Elvis Presley - The Albums and Singles Thread pt2 The Sixties

Yeah, no argument there. I prefer Elvis' "Love Letters" over Kitty Lester's, but his "Come What May" is not as good as Clyde's.

 

Paradise, Hawaiian Style


Soundtrack album by
Elvis Presley
Released June 10, 1966
Recorded July–August 1965
Genre Pop, Hawaiian
Length 22:20
Label RCA Victor
Producer David Weichman, Thorne Nogar

Paradise, Hawaiian Style is the thirteenth soundtrack album by American singer and musician Elvis Presley, released by RCA Victor in mono and stereo, LPM/LSP 3643, in June 1966. It is the soundtrack to the 1966 film of the same namestarring Presley. Recording sessions took place at Radio Recorders in Hollywood, California, on July 26 and 27, and August 2, 1965. It peaked at number 15 on the Top LP's chart.[2]

Presley found himself in 1965 recording soundtrack albums for films that were almost a year away from release — gone were the days when the turnaround time from the final session for Elvis Is Back! to its arrival in the shops was less than one week.[3] While working on this album, his most recent film in the theaters was Tickle Me, and Presley had completed three more movies since then. With titles like "A Dog's Life" and "Queenie Wahine's Papaya" he openly ridiculed the material, wasting time before finally approaching the microphone to do the job.[4] He begrudgingly accepted songs given him that he would have rejected outright years earlier. He always finished the work, but in essence Presley had become a hired hand in his own career.[4]

No singles were issued from songs on Paradise, Hawaiian Style. Ten songs were recorded at the sessions for the soundtrack, but only nine were used in the film. The omitted song, "Sand Castles," was included on the album to bring the running order to ten tracks. Sales for the album were under 250,000, a new low for Presley's LP catalogue.[5] The good news was the single issued in June 1966 two days before the album, the 1945 Victor Young standard "Love Letters" backed with Clyde McPhatter's 1958 rhythm and blues hit "Come What May". It made a respectable number 19 on the Billboard Hot 100, and at least reflected Presley's actual tastes away from obligations to the soundtrack recordings.[6] It was also his first contemporary record release in three years since "(You're the) Devil in Disguise" in June 1963, arriving in stores less than two weeks after it was recorded.[7]

• Elvis Presley – vocals
• The Jordanaires – backing vocals
• The Mello Men – backing vocals (on "Drums Of The Islands")
• Bernal Lewis – steel guitar
• Scotty Moore – electric guitar
• Barney Kessel – electric guitar
• Charlie McCoy – acoustic guitar
• Howard Roberts – electric guitar ("Sand Castles")
• Allan Hendrickson – electric guitar ("Sand Castles")
• Larry Muhoberac – piano
• Ray Siegel – double bass
• Keith Mitchell – bass guitar ("Sand Castles")
• D.J. Fontana – drums
• Hal Blaine – drums
• Milt Holland – drums
• Victor Feldman – drums ("Sand Castles")

Side one
1. "Paradise, Hawaiian Style" Bill Giant, Bernie Baum, Florence Kaye July 27, 1965 2:39
2. "Queenie Wahine's Papaya" Bill Giant, Bernie Baum, Florence Kaye July 27, 1965 1:35
3. "Scratch My Back (Then I'll Scratch Yours)" Bill Giant, Bernie Baum, Florence Kaye July 26, 1965 2:16
4. "Drums of the Islands" Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennett July 26, 1965 2:34
5. "Datin'" Fred Wise and Randy Starr July 26, 1965 1:23

Side two
1. "A Dog's Life" Ben Weisman and Sid Wayne July 27, 1965 1:59
2. "House of Sand" Bill Giant, Bernie Baum, Florence Kaye July 27, 1965 2:04
3. "Stop Where You Are" Bill Giant, Bernie Baum, Florence Kaye July 27, 1965 2:06
4. "This Is My Heaven" Bill Giant, Bernie Baum, Florence Kaye July 27, 1965 2:36
5. "Sand Castles" (bonus track) David Hess and Herb Goldberg August 2, 1965 2:58

FTD
Previously released outtakes

11. "This Is My Heaven" (take 4) 3:01
12. "A Dog's Life" (takes 4, 5, 6) 5:45
13. "Datin'" (takes 6, 7, 8, 11, 12) 3:23
14. "This Is My Heaven" (take 7) 2:48

Previously unreleased outtakes

15. "Drums Of The Islands" (takes 4, 5) 3:37
16. "Queenie Wahine's Papaya" (take 5) 1:57
17. "Stop Where You Are" (take 1) 2:40
18. "House Of Sand" (take 3 plus intro) 4:44
19. "Paradise, Hawaiian Style" (takes 4, 1) 4:04
20. "Scratch My Back" (take 1) 2:29
21. "A Dog's Life" (take 8) 2:06
22. "Sand Castles" (KOV take 1) 3:06
23. "Datin'" (takes 1, 2, 3, 4) 3:20
24. "This Is My Heaven" (takes 1, 2, 3) 3:56
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We come to the last album in the trilogy of terror. I have listened to this album, but only once so far. I know I have listened to this album previously because how can one forget hearing Queenie Wahine .... Anyway....
It's really not surprising that Elvis would have ridiculed the material, I'm sure by this stage he would have been getting really annoyed, I know I would have been.
I'm not going to say there's nothing good on here, because I honestly don't remember, and there is normally some saving grace of one or two songs, but again we aren't hearing Elvis Is Back, Something For Everyone or Pot Luck here. As bad as some of those titles may have been, the songs were great. As much as the title of this isn't bad, the music isn't great.

