Elvis Presley - The Albums and Singles Thread pt2 The Sixties

Oh yeah, the Double Features series DOES include all songs recorded for (even if not included) their respective movies. Double Features unfortunately are mastered with added digital reverb and sound pretty bad compared to the Vic Anesini masters of the clean versions.

 

Most of them were also remixed.

 

Yes and on Frankie And Johnny's Hard Luck they remixed the harmonica to sound like it is 3 feet wide instead of it natural size on the original mix. I know a LOT of people prefer the added reverb on these remixes and the smearing of the localized and wide stereo from the original mixes. And most people do NOT like the upfront and dry Elvis vocals, but I prefer the originals over the Double Features. One this I LIKE about Double Features is it included the full length versions of some songs, and not the edited versions in those cases. I would have liked to have a more dry and upfront vocal on all of the Bill Porter recordings, especially the Elvis Is Back sessions which have way too much reverb.

 

I die a thousand deaths every time you say that about those magical Bill Porter engineered sessions . I think that the vocal reverb on the Elvis Is Back sessions are just perfect and Elvis's voice would never sound any better or richer to my ears. By the way, I truly hate fake sounding or phony reverb, when it is over used in the studio or live in a concert, but I find Porter's technique to be a very natural sounding studio ambience and not phony at all.

 

Bill Porter's recordings are superior to just about any other recordings of Elvis. I agree. But I am not a fan of reverb in general. And although it was reverb done with tube equipment and more organic than most, I still think it could have been reduced by about 50% to yield and even MORE fantastic recording. Just because something is best, does not mean it could not have been better.

And certainly his use of reverb is much better than the reverb used on most of the 1969 Memphis recordings.

 

Yeah, I think all of us on this thread understand the context of the film songs... We have talked about it a bit earlier on the thread. The films have a mixture of "normal" Elvis songs and songs that are more like show tunes, which tend to be expository in nature and drive the plot along. I can understand and appreciate a lot of the latter-type songs, but that doesn't mean I have to like them all. Poison Ivy League, to me anyway, isn't that good a song by "film-song" standards. Just my opinion.

 

See, that is exactly my point... There seems to be no consensus about which of the soundtracks are his best or worst. I'm surprised there are people who think GI Blues is notably better than his other 1960-63 soundtracks (I think it's about the same). I probably like World's Fair and Acapulco more than some people. And to me, Roustabout represents something of a decline from the 1960-63 soundtracks, whereas you really like it.

At any rate, its cool if you like it, but I don't think there's any evidence that Elvis "went the extra mile" in any way to make it better than previous films. It's got the same low budget and "usual suspects" group of songwriters as the other films, and was produced just as quickly. Viva Las Vegas would be the one I'd say where they tried to go the extra mile.

 

I will never understand in a million years why they did not release Big Love Big Heartache as a single. It sounds very much in the vein of some of Roy Orbison's huge hits from the same era and Elvis's vocal is absolutely sublime to say the least. Discovering a "new" song like this to me is like finding out that gold is buried in your back yard for twenty years and you just did not even have a clue it was there.

Another song that I will never understand was not released as a single back in the day was True Love Travels On A Gravel Road, which of course was a featured cut on his fantastic From Elvis In Memphis album in 1969. Even the great songwriter Dallas Frazier, who co-wrote the gorgeous country-soul ballad with A.L. Owens, thought they had a huge number one record on their hands when they heard that Elvis had cut their song. It surely must have shocked them when it sat unreleased as an album cut only. Wow, who was making these decisions at the time? True Love Travels On A Gravel Road had all the trappings of a great country-pop hit, just like Kentucky Rain or Don't Cry Daddy. A truly missed opportunity, but just like Big Love Big Heartache, it sure made an already good album even greater.

 

[QUOTE

At any rate, its cool if you like it, but I don't think there's any evidence that Elvis "went the extra mile" in any way to make it better than previous films. It's got the same low budget and "usual suspects" group of songwriters as the other films, and was produced just as quickly. Viva Las Vegas would be the one I'd say where they tried to go the extra mile.[/QUOTE]






Wow. I'd really disagree that there is no evidence that Elvis went the extra mile filming and recording Roustabout. For one thing , his vocals on the soundtrack album are first rate.......anyone can tell he liked the songs and gave them the Elvis magic............. Which he didn't do much of the time. The results proved it.....The soundtrack went to #1 on the Billboard album charts.....and it was his last soundtrack album to reach #1.
As for his acting, I remember reading that he told his entourage that working with Stanwyck and holding his own was a great challenge that he took seriously and gave it a good effort. I think he did a pretty good job at it. The movie still holds up today, unlike some of his, like Harum Scarum, which do not. Both filmwise and sound wise, "Roustabout " gets high marks.

 

I'm always surprised that folks think Elvis didn't act well. To me he was excellent in Love Me Tender, Loving you, King Creole, Jailhouse Rock and Roustabout, just off the top of my head ... To me It is surprising given his box office credibility that they never gave him something juicy to try.
He was never uncomfortable in front of the camera in the movies I know. He always played a credible part and he always was effective in his emotion/attitude in regards to the Character he was playing.
An example, when I played Jailhouse Rock, for my wife, she didn't like Elvis, because he played the part of a bit of a jerk ... she liked the movie, but was annoyed that Elvis was a jerk lol

 

I think he's best in King Creole and Follow That Dream.

