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The Legendary Jordinares: Knights Of The Turn Table    [Press Articles]
From: DISCoveries, (August 1994)

What makes a group "legendary?" Sometimes it is the group's influence on music. Sometimes it is a group's longevity--just being together as a group for a long time. Sometimes it is the absolute quality of the songs. And, other times, legendary might refer to the sheer quantity of work produced and records released over the years. With the best known background vocal group in contemporary music, the Jordanaires, the answer to the question is easy: All of the above apply. The only circumstance that has eluded the Jordanaires is stardom itself, for "legendary" also often means that your name is synonymous with great fame--fame of mythical proportions--and fame has eluded them, while the Jordanaires continue to live and work in Nashville as they have since the 1950s. Most people know that the Jordanaires sang background vocals for Elvis Presley for 15 years, but it is not as well-known that they stood in the shadows and sang behind many, many other stars, including Patsy Cline, Rick Nelson, Roy Orbison, Marty Robbins, Jim Reeves, Kenny Rogers, George Jones, Johnny Cash, Charley Pride, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Dolly Parton, Ronnie Milsap, Willie Nelson, Jerry Lee Lewis, Conway Twitty, Loretta Lynn, Jerry Reed, right up to today and Nashville names such as Ronnie McDowell, the Judds, and Billy Ray Cyrus. They also have provided vocal background for Ringo Starr, Neil Young, and Don McLean. In fact, the Jordanaires have sung on recordings with more major recording stars than any other vocal group in the world. But wasn't there a time when the Jordanaires released a couple singles and tried to make a hit themselves? DISCoveries traveled to Nashville last summer and interviewed Gordon Stoker, a long-time member of the Jordanaires and asked that question (along with dozens of others), uncovering little-known information from a man who has been counted present throughout the history of rock, country, and country-rock music.

DISCoveries (Sandie Johnson): Did the Jordanaires ever aim for the spotlight themselves? Gordon Stoker: Yes, there was a time in the 1950s. Two of our releases on Capitol, "Sugaree" and "This Old House," got into the Top Ten. We thought they were great records, but Capitol didn't promote them, and the records didn't go forward. One day when we were in Hollywood, we went over to Capitol Records to see Lee Gillette, who was a department head at the time, and we said, "Look, if you guys would get off your butts and promote us, we think we would have us a hit record here." But Lee told us exactly the truth. He said, "You guys are masters at doing vocal backings on recording sessions. You are masters at what you do. Take it from me, if you stay with it, the background field will be good to you for many years to come. These other groups come and go. They have a hit record or two, and you never hear about them again. Yes, we can promote you and you'll be the same -- have one or two hit records and then you will fall by the wayside too."

D: Why did he say that? GS: Well, this was over 40 years ago. I did not realize then that truer words were never spoken. We cooled it, and we've been making a good living for all these years. But I have to say that Capitol had an interest in seeing that the Jordanaires stayed in the background. They didn't have to pay $500 to get someone to arrange a song. We did arrangements. We played instruments. Also, as Lee rightly pointed out at the time, we did not have to practice to get the harmonies right, wasting studio time. Lee Gillette--Capitol Records--told us accurately, but we wished we would have had one or two big hit records.

D: You could have had one or two hit records, and then used this [background vocals] as a fall-back position. GS: Yes, that's what we wanted to do, but Capitol Records didn't see it that way. Interestingly, none of the groups that were popular then have been able to do that. Just think of all the groups back then -- Four Preps, Ink Spots, the Diamonds, the Platters, the Coasters. You do see some groups get back together, but none are the original people. They pay for the use of the name. Guys who weren't even in the group then--they are doing clubs; it's not the same people continuing as background groups. We did a lot for Capitol in Nashville and also in Hollywood. It was about that time an album with Tennessee Ernie Ford won a Grammy. The first religious album to win a Grammy. The Jordanaires shared in that, and I have a plaque on my office wall. We've never considered ourselves to be a stage group. We are a background singers. Of course, being a stage group pays far more money than being background vocalists, but you also have to consider the pressure that's involved in being a star--buying buses, hiring all these people and having all these people on payroll--which, I can assure you, is a headache. I wouldn't want to travel all the time. We go do our job and can go home. It's much easier to be a background singer than to be a star--than to be out in front. But ... it would have been nice. We have a couple dates coming up where we have to be the stars--the main act. I'd rather be up there singing behind Elvis, Rick Nelson, Patsy Cline, or the stars of today, such as Ronnie McDowell. We have been singing background in his shows. He's the star. Background is a much more comfortable place to be.

