1) Beyond The Bend; 2) Relax; 3) Take Me To The
Fair; 4) They Remind Me Too Much Of You; 5) One Broken Heart; 6) Iʼm Falling In
Love Tonight; 7) Cotton Candy; 8) A World Of Our Own; 9) How Would You Like To
Be; 10) Happy Ending.
General verdict: Derivative, cutesy, boring, and who the heck loves happy endings?
At least weʼre not in Hawaii any more, though,
honestly, writing a movie script that would somehow tie together Elvis, Elvisʼ
girls, and the Century 21 Exposition in Seattle was hardly that much more of a
noble enterprise than writing yet another script about golden beaches, luaus,
and mama shrimps. In the context of Elvisʼ musical career, though, the only
question that may be asked is — does this particular soundtrack have at least
one song of the caliber of ʽReturn To Senderʼ or ʽCanʼt Help Falling In Loveʼ? Just
one, one single, teeny-weeny bit of a song like that? We know we cannot be
arrogant enough to hope for two... but one?
maybe?..
All eyes turn first and foremost to Otis Blackwell,
who wrote ʽReturn To Senderʼ and who returns to contribute ʽOne Broken Heartʼ —
and it is a major disappointment in comparison, a fairly straightforward R&B
number with nothing but a simple and generic guitar pattern to drive it. Not
bad or anything, but no interesting hooks or unique features, and the public
reacted accordingly, making the single miss the Top 10. (Perhaps not
coincidentally, this would be one of the last songs Otis would write for Elvis).
And there you go — if you canʼt even count on Otis this time around, who else
could you count on?
The return to slightly less exotic American
soil in the movies is musically paralleled by the relative lack of exotic
embarrassments — but the actual result is that this soundtrack is very even,
very derivative, and ultimately just very dull. As usual, it is not so much the
fault of Elvis himself as the fact that all those corporate songwriters were
meticulously pumping out the same formulae. For instance, the good old reliable
pair of Tipper and Bennett pump out ʽRelaxʼ, an inferior clone of ʽFeverʼ if
there ever was one; and Ben Raleigh contributes ʽHow Would You Like To Beʼ, a
song that shamelessly pilfers the hook of ʽGood Luck Charmʼ but transforms the
song into a chiming nursery lullaby — granted, in the movie he does sing it to
a kid, but in the context of the album the implication is that in six years
time, Elvisʼ typical audience has «progressed» from 15-year olds to 5-year
olds, and this is... sad.
Actually, I have to take that back, because,
surprise surprise, arguably the best song on the entire album is ʽCotton Candy Landʼ,
a direct lullaby written by Ruth Bachelor and Bob Roberts (the same pair who
wrote the sappy ʽBecause Of Loveʼ) that has the benefit of containing subtle
gospel overtones — the way Elvis delivers the opening line "sandmanʼs
cominʼ, yes heʼs cominʼ", youʼd think he was singing about Jesus, not
sandman. There are also some exquisite guitar and piano flourishes giving the
song a mystical, even ominous flair — not sure if Ruth and Bob intended it to
be that way, but this teensy-weensy touch of creepiness is precisely what it
takes to make my ears perk up a bit. Unfortunately, this was probably an
accident, because nothing else on the record contains any such signs of
ambiguity.
The biggest advantage of the album is how
mercifully short it is — in fact, it is curious to note that five out of ten
songs do not even manage to hit the two-minute mark. It is almost as if they
were intentionally shortening them out so that Elvis could slice through them
as quickly as possible, then forget about them for eternity. (A notable
exception is ʽHow Would You Like To Beʼ, extended so that it can include a
playful instrumental section and a cutesy rockʼnʼroll coda, but youʼd have to
watch Elvis playing with little girl Vicky Tiu in the movie to get what it is
all about). At least Girls! Girls! Girls!
had a tiny bit of that old rambunctious spirit manifesting itself every once in
a while; It Happened At The Worldʼs Fair
has instead the spirit of a toddler, and a fairly flat and boring toddler at
that. Then again, one might find it so completely purged of any elements of
accursed machismo that it might come across as an unexpected delight to anybody
who... oh wait, no, I forgot that ʽRelaxʼ at least ("letʼs uncork the
stopper, come to papa") is definitely not
for toddlers. Damn, there goes the family entertainment value all to hell.
22 minutes of Elvis Presley typically for the time, in fine voice. Flat fidelity; about two clunkers here, however, the A-side (“One Broken Heart For Sale”) is infectiously catchy while the flip side (“They Remind Me Too Much Of You”) is just heartbreaking. By the way, the movie is one of the King’s very best.
ReplyDeleteWhat, but what do you have against Hawaii, George? Have you been? If so, Kauai I hope. You certainly don't miss an opportunity to knock it for six. Take a poke at Missouri, or Arkansas . . . or Deleware, for that matter. Be fair! Gave birth to Obama, can't be all bad . . . and once you've seen past the tourist trappings to a genuine, traditional Hoola or group dance, I daresay you'll be a little less dismissive (as you can tell, I'm still smarting from your devestating critique of Blue Hawaii, but i'll get over it . . . :-))
ReplyDeleteThe most striking thing here, is that the album cover is almost indistinguishable from its predecessor. It's an almost unsettling sort of déja vu.
ReplyDeleteAs for Elvis . . . I wonder what the real point is of reviewing all his albums, George. He was only ever as good as the material written FOR him, so it's always a bit difficult to judge his real worth as an artist. With the possible exception of a Frank Sinatra or Tony Bennett (am I omitting someone else?), a singing artist who doesn't actually write a good proportion of his songs is, for me at least, one or two rungs down from the creative artist who pens his own material. In which case every album is worth consideration & evaluation.
ReplyDelete1) I have absolutely nothing against Hawai'i or Polynesian culture in general. I do have some things against hollow cliches and the "exotic" approach to such cultures. Isn't that obvious?
Delete2) When I review an artist, I review everything by that artist - period. Having survived Cher, a trip through the less fortunate years of Elvis is a breeze in comparison.
You survived Cher? And lived to tell the tale?! . . . Ah, yes, I see, 27 albums! The legend of George Starostin is decidedly assured to last for Eternity. :-)
DeleteIts spelled Kawaii not Hawaii. Polynesian correct though.
DeleteGeorge reviewed Interpol, thus he can review sad Elvis records. Maybe he'll even do Danzig Sings Elvis.
ReplyDeleteGeorge calls this one correct. The (one and only) keeper here is 'Cotton Candy Land' - Would make a great medley with 'Mr Sandman' and 'Enter Sandman', by the way!!
ReplyDelete