 

Love King Creole ... not sure I have seen Follow That Dream ... I'll have to fix that

 

Well, evidence would be things that are factual, like if it was documented that Elvis spent significantly more time working on recording these songs than he did on other soundtracks. Or if any of his friends or the musicians reported that he told them he felt these songs were better than usual, and therefore he intended to work harder on them and give them more effort. Neither of those things is the case. There's no evidence he felt that way. Your opinion that his vocals are better than usual because he gave them more effort is a subjective one. My opinion is that his vocals are not substantially different on this album than they were on any of the preceding films. Neither of us can prove our opinions, but the point is there is no objective evidence to support the notion that Elvis felt differently about these songs/recordings than he did about any other soundtrack.

Again, I'm not knocking your opinion... if you feel the album is exceptional among his soundtracks, that's cool. I'm just saying there is no objective evidence it was viewed by Elvis as anything more than just another in a series of lightweight movies.

 

Follow That Dream is probably Elvis' best acting ever. Even though it is a comedy and he plays a simpleton L'il Abner type character, he is the least "self-conscious" with his performance. In even his best movies (King Creole, Jailhouse Rock etc) he has many scenes where he is being "Elvis" in a self-conscious way. Not so much in Follow That Dream. I would say Kid Galahad is also an underrated performance.

 

Ah but his vocals become "substantially different" in a few of the upcoming soundtracks that have nothing to do with the engineering (although that has often been blamed for the reason).

 

One small hint that he is putting in a little harder effort would be the fact that it seems he did a lot more vocal takes on these tracks than on the other soundtracks leading up to it.
Most seem to be in double digits.
One thing that has struck me moving from the fifties to the sixties is how many less takes the songs seem to be completed in ... which is possibly just more comfort in the studio, but also possibly less care or fastidiousness in the finished take?
Idk, just an observation. I haven't actually collated the figures or anything, that is just my memory of the take numbers as we go through the songs

 

I think it is quite shocking that the compiler thought Poison Ivy League was more worthy of inclusion than Big Love, Big Heartache. That is mind-boggling to me. And I wouldn't even consider Poison Ivy League the fifth-best song on the album... there's several other songs I would have chosen ahead of it.

Command Performances is very oddly compiled. As you noted, some undeserving songs make the cut (and not just title songs) while there are very good songs that are overlooked. The most inexplicable thing to me is that they only include two songs from Viva Las Vegas (a superior soundtrack if there ever was one) while Roustabout gets four and even Kissin' Cousins and Girl Happy get three. Just puzzling. If I were to pick the 62 best soundtrack songs, my list would differ from Command Performances in many ways.

 

Yes indeed. And in those cases we have objective evidence (session tapes and outtakes, as well as aborted sessions) which make it clear from his comments/attitude that he is discouraged and losing enthusiasm. There's precious little in the way of Roustabout outtakes though and nothing which gives us a window into Elvis' attitude.

 

One has to realize when it comes to "takes" sometimes a "take" is barely a measure (music term used here). Sometimes a take is an entire run through. It could be that 15 takes maybe only includes 2 or 3 actual complete takes. And, often, it was simply a musician that flubbed. And sometimes a take was great but did not have the "feel" Elvis was going for. Sometimes Elvis nails it in one take other times it may take 50 takes!

 

Oh yea, I understand that ... but the only info I have to go off is what take number they use .. and this album the take numbers are considerably higher than most sixties albums, it seems ... Certainly they may have had technical issues, but there seems to be a consistency so far, of higher take numbers in comparison.

 

I don't think that he did substantially more takes on Roustabout songs than he did on VLV or Acapulco. He does many less takes on Kissin' Cousins, but that's not a fair comparison because on that one he was singing to completed backing tracks, so it was much easier and quicker, as there was no possibility of musician errors or any chance to alter arrangements.

Taking a longer amount of takes could possibly mean more effort, but it could also mean he was struggling with the song and not able to get a decent version. On the next film there are a couple tracks that took a huge amount of takes: Spring Fever took 24 and Do Not Disturb took 35. And in the latter case, it's clear from the dialogue heard on the outtakes that it took 35 takes not because he was giving it extra effort, but because he was really struggling with the song. Looking forward, Yoga is as Yoga Does got 12 takes. I doubt he went into double digits because he believed it was such a good song he wanted to spend extra time/effort on it.

 

And look how few takes most of the songs have on His Hand In Mine, which is an exquisite album, performance wise. (and probably his best sounding album as well, along with Something For Everybody). But I have to agree that his singing voice is still in great shape on Roustabout.

 

Yes indeed. It seems that at some point it was intended to be the single, since it's given a featured performance spot in the movie in the same manner as Return to Sender and Bossa Nova Baby got in their films. What's especially puzzling is not only that it was passed over, but what was released instead for the single: a seven-year-old outtake.

The song is clearly the musical highlight of the film. Something about the arrangement puts me in the mind of "Dream Lover." Good stuff.

 

I think he really started to lose enthusiasm by Girl Happy. He knew he was recording bad material. It's interesting to listen to the 1962 interview posted earlier in this thread. By 1962 he was still quite optimistic about his movie career. His thoughts in this Interview recorded for Elvis On Tour about his career in Hollywood is very interesting. It starts around the 29-minute mark but the entire interview is interesting.