Review by Trevor Cajiao - Elvis: The Man And His Music
Follow That Dream previously addressed the soundtrack of Elvis’ final pre-army film via a CD included with the superb 2010 book, King Creole - The Music. Sadly, it wasn’t complete, but with that package now deleted they have finally given it their “Classic Album” treatment. And I’m pleased to say that King Creole includes everything that exists from the January 1958 sessions that produced it.
There’s nothing that we haven’t had before, but now it’s all together and is joined by a second disc featuring non-Elvis demos of all the songs intended for the film, plus a demo of Liliane Montevecchi’s ‘Banana’ by an unknown vocalist, and the oh so atmospheric “street vendor” segments that make up the movie’s opening ‘Turtles, Berries, Gumbo’ sequence.
Disc 1 carries the eleven songs on the original album (such a great mixture of Dixieland infused rock n roll), followed by ‘Danny’, rejected for the movie and not released until twenty-years later.
Cut at Radio Recorders, the masters were mixed down from binaural two-track tapes that no longer exist, so instead we get what are labelled “Thorne Nogar Live Mono Mixes”, cleaned up from acetates and featuring count-ins plus snatches of studio chat an a few alternative takes.
The disc closes out with two versions of ‘Steadfast, Loyal And True‘, recorded on Paramount’s Scoring Stage and featuring just Elvis’ vocal.
The demos on Disc 2 are quite fascinating. Sadly, the identities of the singers are not listed, but surely that’s the great Jimmy Breedlove on ‘Hard Headed Woman‘, ‘Dixieland Rock’, ‘As Long As I Have You’, ‘Danny’, ‘Don’t Ask Me Why’ and ‘Young Dreams’. Breedlove (singer with The Cues) had a great voice and does a terrific job here.
There is wonderful barrelhouse piano on ‘Hard Headed Woman’ and ‘Dixieland Rock’, making them stand-out items. The rest, unfortunately, are a very mixed bag. Whoever’s singing ‘Trouble’ (which has the feel of a later Leiber and Stoller composition, Peggy Lee’s ‘I’m A Woman’) is from the Clyde Ankle School of Teen Idol Wannabes.
At least those handling ‘Dirty, Dirty Feeling’ (also ultimately rejected from the movie), ’New Orleans’ and ‘Crawfish’ do their best to put the material across in a credible manner. A couple of real clunkers are ‘Lover Doll’ (done as a sort of low-rent rhumba) and ’Steadfast, Loyal And True’ (pure Mickey Alba / Pat Boone).
There’s the usual sixteen-page booklet full of all sorts of illustrations and memorabilia, though the caption that lists Dudley Brooks as being Shorty Long is the only mistake in an otherwise flawless collection.
