Culture That Made Me: Red Hurley on Stevie Wonder, Elvis, and Maya Angelou
Red Hurley saw Elvis live in Vegas.
Brian “Red” Hurley, 73, grew up in Milltown, Dublin. As lead singer with the showband The Nevada, he had several number-one records. In 1976, he represented Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest. As a solo artist, he has released over a dozen albums. While living in the United States during the 1990s, the legendary civil rights activist and writer Maya Angelou became a fan and a collaborator.
- Red Hurley & Friends, including his daughter Stephanie, will perform at the Cork Opera House, Saturday, 14 October. See: www.corkoperahouse.ie.
In the 1960s, I fell in love with Ray Charles. He was one of those fantastic artists. I loved all to do with him – the whole atmosphere that came off his music. First of all, he was a great songwriter. Second, he was a terrific singer. He had a great vocal range, a great way of portraying whatever he was singing. He was easily my favourite singer growing up.
I was doing a show in America. The people I were with said to me, “We would like to bring you to see a jazz concert.” So I went along. There were about 10 major artists performing. Ella Fitzgerald was top of the bill. She was electric, fantastic. She was a great singer. She had wonderful phraseology. She was definitely my favourite female singer for a long time.
Only Murders in the Building is a television series. Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez are in it. There’s supposed to be a murder committed inside this big building in Manhattan. These guys are down on their luck in the movie business. Martin Short is broke, having been a producer. They’re trying to make a true crime podcast, trying to get the money up front to make it. It’s very funny, with laughs all the way through it. I enjoyed it no end.
I met The Rat Pack in the Seventies. I was introduced to Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. Frank Sinatra was lovely, very well-mannered. I saw Sinatra perform twice in America – in Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. It was magic. He was a great artist. He was a wonderful portrayer of a song. Great with the words, great with the lyrics. Great with the whole thing. He knew exactly what the people wanted. He was cool. He was always immaculately dressed. He was just fantastic.
I saw Stevie Wonder in the LA Coliseum. This was around 1974. He was on the comeback after a serious car accident. They had to wheel him on stage in a wheelchair, but it didn't stop him from performing. He was fantastic. The place was the size of Croke Park at a time when nobody did those sizes of gigs. He was special, just that little cut above the rest when it came to raw talent.
The best showman, the best stage performer of the lot was Elvis Presley – whether you liked him or not. Some people didn't think he was the greatest singer in the world, but I thought he was superb. People loved him. He knew how to get the audience gone. He was an electric performer. He physically owned the stage. He strutted around the place. Nothing was beyond him. He would jump off the stage into the audience if he wanted to. He was full of life, full of excitement. Full of sex appeal. Great voice. Everything you would want in an artist, he had it.
I saw Elvis live in the Hilton International Hotel in Las Vegas. We bribed our way in. We’d no tickets. I gave a guy called Mr Emilio a $100 tip in advance. I said, “I’d appreciate it if you’d get us in.” There was a queue right around the block. The place had sold out weeks in advance. He took the $100 bill and said, “OK, follow me.” So we followed him and he sat us down in the best seats in the house. It was before Elvis started to go downhill. It was a wonderful show. People just adored him.
I love The Godfather trilogy, particularly the first film. I wore out the video cassette of it, from re-watching it so often. I loved the way it was portrayed. The colouring. The way it was filmed – with beautiful movie sets. The mood was perfect. Everybody was cast perfectly. It’s a wonderful book, too, by Mario Puzo, which I had read before seeing it on screen.
I remember I was booked to do radio shows on the BBC in England. We did five songs every couple of weeks. Fly to London. Record them with the orchestra and come home. One week, we did My Way. That meant a lot to me because I was so young; I was inexperienced. It was one of my favourite songs from a recording point of view. The song tells all our stories. “Regrets, I’ve had a few/But then again, too few to mention/I did what I had to do…”
A writer who I loved – and you don’t see his books in stores anymore – was Walter Macken. His books were terrific. They’d make you cry. Big novels, all based on true stories. There was such sadness in them. A lot of them were based around the time of the Famine, or poverty in Ireland, and the tragedy of the whole situation. He had the ability to portray real sadness and real tragedy in his books. Only one style of books, really, but they were beautifully written.
Maya Angelou wrote a fantastic autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. It was written by her, with almost no writing experience whatsoever, and she wrote this modern-day masterpiece. It sells like hot cakes in America. It tells a story about what happened to her – and her brother – all through her life. Written into the dialogue is an explanation of where she is going with each chapter. You realise this lady has an enormous mind and a wonderful brain. I fell in love with her writing.
