Elvis Presley - The Albums and Singles Thread pt2 The Sixties

Schwing!

 

That is two of the most attractive people that have ever walked on this earth.

 

Ok, if I can take my mind off Ann Margret for a moment lets hit those fir coupla songs

 

The album opens with the single that we just hear, the title track

Elvis Presley - The Albums and Singles Thread pt2 The Sixties

 

The Yellow Rose Of Texas/ The Eyes Of Texas
This is a bit of fun, it isn't the most amazing thing Elvis ever recorded but it certainly fulfills the task of being a fun song that fits in the movie well and is entertaining enough to sit comfortably on the album. Perhaps having seen the movie makes this track somewhat better to my ears.

 

The Lady Loves Me
This song is great, it certainly has an element or cabaret or something about it, but it is so much fun, even without the video to go with it. Ann Margret gets to have a sing with Elvis and carries off her part with a great amount of character. I think the thing about this song is it has enough musical satisfaction to keep one interested, but it is so much fun ... and the thing about the movie is that it is a great fun and the songs reflect that.
This may be one of my favourites on here merely for that reason.

 

The Texas Medley is the only song I do not care for on the album. The Lady Loves Me is probably the most memorable scene in the movie and a cute song. Filmed at the Flamingo. I've stayed there a few times myself. But I never see Ann Margaret there.

 

I love that scene (lower right corner), wherein Ann Margret says, "My engine has overheated", and Elvis mumbles, "I don't blame it!"

 

If they had tightened the end up, instead of the terrible edits, it would probably have been the best of the Elvis movies, as Hollywood wanted him to be.... it still might be

 

Count me in as someone else who is surprised at the 45 of Viva Las Vegas doing relatively poorly on initial release. All I can think is that the British invasion caused a lot of people who would have bought the single just a few months earlier to move on to other artists. When I was a youngster I used to love this song. Took me forever to finally find a copy of the 45... I remember holding a mic up to the TV speaker and recording it on my portable reel-to-reel.

And there's great discussion in this thread about the mystery behind why the movie didn't originally have a proper LP soundtrack. I'm wondering if it's in some way related to the movie being released after Kissin' Cousins, even though Viva Las Vegas was filmed July 15, 1963 - September 16, 1963, while Kissin' Cousins was filmed October 13, 1963 - November 6, 1963. Something strange seems to have been going on.

 

Heck when new artists come along that I like, I do not stop buying records from the previous artists I like! Why can's someone buy both I Want To Hold Your Hand AND Viva Las Vegas? And now, 55 years later what song still sounds good? Certainly not I Want To Hold Your Hand!

 

Why do you say that?

 

as much as i like the Beatles, Viva Las Vegas is a lot better song and still sounds more fresh and appealing to my ears

 

"There's two kinds of people in this world, Elvis people and Beatles people. Now Beatles people can like Elvis. And Elvis people can like the Beatles. But nobody likes them both equally. Somewhere you have to make a choice. And that choice tells you who you are."

Uma Thurman as Mia, from the script in Pulp Fiction

 

I really would have liked a vintage stereo mix of Viva Las Vegas. I don't like any of the stereo nixes. It's much better in mono.

 

I like the Beatles, but I always thought I Want To Hold Your Hand sounds like bubble-gum music. I think a lot of the early Beatles stuff does. And it sounds much more dated that Viva Las Vegas does today.

I remember well when the Beatles hit the USA in 1964. I was 8 years old and I thought they sounded like kids. My opinion of their early work has not changed much since then.

 

Thanks for giving your reasons. Needless to say, I don’t feel that way!

 

I'd say I like them both equally, or about as close to equally as one can like two very different things. Elvis was my first real musical love, and the Beatles were my second.

Yes, that is another unanswered question that is puzzling... why did Kissin' Cousins leapfrog Viva Las Vegas on the release schedule? Was there something that delayed the release of VLV? Did the Colonel want the cheaply-produced KC to come out first, to prove his point that cheap films could do just as well financially as quality films?

 

This song has a special place in my heart, because it's the song that made my daughter into an Elvis fan when she was little. Her mom had shown her some videos from Grease on youtube, and she'd really gotten into "Summer Nights." So I thought, "what's another fun movie duet I could show her?" and I came up with this song. She fell in love with it and watched it over and over, and her Elvis fandom snowballed from there.

It's obviously not a classic of the Great American Songbook. It's a fun, lighthearted musical comedy song, and a lot of what makes it work is that it's clear Elvis and Ann-Margret are really having fun and enjoying themselves. It's pretty stupid that this was not released on record in Elvis' lifetime.

 

Sadly, the Flamingo that's there now is a completely different structure (and pool area) than what's seen in the film. The original was demolished in 1993.

 

I wonder if the delay had anything to do with deciding or negotiating what might go on an album, and that fell through so they just gave us the single and the EP

 

For some reason the Ann Margaret duets were not allowed but (by then) the more successful recording artist Nancy Sinatra was allowed. And for Frankie And Johnny, the duets were sung by Eileen Wilson (singing for Donna Douglas' character in the movie) and also allowed on the soundtrack LP. Elvis had even asked the Colonel to consider managing Ann Margaret. I guess the Colonel had some problems with Ann Margaret overshadowing Elvis with the "Bye Bye Birdy girl" references for Viva Las Vegas movie promotional material. He did not like someone else piggy backing off Elvis.

I wonder what would have happened if Elvis married Ann Margaret instead of Priscilla? Oh well "why buy the cow....?"

 

Yea the Colonel was very cagey with the Ann Margret thing ... I believe the answer was a very shrewd "well if I take on Ann, I won't have enough time for you"