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Showing posts with the label Elvis Presley

The Death of the King: Elvis Opry Theatre

Elvis, the conventional wisdom goes, came out of the army, cut Elvis is Back,  and went into Hollywood, where he goofed off until his late '68 comeback special, followed by the Memphis sessions. It's true, for the most part. In the early '60's Elvis made three studio albums, a fourth was compiled from outtakes and old tracks. By '64, he began focusing on soundtracks alone. In '67 some of these included some better quality bonus tracks that had been cut as singles. His last few films tried to focus on Elvis the actor rather than the singer. Ironically, some of the songs associated with those films - "A Little Less Conversation", "Clean up Your Own Backyard", "A Change of Habit", and "Rubberneckin'"- are not only among the best of the period but also lead the way, artistically, toward his Memphis sessions (which yielded Rubberneckin') and the Comeback. So, about 20 songs from about 20 soundtrack albums - exclu...