Elvis Presley - The Albums and Singles Thread pt2 The Sixties

But Yvonne Craig at least makes the movie worth a look.

 

Well I really dig this doubled sided hit by Elvis as I think its one of his better unheralded singles. I remember seeing the movie as a kid and I could not get the title track out of my head for a long time. Maybe it was the whole provocative concept or the rather catchy beat, but I still like it to this day. Now of course It Hurts Me is the real gem and @SKATTERBRANE as usual nails it on the head. A new Elvis will emerge in a few years and this recording would show off some of the emotion and passion that he would put into material that he could actually identify with and sink his teeth into seriously.

 

I fully understand that soundtrack songs are often plot points in the movies, but having Elvis sing in his Jodie character (with the comical southern accent) as well as in his ‘normal’ voice on this song, and then releasing it as a single was an abysmal decision. What were they thinking?

 

From GI blues, all the way to the 68 Comeback special, I figure they all live on a different planet to me.
Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love a lot of the music, and even 90+% of the stuff that isn't fantastic is inoffensive and somewhat pleasurable, but the choices of what to do and where to go are just bizarre to me

Edit: I am guessing they wanted an uptempo single to show Elvis could still get down, and they just thought this will do .... ???

 

As if Elvis didn't already have a southern accent!

 

Even the sound quality was a step down from the previous soundtrack. Hissy and the U. S. pressings I have heard are also distorted.

 

The line “You're too blind to see” (and the impassioned way Elvis sings it) certainly looks ahead to 1969 and In The Ghetto.

 

Partially due to the fact the basic tracks were recorded in Nashville and Elvis overdubbed his vocals in Hollywood. Elvis seldom overdubbed his vocals but did so often with some of the 60s soundtrack material for various reasons.

 

Big fan of this one and yes - much better than the A-side.

 

Yep. When Elvis sang duets in his movies, they often eliminated the duet partner on the record and had him sing the whole thing. They should have done that here, had him sing a version entirely in his real voice for the record. The hillbilly accent is really bad, up there with Dick Van Dyke's cockney in Mary Poppins.

 

I guess Kissin Cousins was Elvis last fairly big hit before The Beatles invaded the US.

 

It's worth noting that this song was actually cowritten by Bob Johnston, not Joy Byers. Johnston was a staff producer at Columbia (best known for producing Dylan from 1966-1970), and says he wrote under his wife-at-the-time Joy Byers' name for contractual reasons (probably some sort of conflict of interest thing). Late in life he claimed to be the real writer of all the "Joy Byers" songs. I don't know if Byers ever disputed his claim, but in this case at least his story is confirmed by Charlie Daniels, who identifies him as the co-writer.

Regardless of who it was, "Joy Byers" was probably the best new Elvis writer to emerge during the dismal 1964-66 period, a time when many of the best writers of the early 60s (Robertson, Schroeder, Blackwell) were leaving. This song marks the final installment in Elvis' great early 60s run, in my opinion. From here on it's all downhill for awhile.

 

If I'm not mistaken, the session to record the backing tracks for this movie was Bill Porter's final Elvis session, after which he left RCA. Pretty soon we will not be using the words "good" (or even "competent") to describe the sound quality on Elvis' records.

 

Kissin' Cousins

Soundtrack album by
Elvis Presley
Released April 2, 1964
Recorded May–September 1963
Genre Pop, pop rock
Length 26:15
Label RCA Victor
Producer Gene Nelson
Fred Karger
Singles from Kissin' Cousins - "Kissin' Cousins" - Released: September 30, 1963

Kissin' Cousins is the eighth soundtrack album by American singer and musician Elvis Presley, released by RCA Victorin mono and stereo, LPM/LSP 2894, in April 1964. It is the soundtrack to the 1964 film of the same name starring Presley. Recording sessions took place at RCA Studio B in Nashville, Tennessee, on May 26 and 27, and September 29 and 30, 1963. It peaked at number six on the Billboard Top LP's chart.[2] The album was certified Gold on March 27, 1992 by the Recording Industry Association of America.[3]

Since the sessions for Viva Las Vegas had gone way over budget, released after but completed before Kissin' Cousins, Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker determined for fiscal prudence to have the songs recorded at Studio B, away from Hollywood and its distractions, and its platoon of available on-call musicians.[4] Demand for songs to fill long-playing soundtrack albums, by now a regularity as the EP single was becoming less and less a viable sales item, strained the resources of the stable of Presley songwriters, with five songs alone originating from the team of Giant, Baum and Kaye.[5]

Ten soundtrack songs were recorded by Presley with members of the Nashville A-Team during two evening sessions in September, with two distinct versions by different songwriters of the title track, one (titled "Kissin' Cousins") recorded in Presley's normal voice and the other (titled "Kissin' Cousins (No. 2)") with a mock-hillbilly twang.[6] The former version of "Kissin' Cousins" would be issued as a single in February 1964, with "It Hurts Me" on the B-side. It would peak at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100, its flipside making it independently to #29.[7] It became a gold record. "Anyone (Could Fall In Love With You)", included in the album, was omitted from the film. "Pappy, Won't You Please Come Home", performed by Glenda Farrell, is included in the film but omitted from the album.

