Elvis Presley - The Albums and Singles Thread pt2 The Sixties

Elvis worked as a movie usher as teen (if I’m recalling Guralnick’s biography correctly), idolized James Dean and Tony Curtis and other Hollywood stars, and, long before he met the Colonel, desperately wanted to be a movie star himself. Col. Parker and greedy management weren’t solely to blame for Elvis prioritizing movies over recording. Obviously he slowly ran a good thing into the ground, but hindsight is 20/20, as they say. Besides the step in the right direction of the ‘68 comeback and the return to concerts, the later movies such as Live A Little, Love A Little and Change of Habit at least attempted to break away from the mid-60s “Elvis movie” formula in some interesting ways, and I don’t think Elvis gets enough credit for that.

 

Even funnier that the distorted guitar sound on Don't Worry by Marty Robbins was unintentional and by accident as I recall and caused by a blown amplifier on the guitar. I love these type of tidbits about the history of these iconic recordings. Once they realized how cool it sounded on playback, a little country-pop history was made.

 

To me the sad thing is, watching Love Me Tender and Jailhouse Rock the other day, and my memories of Loving You, it's not as if his acting was any worse than anyone else around the time.
I certainly don't purely point the finger at management in general. It seems more and more apparent how unbelievably lacking in confidence Presley was, even to the point of not wanting to go on in the comeback special ... it is quite bewildering.
As for the movies, I think my portion of blame towards management is the fact that they strung him along until he realised he was not going to get that big role and then threatened him when he actually complained about it.
Elvis was in unchartered territory for a rock and roll singer and made all the mistakes for everyone else down the line to learn from ... or in some cases not learn from

 

Agreed. In another Elvis thread, I recently quoted Tom Petty, who basically said “Elvis was the first to go into battle for all of us.” The rulebook for rock stardom hadn’t been written yet. Despite all of his talent and charisma, he was an insecure young man. And, while this is a common observation when we look back at the past, rock and roll was perceived as fad, and long after Elvis, too. When the Beatles first broke America in ‘64, “what will you do when the bubble bursts?” was a common question. Given the death of Buddy Holly and the troubles that peers such as Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Chuck Berry experienced in the late 50s/early 60s, I’m not surprised that both Elvis and the Colonel saw Hollywood as the best and safest harbor to keep Elvis famous and rich.

 

I think we have one more Robertson song in the pipeline ("What Now, What Next, Where To"), but you're essentially right. Here are some relevant excerpts from an interview with Robertson:

Q: There has been criticism in the past of the way the music publishing business worked, in particular with reference to Elvis - that people were always wanting a piece of the action. Did you have any experience of that?
DR: Yes, I did (laughs). I was not tickled about it, but it’s kind of worked out in the long run. The only ones where he didn’t have any part of the writers' share was "I Really Don't Want To Know" and "I'm Counting On You." "I Really Don't Want To Know" was a hit long before he recorded it, and the contract on "I'm Counting On You" was before—just before—his firms were established with the Aberbachs and Parker. So he didn't get any share of the writer royalties on either of those. I say "he"—I don't know if Elvis ever even knew about this. I suspect he didn’t. If he had known I don't think he would have been so comfortable around his writers. He really seemed to admire and respect writers. I don’t think he would have been comfortable if he had known that not only was he the publisher, but he or someone in their organisation was getting part of the writer's money in addition. In any case, with the other 12 songs he recorded of mine, I had to agree to a deal up front before they would even show them to Elvis. This also applied to my cowriter, Hal Blair, and, as far as I know, to all the writers of new material for Elvis.
Q: So what exactly was the percentage?
DR: One third. The way it's worded in the contract, there's an addendum which says, "The above terms notwithstanding, the writer's share shall be reduced by one third…"—it doesn't say who gets it.
Q: So it went to the organisation?
DR: Well, it went somewhere—and we didn't get it. Who knows if the Colonel got it, or it was split between the Colonel and the Aberbachs, or if it was paid into Elvis' account.
Q: I get the impression that in later days it was even less disguised than that. That in the late '60s and '70s they were even more explicit: saying to people if you want Elvis to record your songs then we've got to have a piece of the action. And same writers courageously turned that down.
DR: I eventually did. Eventually it got to me and I just walked away from the situation. I'm sorry in a way that I did. I might have had several more Elvis songs.
Q: So does that explain why, after '63 -'64, there are none of your songs apart from 'I Really Don't Want To Know'?
DR: That was one reason. After 1964 I went into a slump ... my son from my first marriage, Donny, was killed in a head on collision in Malibu. He was just sixteen years old, and not only a sweet kid but a very talented guitar player and singer. Everything went to hell. I almost went out of my mind. I started drinking like a fish and taking pills—trying to deaden the pain. I didn't really have much of a creative life after that.

