LOS ANGELES—In consideration of performers and audience members during a post-holiday COVID surge, the iconic Elvis Is Back in the Building Birthday Bash became an online-only event for The King’s 87th birthday on January 8.
Founded by guitarist James Intveld in 1986, the first Birthday Bash was held at a small club in Pasadena. The club is no longer there, but the event grew to fill similarly no-longer-extant venues like Hollywood’s Club Lingerie, the Palace, and the House of Blues in addition to seminal San Fernando rockabilly headquarters The Palomino. Intveld ceded hosting duties to Art Fein in 1987, who was instrumental in growing the annual event to one where performers like Brian Setzer, Dave Edmunds, Dwight Yoakam, and The Knack shared the stage with celebrities like Bruce Willis and Woody Harrelson, who stopped by to perform Elvis songs with a crack backup band. Integral to the growth of the yearly celebration of Presley’s many genres was bandleader, musicologist, and “Barndance” host Ronnie Mack.
Following Art Fein’s retirement in December, 2019, Marty Barrett was tapped to host the show for its 35th iteration in 2020. A rollicking success at Joe’s American Bar & Grill in Burbank, the COVID pandemic shuttered both the Elvis show and a number of venues in the ensuing months. Anticipating a triumphant return in 2022, Barrett first chose a venue without an attached bar so that staff could improve on lax enforcement of local masking and proof of vaccination protocols and then converted the event to an online-only affair.
“There is no doubt in my mind that Elvis Presley would have performed live during COVID conditions if he were alive today,” Barrett says. “But our goal was to keep people alive for tomorrow.”
To that end, Barrett got a dozen performers to Take Care of Business for the King. Finding musicians to cover all aspects of Presley’s career, from the Sun Records days to songs from movies prior to and following his time in the Army, his lovely devotional songs, and his comeback specials, Barrett hosted performances by The Prickly Pair (Mason Summit and Irene Greene), Deke Dickerson and Grey DeLisle, Lisa Finnie, Justin Curtis, Alias Means, John Groover McDuffie, Carol McArthur, Dylan Thomas, and Ronnie Mack. Performances and video interviews combined to present both a history of the event and another reminder of why Presley’s music is so vital.
“James Intveld launched the longest-running celebration of Elvis’s birthday in America,” Barrett says, “and we’re going to keep it going, even if COVID has tried to take us out like one of Elvis’s televisions. We’ll be back next year if the world hasn’t been destroyed by dragons, but here’s a great video to tide you over.”
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