D: What makes for the longevity of the Jordanaires? GS: We've always gotten along. We like each other and are friends outside of work. We decide what to do together. We prefer studio work to being out on the road, although in the last 3 years, we've been in 14 major countries, singing.

D: How many of the Jordanaires are the same as in the 1950s? GS: We've had fewer personnel changes than most groups. This is my 43rd year with the Jordanaires. We've had two deaths and one man left because of health problems. Neal Matthews and I have remained the whole time.

D: I have the feeling that the Jordanaires had a lot to do with shaping the music that we hear today. Did you know that your recordings are listed on file in the music database at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.? It is a long list--maybe 75 recordings. Did you ever write any songs? GS: No, we did arrangements. I wrote one gospel song years ago, but mainly we encouraged a lot of people's careers. Like Roy Orbison. On his first sessions, he was so timid and scared, they had me stand just to his left and sing right with him into the microphone. He never forgot it. The Jordanaires have always helped people. We sang behind Jimmy Dean on "Big, Bad John." In fact, it was Neal Matthew's arrangement. Ray Stevens worked with the Jordanaires as a substitute when he needed it financially, and he's never forgotten it. I just received a copy of her new book from Naomi Judd with a nice note in the front. We were on Conway Twitty's first record, "It's Only Make Believe"--and on many of Conway's later albums too.

D: Who was the most difficult singer to work with? GS: Probably Patsy Cline. She was tough. She had a mind of her own. But, surprisingly, there have not been many difficult ones over the years. I remember the good ones. Kenny Rogers, for instance, is a beautiful guy. No two artists are alike. Although they might sound alike, they are not alike at all.

D: You were singing gospel before recording with country singers in the 1950s? GS: Yes, gospel singing, mostly on the radio, and some of it is still being released and played around the world. A new album is coming out overseas soon. We also sang with Eddy Arnold. We found we were better at singing background in country sessions.

D: The Jordanaires seem unique in several ways, such as having formal music training. Not many musicians go to college--or didn't then. GS: We all had music in college. I lacked 11 hours getting my degree. [Stoker majored in psychology and music at George Peabody College in Nashville, simultaneously working as a piano accompanist on the Grand Ole Opry station WSM. Neal Matthews attended Belmont College in Nashville.]

D: There seem to be two traditions of gospel music in this country--one, African-influenced and the other, European influenced. In the first tradition, the singers move around more. GS: Our four-part harmony is probably more European-influenced. I can hit a note and the other guys will naturally hit the three notes under me that they have to sing. We've been doing it for so many years. People are shocked when we can do it so rapidly. for instance, in a recent session with Billy Ray Cyrus, he started singing and we started humming almost immediately. He wondered how we knew which notes to sing.

D: Sometimes the bass or tenor voice seems to leap out of the background. GS: That's usually done with the mixing these days.

D: You still record frequently? GS: Most people don't know they can come into Nashville and still get the best background musicians. They can also get the Jordanaires to do the vocal backings. All the recording sessions are controlled by unions, and we derive a lot of benefits like insurance by sticking with the unions, so we just charge union scale.

D: What is the accomplishment you are the proudest of? GS: Developing the Number System. Neal Matthews developed this musical shorthand system and was kidded for years about it. Now the system is used by musicians in all recording markets all over the world. The Number system works like this: When you come into a session, they play a demo -- which is usually the first time you hear the music. When Neal heard the music, he would take it down in a fast shorthand method where the tonic chord is a "1" in the key of C; the F chord is the subdominant of that, and G is the "5" chord of that key. The tonic chord of whatever you are working on is "1." If you are in the key of G, that would be "1." If they say "move it to D," it doesn't make any difference because the tonic chord is still the first chord. You see, each song has three or four chords--tonic, subdominate, and dominate--1, 4, and 5. The Number System turned out to be a short, quick way to figure out how to harmonize so we wouldn't hold up the recording session. Neal Matthews wrote a book on it--The Number System (which can be ordered from the Jordanaire's office, see address below).

