A Tribute to Elvis
Welcome to the home page of
Alan The Original Tribute to Elvis
OneceUponB
1000 Great Reviews Can't Be Wrong
Coming soon the book where Alan tells his amazing, but true story of how he took 3 generations of "Died In the Wool" Elvis fans through Elvis Presley’s career with amazing accuracy.
Alan told his idle's story while telling his own and became their leader in the process. Alan headlined in major Las Vegas strip hotels while the king was still alive. In fact endorsed by Elvis
and a discovery of Dick Clark Alan traveled the world singing and telling Elvis’ story. Now for the first time, Alan himself describes the deed in his book along with the particular recording studio
event where Alan coined the phrase tribute to Elvis and defines what a tribute to Elvis is all about in a way none to this day have ever understood it. Below is but an excerpt from Chapter 1.
From Alan’s book “The Illusionary Elvis”
Copywrite by Alan January 2011.
Forward:
It was eight in the evening when the phone rang. The caller ID said M Stirn. I wondered for a second
if it was one of those telemarketers. I decided I’ll hang up if the party doesn’t know my name.
Hello I answered. Yes hello is this Alan? And my question was answered. I replied
this is Alan. The caller explained, I’m Mike “Mock the Shock” Stirn your guitar player.
Wait a minute I said. You’re Mike Stirn who played guitar in my band back some 36 years ago?
Then he assured me it was really him.
The flood gates of my mind opened and the memories poured in as if it all happened only a moment ago.
My guitar player from 3 decades ago told me how he always regretted quitting my band just 2 months
before we headed to South Africa. It surprised me when he went on to say it was because of Dana that
he’d quit. She made me feel like I was in the Army he told me.
All of a sudden no time had passed; it was all just a moment ago.
* * *
Chapter 1
I was standing with my band on the tarmac of the International Airport in Johannesburg South Africa.
My bass player Rick May, my drummer Chuck Doten and myself Alan “Heir apparent to the throne
of Elvis Presley”. We read the headlines out load. “Hip Thrust Alan splits with wife”.
I began thinking about Dana.
The headlines in South Africa announced “Hip Thrust Alan Slits with Wife”
Johannesburg South Africa April 22, 1977
The jet fumes were intoxicating as we watched a half dozen reporters and photographic crew members
a hundred yards away. They were talking to Al Catillo my road manager. As we watched their guided
approach I remembered Dana.
During our four years together, she’d become my mountain of strength always looking out for my
best interests. She kept a keen eye making sure none of my band members like Mike didn’t sneak
underage girls into their rooms or smoke pot or do anything that could damage my reputation
and career, but mostly she looked after my state of mind. She believed in me and now suddenly she
wasn’t here beside me. I loved her, but I’d betrayed her. I had been true to her and I was always proud
of myself for all the times I looked the other way and ignored temptation.
Something had corrupted my soul. Maybe it was my new road manager who took over while she
went to recuperate at one of those beautifying dude ranches in Palm Springs. The road had drained
her and though still beautiful when she left, she returned just a month ago restored and even
more beautiful than I’d ever remembered. But it was too late. My new road manager had a great
resume as a road manager, but was a bad influence. We hung out and he always brought cute and
seductive cocktail waitresses and fans backstage. They were always ready willing and discrete, but
still I resisted. That was until I got to Dallas and met the executive assistant to Mingo Lamberti. He
owned and managed the Sheraton Mockingbird and booked my act into his show lounge, Barney
Oldfield’s. Al Catillo didn’t have anything to do with it. Maybe it was the devil himself who’d finally got
the better of me. Changing me from a man I was proud to be, into the shameful disgrace I’d become.
Surely I’d lost the best part of my life.
Now as we exited the International Airport in Johannesburg and I approached the peak of my
career with soldout concerts and teenage girls screaming for me like they did in the mid 60’s
for the Beatles, I was thinking about Dana. Yes she would have been so proud and yes Dana was
like a drill sergeant in many ways, but she wasn’t that way when I met her. Mike Stirn should have
known her and what she was like before the road and what working with all the misfits like him
did to her.
She was 19 when we met. . . She was beautiful. . . She was the Hostess at the Spokane House
when I opened there in November, 1973. Dana was friendly, polite and had a winning smile. She
had long straight hair like a folk singer. She had even longer legs and when she put on a gown it
looked like she was who gowns were made for. Dana was raised to believe laws were made to
be obeyed and that Pot smoking was not only illegal but wrong. Her philosophy was completely
different than any of my band members in the 70’s. Oh and did I mention she was beautiful.
Yes my career was just beginning when Dana and I met.
I was looking out the window at the parking lot while sitting in my room at the Spokane House
on that mid November afternoon in 1973. The parking lot was half empty at 6 PM. I’d counted 17 cars
and I was beginning to worry that nobody would come. It was a Tuesday night and there was two feet
of snow on the ground, but they’d done the advertisement I requested. Well actually it was that my agent
Bill Stephan and I had drawn up a special rider to my contract regarding promotion. It insured they’d place
the advertisement that Bill and I knew would be necessary to draw Elvis fans out of the woodwork in
Spokane Washington in the middle of winter. The radio spots started off by playing 30 un-interrupted
seconds from a track on my 45 RPM recording entitled “Alan Sings a Tribute to Elvis”. The idea was
since they never needed to announce an Elvis’ record, the radio stations could just start playing
my record and hope the listeners were surprised when the announcer broke in shouting Wait a
minute, that isn’t Elvis you’re listening to. No it’s Alan, but if you're still an Elvis fan the Spokane House
has the show you don’t want to miss. - - - - They ran that radio commercial all day and they ran
this big ad in the entertainment section of the Spokane daily and Sunday newspaper.
As 8 o’clock approached I knew my band was starting their first set and they’d play top
40’s Rock while supper was being served. They'd take a 15 minute break and come back
up and play 15 minutes of 50’s music before I’d be brought on at 9:00. The number of cars
was encouraging, but I never expected a line as they walked me to my dressing room. I wore
a trench coat like a private eye over my costume as they walked me through the crowd.
There was whispering Oh I think that’s him and my blood started pumping like
you just wouldn’t believe. I waited backstage while my manager and MC Jim Pond would warm
up the crowd with half stupid jokes and a few good ones, then he’d start telling them about
me and how I grew up singing along with Elvis records and watching his movies.
He'd tell them Alan reminds me of the Elvis I saw in the movie “Loving You. Just then
my band started playing the intro to the song I'd chosen and they'd continue playing it
until I was comfortably situated in front of my mic. We'd rehearsed a tight opener so I could spend
what ever time I wanted waiting for the right moment and they'd come right in with me on the 1st verse.
I walked out on stage looking all of 19 the audience was getting what they were promised.
Elvis as he was in 1956. The crowd got into my act about half way through my opening song
just as they always did in my performances in the small lounges in Seattle.
I swung my guitar over my right hip and danced onstage wearing a pair of baggy pink pants. My
silver belt was only a half inch wide and the pointed collar on my black shirt was turned
up over the lapel of my hot pink 50’s styled sports coat with inlaid ruby-red rhinestone
teardrops. I opened that first show with “Lawdy Miss Clawdy" but it didn’t make any difference
as long as it was one of Elvis’ vintage rocking Rockabilly tunes from his early days. You see I
wanted to tell the Elvis Presley Story.
If I close my eyes I still hear that audience at the Spokane House and how they warmed up
to me. They may never know that they were my big shot at realizing my dream of becoming a
rock and roll singing star like my idol Elvis Presley.
The show moved fast as I reproduced a half dozen of Elvis’ hits from his early era,
then I stepped behind a curtain and re-appeared in a Gold lamé suit as I began
replicating Elvis biggest hits of the 50’s. The audience soon believed I was some great
magician. I was in fact an Illusionist as I aged before their eyes while recreating the twenty
year career of the King of Rock and Roll. I was drawing from my own memory, adlibbing
in fact, a story that had slowly unwound while I grew up in front of the record player
all those years ago singing with his records and imagining him sitting there nobbing
and saying you're getting close little brother. While telling the Elvis Presley
story, I was telling my own story. How and why I grew to become his biggest fan. The
crowd of Died in the Wool Elvis fans immediately recognized me as one of their own.
The only difference is that I was responsible for bringing them all together in the same
place and time as my "Revered Audiance" a force to be reckoned with. They
seemed to want me for their leader.
I pointed toward my band as I walked in the opposite direction behind the curtain and at
the same time the follow spot highlighted my band as they played a greasy New Orleans
blues into to the next song. With the crowd hardly noticing I'd left I took a drag off my cigarette
and re-appeared in a black leather suit in what seemed like an instant.
Looking like I’d just stepped out of the black board jungle, a tuff guy movie from the 1950”s,
I strutted out slow and then I suddenly stopped, blew smoke in their faces and coldly stared
at them as I sang the opening lines to the mean blues number from the motion picture entitled
King Creole. If you’re lookin for trouble, you came to the right place. If your looking for trouble look
right at my face. Looking more like an alter-boy gone bad, I taunted and teased my audience, begging
them to mess with me. Then as suddenly as I turned cold I warmed up and copied Elvis’ warm hearted
more charming good humor and sang many hits from Elvis’ movie era of the 60’s. I always closed this
era with Return to Sender.
Disappearing behind the curtain while wearing Black Leather my band played the 2001 theme as I
stepped out of my leather pants and into the jumpsuit while Jim assisted and while the instrumental
played Jim made notes of my complaints about echo settings or the way the lights were being operated,
but always there were issues needing to be addressed. Now feeling much better after venting to Jim
as the 2001 theme transitioned into Viva Las Vegas I reappeared in a flashy rhinestone studded
jumpsuit looking refreshed and ready for the final portion of my show; transformation complete.
I copied Elvis’ Las Vegas era and it was the most fun! It gave me the excuse to approach my revered
audience and offer a table side song the way Elvis did during many of his movies. I’d offer a scarf and soon
the ladies followed me back to the stage while I continued passing out scarves along with a kiss through
the remainder of the performance. I started taking requests and everybody had fun trying to name an Elvis song
I couldn't sing. Then I challenged the audience saying If you can name an Elvis song I couldn’t sing I'll buy
you a special drink we called the Jailhouse Rocker,. Still no one ever stumped me and all too soon
the last song began and I could see that the crowd, like me, wished the illusion would never end. I had truly run
a gauntlet that night and reproduced for the Spokane audience a career that Elvis Presley had spent 20
years in the making.
Half way through my first week my agent, Bill Stephan called and said they wanted me back for New Years eve of 74.
After I reminded Bill that I was on a two week vacation from my engineering job at Fluke in Seattle, Bill said
quit that job. The he told me the owner of the Spokane House had flown in Jimmy Ginakes from Winnipeg and Jimmy's
cousin Perry from Calgary and both wanted me to play in their clubs in January. Oh and by the way Bill added,
If we can arrange return to Spokane they're offering $3500 per week for the New Years and the following week.
Bill reminded me That's a $1000 per week raise. I had to laugh when I remembered how excited I'd got
when John Fluke gave me a 50 cent an hour raise just 3 months earlier.
