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. Ace24

    Ace24 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ohio
    Good observation. Elvis had such great versatility in what he could do with his voice. His rock voice was an asset that I wish he had continued to use more through the years. We'll hear it return in a major way in 1968. It will be interesting to note any other appearances it may make in any songs between here (late 1961) and then.
     
  2. Panther

    Panther Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tokyo, Japan
    I like the Kid Galahad mini-soundtrack!

    The diamond track here is "I Got Lucky", which is one of my top two or three Elvis tunes of the sixties. Sure, it's an un-vital pure pop song, but the melody is so strong it just knocks me out. I think it's a better A-side than 'Return to Sender' or 'Suspicious Minds'.
     
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  3. Panther

    Panther Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tokyo, Japan
    Tell me this isn't a fantastic pop song! Love it:


    Mind you, I could have done without all the twisting, but that was the rage of the time...
     
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  4. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    We're getting to the songs.
    Let's try and keep this orderly:)
     
  5. DirkM

    DirkM Forum Resident

    Location:
    MA, USA
    Kid Galahad is a nice little soundtrack, but I think it's a step down from Follow That Dream. It doesn't have the same unity of poppy sound, and for the most part, I don't think the songs are quite as good.
     
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  6. SKATTERBRANE

    SKATTERBRANE Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tucson, AZ
    Here is one that isn't so messed up:

     
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  7. RSteven

    RSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookings, Oregon
    Art, I had just finished going back and forth with a poster on the "Is Elvis still Popular" thread when I left to watch the OU Championship game that was being DVR'd for me, and that great commercial was running before I could even sit down. Wow, almost Super Bowl quality and of course I mention the commercial in the thread, once I get back to it and proudly point out that the world's wealthiest company, Apple, has obviously decided that Elvis is the one entertainer that can reach multiple generations and cultures out of anybody they could chose past or present. The timing could not have been better for me to make my point that Elvis's popularity and relevance is not going away any time soon!
     
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  8. artfromtex

    artfromtex Honky Tonkin' Metal-Head

    Location:
    Fort Worth, TX
    That is correct. Elvis is TIMELESS. And timeless means exactly what it means!!
     
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  9. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

  10. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

  11. Dave112

    Dave112 Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Carolina
    Elvis is timeless and iconic as they come! This period is where Elvis is THE undisputed uber rock and pop superstar worldwide. No one is even a close second. It always pops in my mind here that Beatlemania is soon to take hold and the British Invasion is coming up fast in Elvis' rearview mirror. Those lads from Liverpool are timeless as well and they are about to raise the bar and shake the music world on par with what our boy did in the 1950's.
     
    Last edited: Dec 2, 2018
  12. MaccaBeatles

    MaccaBeatles Forum Resident

    Location:
    Greater London
    It strikes me to think that apart from 1959 (where he was still releasing hits regardless of his time in the army) by 1963 Elvis's previous success as a hitmaker was still longer then The Beatles career from that point up until 1970!

    I imagine by 1962 Elvis was already starting to be seen as a pop music 'veteran' of sorts, yet he was only 27! He'd already made 10 films, released 15 albums and countless singles and EPs.

    I love so much of the material he was releasing in the early 60s, but 1962 really feels like the year that the wheels started coming off, he needed more material to remind people that he still had a rock 'n roll edge! I Got Lucky and King of the Whole Wide World are great pop songs, but it's sometimes the case where too many overly sweet candy's can make you feel sick, y'know?

    If only he went back out on the road again that year instead of releasing so many movies, although thankfully we still got some great music out of it.

    Damn that Colonel, 1962 would have been an ideal time to tour Europe! :realmad:
     
    Last edited: Dec 2, 2018
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  13. Panther

    Panther Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tokyo, Japan
    Agree. Most of the stuff he was doing in 1960 and 1961 was great. His voice was at its peak, and he was fulfilling his ambition to "sing all kinds", from pure pop to gospel to rock to blues to show-tunes to Italian ballads.

    Suddenly, in 1962 he kind of hit a wall. It was partly the Colonel's fault (as usual), but this is a point where Elvis needed to take a stand in his career and force the Colonel to start taking orders from the world's biggest entertainer, rather than giving them. He could get away with one Blue Hawaii (hugely successful soundtrack, commercially), but after the audience has been following you for six or seven years they get more sophisticated and start expecting you to grow up with them. Elvis kept turning out teenage pop songs and love ballads and consequently the years 1962 to 1967 were mostly formula rubbish (bar the odd single and the gospel LP). This is the period when the movies were pretty much all dreck... hitting a new low-point with Kissin' Cousins, which was out just as Beatlemania hit.
    Colonel be damned, sure, but at the end of the day, Elvis could have made that happen in 1962 if he'd really wanted. He just lacked the will-power, being surrounded by paid-friends who weren't going to encourage their meal-ticket to take off overseas where things would be less under their control.

    But can you imagine what kind of reception and mass-appreciation Elvis would have received in the UK in 1962/63? He was a folk hero already, and would have been lauded and given some of the crown jewels. I really think a few overseas' tours would have woken him up to a lot of things he was missing out on in his personal life in that era. How sad, we'll never know what might have been...
     
  14. NumberEight

    NumberEight Came too late and stayed too long

    Sadly, the Elvis who could have stood up to the Colonel never existed.

    But - fortunately - the Elvis we have did exist. It just seems we can’t have both.
     
