1960s

Review – ELVIS DOUBLE FEATURES: VIVA LAS VEGAS/ROUSTABOUT [The Elvis Beat newsletter]

/ TY

I was 18 when I wrote this review back in 1993 for The Elvis Beat #5, my official Elvis Presley Fan Club newsletter.

Elvis Double Features: Viva Las Vegas/Roustabout (RCA), recorded by Elvis Presley, July 1963 (Viva Las Vegas) and February & March 1964 (Roustabout), Radio Recorders Studio (Hollywood). Released: 1993 (CD).

Elvis Double Features: Viva Las Vegas/Roustabout is the best of the four Elvis Double Features CDs released so far and the only one of those fans should consider purchasing unless they are planning to have every Elvis song on CD in their collection.

The strength of this album is due to the Viva Las Vegas tracks. This movie was the best of Elvis’ “formula” movies. Despite what critics seem to think, Elvis did make about a dozen movies did not fit the “Elvis formula.”

Most of the Viva Las Vegas songs are not the corny ones that comprise many of his other 1960s soundtracks. Best of all on the album is the title song itself, “Viva Las Vegas,” which is one of his all-time best movie songs.

Also of note is “C’mon Everybody” and Elvis’ version of “What’d I Say.” The album also features two duets with Ann-Margret, Elvis’ co-star in the film, which are mediocre in quality.

Roustabout contains several average songs, which means they are above-average compared to most other Elvis movie songs, and the surprisingly good song “Hard Knocks” that had previously only appeared on the original album.

Songs:

  1. “Viva Las Vegas”
  2. “If You Think I Don’t Need You”
  3. “I Need Somebody To Lean On”
  4. “You’re The Boss” (with Ann-Margret)
  5. “What’d I Say”
  6. “Do The Vega”
  7. “C’mon Everybody”
  8. “The Lady Loves Me” (with Ann-Margret)
  9. “Night Life”
  10. “Today, Tomorrow And Forever”
  11. “The Yellow Rose Of Texas/The Eyes Of Texas”
  12. “Santa Lucia”
  13. “Roustabout”
  14. “Little Egypt”
  15. “Poison Ivy League”
  16. “Hard Knocks”
  17. “It’s A Wonderful World”
  18. “Big Love, Big Heartache”
  19. “One Track Heart”
  20. “It’s Carnival Time”
  21. “Carny Town”
  22. “There’s A Brand New Day On The Horizon”
  23. “Wheels On My Heels”

Rating: 5 out of 10

Review – ELVIS DOUBLE FEATURES: IT HAPPENED AT THE WORLD’S FAIR/FUN IN ACAPULCO [The Elvis Beat newsletter]

/ TY

I was 18 when I wrote this review back in 1993 for The Elvis Beat #5, my official Elvis Presley Fan Club newsletter.

Elvis Double Features: It Happened At The World’s Fair/Fun In Acapulco (RCA), recorded by Elvis Presley, September 1962 (It Happened At The World’s Fair) and January & February 1963 (Fun In Acapulco), Radio Recorders Studio (Hollywood). Released: 1993 (CD).

The Elvis Double Features: It Happened At The World’s Fair/Fun In Acapulco CD contains 11 songs from each movie.

“They Remind Me Too Much Of You” is the only notable song from It Happened At The World’s Fair, with the possible exception of “One Broken Heart For Sale,” which is only an average song but when compared to the other seems better than it actually is.

The Fun In Acapulco soundtrack is slightly better, due mainly to the strength of one notable song, “Bossa Nova Baby,” and the unique Latin-flavored rhythms featured on the selections.

Songs:

  1. “Beyond The Bend”
  2. “Relax”
  3. “Take Me To The Fair”
  4. “They Remind Me Too Much Of You”
  5. “One Broken Heart For Sale” (Film Version)
  6. “I’m Falling In Love Tonight”
  7. “Cotton Candy Land”
  8. “A World Of Our Own”
  9. “How Would You Like To Be”
  10. “Happy Ending”
  11. “One Broken Heart For Sale”
  12. “Fun In Acapulco”
  13. “Vino, Dinero Y Amor”
  14. “Mexico”
  15. “El Toro”
  16. “Marguerita”
  17. “The Bullfighter Was A Lady”
  18. “No Room To Rhumba In A Sports Car”
  19. “I Think I’m Gonna Like It Here”
  20. “Bossa Nova Baby”
  21. “You Can’t Say No In Acapulco”
  22. “Guadalajara”

Rating: 4 out of 10

Review – ELVIS DOUBLE FEATURES: KID GALAHAD/GIRLS! GIRLS! GIRLS! [The Elvis Beat newsletter]

/ TY

I was 18 when I wrote this review back in 1993 for The Elvis Beat #5, my official Elvis Presley Fan Club newsletter.