As had happened with soundtrack of Fun in Acapulco, two additional tracks, "Echoes of Love" and "(It's a) Long Lonely Highway" by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman were taken from the aborted "lost" album sessions of May 1963, and added here to bring the running order up to twelve tracks. Three selections — "Once Is Enough", "One Boy, Two Little Girls", and the single — were on the 1995 soundtrack compilation, Command Performances: The Essential 60s Masters II.[8]

• Elvis Presley – vocals
• The Jordanaires – backing vocals
• Millie Kirkham – backing vocals
• Dolores Edgin – backing vocals
• Winnifred Brest – backing vocals
• Boots Randolph – saxophone, jug on "Barefoot Ballad"
• Bill Justis – saxophone
• Cecil Brower – fiddle
• Scotty Moore – electric guitar
• Grady Martin – electric guitar
• Jerry Kennedy – electric guitar, banjo on "Smokey Mountain Boy"
• Harold Bradley – electric guitar, banjo on "Barefoot Ballad"
• Floyd Cramer – piano
• Bob Moore – double bass
• D.J. Fontana – drums
• Buddy Harman – drums

Side one
1. "Kissin' Cousins (Number 2)" Bernie Baum, Bill Giant, Florence Kaye September 29, 1963 1:16
2. "Smokey Mountain Boy" Lenore Rosenblatt, Victor Millrose September 30, 1963 2:37
3. "There's Gold in the Mountains" Bernie Baum, Bill Giant, Florence Kaye September 29, 1963 1:54
4. "One Boy, Two Little Girls" Bernie Baum, Bill Giant, Florence Kaye September 29, 1963 2:32
5. "Catchin' On Fast" Bernie Baum, Bill Giant, Florence Kaye September 30, 1963 1:21
6. "Tender Feeling" Bernie Baum, Bill Giant, Florence Kaye September 29, 1963 2:33
Side two
1. "Anyone (Could Fall in Love with You)" (omitted from film) Bennie Benjamin, Luchi de Jesus, Sol Marcus September 30, 1963 2:29
2. "Barefoot Ballad" Dolores Fuller, Larry Morris September 30, 1963 2:26
3. "Once Is Enough" Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennett September 29, 1963 1:55
4. "Kissin' Cousins" Fred Wise and Randy Starr September 30, 1963 2:14
5. "Echoes of Love" (bonus track) Bob Roberts and Paddy McMains May 26, 1963 2:20
6. "(It's a) Long Lonely Highway" (bonus track) Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman May 27, 1963 2:38

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This isn't a terrible album, but there is somewhat of a drop in quality here. As stated above apparently there were budget issues after the Viva Los Vegas sessions ..... To me that shows quite clearly that Viva Las Vegas should have been an album and not a single and an EP, so to my way of thinking the issue was of the Colonels making. The album we have now is great, but - to my understanding - the Colonel didn't want Ann Margret singing on an Elvis album, so cutting those tracks off would have made it too short ..... Oh well
Anyhow I need to listen to this particular album a little more closely, and track by track is going to be the best way to do that.

What are you thoughts about this album?
When did you first hear it?
Has time changed your opinion?
Let us know anything that comes to mind regarding this album and we'll hit the first two songs tomorrow.
Cheers,
Mark

 

Alternative cover...

 

That alternate cover, especially the stereo version is quite rare.

 

Quoting: "one (titled "Kissin' Cousins") recorded in Presley's normal voice and the other (titled "Kissin' Cousins (No. 2)") with a mock-hillbilly twang" This is incorrect. Kissin' Cousins was recorded in both the normal voice and the mock hillbilly voice and were spliced together to make the master. Kissin Cousins No. 2 was recording entirely in the normal voice. Also all of Elvis vocals were recorded in Hollywood and overdubbed on the Nashville backing tracks.


This is the only time two title songs were used. It is too bad they did not do the same for Roustabout because "I'm A Roustabout" is MUCH better than the "Roustabout" song they used (though it was not so bad either).

 

I'm not too up to speed with Elvis' sixties soundtracks (which is partly why I'm enjoying this thread so much) so forgive me if this is a stupid question. The song "Kissin' Cousins" seems to try to take the edge off any "controversy" by implying we're ALL cousins, since we're "descended from Adam and Eve". But are they actually cousins in the film? I've never seen it.

 

Yes, they are cousins in the film. I think maybe 2nd cousins or so. They would share the same great-grandmother if that is the case. I am no scientist, but by that generation there would be little risk of genetic problems for the offspring. Now if the same inbreeding would perpetuate (like it did with European royal families) there could be problems with future generations.

 

The whole Viva Las Vegas thing is puzzling. Even if the Colonel didn't want any Ann-Margret vocals on an album, they still had ten solo Elvis vocals available (counting the two outtakes) and could have padded those out with a couple of For The Asking tracks. It's also puzzling that the VLV film sat on the shelf for eight months and they released Kissin' Cousins first.

I'm pretty sure Kissin' Cousins is the first instance in which Elvis sang to pre-recorded backing tracks instead of singing live with the band. He didn't like doing this and the results were usually inferior when he did, but the process is repeated on some of the upcoming soundtracks.

 

I have never seen this film, but wiki says that Josh and Jodie (Elvis' two characters) are third cousins. Presumably Azalea (Yvonne Craig's character who is matched romantically with Josh) is the same or even more distant, so well outside the realm of illegality or genetic concern, as you noted. By way of comparison, Jerry Lee Lewis' wife Myra was his first cousin once removed, hence the controversy.

 

I think he did it during some of the Love Me Tender and Jailhouse Rock sessions.

 

I'll have to give this a re-listen, but usually with these soundtracks, there will likely be 2 or 3 songs I feel are ok to good and the rest will be complete rubbish. But I will re-listen.

 

Up to this point in time, I like most of the soundtracks, with only a couple of meh kind of songs, but I feel a tension that the bottom is slowly dropping out ....
I have listened to them all now, but not enough to comment absolutely on it ... I know there were two that made me cringe quite a bit ... I think one was harum scarum

 

Oh yeah, Harum Scarum, and Frankie And Johnny are the bottom of the pile in my opinion. But then there are a bunch that sit just on top of the bottom of the pile from here on end.