  8. JAN 7

    TCBCast 345: Before Elvis: A Book Discussion (feat. Preston Lauterbach)

    After Gurdip & Justin discuss the latest FTDs: The Making of King Creole, The Last Tour Volume 2 and The Girl Happy Sessions, the guys answer a handful of listener emails, landing on one from fellow patron Robin, whose visit back to an early TCBCast episode that touched upon the subject of Elvis's Black influences, which conveniently leads us right into our main topic. For the main discussion, John Michael Heath of EAP Society taps in as we're joined by Preston Lauterbach, author of acclaimed books such as "The Chitlin' Circuit," "Beale Street Dynasty," "Bluff City: The Secret Life of Photographer Ernest Withers" and several others about Black musicians in the early 20th century, whose latest book, "Before Elvis: The African-American Musicians Who Made The King" is being published by Hachette Books on January 7, 2025. Keen-eared Elvis fans may also recognize Preston's voice as an interviewee from 2018's "Elvis Presley: The Searcher."  Preston's new book examines the life stories of Arthur Crudup, Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton, Reverend W. Herbert Brewster, Junior Parker and Calvin and Phineas Newborn and numerous other major and minor figures that factor into their stories and complicated, nuanced relationships with Elvis both as a person and as a phenomenon as they impacted him, and he in turn impacted them. It's a book for Elvis fans and non-fans alike, even Elvis skeptics are sure to find it extremely revealing as Preston thoroughly dispels many rumors and accusations thrown at Elvis over the decades, with receipts, while centering his narrative around lifting and celebrating the voices and life stories of these figures far beyond a mere connection to Elvis. Yet it never shies away from hard truths, all informed by a history of Memphis, the political landscape of the Deep South in the 1950s, inner workings of the record and music publishing industries, and the ways both white and black audiences responded to changing perceptions of artists, genres and influences across the decades. It's likely to be the most in-depth discussion about the book to be done in its release media cycle, as Preston was extraordinarily generous with his time, answering all our questions, geeking out with us about Memphis music history, and having a thorough discussion that we hope will help this episode stand on its own, well into the future beyond the publication date. You can learn more about "Before Elvis" and where to buy it at: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/preston-lauterbach/before-elvis/9780306833083/?lens=hachette-books And you can follow Preston's blog on Substack at: https://thechitlincircuit.substack.com/  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.

    2h 25m
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About

"Elvis is history," Carl Perkins once said, "and anytime anyone or anything becomes history, whether it be Pearl Harbor or Elvis, it will never go away. The world will never tire of his songs." TCBCast is an unofficial fan podcast featuring co-hosts Gurdip Ladhar and Justin Gausman, along with regular guest co-hosts Ryan Droste and Bec Wyles, plus an array of Elvis fans and experts setting out to better understand that history, and those songs. Tackling topics from throughout Elvis's lifetime and beyond, TCBCast seeks to offer thoughtful, intelligent, heartfelt and honest discourse on Presley's career, his influences, the people who made his work possible, and the cultural phenomenon surrounding his iconography. TCBCast is not associated with or endorsed by Graceland, Elvis Presley Enterprises, Authentic Brands Group or Sony.

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