A song originally made famous by Elvis as the title track of his eponymous 1964 movie, "Viva Las Vegas" has become what some may call the city's anthem. But we realized that we didn’t know much else about the song and who wrote it, so here’s a little background we dug up on the creators of the famous track.
"Viva Las Vegas" was originally composed by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, one of the more important rock ‘n’ roll writing teams of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. They were responsible for more than 500 songs between 1958 and 1965, with Shuman composing the music and Pomus writing the lyrics.
Having had polio as a child and dependent on crutches to walk, Jerome Felder began playing saxophone and singing in Greenwich Village as a teen and adopted the name Doc Pomus. In the early ‘50s he began writing songs, his first big achievement being "Boogie Woogie Country Girl," recorded by Big Joe Turner.
Mort Shuman studied music at the New York Conservatory and became an avid lover of R & B music. He often played piano on Doc’s recordings. It wasn’t until 1958, however, that the two decided to form a partnership.
During 1964 Mort began working with other writers and in 1965 the team drifted apart. That same year the already crippled Doc took a nasty fall that confined him to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. He quit the music business and spent 10 years as a "professional" gambler, but in the ‘70s returned to music. Mort continued to work in the music biz after the break-up. Both died in 1991.
So there’s a little background on the creators of the tune; now to the question of just how many versions there are of it. There’s actually a great website devoted to just this subject. Created by Nick Christenson (the same man behind the Las Vegas Casino Death Watch pages, which we've cited from time to time), the site details who recorded the track, the album it appears on, the length of the version, the label that released it and when, plus it gives a little write-up about what the rendition sounds like. It also includes the full lyrics to the song.
Some of the diverse artists on the list include: The Dead Kennedys, Bruce Springsteen, ZZ Top, Dread Zeppelin, Nina Hagen, Shawn Colvin, The Blues Brothers & Friends, and King Junior. The site is pretty comprehensive, but we were able to find a few additional versions that were not listed (and which we passed on –- please let us and Nick know if you’re aware of any others we don’t know about).
