Simon said that Elvis Presley was one of his "early favorites," but he didn't love the icon's later work
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/Paul-Simon-New-York-1966-Elvis-Presley-1964-052126-90620fcb28b84d0da79312c164d29ad7.jpg "Paul Simon in the Columbia Records office in 1966 in New York, New York., Elvis Presley poses for a portrait circa 1964.")
Credit: Don Paulsen/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty; Michael Ochs Archives/Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- Paul Simon recently revealed the artists who shaped his music, including Elvis Presley
- The 84-year-old explained how the years between 1954 to 1957 had the biggest influence on his sound
- He also admitted to losing interest in Elvis after the King of Rock & Roll started appealing to younger audiences
Paul Simon has spent decades shaping popular music through his songwriting, first as half of Simon & Garfunkel, and later as a solo artist whose catalog blended a world of music influences.
During a recent appearance on Alchemy with Anthony Mason, Simon reflected on the artists who first shaped his musical ear and the era of music that still resonates with him decades later.
“My early favorites were Elvis,” Simon, 84, told host Anthony Mason, noting that first on his list came anything related to rhythm and blues. “Then came Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, the Everly Brothers. Those were the people I really loved.”
Credit: Chris Walter/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty
As Simon looked back on the music that defined his formative years, he pointed to a narrow stretch of the 1950s as the period that left the deepest mark on him creatively.
“When I first started to listen… as I look back and I do look back, for me the big years that influenced the sound that I still go for occasionally, it's like '54 to '57,” Simon revealed. “And after that, I still like things, but I didn't derive anything from them. I didn't take any sounds from stuff…as I was concerned, really by '57, I'd lost interest in Elvis Presley.”
Simon explained that the Elvis who fascinated him was the raw early performer recording for Sun Records before commercial pressures changed popular music.
“Once he went into the army, all that stuff that he recorded, the first group of songs that he made on Sun Records — 'That's All Right,' ‘Mama,’ ‘Mystery Train,’ ‘Good Rockin’ Tonight,’ ‘Blue Moon of Kentucky,” he listed. “They were not made for teenagers. They were made for the audience that listened at that point and bought records and they were older than teenagers.”
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Credit: Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty
Simon contrasted that era with the late 1950s shift toward teen-focused pop, driven in part by television shows like American Bandstand and host Dick Clark. Simon noted that even artists he admired were pushed toward lighter material aimed at younger audiences.
“So that's why you get the Everly Brothers, who are still, in my opinion, the best vocal duo, end up having to sing, you know, ‘Wake Up Little Susie.’ ”
When Mason asked whether he had seen the latest Elvis concert film, Simon quickly dismissed the idea. “No, I don't want to see that one,” he admitted. His criticism ultimately returned to what he viewed as squandered potential.
“As I say, I liked [Elvis] up to [the year 1957],” Simon emphasized. “And after that, when, you know, the material that he picked, and the movies, and everything was just, to me, an incredible waste of a great talent.”