My song today is ‘King Creole’ recorded by the late Elvis Presley from the film of the same name (1958). The song was written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. The song is based on King Creole, a Cajun guitar player from New Orleans who is proficient in all different styles of rock and roll. The song was released as a single in the UK in 1958. It reached Number 2 in the ‘UK Singles Chart’. In 2007 the single was re-released and spent one week at the top.
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This song takes me back to the years when Annmarie’s father, Tony came across from Carrick-on-Suir to live on Windybank Estate with an aunt. I had recently started to get mobile again after three years of being left unable to walk after a very bad traffic accident. Tony and I became instant friends and he helped me a great deal in the many activities I engaged in to help me regain my balance when one leg of mine finished up being three inches shorter than the other. He introduced me to boxing, and also long-distance running. We essentially became blood brothers, and we spent our late teenage years as the closest of friends, dating, drinking, dancing, and fighting together. Many a Saturday morning after we had been to the ‘Hightown Heights WMC’on Friday night and had arrived home late when my mum came to wake me up for breakfast, she would find Tony or another of the gang in bed with me. There wasn’t anything we wouldn’t do together and very little we did apart.
When I went to live in Canada and travel around America in 1963, Tony was also on his way Ireland bound. It would be many years before we met again, and I would visit him whenever I went back to my own Irish birthplace during future holidays. Tony and I had been brought up in next-door Irish villages. Tony met and married his lovely wife, Lily and they had lots of children together during their happy marriage. When Tony died last year, a large part of my childhood past died also. I know that his children, as do mine, carry the love that we shared’
I hope your birthday is the happiest of days, Annmarie. Love from me and Sheila, and all the Forde family on your special day, and all the love in the world to you and yours.
Love and peace Bill xxx