Elvis Double Features: Kid Galahad/Girls! Girls! Girls! (RCA), recorded by Elvis Presley, October 1961 (Kid Galahad) and March 1962 (Girls! Girls! Girls!), Radio Recorders Studio (Hollywood). Released: 1993 (CD).

RCA continues its effort to release every Elvis song on CD with the commencement of the Elvis Double Features series, which covers Elvis’ film songs from the 1960s.

Unfortunately, those songs were, with only a few exceptions, the weakest releases of his career. The Elvis Double Features CDs are designed to fill in the gaps left on the new ELVIS: From Nashville To Memphis – The Essential 60s Masters I boxed set, which will not contain music from his movies.

Six of the 23 songs on this first disc are from one of Elvis’ better 1960s movies, Kid Galahad, in which Elvis appeared as a boxer. Although the Kid Galahad soundtrack is slightly superior to the Girls! Girls! Girls! songs which make up the remaining selections on this album, there are actually only two above-average songs from this movie – “I Got Lucky” and the excellent “King Of The Whole Wide World,” featuring the complete Boots Randolph sax solo. The other four Kid Galahad songs are typical and boring movie songs.

Seventeen songs from Girls! Girls! Girls! appear on this album, leaving one to wonder how there was time for any spoken dialogue in the movie. Actually, there are a few songs worth listening to in this portion: “Girls! Girls! Girls!,” “Where Do You Come From,” “Return To Sender,” and “Thanks To The Rolling Sea.”

Only two of the others hold any promise – “Because Of Love” and “Plantation Rock.” The rest can be forgotten.

Songs:

  1. “King Of The Whole Wide World”
  2. “This Is Living”
  3. “Riding The Rainbow”
  4. “Home Is Where The Heart Is”
  5. “I Got Lucky”
  6. “A Whistling Tune”
  7. “Girls! Girls! Girls!”
  8. “I Don’t Wanna Be Tied”
  9. “Where Do You Come From”
  10. “I Don’t Want To”
  11. “We’ll Be Together”
  12. “A Boy Like Me, A Girl Like You”
  13. “Earth Boy”
  14. “Return To Sender”
  15. “Because Of Love”
  16. “Thanks To The Rolling Sea”
  17. “Song Of The Shrimp”
  18. “The Walls Have Ears”
  19. “We’re Coming In Loaded”
  20. “Mama”
  21. “Plantation Rock”
  22. “Dainty Little Moonbeams”
  23. “Girls! Girls! Girls!” (End Title Version)

Rating: 4 out of 10

From Nashville To Memphis . . . [The Elvis Beat newsletter]

/ TY

I was 18 when I wrote this article back in 1993 for The Elvis Beat #5, my official Elvis Presley Fan Club newsletter.

ELVIS: From Nashville To Memphis – The Essential 60s Masters I, a new 5-CD boxed set, will appear in record stores on September 28. The collection is the follow-up to the highly successful 1992 release ELVIS: The King Of Rock ‘n’ Roll – The Complete 50s Masters, which earned platinum status and three Grammy nominations.

The Essential 60s Masters I follows the same format established by The Complete 50s Masters. Along with the five CDs will be a new 94-page booklet that will contain recording session data, a 1960s discography, and liner notes by Peter Guralnick. Also included will be a page of stamps depicting Elvis’ 1960s record covers.

According to promotional material, the CDs will feature “Elvis Presley’s finest 60’s performances from Nashville plus the complete 1969 Memphis Sessions.” In addition, the set will contain 19 previously unreleased/alternate performances for a total of 130 digitally remastered tracks.