Backing Elvis

D: What was it like singing background for Elvis? GS: In January 1969, Elvis said, "Let's face it fellows. If there hadn't been the Jordanaires, there wouldn't have been a me." We said, "What! You've got to be joking." I'm glad a reporter got this all down at the time. Elvis said, "You guys took an interest in me when I was down. You took an interest in material I didn't want to record. You've always helped me with everything." We didn't agree with him, but it was a nice compliment.

D: You met Elvis in 1955? GS: Yes, we were singing background for Eddy Arnold, and Elvis told us that if he ever cut a record, he wanted us to do it with him. When he got a contract with RCA, he didn't forget, and he asked for us.

D: What was the first song the Jordanaires did with Elvis? GS: "Don't Be Cruel," backed with "Hound Dog." Did you know that its the number one song of all time? And the Jordanaires sang on both sides. We cut it in New York. [Stoker also played piano on "Hound Dog."]

D: Thirty-seven years ago. GS: I had done "I Want You, I Need You, I Love You" with Elvis, but "Don't Be Cruel" was the first one with all of the Jordanaires together with Elvis. Did you know that Elvis auditioned [earlier] for two male quartets and didn't make it?

D: No, but I knew he got turned down for the Grand Ole Opry. Can you tell me about it? GS: Elvis came to Nashville to audition--everyone has to audition for the Opry. He had a record out that had "made a little noise." He had stopped shows...been on the "Louisiana Hayride." Hank Snow, a big name in those days, told me he wouldn't follow Elvis on to the stage. But Jim Denning [manager] at the Opry took one look at Elvis' long sideburns, and he said, "I'm afraid you don't have it, boy." He told him to go back to driving his truck. It broke Elvis' heart. He cried all the way back to Memphis. You might have read that he tore up his guitar. He didn't have that kind of money. I can assure you that he did not break up his guitar. He might have thrown it, but he didn't tear it up.

D: What is your favorite memory of Elvis? GS: When I did three duets with him -- "All Shook Up," "Good Luck Charm," and "Easy Come, Easy Go." These days you overdub every part, and one man could sing a quartet very easily. But in those days, he could not go back and sing with himself. So I sang on the same microphone as Elvis. Those songs are very special to me.

D: But your name isn't on them. GS: The Jordanaires name is on them. We couldn't get clearance in time for the Jordanaires name to be on the first record "Don't Be Cruel"/"Hound Dog," but after that, it always was. In fact, Presley was the first person who absolutely insisted that everyone's name be on an album cover--the engineer, musicians, photographer, mastering, the studio-- everyone's name. Before his time, you won't find that information there. RCA gave him a hard time, but he insisted that everyone be given credit.

D: What was your relationship with Elvis like? GS: Elvis wanted love, but the Colonel could never express anything close to it. He was a cold, indifferent man. He never said to Elvis, "Son, you're doing a good job." He never put his arm around his shoulder and said anything encouraging. He just would say, "Here's what you're going to do." Very crude. Rude. That was the reason I think that Elvis leaned on us as much as he did--on the Jordanaires and on D.J. Fontana, Scotty Moore, Bill Black [band members]. He leaned on us as a family--until the late 1960s.

D: When did you stop singing with Elvis? What happened? GS: It was in the late '60s when Elvis first was going to Vegas. We had so many recording sessions booked in studios here in Nashville -- we had 20, 30, maybe 50 sessions already set up. I talked to Owen Bradley [Nashville studio owner and producer] first because we had so many sessions booked with him.. There were only two vocal groups in the city, and he discouraged us from going to Vegas, saying he'd have to bring in another male vocal group. We were doing two to four sessions a day, six and seven days a week. At different studios. We would start at 10 in the morning at one studio, and work until 1 am the next morning, ending up in another studio. The Jordanaires talked about going to Vegas with Elvis, and, financially speaking, we decided we couldn't go because we couldn't be away for 6 weeks. We had families. It was a hard decision. We've always regretted that we didn't go, but we would have missed doing the Coca Cola commercial (you know, the one that goes "It's the real thing"). That jingle made us more money than working with Elvis for a year.