Then Bill Stephan bought met me athe biggest sound company in Seattle and picked up the tab a new sound system so I
could duplicate Elvis recording studio sound. Then we went the dealership where they'd fitted a cudtom Rolls grill and a new
Firemist-Red Eldorado with my name on the side a. When I headed out of Spokane in January Dana was riding with me toward Winnipeg.
in Winnipeg. One of the things they loved about me up there was that I didn't just sing the hit's, but I demonstrated Elvis' vocal quality
After every show Jimmy Ginakes had me signing autographs while standing through the open moon roof of my Eldorado in front of his
Town and Country Cabaret . One of the things my audiances loved most was the way I sand many of Elvis' lesser known songs from his movies.
Here's a sample of one of them from the motiuon picture King Creole Young Dreams recorded April 15, 1974
Here's a little peak ahead when I opened at the T-Bird on the Las Vegas strip just 18 months later
Flattering sure but I disagreed with Nitty May the staff writter for variety when he wrote Only one thing breaks the illusion: When Alan occasionally lets go his
voice has more magic than Presley's even at his youthful best It wasn't fair to Elvis and the review upset me. The truth is I may have sang Elvis' songs from the 50's and 60's more the way he
had originally sang them on his records than the way he sang them in 1976 when the article was written, because at that time Elvis interest were on another style of singing, but my voice had nowhere near the vocal quality
that Elvis' had when he originally recorded the songs. But still, don't all you fuckin impersonators wish for even one minute you could be compared favorably to the real Elvis by one of the nations
most respected entertainment magazines? Ha! Ha! Please somebody stop me before I laugh myself sick.
If you're not an impersonator and perhaps would like to read more of my story explaining how I coined the phrase and invented a Tribute to Elvis. Select this link.
Scrap book
Where Were you the day Elvis died??
Alan was headlining at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas
Select - See what Alan had achieved before the day Elvis died.
Alan sings "Home is where the Heart is" to his Bride .
Watch as they walk along the beach an hour after their wedding
Alan and Bren "Married in Jamaica"
Here Alan is singing "Can't Help Falling in Love" to his Bride
Watch Alan perform Jailhouse Rock Live December 2007
Alan perform Now or Never Live November 2007
Alan performs Return to Sender Live with Intro December 2007
Alan performs Burnin Love as an Encore - November 2007
Alan performs I was the One
(In a Thunderstorm) from his Private Collection.
You've been such good fans. . Click this pic
And come back to Oregon with me. in December 2008
Now that you're here. . Click this pic
And join me at a place I call Splash Rock Oregon. in December 2008
Don't miss Alan's Music Page
Alan's Music
Select Alan's Charger to see Alan with his restored 1970 Charger R/T
Select below and Travel to India with Alan * * * New Slide Show on this link
FlashFrontPage1
Alan's New DVD Is Here Now!
See "Alan's Music" page for details.
Listen to Alan's Authentic Elvis Presley Recording Studio sound as you watch
Alan perform these songs.
Select below and view samples
Contact us Webmaster At AlanInc
Welcome to the home page of
Alan The Original Tribute to Elvis
OneceUponB
1000 Great Reviews Can't Be Wrong
Coming soon the book where Alan tells his amazing, but true story of how he took 3 generations of "Died In the Wool" Elvis fans through Elvis Presley’s career with amazing accuracy.
Alan told his idle's story while telling his own and became their leader in the process. Alan headlined in major Las Vegas strip hotels while the king was still alive. In fact endorsed by Elvis
and a discovery of Dick Clark Alan traveled the world singing and telling Elvis’ story. Now for the first time, Alan himself describes the deed in his book along with the particular recording studio
event where Alan coined the phrase tribute to Elvis and defines what a tribute to Elvis is all about in a way none to this day have ever understood it. Below is but an excerpt from Chapter 1.
From Alan’s book “The Illusionary Elvis”
Copywrite by Alan January 2011.
Forward:
It was eight in the evening when the phone rang. The caller ID said M Stirn. I wondered for a second
if it was one of those telemarketers. I decided I’ll hang up if the party doesn’t know my name.
Hello I answered. Yes hello is this Alan? And my question was answered. I replied
this is Alan. The caller explained, I’m Mike “Mock the Shock” Stirn your guitar player.
Wait a minute I said. You’re Mike Stirn who played guitar in my band back some 36 years ago?
Then he assured me it was really him.
The flood gates of my mind opened and the memories poured in as if it all happened only a moment ago.
My guitar player from 3 decades ago told me how he always regretted quitting my band just 2 months
before we headed to South Africa. It surprised me when he went on to say it was because of Dana that
he’d quit. She made me feel like I was in the Army he told me.
All of a sudden no time had passed; it was all just a moment ago.
* * *
Chapter 1
I was standing with my band on the tarmac of the International Airport in Johannesburg South Africa.
My bass player Rick May, my drummer Chuck Doten and myself Alan “Heir apparent to the throne
of Elvis Presley”. We read the headlines out load. “Hip Thrust Alan splits with wife”.
I began thinking about Dana.
The headlines in South Africa announced “Hip Thrust Alan Slits with Wife”
Johannesburg South Africa April 22, 1977
The jet fumes were intoxicating as we watched a half dozen reporters and photographic crew members
a hundred yards away. They were talking to Al Catillo my road manager. As we watched their guided
approach I remembered Dana.
During our four years together, she’d become my mountain of strength always looking out for my
best interests. She kept a keen eye making sure none of my band members like Mike didn’t sneak
underage girls into their rooms or smoke pot or do anything that could damage my reputation
and career, but mostly she looked after my state of mind. She believed in me and now suddenly she
wasn’t here beside me. I loved her, but I’d betrayed her. I had been true to her and I was always proud
of myself for all the times I looked the other way and ignored temptation.
Something had corrupted my soul. Maybe it was my new road manager who took over while she
went to recuperate at one of those beautifying dude ranches in Palm Springs. The road had drained
her and though still beautiful when she left, she returned just a month ago restored and even
more beautiful than I’d ever remembered. But it was too late. My new road manager had a great
resume as a road manager, but was a bad influence. We hung out and he always brought cute and
seductive cocktail waitresses and fans backstage. They were always ready willing and discrete, but
still I resisted. That was until I got to Dallas and met the executive assistant to Mingo Lamberti. He
owned and managed the Sheraton Mockingbird and booked my act into his show lounge, Barney
Oldfield’s. Al Catillo didn’t have anything to do with it. Maybe it was the devil himself who’d finally got
the better of me. Changing me from a man I was proud to be, into the shameful disgrace I’d become.
Surely I’d lost the best part of my life.
Now as we exited the International Airport in Johannesburg and I approached the peak of my
career with soldout concerts and teenage girls screaming for me like they did in the mid 60’s
for the Beatles, I was thinking about Dana. Yes she would have been so proud and yes Dana was
like a drill sergeant in many ways, but she wasn’t that way when I met her. Mike Stirn should have
known her and what she was like before the road and what working with all the misfits like him
did to her.
She was 19 when we met. . . She was beautiful. . . She was the Hostess at the Spokane House
when I opened there in November, 1973. Dana was friendly, polite and had a winning smile. She
had long straight hair like a folk singer. She had even longer legs and when she put on a gown it
looked like she was who gowns were made for. Dana was raised to believe laws were made to
be obeyed and that Pot smoking was not only illegal but wrong. Her philosophy was completely
different than any of my band members in the 70’s. Oh and did I mention she was beautiful.
Yes my career was just beginning when Dana and I met.
I was looking out the window at the parking lot while sitting in my room at the Spokane House
on that mid November afternoon in 1973. The parking lot was half empty at 6 PM. I’d counted 17 cars
and I was beginning to worry that nobody would come. It was a Tuesday night and there was two feet
of snow on the ground, but they’d done the advertisement I requested. Well actually it was that my agent
Bill Stephan and I had drawn up a special rider to my contract regarding promotion. It insured they’d place
the advertisement that Bill and I knew would be necessary to draw Elvis fans out of the woodwork in
Spokane Washington in the middle of winter. The radio spots started off by playing 30 un-interrupted
seconds from a track on my 45 RPM recording entitled “Alan Sings a Tribute to Elvis”. The idea was
since they never needed to announce an Elvis’ record, the radio stations could just start playing
my record and hope the listeners were surprised when the announcer broke in shouting Wait a
minute, that isn’t Elvis you’re listening to. No it’s Alan, but if you're still an Elvis fan the Spokane House
has the show you don’t want to miss. - - - - They ran that radio commercial all day and they ran
this big ad in the entertainment section of the Spokane daily and Sunday newspaper.
As 8 o’clock approached I knew my band was starting their first set and they’d play top
40’s Rock while supper was being served. They'd take a 15 minute break and come back
up and play 15 minutes of 50’s music before I’d be brought on at 9:00. The number of cars
was encouraging, but I never expected a line as they walked me to my dressing room. I wore
a trench coat like a private eye over my costume as they walked me through the crowd.
There was whispering Oh I think that’s him and my blood started pumping like
you just wouldn’t believe. I waited backstage while my manager and MC Jim Pond would warm
up the crowd with half stupid jokes and a few good ones, then he’d start telling them about
me and how I grew up singing along with Elvis records and watching his movies.
He'd tell them Alan reminds me of the Elvis I saw in the movie “Loving You. Just then
my band started playing the intro to the song I'd chosen and they'd continue playing it
until I was comfortably situated in front of my mic. We'd rehearsed a tight opener so I could spend
what ever time I wanted waiting for the right moment and they'd come right in with me on the 1st verse.
I walked out on stage looking all of 19 the audience was getting what they were promised.
Elvis as he was in 1956. The crowd got into my act about half way through my opening song
just as they always did in my performances in the small lounges in Seattle.
I swung my guitar over my right hip and danced onstage wearing a pair of baggy pink pants. My
silver belt was only a half inch wide and the pointed collar on my black shirt was turned
up over the lapel of my hot pink 50’s styled sports coat with inlaid ruby-red rhinestone
teardrops. I opened that first show with “Lawdy Miss Clawdy" but it didn’t make any difference
as long as it was one of Elvis’ vintage rocking Rockabilly tunes from his early days. You see I
wanted to tell the Elvis Presley Story.
If I close my eyes I still hear that audience at the Spokane House and how they warmed up
to me. They may never know that they were my big shot at realizing my dream of becoming a
rock and roll singing star like my idol Elvis Presley.
The show moved fast as I reproduced a half dozen of Elvis’ hits from his early era,
then I stepped behind a curtain and re-appeared in a Gold lamé suit as I began
replicating Elvis biggest hits of the 50’s. The audience soon believed I was some great
magician. I was in fact an Illusionist as I aged before their eyes while recreating the twenty
year career of the King of Rock and Roll. I was drawing from my own memory, adlibbing
in fact, a story that had slowly unwound while I grew up in front of the record player
all those years ago singing with his records and imagining him sitting there nobbing
and saying you're getting close little brother. While telling the Elvis Presley
story, I was telling my own story. How and why I grew to become his biggest fan. The
crowd of Died in the Wool Elvis fans immediately recognized me as one of their own.
The only difference is that I was responsible for bringing them all together in the same
place and time as my "Revered Audiance" a force to be reckoned with. They
seemed to want me for their leader.
I pointed toward my band as I walked in the opposite direction behind the curtain and at
the same time the follow spot highlighted my band as they played a greasy New Orleans
blues into to the next song. With the crowd hardly noticing I'd left I took a drag off my cigarette
and re-appeared in a black leather suit in what seemed like an instant.
