Do The Vega

Since I'm watching Elvis' film "Viva Las Vegas," between my viewings (of pieces), I'm listening to the soundtrack album.

I see they've recently released most (or all) of Elvis' soundtrack albums with the original artwork. For me, I already have a number of them on the old "Double Features" CDs so I don't plan on buying them, duh. But there could be a few I don't have. Like "Tickle Me," and a few others.

There's a lot of good songs on "Viva Las Vegas," in my opinion. It's nice to be able to visualize the movie in my mind when listening to them. I think it would've been cool if Elvis had sung live in the films, but it wouldn't have been as smooth sounding. Still, that'd be a radical concept for musicals. Do music in them!

The other soundtrack on the "Viva" Double Feature CD is "Rousabout," which is also cool, but the songs on it are mostly in the under-2 minutes category.

Viva Las Vegas

I'm watching the Elvis movie "Viva Las Vegas." I've seen it before but it's been long enough, a couple years, that I'd forgotten most of it.

It's a treat so far, I think. Of course I love Elvis, so his movies aren't generally a problem for me. I don't like the ones where he gets beat up too much, killed, or is a juvenile delinquent or prisoner. But otherwise, with the lighter fare after the first few years, I'm fine with them.

"Viva Las Vegas" is obviously in that category. A love story with Ann-Margret as his love interest. So far I've seen a few musical numbers, including the one Elvis does at the University of Nevada and the one he and Ann do together, then he's at the piano at her father's place. They're all real good.

I also liked the musical sequence involved in Elvis' and the other guy's journeys to clubs to look for Ann-Margret. The "Texas" segment I don't care for much though.

Live A Little, Love A Little

The Elvis movie I've been watching the last couple days is "Live A Little, Love A Little." I love this film. I've seen it a few times.

It's so peppy. The only downer is how irritated Elvis always seems at the flirtations of Bernice. I gotta say, if I were a single guy and in the same position he was, I wouldn't be so rejecting. She's one great looking lady. But Elvis is sick of Harry Baby in the picture and also that Bernice keeps standing him up or acting weird.

I can't figure out the scene when he goes to the printing company and gets into a big gang fight. To me, I'm either always missing something or it simply doesn't make any sense. He's late for work and they try to kill him? I don't get it.

I'm getting toward the end. Elvis is "Almost In Love" with Bernice. Pretty soon they're going to have a divider in the bed, and finally, as I recall, Elvis gets rid of the divider. Whoa.

This is toward the end of Elvis' film career. Had he gone a few more years, who knows what we might've seen? As for this one, he's in the shower, with Bernice reaching a back washer way down. This also might be the only Elvis movie that has Elvis sitting on the toilet, although he's just sitting there fully dressed (toward the beginning when he's at the beach house.)

The movie has the greatest songs, as far as I'm concerned. But they're few. They're great though, including "Edge of Reality," "A Little Less Conversation," "Almost In Love," and "Wonderful World." The last song there really sets the stage for a breezy movie, with Michele Carey's beautiful performance a real treat throughout.

Some of the other folks are great too. One of "Bewitched's" Darrins plays Harry Baby, Rudy Vallee is in the film (!), Sterling Holloway is in there.

If you love Elvis and you don't have this movie, get it, and Live A Little!

Last "Kissin' Cousins" Post

A tiny bit more on the Elvis Presley movie "Kissin' Cousins."

Yesterday I said I was toward the end, and I really was. I finished it off last night. Elvis gets Pappy to give in on renting the mountain to the military for a missile base. So our nation is saved from the Russians! And Pappy is saved from the Revenuers, thanks to Elvis' keen negotiating skills.

We all remember Elvis' big meeting with Nixon. But Nixon was nothing compared to Pappy in "Kissin' Cousins." Pappy held out to the bitter end. No detente until the bitter end. In fact, they had to keep the movie going until Pappy finally gave in. What kind of movie would it've been if Pappy had acceded to Elvis' requests right at the beginning?

