Elvis Presley - The Albums and Singles Thread pt2 The Sixties

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by mark winstanley, Oct 7, 2018.

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  1. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Gonna Get Back Home Somehow
    Written By :
    Doc Pomus & Mort Shuman

    Recorded :

    RCA's Studio B, Nashville, March 18-20, 1962 : March 18, 1962, take 7

    This is a fantastic song, I reckon it's my favourite on this album. Fantastic horn lines. Fantastic guitar lines. The arrangement is great. The rhythm is hypnotic, The vocal is exactly what's needed. The song has a melancholy, but manages to have that with a certain amount of expectation and optimism.
    I really find this song almost mesmerising and think it could have been a successful single.
     
  2. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    (Such An) Easy Question
    Written By :
    Otis Blackwell & Winfield Scott

    Recorded :

    RCA's Studio B, Nashville, March 18-20, 1962 : March 18, 1962. take 5

    "(Such an) Easy Question" is a song recorded by Elvis Presley in 1962. It was written by Otis Blackwell and Winfield Scott. It was first released on the Pot Luck album in 1962 and again in 1965 as a single due to its inclusion in the Elvis Presley movie Tickle Me.

    The single release was the follow-up to "Crying in the Chapel" and peaked at number 11 on the US Billboard Hot 100. As with "Crying in the Chapel", "(Such an) Easy Question" reached the top of the Billboard Easy Listening chart, spending two weeks at number one in July 1965.[1]
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    Another song released as a single three years after the fact. I suppose hindsight is 20/20, but this just seems like a crazy decision. Anyway I would have released Get Back Home as the lead single from this album, with Steppin outta line as the b-side. I would have followed that with Suspicion with That's Someone You'll never forget and the b-side. I find it hard to believe that they wouldn't have both been number one singles, but the industry and buying public never fail to astound me, so who knows ....
    Anyhow Easy Question is like a country blues and it struts along nicely. Otis had consistently written really good tracks for Elvis, but I think the Doc Pomus tracks on this album outshine to a degree. I maintain that this is a fantastic album, and I can only feel that the poor album title and cover taint these songs in the minds of the listeners, because I can't see how this isn't a top 7 album in Elvis' catalog and it should have been a number smash hit on the US chart at least .... oh well, what I think isn't really important, but anyhow.

     
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  3. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

  4. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

  5. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    All these photos are Summer 1962
    [​IMG]
     
  6. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Steppin' Out Of Line
    Written By :
    Ben Weisman, Dolores Fuller & Fred Wise

    Recorded :

    Radio Recorders, Hollywood, March 21-23, 1961 : March 22, 1961. take 17

    Steppin' Out of Line is a song by Elvis Presley. It was recorded for and used in Presley’s 1961 film “Blue Hawaii.” However, the song did not initially appear on the film’s soundtrack. Instead, “Steppin’ Out of Line” was used as track 5 on Presley’s “Pot Luck” album. In 1997, the “Blue Hawaii” soundtrack was rereleased with several bonus tracks, including “Steppin’ Out of Line.”
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    This song somewhat harkens back to the fifties stuff. A fairly uptempo number with a really nice jaunty rhythm and some very cool rhythm guitaar. We get a great sax lead break also. We also get a nice big wind up ending. For me, this is another winner on this album
     
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  7. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    I'm Yours
    Written By :
    Don Robertson

    Recorded :

    RCA's Studio B, Nashville, June 25-26, 1961 : June 26, 1961. splice of take 6 and 7

    "I'm Yours" is 1961 song written by Don Robertson and Hal Blair. The song was recorded by Elvis Presley on June 26, 1961, at RCA's Nashville studios, and released on the album, Pot Luck with Elvis, on June 5, 1962. It was not released as a single until three years later when it was featured in Presley's film Tickle Me (1965).[1] "I'm Yours" peaked at number 11 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in October 1965. "I'm Yours" reached the top of the Billboard Easy Listening chart to become Presley's third consecutive number-one single on the chart.[2]
    ------------------------------------------------------------
    Another great song, although I'm not a big fan of the Wurlitzer(?). A loping countryish tune that works as another of Elvis' ballads.
     
  8. HE1NZ

    HE1NZ Forum Resident

    Location:
    Russia
    Pot Luck is a pretty decent record. But the title is the worst ever and for a long time I thought it's just a compilation of rejects from movies.
     
  9. RSteven

    RSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookings, Oregon
    I'm with you on both of your sentiments here. Another nice ballad by Don Robertson and almost ruined by that cheesy organ.
     
  10. Revelator

    Revelator Disputatious cartoon animal.

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Robertson's comment: "Hal [Blair] and I originally wrote this for the wedding scene in the Presley movie, Blue Hawaii. We were on a roll that year. The songs just seemed to pour out. We were living a few houses away from each other and were together almost every day, living and breathing songs."

    Now, regarding that stupid organ...I believe this was Elvis's fault. Robertson recorded his own version of "I'm Yours" several years later, and it featured a Hawaiian-style slide guitar instead of an organ. The demo of the song, originally written for Blue Hawaii, probably had the same instruments and Hawaiian sound.

    When Elvis finally got around to cutting the song, Blue Hawaii was past, so he likely decided to junk the slide guitar and replace it with something less Hawaiian-sounding. Unfortunately he decided on that damn roller-rink organ!

