Thursday, Sept. 9, 1999 | 9:37 a.m.
Jordanaires
What: "The Original Tribute to Patsy Cline" starring the Jordanaires and Sharon Haynes.
When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday through Monday.
Where: Gold Coast hotel-casino.
Tickets: $24.95.
Information: Call 251-3574.
They are the voices behind the "bop ba da da" refrain that keeps the beat of the Elvis Presley classic "Teddy Bear."
They are the deep harmony that sings "Lone-some towwwn" behind Ricky Nelson on his 1959 cover of the sad song.
They are the booming voices that put the "big" and the "bad" in Jimmy Dean's 1961 hit, "Big Bad John."
That's nothing: In a career that has spanned more than five decades the Jordanaires have accompanied more artists (2,500 by the group's count) -- from rock and pop to country and gospel singers -- than most music buffs can shake a drumstick at: Loretta Lynn, Roy Orbison, Vince Gill, Jimmy Buffett, Ringo Starr, Johnny Cash, Chicago, Dolly Parton and Tammy Wynette, to name a few.
The group's list of professional recognitions is equally impressive: A 1964 Grammy for Best Gospel or Other Religious Recording (Musical) for the offering "Great Gospel Songs," with Tennesse Ernie Ford, and several awards from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, among others. They also performed in the mid-'70s at the White House for President Gerald Ford.
The foursome, which has featured several different lineups since it was founded in Missouri in 1948, is currently comprised of singers Gordon Stoker, Neal Matthews, Ray Walker and Louis Nunley (substituting for Duane West, who has taken ill).
The guys, who claim their ages range from 68 to 70 (although published reports list them as older) have spent the past year co-starring in "The Original Tribute to Patsy Cline" at the Gold Coast hotel-casino, and not-so-coincidentally backed up Cline during her career, which was cut short by her death in 1963.
In the show, the Jordanaires back songstress Sharon Haynes, who sings Cline's hits on such songs as "Crazy," "Walkin' After Midnight" and the religious song "Just a Closer Walk With Thee."
Years ago the group "took a world of interest" in Cline, having sung background vocals for her at the Grand Ole Opry, as well as recording with her.
"We were very fond of her. We encouraged her," Stoker says. "She wasn't the smartest girl in the world and a lot of times she wouldn't know how to pronounce a word. We'd help her as much as we could. She'd walk over sometimes and say, 'How do you say this word?' She had a temper about that long."
During the show Walker recalls how Cline cut some of her "prettiest ballads when she was mad as a hornet."
The Jordanaires are, however, most often associated with Presley's career. They spent 15 years (beginning in 1956 with "Hound Dog") recording with the King on his hit singles, as well as singing on the soundtracks for all of his movies, in which they often appeared.
"Gang scenes" is how Stoker describes the group's cinematic history, when Presley would break out into song and a group of his on-screen cohorts would surround him and sing along. "There were a lot of them" in such flicks as "Loving You," "G.I. Blues" and "King Creole."
Matthews recalls how, in one film, "There was a scene where Elvis was singing to this girl on a lake and I think he was playing guitar. Elvis stopped the take and he says, 'I want to hear more of the Jordanaires' " in the background. "(The filmmakers) said, 'Elvis, you're out in the middle of a lake with a girl. Where do you want the Jordanaires?' He said, 'The same damn place you put that orchestra.' "
During the show at the Gold Coast the tuxedo-clad group pays homage to Presley, singing several of his hits and sharing anecdotes about their career with him: about singing spiritual songs around the piano at Graceland, Presley's Memphis, Tenn., home; about the history of "Always On My Mind," the tune Presley penned for his ex-wife, actress Priscilla Presley; about lending their voices for the soundtrack of the 1961 flick, "Blue Hawaii."
While sitting backstage following a recent show Stoker, who has performed with the group since 1950, recalled an episode with Presley in the late '60s.
"We were all sitting around eating hamburgers@one or two or three o'clock in the morning and he just looked at us and said, 'If there hadn't been the Jordanaires, there probably wouldn't have been a me.' We all said, 'What?'
"He said, 'You guys took an interest in me when I didn't want to record. You took an interest in me when the material was terrible.' He had a word for the material: crap," Stoker says. (Among Presley's least favorite tunes: The chirpy single "Stuck on You." "He called it 'Stuck in You,' " he says.)
"But we'd go in (to record) and for the soundtracks, he had to do those songs," Stoker says. For the "Blue Hawaii" soundtrack, Matthews phonetically learned Hawaiian lyrics, which he sang to Presley so that he could later sing them himself.