Personally I don't need all the conflict of Pappy withholding his OK. It would've been a good movie, in my opinion, if Pappy would've given in at the beginning, then they just had two hours of ho-downs and Elvis songs for the rest of the time. Skip the Elvis cousin in the blond wig, and just have a good old fashioned mountain music program. Call it "Kissin' Cousins," have Elvis doing his numbers live, and I would've been happy.

As it was, we had that happy resolution. Then it was time to show the couples who were getting married, and sing the title track (different version). Here they had Elvis-cousin and Elvis-normal doing a duet. Then, since it was all him, they had Lance LeGault with his back turned or in the background or his head down a little as the opposite Elvis. On my DVD player, I stopped it on one of the flips, and you can see Lance full facial for a split second. But I couldn't get it to stop at the precise moment on my computer .... so I don't have a screen shot.

The movie ends, they hold up a couple THE and END signs and that's it.

One song that didn't make it to the soundtrack album, and should have, is Ma's "Pappy, Please Come Home," complete with Hezekiah's (the dog's) moans.

Kissin' Cousins

I'm watching the Elvis Presley movie "Kissin' Cousins." I'm actually about to the end of it.

It's a good one certainly for all the female beauty throughout, with the wild Kittyhawks who inhabit them thar hills. Plus Elvis' closer kinfolk, the two girls of Ma and Pappy.

The story is fairly cute, with Elvis sort of in charge of helping get Pappy's mountain, at least to rent it, to put some missiles on it for national security. He has all kinds of stubbornness in Pappy.

Elvis plays a double part too, being his normal looking self, then also his cousin with a blond wig. He appears as both characters (from the front) in a couple of scenes. Most of the time it's Elvis and a stand-in from the back. I read in a book that the stand-in was Lance LeGault. In my opinion they should've got someone who looked like Elvis from the back, since you can tell clearly this guy has a different shaped head. No offense to Lance, but he's not even close!

I was just listening to a couple tracks from the soundtrack CD. I don't care for the slightly duncier voice they have the cousin Elvis singing with on the final number, "Kissin' Cousins." It doesn't seem like he had a duncier voice when he was singing earlier on in the movie. But they obviously wanted some way to distinguish Elvis normal from Elvis cousin.

The sisters are very hot, if you ignore the fact that they're hillbillies.

When In Doubt, Write About Elvis

OK, like I said a couple days ago, I'm watching "Speedway." I'm still not done with this Elvis Presley movie, since I only watch 15 to 20 minutes a day.

The whole scene where Elvis is in Mr. Hepworth's anteroom ... I didn't care for it when I first saw it. But this time I watched it in more detail and it's pretty charming, all the work those guys did to film that number.

One part I fairly well hate is Elvis' pursuing of Nancy Sinatra through the hallways, in the elevator, and dragging her into Bert Mustin's closed restaurant. They don't seem like they have that great of chemistry anyway, face it.

As for Bill Bixby's character, he's a crumb. Elvis could do better in the friend department.

There's plenty of good moments in the film. Including, yes, seeing Bert Mustin standing there!

Get Your Groovy Self On Home

I'm watching the Elvis Presley movie "Speedway," bit by bit everyday until I get done. This morning I had the part that includes Nancy Sinatra's song "Your Groovy Self."

This is a cool sounding song, and the kids at the Speedway Hangout seemed to enjoy her performance. I always enjoy it too. I keep thinking, That's Frank Sinatra's daughter hanging out with Elvis Presley. Cool.

She had a rich and great recording career, maybe she still does. I'd love to have all her albums. I have a couple is all, I guess. The "Boots" LP and the "Nancy and Lee" album via a download from Amazon.

Then there's this track from "Speedway." At the Hangout, the guy in charge -- an old hip comedian kind of guy, who's hip to the music of today's youth -- shines a headlight on a random member of the crowd and they have to do something. The first time we saw it happen, it landed on Elvis. He did "Let Yourself Go." Then the next time it was Nancy. So we really lucked out, because if it had been truly random, we might spend the whole movie with bad karaoke performances waiting to get to the main stars.

If you don't know the song, "Your Groovy Self," do yourself a favor. Get it, love it, and live by it. Meaning, "Get your groovy self on home ... to me."

