You probably already know that I go to the candlelight vigil at Graceland on August 15 every year. I started going back in 2002 and have gone every year since then. People-watching is the primary reason for my trips. While I am an Elvis fan, I don’t think I am the typical fan that you run into yearly at Elvis Week. Over the years, I have become more of a fan of the candlelight vigil and Elvis Week than I am an actual Elvis fan. I enjoy meeting people from around the world, talking to them and hearing their Elvis stories, and seeing how the event has changed over the years. Living an hour away makes it possible for me to easily do this each year. When I was getting ready to go on the trip last year, my wife challenged me to write a song about my trips. She has never gone with me, but seems to enjoy the stories that I bring home. She felt that they were interesting enough to write a song that would generate wide interest.
I immediately started coming up with ideas. Some of the lyrics for the chorus where with me before I even left the house. There were a couple of challenges to writing this song. First, I wanted to try to create an accurate image of the events that I have experienced. I wanted to bring in the feel of the heat, the look and sound of the performers, and the fun of browsing the souvenir shops. I wanted to share my memories in a way that would pick the interest of the fan or even the non-fan that has never been to Graceland.
The other challenge was to make this a song that Elvis fans would appreciate. When I share my Elvis Week experiences with my friends, it’s easy to focus on the bizarre, the odd and weird people that I’ve met. They do stand out from the rest of the crowd. If I just focused on them, it might seem like I was just there to make fun of people. Many of the best stories from Elvis Week are from “normal” people, casual fans or people just passing through Memphis who have no idea that something big is going on at Graceland. When I wrote my song I had to strike a balance between the spectacle and sensationalism of the event along with the reverence and love. I hope I was able to do that.
When I wrote the song, I had 14 years of Elvis Week experience. When it came time to put together the music video, I had the same number of years of pictures and videos to draw from. There are some years that aren’t represented in the video. I don’t think that I necessarily have all of the best pictures from Elvis Week in the video. But I did select the ones that I felt best help me tell the story of the song.