    I'll try to post Robertson's version of "I'm Yours" later today.
     
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  11. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    The Blue Hawaii thing makes sense, but use a dobro or something Elvis :)
     
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  12. DirkM

    DirkM Forum Resident

    Location:
    MA, USA
    I love Pot Luck and the Follow That Dream soundtrack, although both covers are absolutely hideous. It's a shame that the Follow That Dream FTD (heh) sounds pretty flat, because it's quite an attractive soundtrack. The songs are all very appealing confections, and Elvis sings them wonderfully (who else could have made the "You know what/I said what" bits in I'm Not The Marrying Kind so convincing?). I have a particular soft spot for the movie version of Sound Advice, which completely smokes the actual master (I think it's probably the master at a different speed, but whatever it is, it's lovely). In another world, Angel would be one of Elvis' best known songs...but as it is, it's a relatively obscure (yet rather moving) track.

    As with Elvis' other early 60s albums, Pot Luck is a sheer delight to listen to, thanks mainly to the beauty of Elvis' voice (the tasteful arrangements and immaculate sound don't hurt!). Of the songs that have been covered so far, I never get tired of the joyous Kiss Me Quick (dig that bass run around 1:47!), and Just For Old Time Sake is one of Elvis' most gorgeous - and overlooked - ballad performances (I'll take it over Are You Lonesome Tonight? any day of the week).

    I don't mind the organ in I'm Yours; it's really the backing vocals I could do without. Either way, Ask Me is a far more effective execution of a similar song/arrangement.
     
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  13. Revelator

    Revelator Disputatious cartoon animal.

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Here's Robertson's version of "I'm Yours," with the Hawaiian slide guitar that was probably in the original demo for Blue Hawaii wedding scene:



    I think the arrangement is much easier on the ears than Elvis's, though of course he has the edge in the vocal department!
     
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  14. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Something Blue
    Written By :
    Al Byron & Paul Evans

    Recorded :

    RCA's Studio B, Nashville, March 18-20, 1962 : March 18, 1962. take 7

    Taking it's lyric from the old wedding superstition of something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue and turned into a heartbreaking story of someone singing about how it all fell to pieces, this is one of Elvis' most heartbreaking songs. The piano is a beautiful arrangement that adds a lot to this, and the descending guitar figure that starts the song is also quite perfect.
    This is just another great song off this criminally under appreciated album.


     
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  15. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Suspicion
    Written By :
    Doc Pomus & Mort Shuman

    Recorded :

    RCA's Studio B, Nashville, March 18-20, 1962 : March 19, 1962. splice of take 5 and 3

    This is one of my favourite Elvis song from the sixties. It has a moderate tempo that pulls it away from the balladry that irks so many people, yet it still retains a beautiful melancholy and draws one into the whole frame of the song. The chorus has an altered time figure that works somewhat like a ritard and really accentuates this chorus as something special. The vocal as always is quite wonderful.
    I really don't think there is anything that can be criticised with any validity on this wonderful song.

     
  16. NumberEight

    NumberEight Came too late and stayed too long

    A bit late, I know - or possibly a bit early - but here’s Britain’s Cliff Richard’s (somewhat belated) 1965 cover of Elvis’ Angel from 1962’s Follow That Dream:

    [​IMG]

     
  17. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    I always had a soft spot for Cliff. Saw him in concert in the Eighties when I accompanied my mum to one of his shows. He always seemed a little awkward in some ways, but a great performer in spite of that. If they ever release a good compile of Cliff stuff from the sixties through late eighties, I will be getting it
     
  18. Rick Bartlett

    Rick Bartlett Forum Resident

    Cliff's version of 'Angel' .......dare I say it, craps all over the Elvis version.
     
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  19. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    I would merely say they are very different version. I would lose the hand claps as they are pretty annoying. I've never been big on excessive hand claps in songs. Really nice vocal though
     
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  20. Panther

    Panther Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tokyo, Japan
    I think my problem with the Pot Luck cover is that Elvis looks remarkably like Alice from The Brady Bunch.
    [​IMG] [​IMG]
     
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  21. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    I hadn't thought of that, but yes, terrible cover, terrible name.... whoever was responsible sabotaged a fantastic album
     
  22. SKATTERBRANE

    SKATTERBRANE Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tucson, AZ
    Well you can certainly say it, but that does not make it so! Elvis' Angel is one of his sublime hidden gems.
     
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  23. Rick Bartlett

    Rick Bartlett Forum Resident

    I would say a sublime hidden gem of Elvis', would be 'Never Ending'.
    Astonishing!
     
  24. DirkM

    DirkM Forum Resident

    Location:
    MA, USA
    Both Angel and Never Ending are sublime hidden gems! I never tire of hearing them.
     
  25. DirkM

    DirkM Forum Resident

    Location:
    MA, USA
    It's definitely one of Elvis' many, many unjustly forgotten songs. The hits are great, but tracks like Something Blue are what made me really fall in love with his work.

    Take 1 is an interesting alternate, starting off by quoting "Here Comes The Bride" (a touch that was, thankfully, dropped from later takes). In any case, Elvis sings it wonderfully. I've always thought of this song as a companion piece to the later Indescribably Blue; apart from the similar titles, both share an air of melancholy that's quite moving. Indescribably Blue is dramatic, though, whilst Something Blue is a quieter piece of music, almost burying its pain beneath the sheer beauty of the performance.
     
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