About The Song

“King Creole” is a 1958 American musical drama film directed by Michael Curtiz and based on the 1952 novel A Stone for Danny Fisher by Harold Robbins. The film stars Elvis Presley, Carolyn Jones, Walter Matthau, Dolores Hart, Dean Jagger, and Vic Morrow, and follows a nineteen-year-old (Presley) who gets mixed up with crooks and involved with two women.

The title song, “King Creole”, was written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and performed by Presley. The song was released as a single in 1958 and reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The film itself was a commercial success, grossing over $15 million at the box office.

About The Song

King Creole is a song written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. The song was performed by Elvis Presley and recorded in 1958, and laid foundations to a musical drama film, King Creole. The song is based on King Creole, a singer/guitar player from New Orleans who is proficient in all different styles of rock and roll.

The song was released as a single in the UK in 1958. It reached No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart. In 2007 the single was re-released and spent one week in the chart at No. 15.
The song is about a man of Creole descent who is a freelancing street performer in New Orleans. The man in the song, who goes by the nickname of King Creole, is known for his style of solo guitar playing. It is said in the song that he “holds his guitar like a Tommy gun”, which gives the notion that “King Creole” used a grip on his guitar which involved keeping the body of the guitar close to his center of his chest, therefore holding the neck of the guitar in an extended arm, though no information is given which arm he used. It can be inferred from the song that King Creole used an electric guitar, since the song mentions string bending and rock-and-roll, a genre not usually played as lead on the acoustic guitar. The song also states that King Creole played from a well-rounded song repertoire, and would play light, dark, serious, and nonsense music.

Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvj6pbGOVyQ

Lyric

King Creole

There’s a man in New Orleans
Who plays rock and roll
He’s a guitar man
With a great big soul
He lays down a beat
Like a ton of coal
He goes by the name of King Creole

You know he’s gone, gone, gone
Jumpin’ like a catfish on a pole
You know he’s gone, gone, gone
Hip shaking King Creole

When the king starts to do it
It’s as good as done
He holds his guitar
Like a Tommy gun
He starts to growl
From way down his throat
He bends a string
And “that’s all she wrote”

You know he’s gone, gone, gone
Jumpin’ like a catfish on a pole
You know he’s gone, gone, gone
Hip shaking King Creole

Well, he sings a song about a crawdad hole
He sings a song about a jelly roll
He sings a song about pork and greens
He sings some blues about New Orleans

You know he’s gone, gone, gone
Jumpin’ like a catfish on a pole
You know he’s gone, gone, gone
Hip shaking King Creole

Well, he plays something evil
Then he plays something sweet
No matter what he plays
You got to get up on your feet

When he gets the rockin’ fever
Baby, heaven sakes
He don’t stop playin’
‘Till his guitar breaks

You know he’s gone, gone, gone
Jumpin’ like a catfish on a pole
You know he’s gone, gone, gone
Hip shaking King Creole