Speedway

My next Elvis Presley movie to watch is "Speedway." I started it this morning or maybe last night. I watch movies like this while exercising, so it takes me a few days to get through a whole one.

So if I see 10 or 20 minutes of it a day, that gives me plenty to think of the rest of the day. I spend my days mulling over the many interesting facets of these films.

The big thing I can say about "Speedway" is that it has some extremely boring parts, wherever they're racing their cars. Oh my heavens, toward the beginning they have a race sequence that goes on virtually forever. It goes on so long it's painful. And it's so obviously pieced together with so much studio work, with someone rocking a car back and forth, etc., it's tediousness knows no bounds.

But after that, we get us some Nancy Sinatra ... then "Let Yourself Go," so that's a definite high point.

Last Post This Go Around On Paradise, Hawaiian Style

I finished the Elvis Presley movie, "Paradise, Hawaiian Style." I've been through it before so there weren't any surprises, of course.

It was enjoyable. But there's something I noticed at the end, and this is true of the last one I watched too, which was "Girls, Girls, Girls." They cheated us of a romantic scene with Elvis and his love interest in both movies. In "Girls," Laurel is left standing over at the sidelines, waving, while Elvis does the final number. It's very unsatisfying to the romantic.

And in "Paradise," he's just getting ready to kiss Friday (or whatever her name is, Judy Hudson), when some Hawaiian drum beaters hustle him off for the last number. So they never get a big meaningful kiss. They don't get a kiss in the movie because all along she's supposedly married. (She isn't really.)

I might need to do a study of Elvis movies, to see if this is a pattern. Why would they deny us the satisfying conclusion of Elvis and his love interest in a great embrace or a deep kiss? Could there be some interest in maintaining the availability of Elvis to the female viewer of the movie (originally)? I don't know, but it sure is suspicious that in each of these movies, the love interest is left standing on the sidelines.

Another thing that's unusual but unrelated to the above subject, is how much time Jan (Donna Butterworth) gets to sing. This is sort of hard to figure out too. What were they getting at there? Was she an up and coming child singer? "Queenie Wahini" and "Datin'" are both duets with Elvis and Jan. Then there's a big event toward the end, and the scheduled entertainer at it is Jan (!) doing "Won't You Come Home, Bill Bailey?" Is that considered some kind of Hawaiian song? And of all the people to get for the event, why would the sponsors pick a young, presumably unknown local girl? It seems like a weird moment.

The Dreaded Key Throwing Scene

Like I said yesterday, I'm watching the Elvis Presley movie "Paradise, Hawaiian Style."

And I said how much I hated a particular scene, in which a girl (Lani) takes the keys out of Rick's (Elvis') helicopter and throws them somewhere. We the audience never see where she throws them. So we're completely in the dark too.

Elvis comes over and immediately discerns that Lani had something to do with it. After a little finagling she says she threw them "over there," pointing to a particular place. Then she's helping DIG for them with Elvis and Jan. Notice I said "dig." Because why would keys that you threw "over there" be buried to the point that you have to be sifting sand.

Instead of digging, I would impress upon Lani the need we have to find the keys and get out of there. I'd be asking her for sincere and good information about which way she threw them. How hard she threw them, etc.

What a twerp she was!

Drums Of The Islands

The Elvis Presley movie I'm watching presently is "Paradise, Hawaiian Style." There are things about this movie that I really like. There's a few things I don't like.

First, what I don't like. I don't like the whole section where the girl throws the helicopter keys in the sand and it becomes a disaster. I don't like all the friction that develops between Danny and Rick (Elvis). That all sucks big time.

But there are plenty of things to like. Like the "Scratch My Back" song and musical production. That's nice. The part with the dogs in the helicopter. I think I like that. I'm not up to it yet. The "Queenie Wahini" number is cute, with Donna Butterworth. I looked her up on the internet once and I know she's still out there doing some things because of her connection to Elvis. Good for her! I would be too if I'd been so lucky.