Looking like I’d just stepped out of the black board jungle, a tuff guy movie from the 1950”s,
I strutted out slow and then I suddenly stopped, blew smoke in their faces and coldly stared
at them as I sang the opening lines to the mean blues number from the motion picture entitled
King Creole. If you’re lookin for trouble, you came to the right place. If your looking for trouble look
right at my face. Looking more like an alter-boy gone bad, I taunted and teased my audience, begging
them to mess with me. Then as suddenly as I turned cold I warmed up and copied Elvis’ warm hearted
more charming good humor and sang many hits from Elvis’ movie era of the 60’s. I always closed this
era with Return to Sender.
Disappearing behind the curtain while wearing Black Leather my band played the 2001 theme as I
stepped out of my leather pants and into the jumpsuit while Jim assisted and while the instrumental
played Jim made notes of my complaints about echo settings or the way the lights were being operated,
but always there were issues needing to be addressed. Now feeling much better after venting to Jim
as the 2001 theme transitioned into Viva Las Vegas I reappeared in a flashy rhinestone studded
jumpsuit looking refreshed and ready for the final portion of my show; transformation complete.
I copied Elvis’ Las Vegas era and it was the most fun! It gave me the excuse to approach my revered
audience and offer a table side song the way Elvis did during many of his movies. I’d offer a scarf and soon
the ladies followed me back to the stage while I continued passing out scarves along with a kiss through
the remainder of the performance. I started taking requests and everybody had fun trying to name an Elvis song
I couldn't sing. Then I challenged the audience saying If you can name an Elvis song I couldn’t sing I'll buy
you a special drink we called the Jailhouse Rocker,. Still no one ever stumped me and all too soon
the last song began and I could see that the crowd, like me, wished the illusion would never end. I had truly run
a gauntlet that night and reproduced for the Spokane audience a career that Elvis Presley had spent 20
years in the making.
Half way through my first week my agent, Bill Stephan called and said they wanted me back for New Years eve of 74.
After I reminded Bill that I was on a two week vacation from my engineering job at Fluke in Seattle, Bill said
quit that job. The he told me the owner of the Spokane House had flown in Jimmy Ginakes from Winnipeg and Jimmy's
cousin Perry from Calgary and both wanted me to play in their clubs in January. Oh and by the way Bill added,
If we can arrange return to Spokane they're offering $3500 per week for the New Years and the following week.
Bill reminded me That's a $1000 per week raise. I had to laugh when I remembered how excited I'd got
when John Fluke gave me a 50 cent an hour raise just 3 months earlier.
Then Bill Stephan bought met me athe biggest sound company in Seattle and picked up the tab a new sound system so I
could duplicate Elvis recording studio sound. Then we went the dealership where they'd fitted a cudtom Rolls grill and a new
Firemist-Red Eldorado with my name on the side a. When I headed out of Spokane in January Dana was riding with me toward Winnipeg.
in Winnipeg. One of the things they loved about me up there was that I didn't just sing the hit's, but I demonstrated Elvis' vocal quality
After every show Jimmy Ginakes had me signing autographs while standing through the open moon roof of my Eldorado in front of his
Town and Country Cabaret . One of the things my audiances loved most was the way I sand many of Elvis' lesser known songs from his movies.
Here's a sample of one of them from the motiuon picture King Creole Young Dreams recorded April 15, 1974
Here's a little peak ahead when I opened at the T-Bird on the Las Vegas strip just 18 months later
Flattering sure but I disagreed with Nitty May the staff writter for variety when he wrote Only one thing breaks the illusion: When Alan occasionally lets go his
voice has more magic than Presley's even at his youthful best It wasn't fair to Elvis and the review upset me. The truth is I may have sang Elvis' songs from the 50's and 60's more the way he
had originally sang them on his records than the way he sang them in 1976 when the article was written, because at that time Elvis interest were on another style of singing, but my voice had nowhere near the vocal quality
that Elvis' had when he originally recorded the songs. But still, don't all you fuckin impersonators wish for even one minute you could be compared favorably to the real Elvis by one of the nations
most respected entertainment magazines? Ha! Ha! Please somebody stop me before I laugh myself sick.
If you're not an impersonator and perhaps would like to read more of my story explaining how I coined the phrase and invented a Tribute to Elvis. Select this link.
Scrap book
Where Were you the day Elvis died??
Alan was headlining at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas
Select - See what Alan had achieved before the day Elvis died.
Alan sings "Home is where the Heart is" to his Bride .
Watch as they walk along the beach an hour after their wedding
Alan and Bren "Married in Jamaica"
Here Alan is singing "Can't Help Falling in Love" to his Bride
Watch Alan perform Jailhouse Rock Live December 2007
Alan perform Now or Never Live November 2007
Alan performs Return to Sender Live with Intro December 2007
Alan performs Burnin Love as an Encore - November 2007
Alan performs I was the One
(In a Thunderstorm) from his Private Collection.
You've been such good fans. . Click this pic
And come back to Oregon with me. in December 2008
Now that you're here. . Click this pic
And join me at a place I call Splash Rock Oregon. in December 2008
Don't miss Alan's Music Page
Alan's Music
Select Alan's Charger to see Alan with his restored 1970 Charger R/T
Select below and Travel to India with Alan * * * New Slide Show on this link
FlashFrontPage1
Alan's New DVD Is Here Now!
See "Alan's Music" page for details.
Listen to Alan's Authentic Elvis Presley Recording Studio sound as you watch
Alan perform these songs.
Select below and view samples
Contact us Webmaster At AlanInc
OneceUponB
1000 Great Reviews Can't Be Wrong
Coming soon the book where Alan tells his amazing, but true story of how he took 3 generations of "Died In the Wool" Elvis fans through Elvis Presley’s career with amazing accuracy.
Alan told his idle's story while telling his own and became their leader in the process. Alan headlined in major Las Vegas strip hotels while the king was still alive. In fact endorsed by Elvis
and a discovery of Dick Clark Alan traveled the world singing and telling Elvis’ story. Now for the first time, Alan himself describes the deed in his book along with the particular recording studio
event where Alan coined the phrase tribute to Elvis and defines what a tribute to Elvis is all about in a way none to this day have ever understood it. Below is but an excerpt from Chapter 1.
From Alan’s book “The Illusionary Elvis”
Copywrite by Alan January 2011.
Forward:
It was eight in the evening when the phone rang. The caller ID said M Stirn. I wondered for a second
if it was one of those telemarketers. I decided I’ll hang up if the party doesn’t know my name.
Hello I answered. Yes hello is this Alan? And my question was answered. I replied
this is Alan. The caller explained, I’m Mike “Mock the Shock” Stirn your guitar player.
Wait a minute I said. You’re Mike Stirn who played guitar in my band back some 36 years ago?
Then he assured me it was really him.
The flood gates of my mind opened and the memories poured in as if it all happened only a moment ago.
My guitar player from 3 decades ago told me how he always regretted quitting my band just 2 months
before we headed to South Africa. It surprised me when he went on to say it was because of Dana that
he’d quit. She made me feel like I was in the Army he told me.
All of a sudden no time had passed; it was all just a moment ago.
* * *
Chapter 1
I was standing with my band on the tarmac of the International Airport in Johannesburg South Africa.
My bass player Rick May, my drummer Chuck Doten and myself Alan “Heir apparent to the throne
of Elvis Presley”. We read the headlines out load. “Hip Thrust Alan splits with wife”.
I began thinking about Dana.
The headlines in South Africa announced “Hip Thrust Alan Slits with Wife”
Johannesburg South Africa April 22, 1977
The jet fumes were intoxicating as we watched a half dozen reporters and photographic crew members
a hundred yards away. They were talking to Al Catillo my road manager. As we watched their guided
approach I remembered Dana.
During our four years together, she’d become my mountain of strength always looking out for my
best interests. She kept a keen eye making sure none of my band members like Mike didn’t sneak
underage girls into their rooms or smoke pot or do anything that could damage my reputation
and career, but mostly she looked after my state of mind. She believed in me and now suddenly she
wasn’t here beside me. I loved her, but I’d betrayed her. I had been true to her and I was always proud
of myself for all the times I looked the other way and ignored temptation.
Something had corrupted my soul. Maybe it was my new road manager who took over while she
went to recuperate at one of those beautifying dude ranches in Palm Springs. The road had drained
her and though still beautiful when she left, she returned just a month ago restored and even
more beautiful than I’d ever remembered. But it was too late. My new road manager had a great
resume as a road manager, but was a bad influence. We hung out and he always brought cute and
seductive cocktail waitresses and fans backstage. They were always ready willing and discrete, but
still I resisted. That was until I got to Dallas and met the executive assistant to Mingo Lamberti. He
owned and managed the Sheraton Mockingbird and booked my act into his show lounge, Barney
Oldfield’s. Al Catillo didn’t have anything to do with it. Maybe it was the devil himself who’d finally got
the better of me. Changing me from a man I was proud to be, into the shameful disgrace I’d become.
Surely I’d lost the best part of my life.
Now as we exited the International Airport in Johannesburg and I approached the peak of my
career with soldout concerts and teenage girls screaming for me like they did in the mid 60’s
for the Beatles, I was thinking about Dana. Yes she would have been so proud and yes Dana was
like a drill sergeant in many ways, but she wasn’t that way when I met her. Mike Stirn should have
known her and what she was like before the road and what working with all the misfits like him
did to her.
She was 19 when we met. . . She was beautiful. . . She was the Hostess at the Spokane House
when I opened there in November, 1973. Dana was friendly, polite and had a winning smile. She
had long straight hair like a folk singer. She had even longer legs and when she put on a gown it
looked like she was who gowns were made for. Dana was raised to believe laws were made to
be obeyed and that Pot smoking was not only illegal but wrong. Her philosophy was completely
different than any of my band members in the 70’s. Oh and did I mention she was beautiful.
Yes my career was just beginning when Dana and I met.
I was looking out the window at the parking lot while sitting in my room at the Spokane House
on that mid November afternoon in 1973. The parking lot was half empty at 6 PM. I’d counted 17 cars
and I was beginning to worry that nobody would come. It was a Tuesday night and there was two feet
of snow on the ground, but they’d done the advertisement I requested. Well actually it was that my agent
Bill Stephan and I had drawn up a special rider to my contract regarding promotion. It insured they’d place
the advertisement that Bill and I knew would be necessary to draw Elvis fans out of the woodwork in
Spokane Washington in the middle of winter. The radio spots started off by playing 30 un-interrupted
seconds from a track on my 45 RPM recording entitled “Alan Sings a Tribute to Elvis”. The idea was
since they never needed to announce an Elvis’ record, the radio stations could just start playing
my record and hope the listeners were surprised when the announcer broke in shouting Wait a
minute, that isn’t Elvis you’re listening to. No it’s Alan, but if you're still an Elvis fan the Spokane House
has the show you don’t want to miss. - - - - They ran that radio commercial all day and they ran
this big ad in the entertainment section of the Spokane daily and Sunday newspaper.
