Elvis impersonator re-creates original style of 'The King'

As a 9-year-old, Wade Cummins performed imitations of Elvis Presley.

So a few years later, when someone requested Cummins sing Presley's "One Night With You," while he was singing in a show band, Cummins was prepared.

With his convincing Presley-like voice and hip shakin', Cummins earned a standing ovation in the Detroit night club.

That performance focused his musical career on the "king of rock and roll." From there on, Cummins also became Elvis Wade on stage.

Presley himself slipped into a Nashville club to see this other Elvis and reportedly gave Wade a standing ovation.

Wade and his wife, Sandy Posey, who live in Highlands County during the winter, will be performing for Kenilworth Lodge's New Year's Eve bash.

Posey, a Grammy-nominated vocalist, hit the pop charts in the mid-'60s, moved to the country side of the musical road in the '70s and then recorded and performed Christian music in the '80s.

In the '60s, she performed on "American Bandstand" and performed on shows with many top entertainers including, Sammy Davis Jr., the Temptations, Neil Diamond and Sonny and Cher.

Posey also worked extensively as a studio background singer over the years and can be heard on many hits, including "When a Man Loves a Woman" by Percy Sledge.

She also sang backup on some of Presley's recordings in the mid to late '60s, ("Kentucky Rain" and "In the Ghetto"), which led to her performing with him on his initial Las Vegas concert in 1969.

Wade and Posey, who have been married for 15 years, met when he was recording his "Memories of the King" album on which she was asked to sing background vocals.

"Sandy was a big backup singer before she ever started her career. She sang on some hits when she was a teenager," Wade said Monday. "She has such a smooth and quality voice."

She sang backup on a "ton" of country hits, too, he added.

Wade said he was the first to do an Elvis impersonation show.

"When Elvis died, they just came out of the woodwork, and most of them were just so bad," he said. They were big Elvis fans; they dyed their hair black; their mothers sewed a jump suit for them and they tried to sing.

"It got to the point where an Elvis impersonator was a 'tongue in cheek' thing and it's never been that way with me," Wade said. "It's been serious to me. It's always been my livelihood for all these years."

In his Elvis tribute shows, Wade said he stays true to the "King's" renditions.

"I sing them exactly the way Elvis did them," he said. "I don't change any arrangements because I know people don't want to hear my latest version of how Elvis did a song.

"They want to hear it the way they grew up with it."

The Jordanaires, the talented vocal group that accompanied Presley on many hits and live performances, teamed up with Wade in 1986 for international concert performances and tours over a 12 1/2 year period.

Can you sum up why Presley so popular?

"Charisma - he just had a charisma about him that was just ... I don't know how you would say it," Wade said.

Posey had two songs reach number 12 on the Billboard pop charts in 1966 - "Born a Woman" and "Single Girl" and 1967's "I Take it Back" also hit number 12 on the charts.

In 1966 she was nominated for two Grammys - "Vocal Performance Female Contemporary" and "Solo Vocal Male or Female."

Singing came natural for her, Posey said.

"God gives all of us gifts and that was one of mine ... my best one," she said. "The only thing I was ever good at was music."

Born in Jasper, Ala., as a teenager, Posey moved to Memphis, Tenn., where she started working in the music business as a receptionist in a recording studio.

Patsy Cline is her all-time favorite singer, but as a teenager Posey loved rock 'n' roll music.

Posey's career covered a variety of musical genres. A Posey "greatest hits" album touts 22 favorite songs in "Country, Bluegrass and Gospel" styles.

"That was my downfall, I should have become a country artist," she said. "That's what my brother said, 'you should have stayed in Nashville and just done country.'"

Some reviewers said Posey's style fell within the "Countypolitan" sound of the '60s and early '70s, which was country-based music with a slick or orchestrated sound designed to crossover to the popular music audience.

For more information on Wade and Posey, check online at www.elviswade.com.