Elvis looks great in the movie too. The travels down the stream in the "Drums of the Islands" number is really good.

I'm just not looking forward to those parts of the movie that I don't like.

P.S. By the way, Elvis' interviewing style for a secretary, with the suggestive remarks to the curvaceous applicants, would surely be a terrible no-no these days. Almost as bad as his kissing underage Annette Day in "Double Trouble." He'd be in some serious "Double Trouble," I believe. I'm not a lawyer though.

What Elvis Should've Said

I'm watching "Girls, Girls, Girls," starring Elvis Presley.

When I'm watching shows, movies like this, I can't believe the bad choices the characters make. You'd like to say, "Hey, stupid, wake up."

One scene has Elvis going to a nightclub to tell the manager that he wants to get some more hours singing, because he needs money because he wants to buy a boat that he and his father made.

The manager agrees and offers Elvis a more permanent singing gig, then insists that Elvis sing right now, then when he agrees to that it stretches out apparently for some length of time. Because all this time, Elvis was supposed to be over on a date, a get together with his love interest, Laurel.

He's singing and seems to be enjoying himself. But he's checking his watch, like he knows he's late.

I'm thinking, You told the guy "No," so stick to it. You have a date, simply tell him you're a responsible person and you need to keep the engagement you have. That you came in to check on the job, that you're not prepared right now anyway. Really, don't musicians need some kind of rehearsal or don't they at least need to talk it over with the band what song they're going to sing? On the movie, they just launch into something and it all goes perfectly. It's crazy.

At least in "Fun in Acapulco" when he did a performance it was just one song, then he was off. Each time, one song and out. Here in "Girls, Girls, Girls" he has to go on at length, missing a very important date.

Not me. I would've said, "I have a date with Laurel. I will keep our date." I will be in to sing tomorrow at this time, assuming I didn't have a prior commitment.

That's what Elvis should've said.

Girls, Girls, Girls

The Elvis movie I'm watching after "Harum Scarum" is "Girls, Girls, Girls."

This is one I got a few years ago on VHS at a garage sale. Since then I got the DVD.

This movie involves Elvis being a fisherman somewhere. He lives on a boat and occasionally sings in a nightclub. He has a (sort of) girlfriend at the club, then after he sings one night, he meets another girl, who becomes his love interest in the movie.

There's some definite unpleasantness in his movie I don't care for, involving Elvis having trouble with an employer, who's also screwing him over on the ownership of a particular boat. They get into a fight, it's just nasty.

But there's some good stuff coming up. I've seen it a couple of times. Including Elvis and his lady and some children and their parents on an island somewhere. The kids are very cute.

Somewhere in the movie, Elvis is hauling in big fish left and right, bringing up the song, "We're Coming In Loaded."

I pretty much like this movie. It's sad that Mama and Papa have to move to Arizona. But it's not too much for my delicate psyche to take. I can stand it, knowing Elvis gave them a good sendoff.

Watching "Spinout"

I finished off "Double Trouble" and proceeded to pop the DVD of "Spinout" into my player. Elvis movies, of course.

I like "Spinout." I've seen it a couple times, but still I forget some things about it until it comes along again. I think Deborah Walley was as cute as can be. She plays Elvis' drummer. The rest of his band is two guys who each play guitar and horns when needed. They're not really playing, of course, but they don't really look convincing on TV as a fake band.

I think the band is called "1+2+½." I don't know who's who there. Is Elvis the 1? And the two guys the 2? Leaving Deborah Walley to be ½? That doesn't sound right.

There's some good songs on "Spinout." And it is really really cute seeing Deborah working the drums. I like watching her about as much as watching Elvis.

I looked her up on Wikipedia one time and as I recall she died of something.

A Scene In Double Trouble

I just saw the perfect setting for an AFLAC commercial in a movie.

It's in the movie "Double Trouble," starring Elvis Presley and a red-headed young woman whose name escapes me. Suffice to say it's an Elvis movie.

Elvis and Jill (her name in the movie) are sitting on the back of a red pickup, with the driver driving them through the countryside toward a town. The driver is a farmer going to market and he has a bunch of cages with chickens and at least one goose in it.