As 8 o’clock approached I knew my band was starting their first set and they’d play top
40’s Rock while supper was being served. They'd take a 15 minute break and come back
up and play 15 minutes of 50’s music before I’d be brought on at 9:00. The number of cars
was encouraging, but I never expected a line as they walked me to my dressing room. I wore
a trench coat like a private eye over my costume as they walked me through the crowd.
There was whispering Oh I think that’s him and my blood started pumping like
you just wouldn’t believe. I waited backstage while my manager and MC Jim Pond would warm
up the crowd with half stupid jokes and a few good ones, then he’d start telling them about
me and how I grew up singing along with Elvis records and watching his movies.
He'd tell them Alan reminds me of the Elvis I saw in the movie “Loving You. Just then
my band started playing the intro to the song I'd chosen and they'd continue playing it
until I was comfortably situated in front of my mic. We'd rehearsed a tight opener so I could spend
what ever time I wanted waiting for the right moment and they'd come right in with me on the 1st verse.
I walked out on stage looking all of 19 the audience was getting what they were promised.
Elvis as he was in 1956. The crowd got into my act about half way through my opening song
just as they always did in my performances in the small lounges in Seattle.
I swung my guitar over my right hip and danced onstage wearing a pair of baggy pink pants. My
silver belt was only a half inch wide and the pointed collar on my black shirt was turned
up over the lapel of my hot pink 50’s styled sports coat with inlaid ruby-red rhinestone
teardrops. I opened that first show with “Lawdy Miss Clawdy" but it didn’t make any difference
as long as it was one of Elvis’ vintage rocking Rockabilly tunes from his early days. You see I
wanted to tell the Elvis Presley Story.
If I close my eyes I still hear that audience at the Spokane House and how they warmed up
to me. They may never know that they were my big shot at realizing my dream of becoming a
rock and roll singing star like my idol Elvis Presley.
The show moved fast as I reproduced a half dozen of Elvis’ hits from his early era,
then I stepped behind a curtain and re-appeared in a Gold lamé suit as I began
replicating Elvis biggest hits of the 50’s. The audience soon believed I was some great
magician. I was in fact an Illusionist as I aged before their eyes while recreating the twenty
year career of the King of Rock and Roll. I was drawing from my own memory, adlibbing
in fact, a story that had slowly unwound while I grew up in front of the record player
all those years ago singing with his records and imagining him sitting there nobbing
and saying you're getting close little brother. While telling the Elvis Presley
story, I was telling my own story. How and why I grew to become his biggest fan. The
crowd of Died in the Wool Elvis fans immediately recognized me as one of their own.
The only difference is that I was responsible for bringing them all together in the same
place and time as my "Revered Audiance" a force to be reckoned with. They
seemed to want me for their leader.
I pointed toward my band as I walked in the opposite direction behind the curtain and at
the same time the follow spot highlighted my band as they played a greasy New Orleans
blues into to the next song. With the crowd hardly noticing I'd left I took a drag off my cigarette
and re-appeared in a black leather suit in what seemed like an instant.
Looking like I’d just stepped out of the black board jungle, a tuff guy movie from the 1950”s,
I strutted out slow and then I suddenly stopped, blew smoke in their faces and coldly stared
at them as I sang the opening lines to the mean blues number from the motion picture entitled
King Creole. If you’re lookin for trouble, you came to the right place. If your looking for trouble look
right at my face. Looking more like an alter-boy gone bad, I taunted and teased my audience, begging
them to mess with me. Then as suddenly as I turned cold I warmed up and copied Elvis’ warm hearted
more charming good humor and sang many hits from Elvis’ movie era of the 60’s. I always closed this
era with Return to Sender.
Disappearing behind the curtain while wearing Black Leather my band played the 2001 theme as I
stepped out of my leather pants and into the jumpsuit while Jim assisted and while the instrumental
played Jim made notes of my complaints about echo settings or the way the lights were being operated,
but always there were issues needing to be addressed. Now feeling much better after venting to Jim
as the 2001 theme transitioned into Viva Las Vegas I reappeared in a flashy rhinestone studded
jumpsuit looking refreshed and ready for the final portion of my show; transformation complete.
I copied Elvis’ Las Vegas era and it was the most fun! It gave me the excuse to approach my revered
audience and offer a table side song the way Elvis did during many of his movies. I’d offer a scarf and soon
the ladies followed me back to the stage while I continued passing out scarves along with a kiss through
the remainder of the performance. I started taking requests and everybody had fun trying to name an Elvis song
I couldn't sing. Then I challenged the audience saying If you can name an Elvis song I couldn’t sing I'll buy
you a special drink we called the Jailhouse Rocker,. Still no one ever stumped me and all too soon
the last song began and I could see that the crowd, like me, wished the illusion would never end. I had truly run
a gauntlet that night and reproduced for the Spokane audience a career that Elvis Presley had spent 20
years in the making.
Half way through my first week my agent, Bill Stephan called and said they wanted me back for New Years eve of 74.
After I reminded Bill that I was on a two week vacation from my engineering job at Fluke in Seattle, Bill said
quit that job. The he told me the owner of the Spokane House had flown in Jimmy Ginakes from Winnipeg and Jimmy's
cousin Perry from Calgary and both wanted me to play in their clubs in January. Oh and by the way Bill added,
If we can arrange return to Spokane they're offering $3500 per week for the New Years and the following week.
Bill reminded me That's a $1000 per week raise. I had to laugh when I remembered how excited I'd got
when John Fluke gave me a 50 cent an hour raise just 3 months earlier.
Then Bill Stephan bought met me athe biggest sound company in Seattle and picked up the tab a new sound system so I
could duplicate Elvis recording studio sound. Then we went the dealership where they'd fitted a cudtom Rolls grill and a new
Firemist-Red Eldorado with my name on the side a. When I headed out of Spokane in January Dana was riding with me toward Winnipeg.
in Winnipeg. One of the things they loved about me up there was that I didn't just sing the hit's, but I demonstrated Elvis' vocal quality
After every show Jimmy Ginakes had me signing autographs while standing through the open moon roof of my Eldorado in front of his
Town and Country Cabaret . One of the things my audiances loved most was the way I sand many of Elvis' lesser known songs from his movies.
Here's a sample of one of them from the motiuon picture King Creole Young Dreams recorded April 15, 1974
Here's a little peak ahead when I opened at the T-Bird on the Las Vegas strip just 18 months later
Flattering sure but I disagreed with Nitty May the staff writter for variety when he wrote Only one thing breaks the illusion: When Alan occasionally lets go his
voice has more magic than Presley's even at his youthful best It wasn't fair to Elvis and the review upset me. The truth is I may have sang Elvis' songs from the 50's and 60's more the way he
had originally sang them on his records than the way he sang them in 1976 when the article was written, because at that time Elvis interest were on another style of singing, but my voice had nowhere near the vocal quality
that Elvis' had when he originally recorded the songs. But still, don't all you fuckin impersonators wish for even one minute you could be compared favorably to the real Elvis by one of the nations
most respected entertainment magazines? Ha! Ha! Please somebody stop me before I laugh myself sick.
If you're not an impersonator and perhaps would like to read more of my story explaining how I coined the phrase and invented a Tribute to Elvis. Select this link.
Scrap book
Where Were you the day Elvis died??
Alan was headlining at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas
Select - See what Alan had achieved before the day Elvis died.
Alan sings "Home is where the Heart is" to his Bride .
Watch as they walk along the beach an hour after their wedding
Alan and Bren "Married in Jamaica"
Here Alan is singing "Can't Help Falling in Love" to his Bride
Watch Alan perform Jailhouse Rock Live December 2007
Alan perform Now or Never Live November 2007
Alan performs Return to Sender Live with Intro December 2007
Alan performs Burnin Love as an Encore - November 2007
Alan performs I was the One
(In a Thunderstorm) from his Private Collection.
You've been such good fans. . Click this pic
And come back to Oregon with me. in December 2008
Now that you're here. . Click this pic
And join me at a place I call Splash Rock Oregon. in December 2008
Don't miss Alan's Music Page
Alan's Music
Select Alan's Charger to see Alan with his restored 1970 Charger R/T
Select below and Travel to India with Alan * * * New Slide Show on this link
FlashFrontPage1
Alan's New DVD Is Here Now!
See "Alan's Music" page for details.
Listen to Alan's Authentic Elvis Presley Recording Studio sound as you watch
Alan perform these songs.
Select below and view samples
Contact us Webmaster At AlanInc
Coming soon the book where Alan tells his amazing, but true story of how he took 3 generations of "Died In the Wool" Elvis fans through Elvis Presley’s career with amazing accuracy.
Alan told his idle's story while telling his own and became their leader in the process. Alan headlined in major Las Vegas strip hotels while the king was still alive. In fact endorsed by Elvis
and a discovery of Dick Clark Alan traveled the world singing and telling Elvis’ story. Now for the first time, Alan himself describes the deed in his book along with the particular recording studio
event where Alan coined the phrase tribute to Elvis and defines what a tribute to Elvis is all about in a way none to this day have ever understood it. Below is but an excerpt from Chapter 1.
From Alan’s book “The Illusionary Elvis”
Copywrite by Alan January 2011.
Forward:
It was eight in the evening when the phone rang. The caller ID said M Stirn. I wondered for a second
if it was one of those telemarketers. I decided I’ll hang up if the party doesn’t know my name.
Hello I answered. Yes hello is this Alan? And my question was answered. I replied
this is Alan. The caller explained, I’m Mike “Mock the Shock” Stirn your guitar player.
Wait a minute I said. You’re Mike Stirn who played guitar in my band back some 36 years ago?
Then he assured me it was really him.
The flood gates of my mind opened and the memories poured in as if it all happened only a moment ago.
My guitar player from 3 decades ago told me how he always regretted quitting my band just 2 months
before we headed to South Africa. It surprised me when he went on to say it was because of Dana that
he’d quit. She made me feel like I was in the Army he told me.
All of a sudden no time had passed; it was all just a moment ago.
* * *
Chapter 1
I was standing with my band on the tarmac of the International Airport in Johannesburg South Africa.
My bass player Rick May, my drummer Chuck Doten and myself Alan “Heir apparent to the throne
of Elvis Presley”. We read the headlines out load. “Hip Thrust Alan splits with wife”.
I began thinking about Dana.
The headlines in South Africa announced “Hip Thrust Alan Slits with Wife”
Johannesburg South Africa April 22, 1977
The jet fumes were intoxicating as we watched a half dozen reporters and photographic crew members
a hundred yards away. They were talking to Al Catillo my road manager. As we watched their guided
approach I remembered Dana.
During our four years together, she’d become my mountain of strength always looking out for my
best interests. She kept a keen eye making sure none of my band members like Mike didn’t sneak
underage girls into their rooms or smoke pot or do anything that could damage my reputation
and career, but mostly she looked after my state of mind. She believed in me and now suddenly she
wasn’t here beside me. I loved her, but I’d betrayed her. I had been true to her and I was always proud
of myself for all the times I looked the other way and ignored temptation.
