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Surprisingly, Lisa Marie Presley covered a rock legend with whom she has no familial ties for her very first remake.
Instead, on the lead single from her second album, “Now What” (2005), the only child of Elvis Presley dipped into Don Henley’s library and deftly dusted off his 1982 smash “Dirty Laundry.” “We’ve got our dirty little fingers in everybody’s pie/We love to cut you down to size,” Presley growled in a role-reversing rendition of the media-bashing classic.
It was the ideal song for Elvis Presley, who died Thursday of cardiac failure at the age of 54, to redo. It was almost as if Henley and his collaborator Danny Korthchmar created it for her specifically.
She probably could have made a king’s ransom simply by reproducing one of her father’s classics. This was her make-or-break moment, when she needed a surefire success, and an Elvis cover would have been the obvious choice.
Lisa Marie Presley’s pop-rock debut was “To Whom It May Concern” (2003).
You have to give Presley credit for not riding on her father’s coattails, even though it undoubtedly hurt her own career. She might have taken the path of least resistance to the top of the charts, but instead she worked to establish her own musical identity and creative integrity in the face of what she knew would be skeptical minds.
Presley co-wrote every song on “To Whom It May Concern” after waiting until she was 35 – an ancient age for a pop debut — to finally continue the family legacy with “To Whom It May Concern.” Grammy winner Glen Ballard, who had co-written and produced Alanis Morissette’s “Jagged Little Pill” album, provided her with A-list support.
With the exception of “Dirty Laundry” and the bonus track “Here Today, Gone Tomorrow” (a Ramones cover), Presley again collaborated with Pink and 4 Non Blondes’ Linda Perry on “Now What.”
Lisa Marie Presley and Pink collaborated on “Now What” in 2005.
And on her third and final album, “Storm & Grace,” released in 2012, Elvis’ daughter was honored by the king of roots-music producers: T Bone Burnett. However, Presley’s own smoky voice contributed to the slow-burning atmosphere of torch and twang.
While Presley would eventually duet with her late father on the 2007 charity single “In the Ghetto,” 2012’s “I Love You Because,” and the title track of his posthumous 2018 album “Where No One Stands Alone,” this was not a calculated move like Natalie Cole’s 1991 rendition of “Unforgettable” with father Nat King Cole (from “Unforgettable… with Love,” an album devoted to her father).
After releasing the “In the Ghetto” duet in 2007, Presley remarked to Spinner, “I could have done this years ago.” I’ve never ridden on his coattails because I believe it’s vital to forge my own route.
Lisa Marie Presley never capitalized musically on her marriage to Michael Jackson.
And by that time, it was evident that Presley no longer aspired to be a pop superstar. Perhaps she never was, however. If so, wouldn’t she have taken advantage of being married to another musical monarch, King of Pop Michael Jackson, throughout the ’90s, when he was still producing hits?
Without a question, Presley was always motivated to establish herself as an artist on her own.
She told Spinner, “Any name will get you in the door, but that doesn’t mean you’ll stay in the house.” I do not attempt to use it. I’ve never attempted to employ it.”