The Secrets of Success

…or what I learned from the Man of La Manchamanteles

If you can make one Elvis, surely you can make a thousand Elvi.

But, you can’t. No one has.

Which is to say it’s truly unclear why some people become eternally famous and others languish in obscurity, or at least don’t find the same level of success, for doing the same thing.

People will always have theories and say they know, but the reality is most people are justifying the outcome, but they don’t really know the reason (if a definitive one even exists).

Like, one might argue that Elvis’s success came from him being a truly singular voice.

But that’s not true. Otis Blackwell and Big Mama Thornton performed their songs in almost exactly the same ways before Elvis covered them. Blackwell and Thornton are mostly known because of Elvis.

You might say, as some would say of Eminem, it’s because Elvis was white.

But, so were Pat Boone and Bill Monroe. Successful, sure, but not Elvis successful.

You might say Elvis was a singular unparalleled dynamic performer.  Me, and Prince, would counter with Little Richard.

If there’s one argument that could hold, maybe it’s that Elvis is one of, and still is, at least until Lenny Kravitz came our way, the most beautiful things ever born on this earth.