Orion - Honey

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Orion
Honey / Ebony Eyes
Sun Records CYS 1060 (1979)

In 1977 the author Gail Brewer-Giorgio started a novel called Orion that told the story of a musical superstar (based on Elvis Presley) who faked his death to find peace and privacy.  The book was published in 1978 and at the same time recordings began to appear on the Sun label by a masked singer calling himself Orion and sounding very much like Elvis.

Orion was in fact Jimmy Ellis (born James Hughes Bell in 1945). He had began his signing career at age 19 releasing a 45 for a small Georgia label called Dradco.  In 1969 Shelby Singleton who had acquired the rights to the Sun catalogue (other than Elvis') contracted Ellis to record versions of  "That's All Right (Mama)" and "Blue Moon of Kentucky" crediting the recordings simply to "?", whilst helping to push the rumour that they were alternate takes from Presley sessions.

When Elvis died in 1977 Singleton revived the hoax by dubbing Ellis' voice over recordings of other Sun recordings including Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins crediting the additional vocals as "& Friend". 

When the novel Orion was published Ellis started appearing wearing a mask with black dyed hair and wearing clothing similar to what Elvis had worn. Brewer-Giorgio claimed at the time she had no affiliation with the recordings being released however, in the 2015 released documentary "Orion: The Man Who Would Be King", both Ellis and Brewer-Giorgio confirmed that it was all arranged as a stunt in advance of the book's publishing.

Ellis recording as Orion had several hits on the country scene during the early 80s  and whilst most of the songs he recorded were not Elvis covers he could not escape the uncanny similarities between their natural voices even releasing a single called "I'm Trying Not To Sound Like Elvis". 

In 1983 he decided to stop wearing the mask and began using his own name but he failed to remain popular and reverted in 1987 to wearing the mask and performing again under the Orion name.  

Moving on from music he opened a pawn shop in Selma, Alabama and in 1998 was killed along with his ex-wife in the shop during an armed robbery.






FLAC





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