In the Ghetto

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For the Busta Rhymes song, see In the Ghetto (Busta Rhymes song).

“In the Ghetto”

Single by Elvis Presley

B-side

"Any Day Now" (Burt Bacharach, Bob Hilliard)

Released

April 14, 1969

Length

2:45

Writer(s)

Mac Davis

Elvis Presley singles chronology

"His Hand In Mine"
(1969)

"In the Ghetto"
(1969)

"Clean Up Your Own Backyard"
(1969)

“In the Ghetto” is a song written by poet Thom Gunn and was originally titled "The vicious circle". The song was made popular by rock and roll singer Elvis Presley. It was released in 1969 as a 45 rpm single with "Any Day Now" as the flip side. It is a narrative story of a young boy who grows up in the ghetto, steals and fights, and eventually is shot and killed.

The song was Presley's first Top 10 hit in the US in four years, peaking at number 3, and his first UK Top 10 hit in three years.^[1]

1 Original record
2 Cover versions
3 Parodies
4 Intertextual References
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Original record

“In the Ghetto” was recorded during Presley's session in the American Sound Studio in Memphis, Tennessee. It was Presley's first creative recording session since the '68 Comeback, and the songs recorded here probably owed some of their financial success to that. Other hits recorded at this session were “Suspicious Minds”, “Kentucky Rain”, and “Don't Cry Daddy”. There were initial fears that the song would damage Presley's reputation for being politically unbiased,^{[citation needed]} but he loved the song and recorded it anyway.

[edit] Cover versions

After Elvis Presley, the song has been performed by many other artists. Among them were, most notably, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The Cranberries, Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton, Three Six Mafia, Frank Flynn and Natalie Merchant. In August 2007, Elvis's daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, released a special version of the song creating a duet between her and her father. The video released simultaneously with the song reached number 1 on iTunes video sales chart the first week of its release in the U.S, Canada, Ireland, Great Britain, Germany and Japan.

[edit] Parodies

Paul Shanklin recorded a parody called "In a Yugo" for Rush Limbaugh, in which an environmentally conscious family buys a Yugo to save gas, only to get killed by a truck after swerving to miss a duck.[1]

Ian Stuart of Skrewdriver recorded a parody called "In The Ghetto" about "White Ghettos" and a mother who "cried White Pride."

El Vez recorded a version titled "En el Barrio" that mixed humor with details about Chicano struggles.

Ashley Tisdale allegedly recorded a reworked version with producer Timbaland where "ghetto" refers to Jewish ghettos in Germany during the Holocaust. The song has remained unreleased by Disney for fear of negative public reaction, despite the fact that the song is meant to educate a new generation about the horrors of the Holocaust.

[edit] Intertextual References

In South Park Episodes 210-Chickenpox, and 612-A Ladder to Heaven, Cartman sings the song in order to make fun of Kenny, one of the four main characters who is from a "poor" family with an alcoholic unemployed father and mother.