The unreleased/alternate songs will include:

  • “I’ll Remember You”
  • “Guitar Man/What’d I Say”
  • “This Time/I Can’t Stop Loving You”
  • “In The Ghetto”
  • “Suspicious Minds”
  • “Kentucky Rain”
  • “It’s Now Or Never”
  • “Love Me Tender/Witchcraft” (duet with Frank Sinatra)

The collection brings the world a little closer to achieving RCA’s goal of having every Elvis song available on compact disc. Future releases are to include The Essential 60s Masters II and the long-awaited 70s boxed set.

Review – ELVIS AND THE COLONEL: THE UNTOLD STORY (1993) [The Elvis Beat newsletter]

/ TY

I was 18 when I wrote this review back in 1993 for The Elvis Beat #4, my official Elvis Presley Fan Club newsletter.

Elvis And The Colonel: The Untold Story (NBC), starring Beau Bridges, directed by William A. Graham, aired January 10, 1993.

Elvis And The Colonel: The Untold Story is a story that should have remained untold. Not only is this the worst movie ever made about Elvis, but this is also probably the worst movie ever.

The initial concept behind this television movie was actually a good idea – an examination of the well-documented mismanagement of Elvis’ career by Colonel Tom Parker. But the end result is an absolute failure.

Elvis And The Colonel is one big mistake after another. A listing of some of the many factual errors contained in this movie appears on page 5 of this newsletter.

The biggest mistake of all occurred in the casting department when Robb Youngblood was chosen to play “Elvis.” Youngblood does not bear the slightest resemblance to Elvis, so one can only assume that he was selected for his acting ability. The problem with that theory is that [. . .] at no time during the entire two-hour movie is he convincing as “Elvis.” [. . . .]

It is also obvious that no effort was made to make Youngblood look like Elvis. Throughout the 22 years of “Elvis”‘ life that this movie portrays, Youngblood wears basically the same hairstyle–even while in the Army. It looks awful and resembles none of the many different styles Elvis wore his hair in over the years.

Youngblood’s clothes in the movie look so cheap that even the local [discount store] would be embarrassed to sell them. Once again, they resemble nothing the real Elvis ever wore. The styles may have changed since his time, but Elvis never looked cheap the way Youngblood does.

All of these cosmetic problems could have been overlooked had Elvis And The Colonel been a good story but, as mentioned before, it is filled with errors. And even beyond those errors, the script is poorly written and the entire movie is poorly made. [. . . .]

Beau Bridges, who was obviously chosen only to draw more viewers, stars as “Colonel Parker” and does a poor job also, but in a different way than Youngblood. Bridges makes the Colonel appear too likable and too nice, defeating the purpose of the movie.

Youngblood seems to have accidentally studied Gomer Pyle videos instead of Elvis ones for his part, for he plays Elvis as an extremely stupid fool – which could not be further from the truth.

Appropriately, even the house that is supposed to be Graceland looks nothing like the real thing.

The ELVIS television special, or the ’68 Comeback Special as it has come to be known, featured Elvis in top form. Of course, this movie slaughters this as well. One of the most ludicrous moments in the movie, and there are many, occurs when Youngblood is shown standing in front of a series of waist-high letters that spell “ELVIS” in red lights. The real version was over two stories tall and looked much better.

One of the many myths that Elvis And The Colonel perpetuates is everyone’s old favorite: “Elvis” appears overweight throughout the 1970s in this movie while the real Elvis did not begin to experience significant weight problems until about two years before his death. Youngblood is shown obese by 1971, while the real Elvis at the time was in shape and would remain so for a few more years. Of course, in such an inaccurate movie, such mistakes are not surprising.

Half of the “Elvis” songs used in the movie were apparently taken from Ronnie McDowell’s work for the 1979 television movie Elvis, starring Kurt Russell, and not surprisingly, Youngblood does a poor job lip-synching to them. The rest of the songs were performed by Youngblood himself and are awful. One particularly bad scene uses a combination of McDowell’s and Youngblood’s vocal tracks.

The most surprising thing about this movie is that Dick Clark was its executive producer. Clark also executive produced the Kurt Russell Elvis movie, directed by John Carpenter, which is one of the better movies based on Elvis’ life.

With this new movie, Clark has gone wrong. He has stated his respect for Elvis in the past and his disdain for the Colonel, but this movie serves only to slam Elvis instead of its intended target.

Incidentally, Elvis And The Colonel was directed by William A. Graham, who directed the real Elvis in Change Of Habit, which was one of Elvis’ better films.