Something had corrupted my soul. Maybe it was my new road manager who took over while she
went to recuperate at one of those beautifying dude ranches in Palm Springs. The road had drained
her and though still beautiful when she left, she returned just a month ago restored and even
more beautiful than I’d ever remembered. But it was too late. My new road manager had a great
resume as a road manager, but was a bad influence. We hung out and he always brought cute and
seductive cocktail waitresses and fans backstage. They were always ready willing and discrete, but
still I resisted. That was until I got to Dallas and met the executive assistant to Mingo Lamberti. He
owned and managed the Sheraton Mockingbird and booked my act into his show lounge, Barney
Oldfield’s. Al Catillo didn’t have anything to do with it. Maybe it was the devil himself who’d finally got
the better of me. Changing me from a man I was proud to be, into the shameful disgrace I’d become.
Surely I’d lost the best part of my life.
Now as we exited the International Airport in Johannesburg and I approached the peak of my
career with soldout concerts and teenage girls screaming for me like they did in the mid 60’s
for the Beatles, I was thinking about Dana. Yes she would have been so proud and yes Dana was
like a drill sergeant in many ways, but she wasn’t that way when I met her. Mike Stirn should have
known her and what she was like before the road and what working with all the misfits like him
did to her.
She was 19 when we met. . . She was beautiful. . . She was the Hostess at the Spokane House
when I opened there in November, 1973. Dana was friendly, polite and had a winning smile. She
had long straight hair like a folk singer. She had even longer legs and when she put on a gown it
looked like she was who gowns were made for. Dana was raised to believe laws were made to
be obeyed and that Pot smoking was not only illegal but wrong. Her philosophy was completely
different than any of my band members in the 70’s. Oh and did I mention she was beautiful.
Yes my career was just beginning when Dana and I met.
I was looking out the window at the parking lot while sitting in my room at the Spokane House
on that mid November afternoon in 1973. The parking lot was half empty at 6 PM. I’d counted 17 cars
and I was beginning to worry that nobody would come. It was a Tuesday night and there was two feet
of snow on the ground, but they’d done the advertisement I requested. Well actually it was that my agent
Bill Stephan and I had drawn up a special rider to my contract regarding promotion. It insured they’d place
the advertisement that Bill and I knew would be necessary to draw Elvis fans out of the woodwork in
Spokane Washington in the middle of winter. The radio spots started off by playing 30 un-interrupted
seconds from a track on my 45 RPM recording entitled “Alan Sings a Tribute to Elvis”. The idea was
since they never needed to announce an Elvis’ record, the radio stations could just start playing
my record and hope the listeners were surprised when the announcer broke in shouting Wait a
minute, that isn’t Elvis you’re listening to. No it’s Alan, but if you're still an Elvis fan the Spokane House
has the show you don’t want to miss. - - - - They ran that radio commercial all day and they ran
this big ad in the entertainment section of the Spokane daily and Sunday newspaper.
As 8 o’clock approached I knew my band was starting their first set and they’d play top
40’s Rock while supper was being served. They'd take a 15 minute break and come back
up and play 15 minutes of 50’s music before I’d be brought on at 9:00. The number of cars
was encouraging, but I never expected a line as they walked me to my dressing room. I wore
a trench coat like a private eye over my costume as they walked me through the crowd.
There was whispering Oh I think that’s him and my blood started pumping like
you just wouldn’t believe. I waited backstage while my manager and MC Jim Pond would warm
up the crowd with half stupid jokes and a few good ones, then he’d start telling them about
me and how I grew up singing along with Elvis records and watching his movies.
He'd tell them Alan reminds me of the Elvis I saw in the movie “Loving You. Just then
my band started playing the intro to the song I'd chosen and they'd continue playing it
until I was comfortably situated in front of my mic. We'd rehearsed a tight opener so I could spend
what ever time I wanted waiting for the right moment and they'd come right in with me on the 1st verse.
I walked out on stage looking all of 19 the audience was getting what they were promised.
Elvis as he was in 1956. The crowd got into my act about half way through my opening song
just as they always did in my performances in the small lounges in Seattle.
I swung my guitar over my right hip and danced onstage wearing a pair of baggy pink pants. My
silver belt was only a half inch wide and the pointed collar on my black shirt was turned
up over the lapel of my hot pink 50’s styled sports coat with inlaid ruby-red rhinestone
teardrops. I opened that first show with “Lawdy Miss Clawdy" but it didn’t make any difference
as long as it was one of Elvis’ vintage rocking Rockabilly tunes from his early days. You see I
wanted to tell the Elvis Presley Story.
If I close my eyes I still hear that audience at the Spokane House and how they warmed up
to me. They may never know that they were my big shot at realizing my dream of becoming a
rock and roll singing star like my idol Elvis Presley.
The show moved fast as I reproduced a half dozen of Elvis’ hits from his early era,
then I stepped behind a curtain and re-appeared in a Gold lamé suit as I began
replicating Elvis biggest hits of the 50’s. The audience soon believed I was some great
magician. I was in fact an Illusionist as I aged before their eyes while recreating the twenty
year career of the King of Rock and Roll. I was drawing from my own memory, adlibbing
in fact, a story that had slowly unwound while I grew up in front of the record player
all those years ago singing with his records and imagining him sitting there nobbing
and saying you're getting close little brother. While telling the Elvis Presley
story, I was telling my own story. How and why I grew to become his biggest fan. The
crowd of Died in the Wool Elvis fans immediately recognized me as one of their own.
The only difference is that I was responsible for bringing them all together in the same
place and time as my "Revered Audiance" a force to be reckoned with. They
seemed to want me for their leader.
I pointed toward my band as I walked in the opposite direction behind the curtain and at
the same time the follow spot highlighted my band as they played a greasy New Orleans
blues into to the next song. With the crowd hardly noticing I'd left I took a drag off my cigarette
and re-appeared in a black leather suit in what seemed like an instant.
Looking like I’d just stepped out of the black board jungle, a tuff guy movie from the 1950”s,
I strutted out slow and then I suddenly stopped, blew smoke in their faces and coldly stared
at them as I sang the opening lines to the mean blues number from the motion picture entitled
King Creole. If you’re lookin for trouble, you came to the right place. If your looking for trouble look
right at my face. Looking more like an alter-boy gone bad, I taunted and teased my audience, begging
them to mess with me. Then as suddenly as I turned cold I warmed up and copied Elvis’ warm hearted
more charming good humor and sang many hits from Elvis’ movie era of the 60’s. I always closed this
era with Return to Sender.
Disappearing behind the curtain while wearing Black Leather my band played the 2001 theme as I
stepped out of my leather pants and into the jumpsuit while Jim assisted and while the instrumental
played Jim made notes of my complaints about echo settings or the way the lights were being operated,
but always there were issues needing to be addressed. Now feeling much better after venting to Jim
as the 2001 theme transitioned into Viva Las Vegas I reappeared in a flashy rhinestone studded
jumpsuit looking refreshed and ready for the final portion of my show; transformation complete.
I copied Elvis’ Las Vegas era and it was the most fun! It gave me the excuse to approach my revered
audience and offer a table side song the way Elvis did during many of his movies. I’d offer a scarf and soon
the ladies followed me back to the stage while I continued passing out scarves along with a kiss through
the remainder of the performance. I started taking requests and everybody had fun trying to name an Elvis song
I couldn't sing. Then I challenged the audience saying If you can name an Elvis song I couldn’t sing I'll buy
you a special drink we called the Jailhouse Rocker,. Still no one ever stumped me and all too soon
the last song began and I could see that the crowd, like me, wished the illusion would never end. I had truly run
a gauntlet that night and reproduced for the Spokane audience a career that Elvis Presley had spent 20
years in the making.
Half way through my first week my agent, Bill Stephan called and said they wanted me back for New Years eve of 74.
After I reminded Bill that I was on a two week vacation from my engineering job at Fluke in Seattle, Bill said
quit that job. The he told me the owner of the Spokane House had flown in Jimmy Ginakes from Winnipeg and Jimmy's
cousin Perry from Calgary and both wanted me to play in their clubs in January. Oh and by the way Bill added,
If we can arrange return to Spokane they're offering $3500 per week for the New Years and the following week.
Bill reminded me That's a $1000 per week raise. I had to laugh when I remembered how excited I'd got
when John Fluke gave me a 50 cent an hour raise just 3 months earlier.
Then Bill Stephan bought met me athe biggest sound company in Seattle and picked up the tab a new sound system so I
could duplicate Elvis recording studio sound. Then we went the dealership where they'd fitted a cudtom Rolls grill and a new
Firemist-Red Eldorado with my name on the side a. When I headed out of Spokane in January Dana was riding with me toward Winnipeg.
in Winnipeg. One of the things they loved about me up there was that I didn't just sing the hit's, but I demonstrated Elvis' vocal quality
After every show Jimmy Ginakes had me signing autographs while standing through the open moon roof of my Eldorado in front of his
Town and Country Cabaret . One of the things my audiances loved most was the way I sand many of Elvis' lesser known songs from his movies.
Here's a sample of one of them from the motiuon picture King Creole Young Dreams recorded April 15, 1974
Here's a little peak ahead when I opened at the T-Bird on the Las Vegas strip just 18 months later
Flattering sure but I disagreed with Nitty May the staff writter for variety when he wrote Only one thing breaks the illusion: When Alan occasionally lets go his
voice has more magic than Presley's even at his youthful best It wasn't fair to Elvis and the review upset me. The truth is I may have sang Elvis' songs from the 50's and 60's more the way he
had originally sang them on his records than the way he sang them in 1976 when the article was written, because at that time Elvis interest were on another style of singing, but my voice had nowhere near the vocal quality
that Elvis' had when he originally recorded the songs. But still, don't all you fuckin impersonators wish for even one minute you could be compared favorably to the real Elvis by one of the nations
most respected entertainment magazines? Ha! Ha! Please somebody stop me before I laugh myself sick.
If you're not an impersonator and perhaps would like to read more of my story explaining how I coined the phrase and invented a Tribute to Elvis. Select this link.
Scrap book
Where Were you the day Elvis died??
Alan was headlining at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas
Select - See what Alan had achieved before the day Elvis died.
Alan sings "Home is where the Heart is" to his Bride .
Watch as they walk along the beach an hour after their wedding
Alan and Bren "Married in Jamaica"
Here Alan is singing "Can't Help Falling in Love" to his Bride
Watch Alan perform Jailhouse Rock Live December 2007
Alan perform Now or Never Live November 2007
Alan performs Return to Sender Live with Intro December 2007
Alan performs Burnin Love as an Encore - November 2007
Alan performs I was the One
(In a Thunderstorm) from his Private Collection.
You've been such good fans. . Click this pic
And come back to Oregon with me. in December 2008
Now that you're here. . Click this pic
And join me at a place I call Splash Rock Oregon. in December 2008
Don't miss Alan's Music Page
Alan's Music
Select Alan's Charger to see Alan with his restored 1970 Charger R/T
Select below and Travel to India with Alan * * * New Slide Show on this link
FlashFrontPage1
Alan's New DVD Is Here Now!
See "Alan's Music" page for details.
Listen to Alan's Authentic Elvis Presley Recording Studio sound as you watch
Alan perform these songs.
Select below and view samples
Contact us Webmaster At AlanInc
From Alan’s book “The Illusionary Elvis”
Copywrite by Alan January 2011.
Forward:
It was eight in the evening when the phone rang. The caller ID said M Stirn. I wondered for a second
if it was one of those telemarketers. I decided I’ll hang up if the party doesn’t know my name.
