Elvis His Love for Gospel Music and JD Sumner Signed by JD Sumner & Eddie Miles

Description: Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE This book is signed by J.D. Sumner as well as Elvis tribute artist, Eddie Miles Foreword Jack Soden, executive director of Graceland, the Elvis Presley memorial in Memphis, Tennessee, wrote a letter to J. D. Sumner of Nashville, Tennessee, owner of the Stamps Quartet, dated August 24, 1988, as follows: Dear J. D.: It was great to see you again and, of course, it was wonderful to have you back on center stage at the annual Elvis Nostalgia Concert at the Mud Island Amphitheater. Your appearance there is made even more special because of a little known and unique fact. As you know, the second floor of Graceland and Elvis' bedroom have been kept locked and maintained exactly ever since Elvis' death in 1977. In Elvis' bedroom on the stereo turntable there still sits to this day the record that was last played the day Elvis died. The record is a demo lacquer with a blank label bearing only one word - "Stamps." You certainly must take pride in knowing that record still sits on the turntable in quiet tribute to the fondness Elvis had for you and your music. J. D., thank you again for coming to be part of the Elvis International Tribute Week. We Will look forward to seeing you again soon. The letter is signed "Jack," over and title of Jack Soden, executive director, Graceland and, Division of Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc. One day at Graceland, Jack Soden told J. D. Sumner that he had something to show him that D. would be proud of. They went into Elvis's private Quarters, a place where only select few are permitted to go, and Soden said, "His record player was open and I looked in it and saw this freak little record." The record was just a bit larger than a 45. Soden said, "I looked at it and couldn't see what it was, so I pulled it off and turned it over and it had one word written on the blank label 'Stamps' and I put it back on the record player and no one has touched it since." Soden pondered, and said, "That's a recording of the Stamps Quartet he got from somewhere." J. D. laughed. He said, "I'll tell you exactly where he got it. I gave it to him. "Elvis didn't want the record that everybody else had," J. D. said, "although he had a lot of them. He wanted something no one had." When the Stamps Quartet backed Elvis with harmony on all of Elvis's appearances the last six years of Elvis's life, he loved to hear the Stamps sing. The Stamps Quartet cut a record that included some of Elvis's favorite songs, and when the recording was finished, J. D. had the recording company run off an acetate, a record made of vinyl that wears out quickly. "I gave that acetate to Elvis in Chicago," J. D. said. "We were there three days on a tour, and he played that acetate until he almost wore it out. "Elvis was enough of a child," J.D. added, "that he treasured things like that. He knew that he was the only person in the world to have an acetate like that, and since it contained the songs Elvis dearly loved -- 'I Should Have Been Crucified,' 'The Lighthouse,' 'I Can Feel The Touch Of His Hand,' and 'When It's My Time' almost constantly." -- he played it almost constantly.In all probability, that recording was the last thing Elvis listened to. "He went to bed every night listening to gospel music," J. D. said. "When he had Donnie Sumner and Sherrill Neilson singing for him and when his sleeping pills hit him and he would be just about out, he'd call them to come to his room and sing 'In The Sweet By And By.' That was his way of meditating in whatever shape he was in." Soden wrote the letter to J. D. primarily to confirm the presence of that acetate recording on Elvis's record player. Bob Terrell Asheville, N. C. April 2, 1991

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