Elvis Presley - The Albums and Singles Thread pt2 The Sixties

Well, I like all three of these songs as well. NightLife sounds like a song Charlie Rich would have recorded while he was at Smash. Do The Vega sounds like Elvis's own version of La Bamba and You're The Boss had steam coming off my computer while I played it. Did Elvis and Ann record that while they were in bed or in a recording studio?

 

I know you're being facetious with that last comment, but it's notable that Elvis' duets with Ann-Margret are one of the few instances in which he actually chose to have a duet partner in the studio with him. Most of the time the duet partner was overdubbed after the fact. Aside from Gordon Stoker, did Elvis sing live in the studio with any other duet partner?

 

"Night Life" really is an inexplicable omission. It would have worked well in the scene where Elvis is doing competing performances with Ann-Marget, rather than having him reuse Viva Las Vegas (which had already appeared in the film). Elvis must have liked the song too, because a few years later he did the very similar sounding "Let Yourself Go" which takes its beat and arrangement directly from "Night Life."

 

That's too bad, the 1969 Vegas live versions are bad ass.

 

I never made that connection before, but now that you point it out, I can't unhear it. That's not a bad thing, mind. No wonder I like Do The Vega so much!

(Side note: I initially mistyped that as "Do The Vegas," and I think we can all be grateful that the songwriters resisted the temptation to use that as the title)

 

Such A Night
To me a strange release this one. Release the single four years after the album ....
Such A Night Elvis Presley - The Albums and Singles Thread pt2 The Sixties

 

Never Ending
Written By :
Buddy Kaye & Philip Springer

Recorded :
RCA's Studio B, Nashville, May 26-28, 1963: May 26, 1963. take 3

Elvis Presley recorded it in May 1963 and first released it in July 1964 on the RCA 45rpm single 47-8400[1] with "Such a Night" on the other side.[2] In 1967 the song was included as a bonus track on Presley's soundtrack LP Double Trouble.
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This is a track that I am not very familiar with.It is a 'track recorded in 63 that was released on a single in 64 with an a-side from 60 .... The guys really started losing control of the catalog around this time to me, with songs being, seemingly randomly released and added to albums here and there and it doesn't make a lot of sense to me the way they were handling everything.
The song is a sweet rock and roll/pop ballad and works quite well.

 

On September 8, 1964 RCA continued with re-releasing singles, that had previously been released, as part of their "Gold Standard Series".

(US) RCA 447-0640 (45rpm) One Broken Heart For Sale / They Remind Me Too Much Of You
(US) RCA 447-0641 (45rpm) Devil In Disguise / Please Don't Drag That String Around
(US) RCA 447-0642 (45rpm) Bossa Nova Baby / Witchcraft

 

Such A Night/Never Ending is a dynamite pairing, but making no logical sense from a marketing strategy. Had they released Such A Night back in 1960, maybe it would have boosted Elvis Is Back sales. But, hey, more of this sort of thing is yet to come with even less success sales wise.

 

To me it's like they were sabotaging their star with nonsensical releases. Good songs just no rhyme or reason for the releases.
Mix and match mentality

 

Elvis was RCA's cash cow. His records by this time were not selling as well. Their solution? Release more singles to keep sales afloat.

 

I did not realize how quickly singles were issued on the Gold Standard Series. It seems it happened very soon after the initial run. A few EPs were also reissued on the Gold Standard Series and others were never put on that series.

Some EPs and Singles were initially released on this series, having never had an "regular" release. This was mostly songs that were already released on other formats, but never on an EP or single before. But, as usual, RCA was inconsistent with their criteria. Some songs came out on this series having never been released anywhere before.

Good examples of this: Kiss Me Quick/Suspicion was originally released on the Gold Standard Series whereas There's Always Me/Judy was released much later but on the regular series. No rhyme, no reason.

 

The way the catalog starts to roam all over the countryside from about 63 makes me wonder if there was a big drug problem in the record company. I know from here on there was a bit of a lull in quality, but most everything up to this point has been of good quality.
The lack of promotion for Elvis Is Back and there being no singles to promote it is beyond comprehension.
the failure to release soundtracks concurrent with movie releases just seems plain disorganised .... It is like the wheels had too much grease and were sliding off

 

It was common practice. Heartbreak Hotel wasn't included on his first album either and Hound Dog didn't go on the second record.

 

It certainly does make it a little difficult to put tracks in chronological order of release in a playlist. I think I've made a few slight adjustments to my Elvis playlist since this thread started, moving tracks around.

 

I wasn't meaning so much that one of the single releases wasn't on the album. More that there were plenty of songs on the album that could have been singles, even merely if just for promotion. I guess they still weren't bothered enough about albums to care.

 

Never Ending is a sweet little song that I can hear over and over again without getting tired of it. On one hand it's rather simple, and on the other, I'm not sure I've ever heard another song with its kind of effortless magic.

Regardless of its commercial merits (or lack thereof), Such A Night/Never Ending is a killer single.

 

Hey get ahold of The Complete Masters, the chronology is taken care of for you. For some reason the Follow That Dream soundtrack is one session out of order though. It should be before the Good Luck Charm sessions. The reason they give is because 4 of the 5 songs on Follow That Dream are in mono, because the stereo masters have never been found or ever utilized in RCA's history. Apparently switching from stereo to mono and back will make our head explode. (That never stopped them before).

 

I was going to, but I saw the price lol

 

Love Nightlife. That fuzz guitar makes the song (geez, that solo could almost fit on a Seeds song!), and Elvis' vocals and the arrangement really has that 60's groovy vibe.

 

As has been noted, for some reason in 1964 RCA began the practice of taking previously-released album tracks and/or old unreleased outtakes and putting them on Elvis singles. I don't know why they started doing this... in the years 1960-63 RCA usually released three Elvis 45s per year (the one exception being 1961, in which they released four). But in 1964 the number suddenly doubled to six 45s for the year, three of which had older tracks. Even stranger than the fact that they started doing this is that several of these vintage-track singles turned out to be moderate hits, making it into the top twenty. And of course in one instance they struck paydirt with a shocking top three performance by the five-year-old outtake "Crying in the Chapel."

"Such a Night" was also one of the more successful examples of this practice, making it to #16 which is pretty impressive for a four-year-old previously-released recording. Of course, I'm of the opinion that this song is the single finest recorded performance ever done by Elvis, so I think it well deserves to be a hit, even if a belated one.

"Never Ending" is another For the Asking track, burned off as a b-side. It's an okay song, well-crafted but nothing exceptional.

 

Prior to From Elvis in Memphis, none of his non-soundtrack albums had singles released from them. That just wasn't the practice. Same as the Beatles albums in the UK.

 

Ok, it just seems weird to me. A song on the radio is one of the best promotions an album can get. The fifties albums had singles though, didn't they?

 

No, unless they were soundtracks albums or compilations.

 

There are only 3 "proper" studio albums from the 50s anyway. The rest are compilations and soundtracks. And the A-side single for King Creole was not even in the movie!