Fortunately, Robertson regained sobriety in 1969 and went on to write several more country hits--but none for Elvis, alas.

 

Thanks for sharing that! I've never heard it before. It's always nice to hear a demo of an Elvis song.

 

Funny thing was at first, the films actually benefited Elvis. Like those early films, like Love Me Tender, Loving You, King Creole and especially Jailhouse Rock (the one Elvis film inducted to the National Film Registry, I think), showed an Elvis who could do no wrong.

And yeah, his last films did show some growth...

 

Well TBH, most of the issues Richard, Jerry Lee and Chuck faced were mostly their own undoing. Richard quit just as they were getting used to him. Chuck and Jerry... well what they went through is so well known that it almost blurs their contributions to music. Elvis could've continued to do rock and roll into the mid-'60s if he wanted to but most of them thought it would go away. They didn't think it would last. The Beatles, Beach Boys, Dylan and, to some degrees, James Brown, and Motown shocked them.

 

I think Elvis showed seriously great potential as an actor during several of his better movies. Walter Matthau thought Elvis had natural abilities as an actor, and I think Elvis shows some fine acting skills in King Creole, Jailhouse Rock and several of his other movies. When given a decent director and a good script and sometimes even less than that combination, Elvis made the most out of the role. It is a shame that he was not given a chance to star in a serious drama without any singing at all, with a quality script and director to flash out his natural skills as an actor.

 

The Elvis For the Asking sessions are another example of how it's far more rewarding to listen to Elvis by session rather than by original album releases. After completing the Fun in Acapulco soundtrack, sessions were held May 26-28 1963 for a planned album. As we know, the album was cancelled and the songs intended for it were dispersed across various releases. As a result, this album/session is kind of a missing link in Elvis history, as far as the original albums are concerned. Below are the songs from the session and the place they were eventually released.

Echoes Of Love: Kissin' Cousins soundtrack 1964
Please Don't Drag That String Around: single b-side 1963
(You're The) Devil In Disguise: single a-side 1963
Never Ending: single b-side 1964
What Now, What Next, Where To: Double Trouble soundtrack 1967
Witchcraft : single b-side 1963
Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers: Elvis for Everyone, 1965
Love Me Tonight: Fun in Acapulco soundtrack, 1963
Memphis, Tennessee: unreleased in Elvis' lifetime
(It's A) Long Lonely Highway: Kissin' Cousins soundtrack 1964
Ask Me: unreleased in Elvis' lifetime
Western Union: Speedway soundtrack, 1968
Slowly But Surely: Fun in Acapulco soundtrack, 1963
Blue River : single b-side 1965

 

I'm sorry, but I'm a little confused. Isn't this track on Elvis For Everyone?

And this one? I thought it was on a single?

 

You are correct on both counts. "Ask Me" was released as the B-side to "Ain't That Loving You Baby".

HOWEVER, both of those tracks were remakes made in January 1964, along with "It Hurts Me" (and of course "Ain't That Loving You Baby" was an outtake from the June 1958 sessions). The originals from the 1963 session remained unreleased until after Elvis' death, so in that respect czeskleba is correct.

 

Yep, that is exactly what I meant... The May 1963 versions of these tracks (which would have appeared on the cancelled 1963 album) were unreleased in Elvis' lifetime. The January 1964 remakes of these songs were never intended for the album, since by that point it was already cancelled and some of the album tracks had been burned off on other releases.