It is apparent that no one connected with this movie bothered to do any significant research about its topic. It is also apparent that the movie’s production was rushed, probably to have it ready in time to cash in on the free publicity of the Elvis stamp release two days prior to this movie airing. They need not have bothered, for The Carol Burnett Show: A Reunion special beat it soundly in the ratings.

The worst part about Elvis And The Colonel: The Untold Story is that some people, who knew nothing about Elvis, probably watched this irresponsible movie and now think that this is what Elvis was really like.

Songs include:

  • “Lawdy, Miss Clawdy”
  • “Rip It Up”
  • “Tutti Frutti”
  • “Long Tall Sally”
  • “Heartbreak Hotel”
  • “Trouble”
  • “Blue Moon Of Kentucky”
  • “Are You Lonesome Tonight”
  • “The Wonder Of You”
  • “Dixie/The Battle Hymn Of The Republic”

Rating: 1 out of 10

Review: ELVIS IN PERSON CD [The Elvis Beat newsletter]

/ TY

I was 18 when I wrote this review back in 1993 for The Elvis Beat #4, my official Elvis Presley Fan Club newsletter.

Elvis In Person (RCA), recorded by Elvis Presley, produced by Felton Jarvis. Recorded August 22-26, 1969, International Hotel (Las Vegas). Released: November 1970. Re-released: 1992 (CD).

Elvis was at his musical best in the years 1968 and 1969, a period encompassing the ELVIS televions special, the Memphis sessions, and his triumphant return to live performances. The Elvis In Person CD, arguably his best album, captures the Summer 1969 Las Vegas concet engagement that brought him back before an audience after years of movies.

The contents of Elvis In Person had previously been released as Record One of the two-record set From Memphis To Vegas/From Vegas To Memphis in late 1969.

He performs every song on this album with the skill of a true master, from rockers like “Johnny B. Goode” to beautiful ballads like “Words.” With only one or two exceptions, each song on Elvis In Person is the greatest live rendition ever released by him. Never before and never again was Elvis so unbelievably awesome as he was in 1968 and 1969.

Although his subsequent live albums certainly deserve merit, none would exceed the magic of this album. After so many years of mediocre movie soundtrack albums, Elvis was finally back.

Songs:

  1. “Blue Suede Shoes”
  2. “Johnny B. Goode”
  3. “All Shook Up”
  4. “Are You Lonesome Tonight”
  5. “Hound Dog”
  6. “I Can’t Stop Loving You”
  7. “My Babe”
  8. “Mystery Train/Tiger Man”
  9. “Words”
  10. “In The Ghetto”
  11. “Suspicious Minds”
  12. “Can’t Help Falling In Love”

Rating: 10 out of 10

Review: BACK IN MEMPHIS CD [The Elvis Beat newsletter]

/ TY

I was 18 when I wrote this review back in 1993 for The Elvis Beat #4, my official Elvis Presley Fan Club newsletter.

Back In Memphis (RCA), recorded by Elvis Presley, produced by Felton Jarvis and Chips Moman. Recorded January 13-23 and February 17-21, 1969, American Sound Studios (Memphis). Released: November 1970. Re-released: 1992 (CD).

Back In Memphis was the second album released from Elvis’ early 1969 Memphis sessions that produced some of his best studio work. The contents of Back In Memphis had been previously released in November 1969 as Record Two of the double album From Memphis To Vegas/From Vegas To Memphis.

As was typical of his entire career, Elvis performs a variety of musical styles on this album, and as usual, pulls it off with perfection. His best performances on Back In Memphis are “Inherit The Wind,” “Stranger In My Own Home Town,” and “You’ll Think Of Me.”

However, Elvis’ best recordings from the Memphis sessions had already been released either as singles or on the first album, From Elvis In Memphis, and when compared to those works, Back In Memphis is a slight disappointment.

Songs:

  1. “Inherit The Wind”
  2. “This Is The Story”
  3. “Stranger In My Own Home Town”
  4. “A Little Bit Of Green”
  5. “And The Grass Won’t Pay No Mind”
  6. “Do You Know Who I Am”
  7. “From A Jack To A King”
  8. “The Fair’s Moving On”
  9. “You’ll Think Of Me”
  10. “Without Love”

Rating: 7 out of 10