Elvis is singing, etc. Then right at the end of the song Elvis and Jill kind of part and a goose sticks his head in the scene. And I'm thinking, right there! That's the AFLAC commercial. Since they could easily overdub the goose or duck's AFLAC word in that spot.

I don't remember exactly which kind of bird AFLAC's bird is ... but it looks sort of goose-ish.

Fun In Acapulco

My current Elvis movie that I'm watching is "Fun In Acapulco."

I like the lightweight stuff that Elvis did. Not the dramas or anything where Elvis gets beat up. The other day it was "Clambake," now this one.

Of course "Acapulco" has a Mexican setting, and Elvis does several nice Mexican flavored songs. I love the theme song. I love most of the songs, I guess, including "There's No Room To Rhumba In A Sportscar," which I believe is thought to be one of the lowest of the low in Elvis' musical output. I still like it.

The one thing I don't like about the movie is the fact that Elvis wasn't ever actually in Acapulco. He shot all his parts in the United States. That doesn't seem right. So, the way I take that, any shot you see of "Elvis" in Acapulco, any medium or long shot, like with Elvis riding on the bike with the kid, that's not Elvis but some other guy.

Then we come in for a close-up of the actual Elvis, with a moving picture behind him, sitting on a stationery bike. I don't like that. It seems like a cheat. Like it's half Elvis, half some other guy. If you're going to do a movie about Acapulco, at least go there! Sheesh!

But, all that aside, it's a tuneful, pleasurable movie. We get to see plenty of Elvis -- and some other guy -- we get some cool songs, it's a lightweight, harmless time, and he comes out OK in the end. The one burr under the saddle in this movie is that Elvis is from a family of circus high fliers and they had a little problem with heights, someone got killed, so he's bad about jumping off mountains into the sea. But he works it all out and it has a happy ending.

From Elvis In Memphis

I got the CD recently out, "Elvis In Memphis."

These are songs I already have, on the '60s box set as well as on the original records. They also put the "Back In Memphis" album together with it, since they're all the recordings Elvis made at American Recordings in Memphis in 1969.

The "Back In Memphis" album was originally together with a live record of Elvis at the International Hotel in Las Vegas.

At the time when these came out, I wasn't buying that many Elvis records, although I've had them now for decades. I was definitely noticing them somehow. I must've seen them in record stores. I was actually confused by it all. "Back in Memphis," "In Memphis," "From Vegas to Memphis," "From Memphis to Vegas," etc. I don't know if there were any other variations.

I couldn't really see the difference it made as to where he was and why they were making such a big deal about it. Just so they don't lose him. Since I never personally ran into him, whether he was in Memphis, Vegas, or Nashville didn't make any difference.

I can see the point now, that he was in a rut, then went back to his hometown to this legendary studio (at the time very successful) and put down some great tracks. Even so, I wasn't tuned in, so I didn't really realize how great the tracks were till a few years ago when I got the '60s box set. Now I love the songs.

And I'm very happy that Elvis had this high point -- some stuff to be really proud of.

This set is nice. The songs are in the order they were released on the LPs, plus there's bonus tracks, to give at least one take of each of the songs he recorded. It seems, though, that something's missing. Like the stereo versions of some of the songs, like "Suspicious Minds," "Kentucky Rain," etc. These are represented only by the mono versions. I'm no expert in these things, but I believe the versions on the '60s box set would be stereo. And I'm also thinking the versions on the "Elvis #1 Singles" box set are also the stereo versions. Don't hold me to that.

The pictures are nice in the "Memphis" CD set (2 CDs), the booklet has some good notes, there's a nice plastic slip case to put the cardboard set in. I like it. It was $13.88 at Walmart.

Faked His Death?

Has there been any speculation yet that possibly Michael Jackson faked his own death?

I haven't looked around to see, but it seems like someone would be saying that by now. First, his ex father-in-law (Elvis) of course faked his death back in '77. And at some point while MJ was in the Presley family, he probably got together with Elvis, who told him how it's done.

