Conway Twitty (1953 -93) was born Harold Lloyd Jenkins and under his adopted pseudonym achieved considerable fame and fortune in the early days of rock and roll and then later in the mid sixties as a country singer.
By way of explanation for his change of musical direction, he was quoted as saying : "After nine years in rock and roll, I had been cheated and hurt enough to sing country and mean it".
Righteous Records, an imprint of Cherry Red, have opted to revisit his era as a rockabilly artist taking their cue from Noel Gallagher who recently heaped praise on Twitty as one of his 'forgotten' heroes in MOJO magazine.
The one hour's worth of material brings together twelve tracks apiece from two albums, Lonely Blue Boy, first released in 1960 and Conway Twitty Sings, his debut from 1958
There will never be a shortage of artists who dream of being Elvis Presley though few pretenders to the throne were as obvious than Twitty was.
Not only does he have all the verbal tics and mannerisms down to a tee, he was also signed with Sun records for a time and, as his renditions of Blue Moon and Heartbreak Hotel can attest, there was no doubt where his prime inspiration lay. This, after all, was an artist who gave up his dream of pursuing a baseball career after hearing Mystery Train for the first time.
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With the benefit of hindsight he seems a very pale imitation of the King but you have to give kudos to a man whose first and biggest global hit, It's Only Make Believe, which he co-wrote with his drummer Jack Nance, initially fooled many listeners into thinking this was Presley himself singing under an assumed name.
Almost inevitably, songs that take us back to the birth of Rock'n'Roll twang now sound very dated but more often than not this is in a 'so bad it’s great' way.
We now have the opportunity to marvel again at the madcap backing voices on Eternal Tears and revel in the absurdist lyrics of My Adobe Hacienda ("stars and strong guitars make every evening seem so sweet").
While the least said about his versions of You'll Never Walk Alone and Mona Lisa the better, these reissues should be welcomed even if many tracks will remind you of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band's Canyons of your Mind parody more than any of Elvis' greatest hits.
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