Hello I answered. Yes hello is this Alan? And my question was answered. I replied
this is Alan. The caller explained, I’m Mike “Mock the Shock” Stirn your guitar player.
Wait a minute I said. You’re Mike Stirn who played guitar in my band back some 36 years ago?
Then he assured me it was really him.
The flood gates of my mind opened and the memories poured in as if it all happened only a moment ago.
My guitar player from 3 decades ago told me how he always regretted quitting my band just 2 months
before we headed to South Africa. It surprised me when he went on to say it was because of Dana that
he’d quit. She made me feel like I was in the Army he told me.
All of a sudden no time had passed; it was all just a moment ago.
* * *
Chapter 1
I was standing with my band on the tarmac of the International Airport in Johannesburg South Africa.
My bass player Rick May, my drummer Chuck Doten and myself Alan “Heir apparent to the throne
of Elvis Presley”. We read the headlines out load. “Hip Thrust Alan splits with wife”.
I began thinking about Dana.
The headlines in South Africa announced “Hip Thrust Alan Slits with Wife”
Johannesburg South Africa April 22, 1977
The jet fumes were intoxicating as we watched a half dozen reporters and photographic crew members
a hundred yards away. They were talking to Al Catillo my road manager. As we watched their guided
approach I remembered Dana.
During our four years together, she’d become my mountain of strength always looking out for my
best interests. She kept a keen eye making sure none of my band members like Mike didn’t sneak
underage girls into their rooms or smoke pot or do anything that could damage my reputation
and career, but mostly she looked after my state of mind. She believed in me and now suddenly she
wasn’t here beside me. I loved her, but I’d betrayed her. I had been true to her and I was always proud
of myself for all the times I looked the other way and ignored temptation.
Something had corrupted my soul. Maybe it was my new road manager who took over while she
went to recuperate at one of those beautifying dude ranches in Palm Springs. The road had drained
her and though still beautiful when she left, she returned just a month ago restored and even
more beautiful than I’d ever remembered. But it was too late. My new road manager had a great
resume as a road manager, but was a bad influence. We hung out and he always brought cute and
seductive cocktail waitresses and fans backstage. They were always ready willing and discrete, but
still I resisted. That was until I got to Dallas and met the executive assistant to Mingo Lamberti. He
owned and managed the Sheraton Mockingbird and booked my act into his show lounge, Barney
Oldfield’s. Al Catillo didn’t have anything to do with it. Maybe it was the devil himself who’d finally got
the better of me. Changing me from a man I was proud to be, into the shameful disgrace I’d become.
Surely I’d lost the best part of my life.
Now as we exited the International Airport in Johannesburg and I approached the peak of my
career with soldout concerts and teenage girls screaming for me like they did in the mid 60’s
for the Beatles, I was thinking about Dana. Yes she would have been so proud and yes Dana was
like a drill sergeant in many ways, but she wasn’t that way when I met her. Mike Stirn should have
known her and what she was like before the road and what working with all the misfits like him
did to her.
She was 19 when we met. . . She was beautiful. . . She was the Hostess at the Spokane House
when I opened there in November, 1973. Dana was friendly, polite and had a winning smile. She
had long straight hair like a folk singer. She had even longer legs and when she put on a gown it
looked like she was who gowns were made for. Dana was raised to believe laws were made to
be obeyed and that Pot smoking was not only illegal but wrong. Her philosophy was completely
different than any of my band members in the 70’s. Oh and did I mention she was beautiful.
Yes my career was just beginning when Dana and I met.
I was looking out the window at the parking lot while sitting in my room at the Spokane House
on that mid November afternoon in 1973. The parking lot was half empty at 6 PM. I’d counted 17 cars
and I was beginning to worry that nobody would come. It was a Tuesday night and there was two feet
of snow on the ground, but they’d done the advertisement I requested. Well actually it was that my agent
Bill Stephan and I had drawn up a special rider to my contract regarding promotion. It insured they’d place
the advertisement that Bill and I knew would be necessary to draw Elvis fans out of the woodwork in
Spokane Washington in the middle of winter. The radio spots started off by playing 30 un-interrupted
seconds from a track on my 45 RPM recording entitled “Alan Sings a Tribute to Elvis”. The idea was
since they never needed to announce an Elvis’ record, the radio stations could just start playing
my record and hope the listeners were surprised when the announcer broke in shouting Wait a
minute, that isn’t Elvis you’re listening to. No it’s Alan, but if you're still an Elvis fan the Spokane House
has the show you don’t want to miss. - - - - They ran that radio commercial all day and they ran
this big ad in the entertainment section of the Spokane daily and Sunday newspaper.
As 8 o’clock approached I knew my band was starting their first set and they’d play top
40’s Rock while supper was being served. They'd take a 15 minute break and come back
up and play 15 minutes of 50’s music before I’d be brought on at 9:00. The number of cars
was encouraging, but I never expected a line as they walked me to my dressing room. I wore
a trench coat like a private eye over my costume as they walked me through the crowd.
There was whispering Oh I think that’s him and my blood started pumping like
you just wouldn’t believe. I waited backstage while my manager and MC Jim Pond would warm
up the crowd with half stupid jokes and a few good ones, then he’d start telling them about
me and how I grew up singing along with Elvis records and watching his movies.
He'd tell them Alan reminds me of the Elvis I saw in the movie “Loving You. Just then
my band started playing the intro to the song I'd chosen and they'd continue playing it
until I was comfortably situated in front of my mic. We'd rehearsed a tight opener so I could spend
what ever time I wanted waiting for the right moment and they'd come right in with me on the 1st verse.
I walked out on stage looking all of 19 the audience was getting what they were promised.
Elvis as he was in 1956. The crowd got into my act about half way through my opening song
just as they always did in my performances in the small lounges in Seattle.
I swung my guitar over my right hip and danced onstage wearing a pair of baggy pink pants. My
silver belt was only a half inch wide and the pointed collar on my black shirt was turned
up over the lapel of my hot pink 50’s styled sports coat with inlaid ruby-red rhinestone
teardrops. I opened that first show with “Lawdy Miss Clawdy" but it didn’t make any difference
as long as it was one of Elvis’ vintage rocking Rockabilly tunes from his early days. You see I
wanted to tell the Elvis Presley Story.
If I close my eyes I still hear that audience at the Spokane House and how they warmed up
to me. They may never know that they were my big shot at realizing my dream of becoming a
rock and roll singing star like my idol Elvis Presley.
The show moved fast as I reproduced a half dozen of Elvis’ hits from his early era,
then I stepped behind a curtain and re-appeared in a Gold lamé suit as I began
replicating Elvis biggest hits of the 50’s. The audience soon believed I was some great
magician. I was in fact an Illusionist as I aged before their eyes while recreating the twenty
year career of the King of Rock and Roll. I was drawing from my own memory, adlibbing
in fact, a story that had slowly unwound while I grew up in front of the record player
all those years ago singing with his records and imagining him sitting there nobbing
and saying you're getting close little brother. While telling the Elvis Presley
story, I was telling my own story. How and why I grew to become his biggest fan. The
crowd of Died in the Wool Elvis fans immediately recognized me as one of their own.
The only difference is that I was responsible for bringing them all together in the same
place and time as my "Revered Audiance" a force to be reckoned with. They
seemed to want me for their leader.
I pointed toward my band as I walked in the opposite direction behind the curtain and at
the same time the follow spot highlighted my band as they played a greasy New Orleans
blues into to the next song. With the crowd hardly noticing I'd left I took a drag off my cigarette
and re-appeared in a black leather suit in what seemed like an instant.
Looking like I’d just stepped out of the black board jungle, a tuff guy movie from the 1950”s,
I strutted out slow and then I suddenly stopped, blew smoke in their faces and coldly stared
at them as I sang the opening lines to the mean blues number from the motion picture entitled
King Creole. If you’re lookin for trouble, you came to the right place. If your looking for trouble look
right at my face. Looking more like an alter-boy gone bad, I taunted and teased my audience, begging
them to mess with me. Then as suddenly as I turned cold I warmed up and copied Elvis’ warm hearted
more charming good humor and sang many hits from Elvis’ movie era of the 60’s. I always closed this
era with Return to Sender.
Disappearing behind the curtain while wearing Black Leather my band played the 2001 theme as I
stepped out of my leather pants and into the jumpsuit while Jim assisted and while the instrumental
played Jim made notes of my complaints about echo settings or the way the lights were being operated,
but always there were issues needing to be addressed. Now feeling much better after venting to Jim
as the 2001 theme transitioned into Viva Las Vegas I reappeared in a flashy rhinestone studded
jumpsuit looking refreshed and ready for the final portion of my show; transformation complete.
I copied Elvis’ Las Vegas era and it was the most fun! It gave me the excuse to approach my revered
audience and offer a table side song the way Elvis did during many of his movies. I’d offer a scarf and soon
the ladies followed me back to the stage while I continued passing out scarves along with a kiss through
the remainder of the performance. I started taking requests and everybody had fun trying to name an Elvis song
I couldn't sing. Then I challenged the audience saying If you can name an Elvis song I couldn’t sing I'll buy
you a special drink we called the Jailhouse Rocker,. Still no one ever stumped me and all too soon
the last song began and I could see that the crowd, like me, wished the illusion would never end. I had truly run
a gauntlet that night and reproduced for the Spokane audience a career that Elvis Presley had spent 20
years in the making.
Half way through my first week my agent, Bill Stephan called and said they wanted me back for New Years eve of 74.
After I reminded Bill that I was on a two week vacation from my engineering job at Fluke in Seattle, Bill said
quit that job. The he told me the owner of the Spokane House had flown in Jimmy Ginakes from Winnipeg and Jimmy's
cousin Perry from Calgary and both wanted me to play in their clubs in January. Oh and by the way Bill added,
If we can arrange return to Spokane they're offering $3500 per week for the New Years and the following week.
Bill reminded me That's a $1000 per week raise. I had to laugh when I remembered how excited I'd got
when John Fluke gave me a 50 cent an hour raise just 3 months earlier.
Then Bill Stephan bought met me athe biggest sound company in Seattle and picked up the tab a new sound system so I
could duplicate Elvis recording studio sound. Then we went the dealership where they'd fitted a cudtom Rolls grill and a new
Firemist-Red Eldorado with my name on the side a. When I headed out of Spokane in January Dana was riding with me toward Winnipeg.
in Winnipeg. One of the things they loved about me up there was that I didn't just sing the hit's, but I demonstrated Elvis' vocal quality
After every show Jimmy Ginakes had me signing autographs while standing through the open moon roof of my Eldorado in front of his
Town and Country Cabaret . One of the things my audiances loved most was the way I sand many of Elvis' lesser known songs from his movies.
Here's a sample of one of them from the motiuon picture King Creole Young Dreams recorded April 15, 1974
Here's a little peak ahead when I opened at the T-Bird on the Las Vegas strip just 18 months later
Flattering sure but I disagreed with Nitty May the staff writter for variety when he wrote Only one thing breaks the illusion: When Alan occasionally lets go his
voice has more magic than Presley's even at his youthful best It wasn't fair to Elvis and the review upset me. The truth is I may have sang Elvis' songs from the 50's and 60's more the way he
had originally sang them on his records than the way he sang them in 1976 when the article was written, because at that time Elvis interest were on another style of singing, but my voice had nowhere near the vocal quality
that Elvis' had when he originally recorded the songs. But still, don't all you fuckin impersonators wish for even one minute you could be compared favorably to the real Elvis by one of the nations
most respected entertainment magazines? Ha! Ha! Please somebody stop me before I laugh myself sick.
