Kathy Westmoreland -Alive and KICKING! #2

Tell us how far along in your career you were when you started to work with Elvis? I had been working professionally since 1963(right out of high school) and was called by Elvis in August of 1970. So... just between six and seven years into my career. I had already traveled considerably and decided beyond a shadow of a doubt I "never want to travel on the road again", so had fortunately begun to do studio work in Los Angeles in 1968, and just beginning to really enjoy being "in town" and not schlepping baggage from city to city.

At the time of Elvis' call I was working with the Ray Coniff Singers, the Johnny Mann singers, and my "main gig" was as one of the Jimmy Joyce Singers. We appeared as regulars on the Red Skelton, Tim Conway, Bobby Darin shows, along with film soundtracks, and other television shows such as the once known 'Hollywood Palace'...that kind of thing. We also went daily from recording session to recording session for different artists, most days not knowing from hour to hour where we'd be called to go next! On our coffee breaks we'd all check in with our phone services to see whether we had another session pop up to attend, or if that was 'it' for the day, and we could go home. I found that at the time I really thrived on "not knowing" where I would be for the entire day, and the thrill of working with new artists, known and unknown was very interesting for me.

I found working with so many of the established artists who were well known to be so fascinating. Each one with his/her own special talent or gift intrigued me. Many of them were artists that hadn't particularly excited me until I worked with them. I was constantly surprised to find artists I hadn't really appreciated until I worked with them. During those "sessions" it was obvious to me as to why a particular artist who had made his/her mark in the industry had done so.

Amazingly, Elvis himself was one of these. Until I worked with him, saw his gifts "live", I just didn't really appreciate his greatness. There were a few of his records I thought were fun, but his true genius wasn't apparent to me until I actually spent time with him. His commercial success had obviously overshadowed his true genius--the gift he had for interpreting a song, making it his own.