You can read the previous installments in this series here: Part One: 1954-1955 (In the Beginning…) Part Two: 1956-1957 (Peak Presley) Part Three: 1958-1959 (Out of Sight) Part Four: 1960-1962 (Tug of War) Part Five: 1963-1964 (Ten Years In…) Part Six: 1965-1967 (When it Rains it Really Pours) PART SEVEN: COMING BACK 1968 will end with Elvis well and truly “back” and even though the year began with little reason to have such lofty expectations, there was a glimmer of hope that things were starting to change. In January he returned to the studio to record additional material for the Stay Away Joe film (he had already recorded three tracks for the movie back in October of 1967). Four songs were finished, and once again he had remained in Nashville to record them, eschewing the bland Hollywood studio where many of his previous soundtracks had been done. All together Elvis recorded only seven songs but with the Extended Play format dead as a door-nail after Easy Come Easy Go, no official soundtrack was released to accompany the film (the first time that had happened since Wild in the Country in 1961). After a string of disappointing album releases, there wasn’t much motivation to pump out another soundtrack to another movie that few were likely to be interested in. As for the film itself, the story was a light-hearted western which didn’t allow Elvis the chance to try any serious range as an actor, nor did it—on account of the lack of soundtrack—offer much for his music fans either. Without a clear focus on how to market the movie, it ended up appealing to no one. The insultingly bad tagline on the poster was a jumble of nonsensical phrases to try and rope in Elvis’ diehard fans… Elvis is kissin’ cousins again, and also friends, friends of friends, and even perfect strangers! He’s playing Indian, but he doesn’t say how, he says when! …but even they stayed away. The two-million-dollar film ended up grossing only 1.5mm, making it yet another motion picture mishap and making the Colonel’s instincts right that no soundtrack would have helped. Not that the material he had was worthy of a major RCA release. “Goin’ Home” was sung with gusto but Elvis had to burn through multiple takes to get a master; he spent much of the recording either laughing at the lyrics or fretting that he had no idea what to do with it to make it respectable. The other movie song, “Stay Away” was set to the traditional tune “Greensleeves” which Elvis always enjoyed. The song was better than the similarly-titled “Stay Away Joe” which Elvis had already recorded. And even though “Stay Away Joe” was the name of the movie, “Stay Away” was played over the film’s opening credits. In the end, “Goin’ Home” ended up being slapped onto the Speedway LP, in a complete mismatch of style and context. “Stay Away” was released as a B-side to little fanfare. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content There’s more passion in the vocals and more beef to the arrangements than could be found in much of his mid-60’s soundtrack output, but the lyrics are still unfit for the radio, and it was the radio where Elvis wanted to dominate once more. The other two songs recorded in January had nothing to do with Stay Away Joe, or with any other film. Ever since the How Great Thou Art sessions in 1966 Elvis had insisted on bringing hand-picked material into the studio to break up the monotony of his soundtrack work. Most of the time the songs devolved into glorified jam sessions unfit for recording, but every now and then he would insist on putting on a professional face and actually make something: “Too Much Monkey Business” was a mid-50’s Chuck Berry rock and roller that Elvis turned into a proto-funk rock tune, tearing into the lyrics into with unmistakable excitement. Despite the energy on display, the song was passed over for single release and instead found itself on a budget album—Elvis Sings Flaming Star—in 1969. “U.S. Male” was actually brought to Elvis’s attention late in the recording session as they were looking for “one more song” to record. Jerry Reed had recently supplied Elvis with a mild-hit “Guitar Man” (he even drove to the Nashville studio to lend his guitar-picking to the track) and returned in January to play for a whole session. It was then that fellow-guitarist Chip Young suggested to Elvis that he give Reed’s newest song, “U.S. Male,” a listen. The song is a “talking-blues” number with Reed’s inimitable picking driving the lyrics. Reed’s original arrangement is sparse and simple, but it worked for him. Elvis took the lyrics, slowed them down a hair and worked with Felton Jarvis to add more to the arrangement, such as background vocalists. The end result was a song that everyone felt strong enough to release as the A-side to a single; it ended up peaking at #28, making it his first top-30 hit since “Love Letters” in 1966. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content Only a few months passed before Elvis was set to return to Hollywood to film Live a Little, Love a Little for MGM. It would be his 28th picture overall and with only two more to go after it, Elvis could see the finish line in sight. There would be no new film contracts. No more movies with inane plots and tiring songs. He was almost done and then he would have his career back again. But first…Live a Little, Love a Little. Unlike Stay Away Joe, which was basically a musical-comedy without the musical, this film was intended to be a return to the musical-comedy stylings of Presley’s past pictures, only with more grown-up scenes and situations. There was more strong language, drug use and sex (or at least sexually implied scenes) than all prior films. As with all other Elvis movies, the final product ended up being another lightweight film that was forgotten soon after it premiered; as with most other Elvis movies recently, it failed to make a profit at the box office. On the music side, Billy Strange was brought in, not only to score the picture, but also produce the sparse, five-song soundtrack. Once again, no proper album was planned, only a “promotional single” would be released with the other three spread out as needed. “Wonderful World” was recorded first, and would be the song to play over the title tracks. It has a bouncy, upbeat, schmaltzy sound that would have been right at home in the hands of Frank Sinatra…fifteen years earlier. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content “Edge of Reality” was next up, and it was as far removed from “Wonderful World” as a song could be. Producer Billy Strange had brought a new approach to Elvis’ typical recording sessions, preferring to use a full orchestra in the studio with Elvis and to treat each song as an independent work, with its own sound and stylings. With “Edge of Reality” the styling was “psychedelic rock” (albeit about six months past that sub-genre’s popularity-peak). It can’t really be categorized as a “good” Elvis song, but it was unlike anything he’d ever recorded before. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content The real gem in the session was a Mac Davis-penned rocker called “A Little Less Conversation.” Davis had already written the tune when he was assigned to write a song for Live a Little, Love a Little. Elvis’s movie scripts were usually very basic constructions, with a lot of “Elvis does this” and “Elvis does that” scattered about, with “Elvis sings about this” or “Elvis sings in response to that” mixed in. Needing a song to go along with the cue “Elvis invites a girl to leave the pool with him” Davis immediately recalled the song he had tried to sell to Aretha Franklin. The result is one of Elvis’s purest rock and roll numbers of the decade. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content Unfortunately, the song was slotted as the B-side to a single with “Almost in Love” topping the bill. “Almost in Love” was a fine enough ballad but it was nothing like its flip-side song. It lacked the commercial appeal of the rocker and ended up barely cracking the top-100. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content “A Little Less Conversation” would remain in relative obscurity until it was featured in the 2001 film Ocean’s Eleven. A few months later, Nike featured a remixed version of the song in a commercial, and the subsequent re-release of the song went to number one across the world (including in the UK, where it became Elvis’s 18th #1, tying him with the Beatles for most chart-toppers). At the time though, the song went nowhere, but it did give Elvis and his team a new songwriter to take advantage of. Mac Davis would go on to produce the song “Memories” for Elvis’s recently-announced NBC TV Special, as well as “In the Ghetto” and “Don’t Cry Daddy” which would become hit singles for Elvis in 1969.
