Given the major success of the new Elvis Presley blockbuster film “Elvis: Epic”, you might wonder if the band coming to Keokuk’s Grand Theater on March 21, might have had some insider trading knowledge while spending most of 2025 rehearsing their show, “50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can’t Be Wrong – The Music Of Elvis Presley”.
But, no, says organizer Craig Moore, a 1965 graduate of Keokuk Senior High and lifelong Elvis fan.
“We had just finished doing two different concert length shows in 2024 in tribute to the Rolling Stones”, he says. “One day after the New Year I posted on facebook some of my favorite Elvis singles from the early 60’s and told a tale about my Uncle Bill taking myself, at 9 years old, and cousin Susie to see “Love Me Tender” as a new movie in 1956 at the Fox in Fort Madison. A talented friend who had also been part of our previous Beatles show “The Long And Winding Road” (which also appeared at the Grand Theater) called and said that he thought we should do something on Elvis, spotlighting all of the amazing records he made that you never hear performed live. I thought it was a great idea.”
That spark of inspiration started once again a process that Moore calls “herding cats” since all of the best players in the area are working musicians with bands of their own, “real” jobs, families, and perpetual demands on their time.
“Most of the players knew some Elvis stuff but many had never played nor considered playing most of what was proposed,” Moore relates. “But as the idea came more into focus, so did everyone’s appreciation for the amazing performances and production even on records they had never heard. Over the next eight months we became a unit on a mission, in love with what we were doing.”
By the time they performed their first show in November they went on with 42 songs under their collective belt, ready to go. There is no one front man, no Elvis impersonator, and no need thereof. The show was constructed not to feature an image but rather the music itself, as you would hear it on the records. With a mix of lead vocalists, six of whom are lead singers in their own groups and who all double on backing vocals, an impersonator would be well out of place. The group also features dual keyboards, upright and electric bass, a 4-piece horn section including flute, fluegelhorn, two saxes, trumpet and yes, even an accordion.
“We are strictly about the music,” Moore insists. We have two incredible ladies in the group (Rachael Cavallini and Cindy Youngren) and they are featured on lead vocals as well as the guys, and in one segment we do a song the way Lisa Marie, Elvis’s daughter, reimagined it as a duet with her dad. I think I’m safe in saying we are all in love with the music, whether we all grew up with it the way I did, or not.”
When pressed about the content of the show, he doesn’t want to give away what he feels are some high points and surprises, but assures everyone that even a casual Elvis fan, or even someone who has just discovered his legacy of great music and performances, will have a fantastic experience. It’s a wide blend of hits, single B-sides, album tracks, movie material and more.
“I have my own favorites, and some of the material is going to be a real surprise, which of course makes it all that much more fun. A great deal of it I heard blasting out of my Toshiba transistor radio while delivering the Daily Gate City on my paper route going back to 1960-61 and beyond. Hearing “Little Sister” on KOKX for the first time was for me equal to hearing the Beatles’ “Please Please Me” on WLS two years later before anyone had heard of them. I saw Elvis on Ed Sullivan when I was 9. We went to see my Aunt Sylvia, a solo organist and working musician, play at a steak house in Fort Madison. Someone gave me a nickel and I played “Heartbreak Hotel” on the jukebox. I had never heard it before. In a pop music mix of Teresa Brewer and Perry Como, that was totally alien, the most thrilling thing I had ever heard, a true musical epiphany. I have spent the following 70 years of my life surrounded by and creating music. It was no accident, and I wouldn’t change a thing. John Lennon once said, ‘before Elvis, there was nothing.’ I would add that after that, there was everything.”
In 1968 Moore, like millions of fans including rock stars, actors and politicians, was glued to the TV, he says “like a teenage girl”, watching Elvis reclaim his throne on the ‘Comeback Special’.
“None of us are even close to that pretty, and not pretending to be, but with this show our musical mission is to remind everyone who sees us what a fabulous musical legacy he left behind, far beyond the image.”
“50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can’t Be Wrong – The Music Of Elvis Presley” plays the Grand Theater in Keokuk on Saturday, March 21.