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  15. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    There are so many if's, and's and but's, Elvis was too much of a nice guy to make it happen. He appreciated what the Colonel had done, he didn't really understand the industry or what the Colonel was really doing.
    I know for a fact that a UK/Europe tour would have been enormous and also would have given his career the boost that the TV special did.....
    I disagree that most of 62-67 was rubbish, but hey what can you do, it's what we have
     
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  16. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    I'm glad he didn't become what he would have needed to, to get that done.
    I still enjoy stuff from each year of his career, even the dreaded 65
     
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  17. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    King Of The Whole Wide World
    Written By :
    Bob Roberts & Ruth Batchelor

    Recorded :

    Radio Recorders, Hollywood, October 26-27, 1961 : October 27, 1961. take 4 (edited)
    ---------------------
    This song sounds like the opening titles to the movie ... Oh ok, a quick look at the video tells me it is.
    Well this sounds perfect for the opening titles of a movie. This is a big production number and has a good feel. This track had everything and the kitchen sink. If this was recorded on 8 or 16 tracks, I could do such a good 5.1 mix, it has so much information.
    Anyhow this is a good track, nice percussive break downs, nice horn arrangements, nice string arrangements, if anything it may just be that it has just too much in it.

     
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  18. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    This Is Living
    Written By :
    Ben Weisman & Fred Wise

    Recorded :

    Radio Recorders, Hollywood, October 26-27, 1961 : October 27, 1961. take 10
    Although this is a good track and sits comfortably enough on C'mon Everybody, we start to hear a song that is specifically written for a movie. It sounds a lot like incidental music with vocals. That doesn't make it of no value, it just alters its focus. Although most of the soundtrack stuff up to this song could easily have been lifted and put on an album, this track still being a rock song of sorts (rather than Ito Eats, or one of those kinds of songs) really does feel like it belongs to a movie scene. I think it is its construction rather than execution.
    Still worthwhile, but not quite right.

     
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  19. SKATTERBRANE

    SKATTERBRANE Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tucson, AZ
    Elvis was recording on 3 track back then.
     
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  20. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    yea I know. I merely meant that the production is so big that if it were on a bigger board, one could make a rather fat sounding 5.1 mix from the density of instruments on there.
     
  21. DirkM

    DirkM Forum Resident

    Location:
    MA, USA
    I'm nowhere near as crazy about King Of The Whole Wide World as many Elvis fans seem to be. Sure, perhaps his vocal is more rough & ready than it would be for a long time, but the song itself doesn't appeal to me, and the production sounds too thin. Maybe if they had more guitars instead of horns?

    This Is Living appeals to me even less as a song, and the backing vocals are too loud and intrusive. Again, it's Elvis' vocal that somewhat salvages it.
     
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  22. PacificOceanBlue

    PacificOceanBlue Senior Member

    Location:
    The Southwest
    I do not think those were two different persons, it was not one or the other. Elvis was capable of standing up to Parker, the issue was that it was a rare occurrence. He sided with Steve Binder in 1968 to fight the format of the Singer Presents television special, and of course, he fired Tom Parker (briefly) in September 1973, only to reluctantly rehire him days later. The point is, the Elvis we all know still existed when he defied Parker (in 1968), which actually resulted in tremendous creative results.
     
  23. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    I think he was just too nice, and forgiving, to hold to his guns on it. I get the feeling that he felt he owed Parker and it effected his decision making regarding him.
    The reality to me is that Elvis would have made it big even if i was managing him, and really Parker owed Elvis, but was too self involved to appreciate the gold ticket he had, or what to do with it
     
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  24. RSteven

    RSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookings, Oregon
    I think you make a great point here and you also highlight the key point were any hope for things changing were doomed to fail after Elvis fired Parker in 1973 and then quickly rehired him. If Elvis had anybody else around him that he respected enough, he could have easily replaced Parker with someone like Jerry Weintraub, but there was no one around Elvis that had any real leadership skills or that was half as bright as Elvis for that matter. Well maybe Jerry Schilling, but he was younger than Elvis and probably viewed more like a son or younger brother to Elvis. Vernon was far too ignorant on business matters and too intimated by Parker to ever help Elvis stand up to his "good luck charm," as I believe that is the way Peter Guralnick described Elvis's psychological dependency on Parker. Perhaps Elvis was too far gone down his drug path already, but @PacificOceanBlue is correct here, Elvis did have it in him at several key moments to stand up to Parker, but he just could not seem to sustain the battle in the long run without additional reinforcement from somebody that he truly respected. I bet if Gladys was still alive, she would have ended up being Parker's biggest nightmare!
     
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  25. PacificOceanBlue

    PacificOceanBlue Senior Member

    Location:
    The Southwest
    Ultimately, it was a very unhealthy dynamic that defined the Presley/Parker relationship. I do not think it had anything to do with Elvis being nice or forgiving, rather Elvis was very insecure and Parker preyed on that insecurity. There was a part of Elvis that believed it was Parker's management that lead to the riches and opportunity before him, and without Parker, it would disappear. Parker knew it and preyed on Elvis' anxieties and insecurities (and he did the same with Vernon). It may seem irrational, but there was a part of Elvis that truly believed he would lose his career and fan-base without Tom Parker. Additionally, Elvis was generally non-confrontational, other than with his group of sycophants.

    And not only was not in him to take charge of major career decisions, but Elvis lacked the sophistication to do so (some of that was due to isolation, which Tom Parker orchestrated). Tom Parker knew Elvis was a golden ticket, and frequently maximized "now money" from it. It was never about long-term development and opportunity, it was about generating in-the-moment cash. There was also a part of Parker that believed he was partially responsible for Elvis' greatness, and that it was not simply Elvis' talent alone.
     
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