Sometimes you just have to go to Graceland.

Graceland.

Memphis, Tennessee.

Alannah Myles grew up in Toronto, Canada and knew from a young age she wanted to practice the singing arts. At the age of nine she began experimenting with songwriting after listening to Joni Mitchell records, and upon graduating from high school devoted herself full-time to performing at clubs and trying to get her foot in the door. She helped finance this by appearing in TV shows and commercials in the 1980s. Luckily, she eventually met the right person at the right time to help her achieve her door-busting dreams.

Christopher Ward was a musician who had a songwriting deal with Warner and he fell in love with Alannah and her music. The two became involved both romantically and professionally and he helped Myles put together a band and write songs. All the while, busy beaver Ward worked on his own songs and maintained a day job as a VJ for MuchMusic, Canada’s equivalent of MTV.

In 1987, MuchMusic tasked Ward with traveling to Memphis to join a busload of Elvis fanatics making a pilgrimage to Graceland for the 10th anniversary of The King’s death. Witnessing the religious fervor of the fans, and feeling the power and presence of Presley, even in death, inspired Ward to write lyrics based on the rise of Elvis in the 50s. He titled his song “Black Velvet” (presumably referencing the fad of painting portraits of Presley on black velvet canvasses in the 1970s, but possibly referring to the sound quality of his voice).

When Myles first heard the song, she thought the song was too good, and feared she wouldn’t be allowed to record it, that some big-name artist would have a hit with it. But record it she did, on a hot summer day in Toronto in a studio with no air-conditioning. The atmosphere in the studio perfectly matched the mood of the lyrics: a sweating, summer heatwave (Myles ended up having to strip down to a bathing suit to record her vocals due to the stifling heat).

“Black Velvet” helped score Myles a deal with Atlantic Records and was released as a single in Canada in July of 1989 where it quickly reached the Top 10. Released in the US five months later, “Black Velvet” hit #1 and led to a Grammy for Myles. Ward continued writing songs for a diverse collection of big artists, including Diana Ross, Backstreet Boys, and Wynonna Judd, among others. But he never topped the song that resulted from a trip to Memphis and a bus full of fervent Elvis devotees.

So watch that sun setting like molasses in the sky… with Alannah Myles.