MUSICAL TALENT RUNS IN FAMILY

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. -- Cape Girardeau native Billy Swan is best known for the 1974 song "I Can Help," but these days his daughters Planet and Sierra are his biggest hits.

Swan, who also had a long musical association with Kris Kristofferson and wrote the 1960s hit "Lover Please," is hardly finished with his own music career. He just recorded a new CD, "Like Elvis used to do," and is searching for a distribution deal.

But it's the 23-year-old Planet and 19-year-old Sierra who have the recording contracts -- both with Refuge Records, a subsidiary of giant MCA.

Planet is a solo act, and Sierra is the lead singer in an alternative band called Dollshead. Sierra was in London filming a video for the CD "Frozen Charlotte" and was unavailable to talk to the Southeast Missourian.

Sierra and former Rembrandts bassist Graham Edwards are the principals in the Dollshead band. Their song "It's Over, It's Under" is on the soundtrack of the movie "The Jackal."

Planet is in the studio now, recording tracks for her first CD, which is as yet unnamed. Her music incorporates many different musical styles, a lesson learned from her father.

"I think there's no right way to make it. If you combine all the elements you will get something new," she says.

Her father is simply a big music fan, she said. "He loves music more than anything else in the world -- aside from me, of course."

Swan exposed his daughters early on to Elvis and the Beatles, music many of their peers hardly knew.

"He's a good example to younger people who are so stuck to genres," Planet says. "They lose sight of yesterday's music."

The musical give and take works both ways. "He just got the Radiohead CD. I was so impressed."

Swan is a father figure to many of their friends. "Everybody who knows my dad just adores him," Planet said. "I think that has built my self-esteem."

Though Swan has many contacts in the music industry, Planet snared her record deal on her own, and it was she who suggested her sister when Edwards was looking for a singer.

"They really support each other and brag about each other a lot," Swan said.

He recorded his Elvis tribute at Sun Studio, the legendary recording studio where Elvis laid down the original tracks. It includes rearranged versions of Swan's favorite Elvis songs, including a tropical take on "All Shook Up" and molassesy "That's All Right" and a bluesy "Hound Dog."

In the early 1960s, Swan moved to Memphis and happened to rent a room from Elvis's uncle, Travis, who then was working the gate at Graceland. He sometimes would be part of the entourage who'd accompany Elvis when he rented out a movie theater at 1 a.m.

Elvis and Priscilla would sit down front, everyone else about 20 rows back.

"I never spoke to him unless he spoke to me," Swan said.

But when Swan and his wife, Marlu, went to see Elvis in Las Vegas in 1975 they were invited backstage to meet him.

Elvis had just covered "I Can Help."

As a teen-ager in the 1950s, Swan said, Elvis' songs were in the soundtrack of his life. The idea of recording music that meant so much to him was intriguing.

"I always liked his music and those songs. I thought something different could be done with them." But Elvis' will always be the definitive renditions, he says.

Planet provides vocals on "Love Me Tender."

Swan is not surprised that his daughters became musicians. They've been putting on little Karaoke-type shows since they were small, singing "Bye Bye Love" and Sierra's favorites, Patsy Cline songs.

Their mother saw to it that they took violin lessons.

"They just loved music and they're very talented," he said. "I'm very proud of them."

Her father is very helpful when legal or creative problems arise, Planet says. And she may ask him for help naming her CD. "He came up with my name," she said. "People don't forget it."