News comes that Sheila Ryan has passed away.
As you might recall, Sheila was one of Elvis' late period girlfriend babes (I think in 1974 -75, overlapping with the Linda Thompson years).
Sheila has made some memorable "appearances" on disc with Elvis: at the beginning of take 1 of "And I Love You So", Elvis says "Sit up here Sheila, lemme sing to ya, baby." and, of course, who can forget Sheila's appearance at the incredible September 2, 1974 closing show in Vegas when Elvis, completely whacked out of his mind, introduces Priscilla (they are divorced at this point), who is in the audience, but then introduces Sheila, also in the audience, in fact at the same table as Priscilla, and Elvis indulges in a lengthy (over 6 minutes) bit of drama with one of his patented, legendary, stream-of-consciousness monologues, one of several during this show; this particular bit of business is about his divorce settlement and Priscilla and how much she likes a stud!
Sheila makes a very striking appearance on the cover of the classic 4-cd bootleg box A PROFILE: THE KING ON STAGE VOLUME 2 (pictured above).
As Elvis says during the aforesaid Vegas show (actually about Priscilla but it is appropos to Sheila): "Boy, s-s-she's beautiful izzn't she, I'll tell you fer sure, boy...Boy, I-I-I knows 'em when I picks 'em I think y'know, Hot Damn!"
2 comments:
Maile Duval - perhaps you can fill in some brief details of Sheila's relationship with Elvis if the Guralinick book you are reading makes any mention of it.
I haven't gotten that far yet, but I'll be sure to be on the lookout!
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