If you're not an impersonator and perhaps would like to read more of my story explaining how I coined the phrase and invented a Tribute to Elvis. Select this link.
Scrap book
Where Were you the day Elvis died??
Alan was headlining at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas
Select - See what Alan had achieved before the day Elvis died.
Alan sings "Home is where the Heart is" to his Bride .
Watch as they walk along the beach an hour after their wedding
Alan and Bren "Married in Jamaica"
Here Alan is singing "Can't Help Falling in Love" to his Bride
Watch Alan perform Jailhouse Rock Live December 2007
Alan perform Now or Never Live November 2007
Alan performs Return to Sender Live with Intro December 2007
Alan performs Burnin Love as an Encore - November 2007
Alan performs I was the One
(In a Thunderstorm) from his Private Collection.
You've been such good fans. . Click this pic
And come back to Oregon with me. in December 2008
Now that you're here. . Click this pic
And join me at a place I call Splash Rock Oregon. in December 2008
Don't miss Alan's Music Page
Alan's Music
Select Alan's Charger to see Alan with his restored 1970 Charger R/T
Select below and Travel to India with Alan * * * New Slide Show on this link
FlashFrontPage1
Alan's New DVD Is Here Now!
See "Alan's Music" page for details.
Listen to Alan's Authentic Elvis Presley Recording Studio sound as you watch
Alan perform these songs.
Select below and view samples
Contact us Webmaster At AlanInc
* * *
Chapter 1
I was standing with my band on the tarmac of the International Airport in Johannesburg South Africa.
My bass player Rick May, my drummer Chuck Doten and myself Alan “Heir apparent to the throne
of Elvis Presley”. We read the headlines out load. “Hip Thrust Alan splits with wife”.
I began thinking about Dana.
The headlines in South Africa announced “Hip Thrust Alan Slits with Wife”
Johannesburg South Africa April 22, 1977
The jet fumes were intoxicating as we watched a half dozen reporters and photographic crew members
a hundred yards away. They were talking to Al Catillo my road manager. As we watched their guided
approach I remembered Dana.
During our four years together, she’d become my mountain of strength always looking out for my
best interests. She kept a keen eye making sure none of my band members like Mike didn’t sneak
underage girls into their rooms or smoke pot or do anything that could damage my reputation
and career, but mostly she looked after my state of mind. She believed in me and now suddenly she
wasn’t here beside me. I loved her, but I’d betrayed her. I had been true to her and I was always proud
of myself for all the times I looked the other way and ignored temptation.
Something had corrupted my soul. Maybe it was my new road manager who took over while she
went to recuperate at one of those beautifying dude ranches in Palm Springs. The road had drained
her and though still beautiful when she left, she returned just a month ago restored and even
more beautiful than I’d ever remembered. But it was too late. My new road manager had a great
resume as a road manager, but was a bad influence. We hung out and he always brought cute and
seductive cocktail waitresses and fans backstage. They were always ready willing and discrete, but
still I resisted. That was until I got to Dallas and met the executive assistant to Mingo Lamberti. He
owned and managed the Sheraton Mockingbird and booked my act into his show lounge, Barney
Oldfield’s. Al Catillo didn’t have anything to do with it. Maybe it was the devil himself who’d finally got
the better of me. Changing me from a man I was proud to be, into the shameful disgrace I’d become.
Surely I’d lost the best part of my life.
Now as we exited the International Airport in Johannesburg and I approached the peak of my
career with soldout concerts and teenage girls screaming for me like they did in the mid 60’s
for the Beatles, I was thinking about Dana. Yes she would have been so proud and yes Dana was
like a drill sergeant in many ways, but she wasn’t that way when I met her. Mike Stirn should have
known her and what she was like before the road and what working with all the misfits like him
did to her.
She was 19 when we met. . . She was beautiful. . . She was the Hostess at the Spokane House
when I opened there in November, 1973. Dana was friendly, polite and had a winning smile. She
had long straight hair like a folk singer. She had even longer legs and when she put on a gown it
looked like she was who gowns were made for. Dana was raised to believe laws were made to
be obeyed and that Pot smoking was not only illegal but wrong. Her philosophy was completely
different than any of my band members in the 70’s. Oh and did I mention she was beautiful.
Yes my career was just beginning when Dana and I met.
The jet fumes were intoxicating as we watched a half dozen reporters and photographic crew members
a hundred yards away. They were talking to Al Catillo my road manager. As we watched their guided
approach I remembered Dana.
During our four years together, she’d become my mountain of strength always looking out for my
best interests. She kept a keen eye making sure none of my band members like Mike didn’t sneak
underage girls into their rooms or smoke pot or do anything that could damage my reputation
and career, but mostly she looked after my state of mind. She believed in me and now suddenly she
wasn’t here beside me. I loved her, but I’d betrayed her. I had been true to her and I was always proud
of myself for all the times I looked the other way and ignored temptation.
Something had corrupted my soul. Maybe it was my new road manager who took over while she
went to recuperate at one of those beautifying dude ranches in Palm Springs. The road had drained
her and though still beautiful when she left, she returned just a month ago restored and even
more beautiful than I’d ever remembered. But it was too late. My new road manager had a great
resume as a road manager, but was a bad influence. We hung out and he always brought cute and
seductive cocktail waitresses and fans backstage. They were always ready willing and discrete, but
still I resisted. That was until I got to Dallas and met the executive assistant to Mingo Lamberti. He
owned and managed the Sheraton Mockingbird and booked my act into his show lounge, Barney
Oldfield’s. Al Catillo didn’t have anything to do with it. Maybe it was the devil himself who’d finally got
the better of me. Changing me from a man I was proud to be, into the shameful disgrace I’d become.
Surely I’d lost the best part of my life.
Now as we exited the International Airport in Johannesburg and I approached the peak of my
career with soldout concerts and teenage girls screaming for me like they did in the mid 60’s
for the Beatles, I was thinking about Dana. Yes she would have been so proud and yes Dana was
like a drill sergeant in many ways, but she wasn’t that way when I met her. Mike Stirn should have
known her and what she was like before the road and what working with all the misfits like him
did to her.
She was 19 when we met. . . She was beautiful. . . She was the Hostess at the Spokane House
when I opened there in November, 1973. Dana was friendly, polite and had a winning smile. She
had long straight hair like a folk singer. She had even longer legs and when she put on a gown it
looked like she was who gowns were made for. Dana was raised to believe laws were made to
be obeyed and that Pot smoking was not only illegal but wrong. Her philosophy was completely
different than any of my band members in the 70’s. Oh and did I mention she was beautiful.
Yes my career was just beginning when Dana and I met.
I was looking out the window at the parking lot while sitting in my room at the Spokane House
on that mid November afternoon in 1973. The parking lot was half empty at 6 PM. I’d counted 17 cars
and I was beginning to worry that nobody would come. It was a Tuesday night and there was two feet
of snow on the ground, but they’d done the advertisement I requested. Well actually it was that my agent
Bill Stephan and I had drawn up a special rider to my contract regarding promotion. It insured they’d place
the advertisement that Bill and I knew would be necessary to draw Elvis fans out of the woodwork in
Spokane Washington in the middle of winter. The radio spots started off by playing 30 un-interrupted
seconds from a track on my 45 RPM recording entitled “Alan Sings a Tribute to Elvis”. The idea was
since they never needed to announce an Elvis’ record, the radio stations could just start playing
my record and hope the listeners were surprised when the announcer broke in shouting Wait a
minute, that isn’t Elvis you’re listening to. No it’s Alan, but if you're still an Elvis fan the Spokane House
has the show you don’t want to miss. - - - - They ran that radio commercial all day and they ran
this big ad in the entertainment section of the Spokane daily and Sunday newspaper.
As 8 o’clock approached I knew my band was starting their first set and they’d play top
40’s Rock while supper was being served. They'd take a 15 minute break and come back
up and play 15 minutes of 50’s music before I’d be brought on at 9:00. The number of cars
was encouraging, but I never expected a line as they walked me to my dressing room. I wore
a trench coat like a private eye over my costume as they walked me through the crowd.
There was whispering Oh I think that’s him and my blood started pumping like
you just wouldn’t believe. I waited backstage while my manager and MC Jim Pond would warm
up the crowd with half stupid jokes and a few good ones, then he’d start telling them about
me and how I grew up singing along with Elvis records and watching his movies.
He'd tell them Alan reminds me of the Elvis I saw in the movie “Loving You. Just then
my band started playing the intro to the song I'd chosen and they'd continue playing it
until I was comfortably situated in front of my mic. We'd rehearsed a tight opener so I could spend
what ever time I wanted waiting for the right moment and they'd come right in with me on the 1st verse.
I walked out on stage looking all of 19 the audience was getting what they were promised.
Elvis as he was in 1956. The crowd got into my act about half way through my opening song
just as they always did in my performances in the small lounges in Seattle.
I swung my guitar over my right hip and danced onstage wearing a pair of baggy pink pants. My
silver belt was only a half inch wide and the pointed collar on my black shirt was turned
up over the lapel of my hot pink 50’s styled sports coat with inlaid ruby-red rhinestone
teardrops. I opened that first show with “Lawdy Miss Clawdy" but it didn’t make any difference
as long as it was one of Elvis’ vintage rocking Rockabilly tunes from his early days. You see I
wanted to tell the Elvis Presley Story.
If I close my eyes I still hear that audience at the Spokane House and how they warmed up
to me. They may never know that they were my big shot at realizing my dream of becoming a
rock and roll singing star like my idol Elvis Presley.
The show moved fast as I reproduced a half dozen of Elvis’ hits from his early era,
then I stepped behind a curtain and re-appeared in a Gold lamé suit as I began
replicating Elvis biggest hits of the 50’s. The audience soon believed I was some great
magician. I was in fact an Illusionist as I aged before their eyes while recreating the twenty
year career of the King of Rock and Roll. I was drawing from my own memory, adlibbing
in fact, a story that had slowly unwound while I grew up in front of the record player
all those years ago singing with his records and imagining him sitting there nobbing
and saying you're getting close little brother. While telling the Elvis Presley
story, I was telling my own story. How and why I grew to become his biggest fan. The
crowd of Died in the Wool Elvis fans immediately recognized me as one of their own.
The only difference is that I was responsible for bringing them all together in the same
place and time as my "Revered Audiance" a force to be reckoned with. They
seemed to want me for their leader.
I pointed toward my band as I walked in the opposite direction behind the curtain and at
the same time the follow spot highlighted my band as they played a greasy New Orleans
blues into to the next song. With the crowd hardly noticing I'd left I took a drag off my cigarette
and re-appeared in a black leather suit in what seemed like an instant.