You figure, MJ was reportedly $400 million in debt and was apparently continually the subject of one lawsuit after another, who would have greater reason to fake his own death? Hasn't it been the case that he has used disguises of one kind or another to try to keep a low profile?

He's sitting in a motel watching all the coverage on TV. Is it still on? I haven't watched TV for a couple days.

As far as I know he faked his own death. As in the case of Elvis, I haven't personally seen the body.

Flaming Star

I'm trying to watch the movie "Flaming Star" starring Elvis Presley. By "trying," I mean I watch some of it in the morning and evening while doing my exercises. So it might take a few days to get it accomplished ... if I do.

I'm a huge Elvis fan, but there's one thing I hate about the more serious movies he made. I hate seeing Elvis in trouble, being insulted, and hurt. Bah. I know he wanted to be a serious actor, but I prefer to see him on top of his game, even though even in the lighter movies he's still in some degree of a jam. A little conflict is necessary for every story, I know that.

I couldn't get through "Kid Galahad" because of some of this. And "King Creole," even though I watched it, I don't go for that too much. What I want to see in these movies is Elvis and Girls, Girls, Girls, get a lot of great songs, etc.

But this business in "Flaming Star" of him being a hated halfbreed in the old West, that's not my thing.

Frank Sinatra

There's an interesting article on Frank Sinatra today online. I gotta say, I forget that Frank Sinatra has actual fans who are eager to hear whatever else there is left of his recorded output. It just doesn't occur to me in an ongoing way that they're out there. But God bless 'em, there they are.

So the article is a reminder, because I've heard it before but just space it off. It's definitely not my world to dwell in but theirs. To them he's The Voice, the greatest of the century, etc. The writer of this particular column even calls out Elvis, like Elvis might pretend to be the greatest of the century in the face of Frank. To me, personally, Elvis was a lot better than Frank, but I'm aware that I'm perpetually biased in Elvis' direction because of listening to him from my childhood.

As far as Frank was concerned, he was a guy that adults liked but seemed like an old guy by the time I paid any attention to him. And he had all those apparent unsavory connections that cemented it in my mind that he was someone I wouldn't want to be associated with. This is '60s and '70s stuff. I remember reading my grandmother's movie magazines about Frank and Mia Farrow, all that, and so he just didn't appeal to me.

But since then I've acquired a few Frank Sinatra CDs and have given him numerous shots. I've enjoyed them too, I must say. But really after a certain point it's just cranking out the same and more of the same, generic whatever with his own particular phrasing. Crystal clear, yes, but antiseptic and detached. There's not enough psychology in it. Reminds me of Bing Crosby who recorded songs on the golf course, then when he had that unpleasant task over with, got back to what he really wanted to do, which was play golf.

It's an interesting reminder, that there are all these songs out there, and that Frank's people are releasing them at a rate of one a year with another "Greatest Hits" collection that all his diehard fans already have. I like the column's point that in 12 to 13 years they might have an entire album of new material. Funny. It makes you wonder how someone could even become a Frank Sinatra completist now. You'd be scouring the earth forever to get all these tracks that are probably put out as limited editions, etc.

There's certain artists who have certain fans who don't give up their records easily. Which is why you hardly ever see a Frank Zappa record or CD in Goodwill. (They are there once in a while, but rarely.) Then you have all those ones that adults loved in the '50s and '60s but no one has loved since, and they're a dime a dozen, like Billy Vaughn, Englebert, Herb Alpert, and countless local, generic religious groups.

I'm rambling, but let me offer this point. You cannot be a self-respecting Goodwill store without at least five Herb Alpert records in stock at all times! And as for these countless local, generic religious groups of the past, you could collect them literally forever and still only have a tiny portion of the total output. The Happy Johnsons, The Server Sisters, The Lundstroms, the list is endless.

Let me conclude with one other point about Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley. Whichever one is "best," one thing is true of each. Their estates and companies wish they had worked these guys like dogs when they were alive. They should have shown up every morning with a stack of demos and said you guys aren't leaving this room till you've recorded at least 12 songs a day.