Watch The Oak Ridge Boys’ First Ever Video for ‘Elvira’ and the Late Joe Bonsall’s Last Video with the Iconic Group
The Oak Ridge Boys’ enduring, lovable classic, “Elvira” came out in 1981 and quickly became the legendary quartet’s fourth No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles chart — as well as its biggest pop hit, reaching No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100.
But the song came out two years before the launch of The Nashville Network, the first country music cable television network — and, unbelievably, it never had an accompanying video. Until now.
The joyous video clip, which premieres below, features the band surrounded by some famous friends (including Trace Adkins, Kid Rock, Lorrie Morgan, The Gatlin Brothers, Ray Stevens and Big & Rich) performing the song. Filmed in October at John Rich’s Redneck Riviera bar on Nashville’s Lower Broadway, it was 50-year Oaks member Joe Bonsall’s last video before his July 9 death at age 76.
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But before fans see the band and the familiar faces, the video opens on a number of burgeoning artists, including Chase Matthew and Danni Stefenetti, singing along to the song they have heard since birth. Featuring a new generation of artists served as an intentional passing of the torch, the video’s director Brandon Wood says: “My goal since working with the Oak Ridge Boys has been to help them expand their reach to younger demographics through creative means of promoting their new albums and releases. It just made sense that our group of unsuspecting karaoke singers would be a group of influencers, with respectable audiences of their own.”
That angle helped turn around Oak Ridge Boy singer Duane Allen, a member of the band since 1966. “When they started talking about doing a video of ‘Elvira,’ I wasn’t really on board,” he tells Billboard. “It took a while for me to rally around the idea. Then I [realized] what they were doing was really paying tribute to the song, not us, and how that song affected everybody who heard it. [Then], I was gung-ho — because I really feel like once anybody hears that song, it’s just magic.”
To be sure, between Richard Sterban’s inimitable bass delivery on the “Um-poppa-um-poppa, mow, mow” chorus, Bonsall’s effervescent vocals and the Oaks’ trademark harmonies, the song has charmed fans of all ages for five decades. (As if any proof were needed, tacked on to the end of the video is footage of a four-year old Wood singing the song.)
Allen knows the song’s appeal. He remembers when he first heard it in 1966, after coming across the original version — recorded by the song’s writer, Dallas Frazier. “I sat up in my bed when I heard it the first time. Fast forward to 1981 and [Oaks producer] Ron Chancey calls. We were about finished with recording [the album], and he says, ‘Ace, I’ve got an idea of a song that I’ve just found. I’d like to show it to you guys. It will be a major hit for you if we do it Oak Ridge Boys-style…’ Within about 30 minutes, everybody gathered at my house and the song he played, I knew it already — because I never forgot that song. I could almost sing it word-for-word, having never heard it again in those 15 years.”
Unlike on the original, Bonsall modulated up on the last pass on the chorus, which, with Sterban’s delivery, made the song truly the Oaks’ own. The new version of “Elvira” will be featured on a forthcoming album by the Oaks that includes remakes of past hits and new songs.
Bonsall was in high spirits the day of the video shoot, Wood says: “Joe was a pro. He always gave 1000 percent and always had fun doing it. This day was no different. The energy he got from being in that room with his peers who love him was magical. We all felt it, but I think he particularly had a blast hugging necks and celebrating this amazing song. At one point when we were on a break, he grabbed my hand across the table and shared some words with me. He ended it with ‘I love you man.’ I’ll always remember that.”
In the video, Bonsall looks radiant as he sings the song and gladhands with friends singing along. Although he had already been diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) four years prior, the group shot the video “while he was relaly feeling good,” Allen says. “It was just a great day. It was just like creating another piece of magic. You turn the cameras on and the song starts playing and everybody has fun.”
The final shot of the video features Bonsall smiling, which Wood says was “serendipitous… This was in the first cut from the beginning. The focus was never intentionally more on Joe than any of the other Boys.”
For Allen, performing “Elvira” never gets old. “The song has meant so much to the Oak Ridge Boys’ career,” he says. “It still does every time we perform it. There’s something magical that happens.”
And the band has been performing it a lot — both over the decades and recently. The Oaks started their American Made Farewell Tour celebrating their legacy last September. Bonsall made it through the end of the year.
“He told me, ‘I’m going to do my best to make all the Christmas dates. If I make the Christmas dates, I’m going to try my best to make all the dates you put in the book for [2024],’” Allen recalls. “Well, we got to the last Christmas date, we carried him off stage, we put him in a wheelchair, and he said, ‘I’m done.’ And the next morning, he called Ben James, and said, ‘I’m done. The position is yours. Put your singing britches on.’ [Joe] was a trooper all the way to the very end, he never gave any kind of complaint. He didn’t want anybody pitying him or feeling sorry for him. And his voice was strong, all the way up to the very last note on the very last Christmas song we did. I loved him like a brother and I miss him every day that comes around. I miss him so much.”
It’s been an unspeakably brutal few months for the Oaks personally. In addition to Bonsall’s death, Nora, Allen’s wife of 54 years, died March 31. Then on July 1, eight days before Bonsall’s passing, William Lee Golden’s son, Rusty, died.
Allen says the unbreakable bond between the group and their fans has become more special than ever following the tragedies, and that the road has been a respite from the sorrow. In fact, following his wife’s burial, Allen changed his clothes, got on the tour bus and headed to Florida for a show.
“I needed to feel the love from not only from my singing partners — I needed to feel the love from the people,” he says. He broke down singing the second verse of “Fancy Free,” and the line “Oh Lord, you just don’t know how it hurts to say goodbye/ She did her best to stay I can’t say she did not try.” “When I started singing that second verse, man, I exploded and the crowd knew what I’d been through and they started standing up and cheering and I got what I needed,” he says, tearing up. “And they’ve been there ever since.”
The Farewell tour was originally set to honor Bonsall and his final outing, but Allen says while it is still technically a Farewell tour, there is now no definite end in sight. Plus, Allen adds poignantly, “I don’t have anybody to go home to now.”
He says the tour, which was slated to end this year, will now likely go well into 2025. “I believe the Eagles are on their third farewell tour, so we can at least do our first farewell tour and end it at the end of ’25. I think we’re going to probably try to work as many dates as we can and get to the places we’ve not been able to cover this year,” Allen says. “We need the audience and we need to say thank you to all of them. The date book keeps filling up. I guess that’s God saying, ‘It’s not time yet, so keep singing.’”