D: What about the drugs? Did it bother you when he started using them? GS: He really only started using them when he went to Vegas. Elvis got into using uppers and downers in Vegas. He was never on the heavy stuff like cocaine or heroin. He used prescription drugs because he wanted the second show to be as good as the first was. A man cannot go onstage and work as hard as Elvis did and come back an hour later and do the same thing again. No man can. He worked so hard on his first show. And he never ate proper. I've seen Elvis go all day on a bowl of soup and a hamburger, and you can't do that on a movie set with the strain that his body was taking. With those eating habits, the pills he was taking did far more damage to his body. He would take uppers to get going. He felt the Colonel, the nightclub owner, someone would be on him. That was sad. After the last show, he was so keyed up, he had to take downers so he could sleep.

D: He didn't drink? GS: No, Elvis wasn't a drinker.

D: Wasn't Elvis' mother Gladys a drinker? GS: His mother was hitting the bottle pretty hard and using weight-reducing pills at the same time. I think that's what killed her. She was a religious woman - I mean, she said she was a religious woman - but she would use liquor to relax her, or that's what she said. She was never able to cope with the world around Elvis after he got famous.

D: And he never got over her death? GS: That's true. He became more and more moody, and more difficult to work with. He had financial problems, health problems. He was broken-hearted about a lot of things. You can't be broken-hearted and sing. Mainly, he was broken hearted about Priscilla. She had other interests, you know. She walked out on him. Priscilla wasn't getting what she wanted from Elvis. Elvis was surrounded by 7-8, maybe 10 guys, all the time. Elvis answered to them before he answered to Priscilla. She put up with it longer than I thought she would. Priscilla is a smart girl, and real charming.

D: She never got any real attention from Elvis? GS: No. He laughed and carried on conversations with the guys before he'd pay any attention to her. She took a back seat longer than I expected she would.

D: And now, what are the Jordanaires doing? GS: Lots of different things. One is that we have a new album of 13 or 14 songs that we recorded originally with Elvis, and on this album each Jordanaire takes Elvis' part on different songs.

Backing Rick Nelson

D: When Ricky sang on the Ozzie and Harriet tv show, we saw the Four Preps behind him, but wasn't it the Jordanaire's voices we heard on his songs? GS: The Four Preps mouthed our words. That happens a lot.

D: I can hear the Jordanaire's influence even in some of Rick's later songs like "Thank You, Lord" on his Rudy the Fifth album. GS: He loved to hear us singing it. He asked us to sing it often on the plane, but Rick never felt he could sing gospel. Elvis could. His was really a gospel voice.

D: How did you meet Rick? GS: We were out in L.A. doing a movie with Elvis (we did all his movies), and we had a suite of rooms at the Knickerbocker Hotel. We always stayed there. The hotel happened to be only a short distance from the Nelson's home. One day there was a knock on the door, and this very timid kid said shyly, "Hello, I'm Rick Nelson." I said, "Yes, I know." He was surprised. "You know who I am?" I said, "Sure, I see you on tv all the time when I'm back in Nashville." He said, "You know, we took a trip back East this year and we ran into a lot of people who knew who we were." He lived in such a small world. He was just a kid, and he was so surprised we knew who he was.

D: And no one knew the power of television yet. GS: That's true. We became very close friends. He'd come by the hotel almost everyday when he was through filming the Ozzie and Harriet show, and if we were done, we'd spend time together. It was Neal Matthews who taught him the basics of playing the guitar. Later, of course, Rick became a good guitarist. He was such a beautiful likeable guy, you couldn't help but like him--or help him if he needed some help. One day he came by and asked for help with finishing a song, one he was writing himself. Neal said to leave it, and he finished it over night. When it came out on a record, no credit was given to Neal and he was hurt. We figure it was Ozzie who did that. Or Lew Chudd at Imperial Records. Lew never wanted to spend any money on promoting and advertising when Rick had a new record coming out.

D: Was Rick broken-hearted over his marriage break up with Kris? GS: Rick was never broken-hearted to the same extent as Elvis, I don't think. Maybe he was there for a while. About the time he wrote "Garden Party," there was a lot of pain.

D: Did he say much about it? GS: Rick didn't say anything about it. Oh, he did say that she was on drugs. Ozzie spent every cent he could get his hands on to get her off of drugs.

D: He put her through treatment? GS: Yes. I don't know how long she was on drugs, but she definitely had a problem. Ozzie told me that.