Let us know how you feel about this album and we'll storm through it and get back on this upswing by Saturday or Sunday

Cheers
Mark

 

As with Frankie & Johnny, I really like my edited mixtape of Paradise, Hawaiian Style. There's some very attractive music on the album, and as a whole, I might actually prefer it to Blue Hawaii (blasphemy, I know). I will admit that I heard the album at a time when I just needed something whimsical and lightweight to listen to, so perhaps I tend to think of it more favourably than I might otherwise. Most fans will probably tell you that the only good thing to come out of the sessions are the "laughing" outtakes on the silver box, but hey...sometimes you just love an album for irrational, personal reasons. Oh, and the cover is beautiful (possibly my favourite Elvis album cover...not that it has much competition in that department).

On the negative side, the lyrics are probably the worst of any Elvis album (or at least the silliest), and the movie is unwatchably dull. But I don't listen to Elvis music for the lyrics, and I rarely watch his movies anyway, so neither one bothers me very much.

 

Of this "trilogy of terror" I like this album the most. I actually like 6 or 7 of the songs here. I actually listen to this album from time to time (unlike the previous two).

 

I think I mentioned this somewhere else in the thread, but the cover photo is from Fun In Acapulco. Whether this was due to budget (not wanting to pay for a photo session) I don't know but it strikes me as odd to use a photo that was three years old. And I never noticed a double bass was used on these songs, vs. an electric bass (minus Sand Castles). Of the Trilogy of Terror, I rank them from 'best' to worst as Harum Scarum, Paradise Hawaiian Style and then Frankie & Johnny.

 

FTD should release a 9-CD deluxe box of the Complete Trilogy of Terror sessions.

 

lol ..... I"M IN! .... hang on .... No I'm not lol

 

You could take the best 12 songs from these three and make an exceptionally top notch, mediocre album.

 

Don't tempt them.

 

Isn’t the photo on the back of From Elvis In Memphis from 1965? Perhaps besides RCA’s general “this’ll do” attitude towards album artwork, maybe they chose an old photo for Paradise Hawaiian Style because, during the Trilogy of Terror period, Elvis had become a little puffy and bloated. By Live A Little, Love A Little he was in as good shape and as handsome as he would ever be, but in 1965/66 he wasn’t looking his best.

 

I think it is from 1963/Viva Las Vegas era. But after 1969 or so Elvis didn't do any more publicity photos, so all the album covers were from his concerts, which got boring VERY quickly.

 

Hmm. Last night, the pub I was in - the Cobb Arms in Lyme Regis (Dorset, England) - played This Is My Heaven on their music system. I don’t think I’ve actually heard it played in public before!

 

I think that means there was nothing good then. If nothing stood out for you on the first listen (aside from the awfulness of "Queen Wahini's Papaya") or even proved memorable, that is usually the sign of a bad album.

 

Did they play it after last call to clear the place out?

I don't think I've heard any song from the album played in public, or even on the radio.

 

Well in fairness to the record, I have listened to about a hundred Elvis albums in the last 5 or 6 months ... so there is brain fry factor to take into account also

 

Mediocre may be too kind of a description.

 

Elvis was notably overweight in 1965-66. I'm sure that's the reason they used old photos both on F&J and Paradise Hawaiian Style, as well as some of his picture sleeve 45s from the era. As I noted earlier, Elvis' physical shape generally correlated with the quality of material he was producing.

 

His worst music album, imo. Even his singing is not up to the usual standards. He's phoning it in more than ever on this record.

 

It is definitely a lower-tier album, although, I tend to think "Girl Happy" might be the worst (although others are certainly contenders). Only "You'll Be Gone," a bonus track, is listenable.

 

No doubt he was overweight, but if image was a concern then why have him in a movie at all? This is what tends me to believe it was due to cheapness to use old photos rather than how he looked. And the movie posters certainly reflected his current look.

 

I don't think I've ever been able to sit through this record once. I've just zero interest in this kind of material. I don't even like Blue Hawaii and that's admittedly 100 times better than PHS.

 

What's worse, Ito Eats or Queenie Wahine's Papaya?

 

They wouldn't have to pay for a separate album cover photo session, they could simply use stills and publicity shots from the movie, as they'd done with previous soundtrack albums. They certainly didn't save money by paying someone to edit an older Elvis head onto a new photo for the F&J album. On PHS it looks like they edited a Hawaiian background onto the old FIA photo, which again would have cost money. There would have been plenty of new photos available. So I don't see how cost savings would have been the reason for using an edited old photo. The most likely scenario is concern about how Elvis looked.

 

I bought this back in the mid 1970's and our local record shop still had a sealed first press of this. I can't believe I passed over "Pot Luck" for this. I remember the owner (he was actually a cool guy that turned me on to lots of older music like Sinatra) at the record shop commenting something like "I was wondering how long it would take to sell this". I still have this. I made a cassette of this and put the album away just like my other LPs. I doubt I listened to the tape more than 5 times in 10 years. I remember being upset when I heard "Pot Luck" a year or so later and gave myself the "I coulda had a V8!" slap on the head.