Giorgio Moroder explains why Elvis Presley is his hero
Giorgio Moroder is a legend in his own right, credited with inventing euro disco and electronic dance music. Moroder’s adeptness with the synthesiser rewrote the rule book on what was possible with the innovative instrument, and he is rightfully heralded as a true champion of electronic music.
It appears that Moroder is also a massive fan of Elvis Presley. He said back in 2015, discussing his influences: “If I have to think about the songs, there was one great single: ‘Jailhouse Rock’. That was a huge influence, and ‘Blue Suede Shoes’, and all the big hits of Elvis.”
Moroder also claimed that the song that he first fell in love with was Elvis’ cover of ‘Be-Bop-A-Lula’. He added: “This is the second song I sang in English lyrics when I started to perform in little coffee shops in Italy. I think it was good when I played it, but that was more than 50 years ago! Also, at that time, I was listening to a lot of R&B – I don’t know if it was called R&B at that time.”
Another song that greatly influenced Moroder was Bill Haley’s ‘Rock Around the Clock’, which, of course, gained further notoriety when Elvis covered the tune. The song was so impactful in Moroder’s life that he claimed that it was the song that made him want to be in a band.
“Of course, that one song I absolutely loved,” Moroder said. “Oh, that was so huge at the time. It was an easy song to sing with and uptempo, which I always liked. ‘One, two, three o’clock, four o’clock rock!’ And trying to play that solo with the guitar was an easy one as at that time I was just learning.”
He added: “We would do the pop songs of that time and then when I became more professional, we’d play some of The Beatles’ songs, and obviously there are so many which I love. ‘Yesterday’ was probably the one I liked the most and the one that influenced me the most.”
Elvis’ cultural impact was about as far-reaching as is humanly possible. The Mississippi-born King of Rock and Roll is considered one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th Century. Elvis was so good at what he did that he managed to heal race relations in the difficult time of the 1950s, and his actions and career evidently had even begun to make waves over in Italy and into the ears of a young Giorgio Moroder, awaiting his hero.