D: When was the last time you saw Rick? GS: The September before he died [1985], we were with him at a hotel in Vegas. Rick was 45, and he looked 25. Fats Domino was there too. I have a picture of the four of us together with Rick, Fats, and the Colonel [Colonel Parker]. I've always thought the Colonel thought more about Rick than he did about Elvis. I've always wished that we'd accepted the date to play with Rick [the night the plane crashed]. We had been doing all his big dates, and the one coming up was a big date. If we had, they'd have flown from Alabama to Nashville to pick us up, and then on to Texas [to Dallas for the New Year's Eve booking]. They would have left earlier. They didn't normally fly at night. They might not have crashed. But, then again, maybe it is a miracle that we weren't on it. I always say the Lord left us here for some reason.

D: If you had advice for Gunnar and Matthew Nelson [Rick's twin sons] about their singing career, what would you tell them? GS: I would tell them to watch their material, what they sing, and also how they respond to their fans. You can't ignore the fans. Rick was always very kind to fans. A fan could be a disc jockey and say I'll never play your record again. I couldn't believe that Gunnar and Matthew did not come to the Tribute to Rick in L.A. last April. I was very disappointed they didn't come. Someone should have come from the family--just for 30 minutes. They wouldn't have had to stay for the dinner. All they would have had to do was come in and go to the microphone and say, "I'm so glad you all are here." Afterall, it was a tribute to Rick. But it would have brought them sales in years to come.

D: Yes, I thought to myself that Tracy or David or someone should have come to the Tribute. I know Harriet had just gotten out of the hospital, but Rick must not have gotten that message across to his kids about treating fans courteously and graciously the way Ozzie had impressed it upon him that signing autographs, posing for pictures, taking the time--that all of that part of an entertainer's job. Rick was considerate. GS: Rick Nelson was a very special person. He was such a sweet, sincere, honest guy. Amazing. I think he actually did more than any other one person to stimulate the growth of rock and roll. Buddy Holly, the others, they did a lot, but none of them did as much as Rick. He did it in such a sincere manner, you couldn't help but like him. And, of course, he had the vehicle to do it with--the tv show. He also had the looks that made people look twice and then say, "Hey this guy can sing. Listen to this."

D: Mike McDowell, the editor of Blitz, wrote in an article in 1986 that Rick "single-handed developed what later became known as country rock." Would you agree? GS: Yes. I would agree. Rick was much more a musician than people give him credit for.

Similarities Between Elvis and Rick

D: If Elvis was the King and Rick Nelson, the Prince of Rock, where do the Jordanaires fit into this scheme of the royal court--of rock? GS: We are the supporters, the encouragers.

D: [Laughing] Maybe the Knights of the Turn Table? GS: You know, singers are often very moody. A lot of times they need you to encourage them. All the songs in those Elvis movies were really awful. There was a deal between some writers or song publishers and the movie company. Many times Elvis would come over to us and say, "What can you do with a piece of crap like this?" They told him he had to sing it. We could have said, "There's nothing you can do with that piece of junk." But we didn't. We would say, "Well, if you have to sing it, let's start working on it. Let's try this; let's try that. How do you like this, Elvis? And little by little, he'd say, "Oh, Neal, why don't you guys try this. Or, try that." My point in telling you this is that little by little the song would come together.

D: Would you sing at the same time as Elvis or put the tracks down separately? GS: With Elvis, we were there when he was there. In fact, the musicians were there, everyone was there at the same time. He liked it that way, and that's the way it was done. With Rick, we came in later and overdubbed our voices on Rick's tracks.

D: If Elvis wanted to work in the middle of the night, then you guys had to be there? GS: Oh, yes. Most of the sessions with Elvis started at 6 o'clock in the evening and went to 7 in the morning. That picture I gave you [Editor: see photograph #1] was taken about 7 one morning at the RCA studio here in Nashville.

D: How did Elvis and Rick treat you? GS: Elvis always wanted us as close to him as we could be -- in recording sessions, on stage. You can see us right behind him in the tapes of the Ed Sullivan shows. In shows where we weren't seen, we were just off camera. He needed the support. He needed the respect, the love, and the admiration we had for him. We were like brothers. Rick was the same way. Rick loved us in the same way. We were important to him when he was trying to get his career started. We helped him with arrangements. Whenever we travel, all over the world, we always sing a song for Rick. You'd be surprised at the number of fans Rick has around the world.

D: Do you see any similarities in Priscilla and Kris in their personalities? GS: Yes, to a certain extent.