Looking like I’d just stepped out of the black board jungle, a tuff guy movie from the 1950”s,
I strutted out slow and then I suddenly stopped, blew smoke in their faces and coldly stared
at them as I sang the opening lines to the mean blues number from the motion picture entitled
King Creole. If you’re lookin for trouble, you came to the right place. If your looking for trouble look
right at my face. Looking more like an alter-boy gone bad, I taunted and teased my audience, begging
them to mess with me. Then as suddenly as I turned cold I warmed up and copied Elvis’ warm hearted
more charming good humor and sang many hits from Elvis’ movie era of the 60’s. I always closed this
era with Return to Sender.
Disappearing behind the curtain while wearing Black Leather my band played the 2001 theme as I
stepped out of my leather pants and into the jumpsuit while Jim assisted and while the instrumental
played Jim made notes of my complaints about echo settings or the way the lights were being operated,
but always there were issues needing to be addressed. Now feeling much better after venting to Jim
as the 2001 theme transitioned into Viva Las Vegas I reappeared in a flashy rhinestone studded
jumpsuit looking refreshed and ready for the final portion of my show; transformation complete.
I copied Elvis’ Las Vegas era and it was the most fun! It gave me the excuse to approach my revered
audience and offer a table side song the way Elvis did during many of his movies. I’d offer a scarf and soon
the ladies followed me back to the stage while I continued passing out scarves along with a kiss through
the remainder of the performance. I started taking requests and everybody had fun trying to name an Elvis song
I couldn't sing. Then I challenged the audience saying If you can name an Elvis song I couldn’t sing I'll buy
you a special drink we called the Jailhouse Rocker,. Still no one ever stumped me and all too soon
the last song began and I could see that the crowd, like me, wished the illusion would never end. I had truly run
a gauntlet that night and reproduced for the Spokane audience a career that Elvis Presley had spent 20
years in the making.
Half way through my first week my agent, Bill Stephan called and said they wanted me back for New Years eve of 74.
After I reminded Bill that I was on a two week vacation from my engineering job at Fluke in Seattle, Bill said
quit that job. The he told me the owner of the Spokane House had flown in Jimmy Ginakes from Winnipeg and Jimmy's
cousin Perry from Calgary and both wanted me to play in their clubs in January. Oh and by the way Bill added,
If we can arrange return to Spokane they're offering $3500 per week for the New Years and the following week.
Bill reminded me That's a $1000 per week raise. I had to laugh when I remembered how excited I'd got
when John Fluke gave me a 50 cent an hour raise just 3 months earlier.
Then Bill Stephan bought met me athe biggest sound company in Seattle and picked up the tab a new sound system so I
could duplicate Elvis recording studio sound. Then we went the dealership where they'd fitted a cudtom Rolls grill and a new
Firemist-Red Eldorado with my name on the side a. When I headed out of Spokane in January Dana was riding with me toward Winnipeg.
in Winnipeg. One of the things they loved about me up there was that I didn't just sing the hit's, but I demonstrated Elvis' vocal quality
After every show Jimmy Ginakes had me signing autographs while standing through the open moon roof of my Eldorado in front of his
Town and Country Cabaret . One of the things my audiances loved most was the way I sand many of Elvis' lesser known songs from his movies.
Here's a sample of one of them from the motiuon picture King Creole Young Dreams recorded April 15, 1974
Here's a little peak ahead when I opened at the T-Bird on the Las Vegas strip just 18 months later
Flattering sure but I disagreed with Nitty May the staff writter for variety when he wrote Only one thing breaks the illusion: When Alan occasionally lets go his
voice has more magic than Presley's even at his youthful best It wasn't fair to Elvis and the review upset me. The truth is I may have sang Elvis' songs from the 50's and 60's more the way he
had originally sang them on his records than the way he sang them in 1976 when the article was written, because at that time Elvis interest were on another style of singing, but my voice had nowhere near the vocal quality
that Elvis' had when he originally recorded the songs. But still, don't all you fuckin impersonators wish for even one minute you could be compared favorably to the real Elvis by one of the nations
most respected entertainment magazines? Ha! Ha! Please somebody stop me before I laugh myself sick.
If you're not an impersonator and perhaps would like to read more of my story explaining how I coined the phrase and invented a Tribute to Elvis. Select this link.
Scrap book
Where Were you the day Elvis died??
Alan was headlining at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas
Select - See what Alan had achieved before the day Elvis died.
Alan sings "Home is where the Heart is" to his Bride .
Watch as they walk along the beach an hour after their wedding
Alan and Bren "Married in Jamaica"
Here Alan is singing "Can't Help Falling in Love" to his Bride
Watch Alan perform Jailhouse Rock Live December 2007
Alan perform Now or Never Live November 2007
Alan performs Return to Sender Live with Intro December 2007
Alan performs Burnin Love as an Encore - November 2007
Alan performs I was the One
(In a Thunderstorm) from his Private Collection.
You've been such good fans. . Click this pic
And come back to Oregon with me. in December 2008
Now that you're here. . Click this pic
And join me at a place I call Splash Rock Oregon. in December 2008
Don't miss Alan's Music Page
Alan's Music
Select Alan's Charger to see Alan with his restored 1970 Charger R/T
Select below and Travel to India with Alan * * * New Slide Show on this link
FlashFrontPage1
Alan's New DVD Is Here Now!
See "Alan's Music" page for details.
Listen to Alan's Authentic Elvis Presley Recording Studio sound as you watch
Alan perform these songs.
Select below and view samples
Contact us Webmaster At AlanInc
Where Were you the day Elvis died??
Alan was headlining at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas
Select - See what Alan had achieved before the day Elvis died.
Alan sings "Home is where the Heart is" to his Bride .
Watch as they walk along the beach an hour after their wedding
Alan and Bren "Married in Jamaica"
Here Alan is singing "Can't Help Falling in Love" to his Bride
Watch Alan perform Jailhouse Rock Live December 2007
Alan perform Now or Never Live November 2007
Alan performs Return to Sender Live with Intro December 2007
Alan performs Burnin Love as an Encore - November 2007
Alan performs I was the One
(In a Thunderstorm) from his Private Collection.
You've been such good fans. . Click this pic
And come back to Oregon with me. in December 2008
Now that you're here. . Click this pic
And join me at a place I call Splash Rock Oregon. in December 2008
Don't miss Alan's Music Page
Alan's Music
Select Alan's Charger to see Alan with his restored 1970 Charger R/T
Select below and Travel to India with Alan * * * New Slide Show on this link
FlashFrontPage1
Alan's New DVD Is Here Now!
See "Alan's Music" page for details.
Listen to Alan's Authentic Elvis Presley Recording Studio sound as you watch
Alan perform these songs.
Select below and view samples
Contact us Webmaster At AlanInc
Alan sings "Home is where the Heart is" to his Bride .
Watch as they walk along the beach an hour after their wedding
Alan and Bren "Married in Jamaica"
Here Alan is singing "Can't Help Falling in Love" to his Bride
Watch Alan perform Jailhouse Rock Live December 2007
Alan perform Now or Never Live November 2007
Alan performs Return to Sender Live with Intro December 2007
Alan performs Burnin Love as an Encore - November 2007
Alan performs I was the One
(In a Thunderstorm) from his Private Collection.
You've been such good fans. . Click this pic
And come back to Oregon with me. in December 2008
Now that you're here. . Click this pic
And join me at a place I call Splash Rock Oregon. in December 2008
Don't miss Alan's Music Page
Alan's Music
Select Alan's Charger to see Alan with his restored 1970 Charger R/T
Select below and Travel to India with Alan * * * New Slide Show on this link
FlashFrontPage1
Alan's New DVD Is Here Now!
See "Alan's Music" page for details.
Listen to Alan's Authentic Elvis Presley Recording Studio sound as you watch
Alan perform these songs.
Select below and view samples
Contact us Webmaster At AlanInc
Here Alan is singing "Can't Help Falling in Love" to his Bride
Watch Alan perform Jailhouse Rock Live December 2007
Alan perform Now or Never Live November 2007
Alan performs Return to Sender Live with Intro December 2007
Alan performs Burnin Love as an Encore - November 2007
Alan performs I was the One
(In a Thunderstorm) from his Private Collection.
You've been such good fans. . Click this pic
And come back to Oregon with me. in December 2008
Now that you're here. . Click this pic
And join me at a place I call Splash Rock Oregon. in December 2008
Don't miss Alan's Music Page
Alan's Music
Select Alan's Charger to see Alan with his restored 1970 Charger R/T
Select below and Travel to India with Alan * * * New Slide Show on this link
FlashFrontPage1
Alan's New DVD Is Here Now!
See "Alan's Music" page for details.
Listen to Alan's Authentic Elvis Presley Recording Studio sound as you watch
Alan perform these songs.
Select below and view samples
Contact us Webmaster At AlanInc
Alan performs Return to Sender Live with Intro December 2007
Alan performs Burnin Love as an Encore - November 2007
Alan performs I was the One
(In a Thunderstorm) from his Private Collection.
You've been such good fans. . Click this pic
And come back to Oregon with me. in December 2008
Now that you're here. . Click this pic
And join me at a place I call Splash Rock Oregon. in December 2008
Don't miss Alan's Music Page
Alan's Music
Select Alan's Charger to see Alan with his restored 1970 Charger R/T
Select below and Travel to India with Alan * * * New Slide Show on this link
FlashFrontPage1
Alan's New DVD Is Here Now!
See "Alan's Music" page for details.
Listen to Alan's Authentic Elvis Presley Recording Studio sound as you watch
Alan perform these songs.
Select below and view samples
Contact us Webmaster At AlanInc
Alan performs I was the One
(In a Thunderstorm) from his Private Collection.
You've been such good fans. . Click this pic
And come back to Oregon with me. in December 2008
Now that you're here. . Click this pic
And join me at a place I call Splash Rock Oregon. in December 2008
Don't miss Alan's Music Page
Alan's Music
Select Alan's Charger to see Alan with his restored 1970 Charger R/T
Select below and Travel to India with Alan * * * New Slide Show on this link
FlashFrontPage1
Alan's New DVD Is Here Now!
See "Alan's Music" page for details.
Listen to Alan's Authentic Elvis Presley Recording Studio sound as you watch
Alan perform these songs.
Select below and view samples
Contact us Webmaster At AlanInc
And come back to Oregon with me. in December 2008
Now that you're here. . Click this pic
And join me at a place I call Splash Rock Oregon. in December 2008
Don't miss Alan's Music Page
Alan's Music
Select Alan's Charger to see Alan with his restored 1970 Charger R/T
Select below and Travel to India with Alan * * * New Slide Show on this link
FlashFrontPage1
Alan's New DVD Is Here Now!
See "Alan's Music" page for details.
Listen to Alan's Authentic Elvis Presley Recording Studio sound as you watch
Alan perform these songs.
Select below and view samples
Contact us Webmaster At AlanInc
Select Alan's Charger to see Alan with his restored 1970 Charger R/T
Select below and Travel to India with Alan * * * New Slide Show on this link
FlashFrontPage1
Alan's New DVD Is Here Now!
See "Alan's Music" page for details.
Listen to Alan's Authentic Elvis Presley Recording Studio sound as you watch
Alan perform these songs.
Select below and view samples
Contact us Webmaster At AlanInc
Alan's New DVD Is Here Now!
See "Alan's Music" page for details.
Listen to Alan's Authentic Elvis Presley Recording Studio sound as you watch
Alan perform these songs.
Select below and view samples
Contact us Webmaster At AlanInc
Select below and view samples