Stoker says, "We've always taken an interest in every artist we've ever worked with." He claims that Matthews, who has been with the group since '53, taught Ricky Nelson how to play guitar.
Howard Kramer, associate curator for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, says the Jordanaires hold a very "interesting place" in music history. "Vocal harmony music had become very popular by the time they had really started working with Elvis."
With the group's gospel roots, "They were the most distinct link between 'white gospel' and pop music." Whereas black gospel music spawned such vocal groups as the Coasters and the Clovers, "white gospel barely got out of the church and onto the street corner or into a theater -- it stayed in church."
Presley, Kramer reminds, longed to be a gospel singer and says the Jordanaires were one of his favorite gospel groups. "That's the sound he knew he wanted for his pop records." The last song he sang on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1957 -- "the famous above-the-waist show" -- was "(There'll be) Peace in the Valley (for Me)" with the Jordanaires on back-up vocals.
"Those guys probably played on literally hundreds of records, some of (them by) very important artists, some of (them by) very unimportant artists or even incidental records," Kramer says. "But they were there because they brought a very unique sound."
One that was not lost on the Beatles. Stoker says one of the "nicest" compliments the group ever received came from Paul McCartney, whom Stoker met while McCartney was recording in the Jordanaires' hometown of Nashville. A producer introduced them.
"He said, 'When (the Beatles) listened to Elvis' records, when we listened to Ricky Nelson's records, we never listened to Elvis or Ricky, we listened to what you guys did, the oohs and ahhs. We learned to sing harmony by listening to (the Jordanaires).' "
But harmony, it seems, just isn't as prevalent in music as it used to be. While the group has worked with such modern artists as k.d. lang, Billy Ray Cyrus and Neil Young, the men say times have changed.
"Technology has made it so most of the time you don't even see the artist" you're working with, says Nunley, originally part of the Anita Kerr Quartet, who has performed with the Jordanaires on and off for the past 45 years. In the recording studio, he says, "you've got a producer sometimes, you've got an engineer and a piece of tape and that's your only contact" with the artist.
It was a similar situation as long as 20 years ago when the group sang vocals on a country offering by crooner Tom Jones. "We didn't work with him," says Walker, who has provided the Jordainaires' bass vocals since 1958. "He sent tapes to a studio in Nashville."
When the two eventually met, Walker introduced himself. "(Jones) said, 'I know who you are,' and he named me the songs that we did. He said, 'I like your work.' I said, 'Well, you could have come more to see us.' "
The Jordanaires have managed to take time over the years to record albums of their own including "The Jordanaires Sing The King" and "Will the Circle be Unbroken." The group was inducted last year into the Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame.
Frank Breeden, president of the Gospel Music Association, calls the Jordanaires "innovators and pioneers in the sense that they were entertaining mainstream audiences and were not afraid to include gospel in their repertoire ... and did so with class."
Yet the men shy away from being called legends. "I always considered a legend a has-been," Matthews says.
"We like to hear 'living legends' because they're usually dead," Walker says.
"You call this living?" Matthews fires back. (Bah-dum-bump.)
Most would: Group members say they've never known what it is to be out of work. Even today they're drowning in the steady stream of offers to perform, a good many of which they tackle during breaks in their 42-week performance schedule at the Gold Coast. (They're booked to star in already sold-out concerts on the East Coast in early October.)
"We've always been in demand, I guess almost the entire 50 years" that Stoker has been with the group, he says, "which is wonderful. ... Producers and bookers keep calling (asking), 'Can you do this, that and the other?' "
The most recent calls have come from Europe, where the Jordanaires apparently have a strong following.
Matthews says, "We went to Denmark and we thought, 'Well, they just want to hear us because we sang with Elvis and Ricky Nelson and Patsy Cline.' We found out that (the fans) knew more about us personally than we knew ourselves. They knew our history and especially how old we are. It was like we were stars."
Stoker says they've most recently been fielding calls from a concert booker in Finland wanting them to play some dates there. "He said country music and (our) stuff is so popular in Finland right now. But we don't want to do it. Why go to Finland or Australia when we can work here?"
Aside from the long stints away from their homes and families, the men agree that the Gold Coast gig is the easiest of their career. But Matthews says they'll likely cut their run here in half next year to perform only about 20 weeks a year.
"It would give us a chance to do a few things at home that we want to do," he says, like enjoy their grandchildren and great-grandchildren (there's 25 between the four men).
"We've got our own retirement plan" Walker quips during the show. "It's called 'quit.' "
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