D: I know Kris is a take-charge type. I remember she told me that after Ozzie died, she wrote the cheques because Rick had never written a cheque in his life. GS: Rick never read any of his contracts either--not anything like that. He was the greatest of people, but he was sort-of-just "you tell me where to be and when to be there, and I'll be there." Ozzie did it all.

D: Until Greg McDonald came into the picture. GS: Greg was cold too, but not as cold as Colonel Parker. Of course, Greg took his schooling from the Colonel. The Colonel had no children--no sons, and he took Greg McDonald under his wing. For years, he had been sort of the Colonel's right hand. I'm sure Greg tried to help Rick, but, you know, you can ask people anything but you can't tell them anything.

D: I see it as a two-way street--the manager/singer relationship. I think that Rick gave up a lot of his power to Greg McDonald and developed a dependency on him the same way that Elvis did on the Colonel. GS: Yes, and the Colonel took 50% of everything. He shouldn't have. Elvis even paid 33 people out of his 50% Elvis died basically broke. So sad. I've always thought it was extremely sad. Now his estate is making $12-15 million a year. Graceland, visitors going there and into his airplane, those souvenirs you buy. Priscilla had to come in and she took over. She did a beautiful job and, of course, now they are making money. She did what was best. You'll read where Elvis' estate was worth $10 million when he died, but what they are talking about is if someone had hung a "For Sale" sign outside of Graceland, then maybe someone would have bought it. Perhaps a Japanese or German company, or maybe Tree Publishing Company here in town would have bought it. But, that's the only reason they say $10 million.

D: Rick died in debt too. GS: The Colonel lent Elvis' estate money to pay off his debts when he died. Isn't that sad? Greg lent Rick money too. Rick had just paid off a million dollar settlement when he died.

D: Do you think that Rick never got over Ozzie's death the same way that Elvis never got over his mother's death? GS: Elvis took her death hard, and Rick never did get over Ozzie's death. Ozzie was his guide, his inspiration. Ozzie would come by the studio while we were recording with Rick, and then he would work all the next day after staying up late with us. He had so much energy. I asked him about it once, and he said, "I only eat one meal a day of steak and ice cream, and I don't sleep more than 4 hours a night." Just a lot of natural energy. He died of cancer, didn't he?

D: Yes, liver cancer. In 1975. GS: Ozzie was not a drinker. Neither was Rick until maybe much later. Elvis would drink a vodka and orange juice, but very little. I never saw him have a beer.

D: Any other similarities between these two? GS: Rick did not consider himself to be a great singer. Elvis was the same way. I heard Elvis say many times, "I can't dance. I can't sing. What the hell do they want me for?" He said that many, many times. We'd always say, "You got whatever it takes." Elvis fell into the same category as Rick of being a very sincere person. You couldn't help but like them. Elvis knew he had looks. He was concerned about his looks. He was the best-looking face you ever looked into. He was actually much better looking in person than on the screen or in photographs, and I'm sure you've seen good ones. To be truthful, Elvis didn't really dig Rick. Rick was very shy and wouldn't carry his part of the conversation. Elvis was the kind of guy who didn't want a person to sit there and look at him. He wanted to carry on a conversation. He wanted you to laugh, cut up, and carry on. But Rick would just sit there. In those days, Rick would just say, "Yeah" or "Oh, yeah, uh-hum." He never was a talker (like I am). But because Rick was shy and bashful, and Elvis was, to a certain extent, shy too, they didn't really hit it off.

D: What happened when they got into playing touch football? GS: Oh, then it was much better.

D: Do you have any regrets? GS: Everyone told us that Elvis would be just a flash in the pan. On some level, I must have believed them or else I would have saved more mementos and had more pictures taken. So many people they told us that he wouldn't be popular for long, and we should get what we could because it would soon be over. I heard it so much, I tended to believe it.

D: That's what they said about rock 'n roll too--that it wouldn't be around for long. GS: Life is full of surprises.

D: You've sung at many funerals--at Elvis and at Rick's, and at Patsy Cline's memorial service, and at so many others--who do you want to sing at your funeral? GS: [Laughing] I think maybe I'll ask them to play some of those recordings of the Jordanaires they have on that list at the Library of Congress.

For additional information on the Jordanaires or on the Number System (a book by Jordanaire Neal Matthews is available), write:

The Jordanaires
P.O. Box 159014
Nashville, TN 37215

© Sandie Johnson