Just one year, 1935, produced two of the most legendary musical superstars of all time. Elvis Presley was born in January 1935 and Luciano Pavarotti that October. One burst on to the music scene and shook it all up, the other brought new life to the classics.
I don’t play music or sing, and I spend a lot of time being creative instead with art or craft. Yet music lifts my spirits like little else. Music like this is high octane, dramatic, literally all-singing and all-dancing. Where life might feel dreary or humdrum, music sprinkles stardust. Listen to Presley’s Hound Dog on a dark autumn morning and the day has a new rhythm. Or hear Pavarotti sing La donna e mobile and rediscover a zest for life. Music like this throws tedium out the window and switches on the lights. It’s larger than life.
Why else would the 1990 football World Cup be remembered for the Three Tenors’ opening performance? New crowds and audiences were experiencing opera in a new way, as it added high drama to a tournament that was full of drama all its own. And why else would Elvis Presley still be revered as the king of rock ‘n’ roll, almost fifty years after his death at the age of just 42? Graceland, his Memphis mansion, continues to draw immense crowds and to develop new immersive experiences and light shows. The recent Elvis film brought him to a new generation, but even before that his music was threaded through many layers of entertainment.
Just how is the music of these two musical giants so positive for wellbeing? Elvis Presley came to embody the American Dream – endless possibility, a fairy tale of (relative) rags to riches. He’s celebrated for breaking new ground, experimenting & innovating, at a time when music and art alike were in flux and shook off tradition. There’s no doubt that hope, possibility, dreams, lift our spirits and raise morale. And deep down, the very heart of Elvis’ legacy is all about the music – not the fame, the wealth, the glamour or the ups and downs of the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle, but about songs that get you to your feet every time, and give life rhythm.
That’s true of Pavarotti as well. Alone or as part of the Three Tenors, he travelled the globe and sold out concerts and albums. He too hit the big time after everyday beginnings in his father’s bakery.
Any music style or genre can lift mood and boost wellbeing, whether it’s folk or songs from the shows, and I know I like different music at different times, and I know that sometimes I don’t feel drawn to something like opera. Elvis just feels more life-enhancing, more lively, more fun – but once I start listening to Pavarotti, that too can raise life to another level, with its sheer power and otherness. It can become a time away from issues, a refuge where rhythm and beat absorb you.
And what stands out is the empathy. Surely most moods will find an echo in one or other of Elvis’s hits or Pavarotti’s songs. Longing, pain, hope, joy, fear, adoration, they’re all there. It just shares some of the weight. Others feel that way. Onwards.
Medley 