 

Oh ok. Thanks for clearing that up.

 

"Kissin' Cousins"


Written By :
Fred Wise & Randy Starr

Recorded :
RCA's Studio B, Nashville, September 29-30, and MGM Studios, Culver City, October 10, 1963 : October 10, 1963. splice take 1 and 2

"Kissin' Cousins" is a song first recorded by Elvis Presley as the title track for the soundtrack of the 1964 motion picture Kissin' Cousins.[2] The movie also featured a completely different song, titled "Kissin' Cousins (No. 2)", written by Bill Giant, Bernie Baum and Florence Kaye.[2]
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The first single from, and title track of the Kissin' Cousins movie is an uptempo rock and roll song with a big beat and a solid guitar throughout. It's a fun song, though the lyrics and subject matter are a little bizarre to me.

 

Such a bad movie, I watched it about 6 months ago and struggled to get through it. So inctedibly dumb, never mind the whole "its ok if we're second cousins" thing. But this is about the music, right? Unfortunately, it doesn't get much better there either. When the title track is as forgettable as this ome is, you know you'te in for a mediocre-fest. I mean, its not the worst thing he ever did, its just mighty forgettable.

 

It Hurts Me


Written By :
Charles E. Daniels & Joy Byers

Recorded :
RCA's Studio B, Nashville, January 12, 1964 : January 12, 1964. take 5

To me this is a much better song than the a-side, but of course the a-side charted better and is remembered better it seems .... the charts and what people buy has always confused me, but anyhow. We have another great Elvis love song that, to me at least, has that special something that makes it one of those classic Elvis songs, but seems relegated to the also-rans of musical history.

 

It Hurts Me co-written by Charlie Daniels, is a FANTASTIC song and performance. Here Elvis gives us a sneak peek of a more adult and mature style that comes on full force in the 1966-1969 recordings, mostly leaving behind the light-pop fare of the early 60s (save for his movie material, of course). Holy cats, it should have been the A-side. Wild In The Country and Lonely Man were both assigned B-side status while the studio cut took the A-side. This is one of possibly two others (Bossa Nova Baby/Witchcraft) where the studio side definitely is the better song.

 

Of the movies that I am interested in seeing, this isn't one lol

 

Yeah the movie Kissin Cousins was a very low budget outing. I guess the Colonel wanted to make up for the over-budget Viva Las Vegas. But as it has been said, this is just the beginning of the decline in quality as it comes to the movies and the soundtracks.

 

I agree that It Hurts Me is a buried treasure in the Elvis catalog.

 

Yeah the Billboard chart was (is?) based on both airplay and sales. Whereas Cashbox was solely based on sales. So on Billboard if both sides are played it can bring down the chart position of both sides due to the split airplay. Or, in some cases, the airplay is so strong it does not matter that the airplay is split.

 

I'll put it out there now...I love the Kissin' Cousins soundtrack, including both title songs, and the movie easily qualifies as so-campy-it's-good. The Kitty Hawks? How did that ever get past the first draft stage? And then there's the infamous shot where you can see the faces of both Elvis and his body-double. I'll watch it any day over something like Blue Hawaii, which is just boring.

...that having been said, It Hurts Me is one of Elvis' greatest achievements. It's also one of the best songs he ever recorded. Jerry Jackson's version is almost as good:



I'm not convinced that It Hurts Me would have been a successful A-side, but I can imagine it being the dramatic and memorable closer to The Lost Album. Either way, it's one of Elvis' lost masterpieces.

 

Kissin Cousins soundtrack is innocuous. However Barefoot Ballad is so horrible it drags a merely so-so album down more than a few notches. Tender Feeling and the bonus song It's A Long Lonely Highway (later used in Tickle Me) are the highlights. The sound quality of the album is pretty good though.

 

I haven't listened to the record in a long time. It's bad and the movie is even worse. Tender Feeling and It's a Long Lonely Highway are decent.