As always, your Presley analysis is excellent. This was a great read, and I completely agree with your assessment of his early '60s voice.
After Presley died, RCA rushed almost all — if not all — of the soundtracks back into print and I picked them up. Most were dreck, although I gravitated toward the bonus tracks because they were the most interesting. ("It Hurts Me" on Kissin' Cousins? "Big Boss Man" and "Guitar Man" on Clambake?!? "Tomorrow is a Long Time" on Spinout!?!?!? There could be another essay on bonus tracks alone.)
Of the LPs, "It Happened at the World's Fair" is the closest to a studio album because all of the tunes on it are solid, even though length wise it's not much longer than an EP. I also enjoyed the low budget Camden records, which swept up the non-LP soundtrack cuts with a couple of current hits. (Ironically, the movies that had fewer songs were stronger films with stronger soundtracks.)
While the movie "Tickle Me" was the cheapest of the cheap, with no original songs, it turned out to be was one of Presley's most interesting soundtracks, with a good selection of deep cuts. And the movies he made post 1968 special had few songs, but at least some quality control.
Thanks, Glenn. The period between 1966 and 1968 is even more interesting in that the variance of quality between what Elvis has recording in Nashville and for the movies becomes, as you elude to, even wider. That being said, 'Spinout' is interesting in that on the movie songs, you can feel Elvis re-emerging, sounding more engaged and into recording than the distance and disengagement felt on the soundtracks just prior to it. The three bonus tracks on the album are part of the beginning of his comeback as was the single of 'Love Letters.'
Great job in digging deep to extract the few gold nuggets amongst the dross on Elvis's movie soundtracks, and in writing well enough to convince the reader they're worth listening to. Thanks for this!
Agree on this! 'Frankfurt Special' made a huge impression on me when I was very, very young and it remains one of my favourite Elvis recordings. It has one heck of a groove!
MAD's Don Martin, in one of his paperback books, did a wonderful parody of the Elvis film canon, in which "Schmelvis Parsley" and company repeatedly stop the narrative in its tracks by performing ridiculously over-the-top musical numbers. Though I dare say Martin was more likely parodying the post-Army films discussed here than he was "Jailhouse Rock" or "King Creole".
I haven't watched an Elvis movie in a long, long time, I confess. The last one was 'Blue Hawaii' and it was hard not to wince at the low production value (obvious use of blue screen, etc.). The music, at least in tje early sixties, does not suffer from that explotive ethic. Even the most novelty of the novelty tunes has some sense of care and drive to make chicken salad out of you know what.
"Return To Sender" is probably my favorite Elvis song.
It's a great recording and Elvis sings with such carefree abandon.
As always, your Presley analysis is excellent. This was a great read, and I completely agree with your assessment of his early '60s voice.
After Presley died, RCA rushed almost all — if not all — of the soundtracks back into print and I picked them up. Most were dreck, although I gravitated toward the bonus tracks because they were the most interesting. ("It Hurts Me" on Kissin' Cousins? "Big Boss Man" and "Guitar Man" on Clambake?!? "Tomorrow is a Long Time" on Spinout!?!?!? There could be another essay on bonus tracks alone.)
Of the LPs, "It Happened at the World's Fair" is the closest to a studio album because all of the tunes on it are solid, even though length wise it's not much longer than an EP. I also enjoyed the low budget Camden records, which swept up the non-LP soundtrack cuts with a couple of current hits. (Ironically, the movies that had fewer songs were stronger films with stronger soundtracks.)
While the movie "Tickle Me" was the cheapest of the cheap, with no original songs, it turned out to be was one of Presley's most interesting soundtracks, with a good selection of deep cuts. And the movies he made post 1968 special had few songs, but at least some quality control.
Thanks again, Robert!
Thanks, Glenn. The period between 1966 and 1968 is even more interesting in that the variance of quality between what Elvis has recording in Nashville and for the movies becomes, as you elude to, even wider. That being said, 'Spinout' is interesting in that on the movie songs, you can feel Elvis re-emerging, sounding more engaged and into recording than the distance and disengagement felt on the soundtracks just prior to it. The three bonus tracks on the album are part of the beginning of his comeback as was the single of 'Love Letters.'
Robert: Did you get “A Boy From Tupelo”? Great box set. That’s where I heard this.
https://johnnogowski.substack.com/p/where-elvis-might-have-taken-music?utm_source=publication-search
Yup, although I have not dug it out to play in a very long time.
Well done Robert. A thorough, fair, and insightful survey of Elvis’s least respected work.
Thanks, John!
Great job in digging deep to extract the few gold nuggets amongst the dross on Elvis's movie soundtracks, and in writing well enough to convince the reader they're worth listening to. Thanks for this!
Thanks, Peter - very kind of you to write this.
Forgot to mention that I always enjoy your writing style.
Thanks, Marco!
Roustabout and Hard Knocks. Frankfort Special. Change of Habit. Charro! This period is far from negligible.
Agree on this! 'Frankfurt Special' made a huge impression on me when I was very, very young and it remains one of my favourite Elvis recordings. It has one heck of a groove!
MAD's Don Martin, in one of his paperback books, did a wonderful parody of the Elvis film canon, in which "Schmelvis Parsley" and company repeatedly stop the narrative in its tracks by performing ridiculously over-the-top musical numbers. Though I dare say Martin was more likely parodying the post-Army films discussed here than he was "Jailhouse Rock" or "King Creole".
I haven't watched an Elvis movie in a long, long time, I confess. The last one was 'Blue Hawaii' and it was hard not to wince at the low production value (obvious use of blue screen, etc.). The music, at least in tje early sixties, does not suffer from that explotive ethic. Even the most novelty of the novelty tunes has some sense of care and drive to make chicken salad out of you know what.