sonar impact

Whenever you are listening to Elvis Presley's recording of "Hound Dog" on You Tube, the first thing that grabs you is the "cold start"

 -- no instruments playing yet, just the Elvis voice calling out:  "You ain't nothin' but a hound dog"...
     ... a good example, I think, of what music producer Jerry Wexler called the "sonarity" of a record -- how it "impacts instantly on the ear"...

As the song goes from that first phrase -- the instrumentation all thunk-and-thunder -- there are people clapping on the offbeat, there's backing vocals ("Ahhhhh, ahhhhh"), their rhythmic sweetness undercut by a gritty, meandering guitar part.

     The overall effect is that of people seemingly recording in a bare-walled room (that's mid-1950s recording, plus maybe also Sun Records style...).

     After the first verse the drumming bursts out like a machine gun.

     The result is organized chaos.

When you go on You Tube and type in this song, there's one upload that says "Vevo" in the lower-left corner of the rectangle representing the song.  It says "Elvis" in the middle of the rectangle.  Elvis is in all capital letters except for the "i" which is a number one ("1")

ELV1S

That is the one to listen to.
Now.
(you aint' NOTHIN' but a hound dog...)

-30-