Elvis for Everyone
| Elvis for Everyone! | ||||
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| Compilation album by Elvis Presley | ||||
| Released | August 10, 1965 | |||
| Recorded | July 1954 to January 1964 | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 23:58 | |||
| Label | RCA Victor | |||
| Producer | Sam Phillips, Steve Sholes Chet Atkins, Urban Thielmann Hans Salter, George Stoll |
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| Elvis Presley chronology | ||||
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| Alternative cover | ||||
Malaysian release
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |    [1] |
Elvis for Everyone! is the twenty-third album by Elvis Presley, issued on RCA Victor in mono and stereo, LPM/LSP 3450, in August 1965. Recording sessions took place over a ten-year span at Sun Studio in Memphis, RCA Studio B in Nashville, Tennessee, and Radio Recorders in Hollywood, California. It peaked at #10 on the Top Pop Albums chart.
Content
Sessions in late May 1963 failed to coalesce into his fifth studio album of the 1960s, and by 1965 Presley's musical output had been focused exclusively on his movie career and soundtrack output.[2] He had not released a proper studio album since Pot Luck with Elvis in June 1962, although seven non-movie singles had been issued since. RCA invented the concept of an "Anniversary Album" to celebrate Presley's tenth year on their label, which became Elvis For Everyone.[3] Given the cover depicting Elvis standing next to the RCA mascot Nipper sitting atop a cash register, one can infer exactly what this album would be celebrating. Since May 1963, Presley had only made one non-movie session in January 1964 that yielded a mere three tracks, two of which had already been issued as sides for singles. Bereft of new material, RCA assembled this album from unused tracks going all the way back to the Sun Records years, from sessions for both soundtracks and regular commercial releases. Possibly owing to its assembly from scraps and rejects, although it made the top ten on the LP chart, it was the first Presley album to sell fewer than 300,000 copies during the decade.[4]
Of the tracks on the album only "Summer Kisses, Winter Tears," recorded for but not used in the film Flaming Star, had previously been issued, on the extended play single Elvis By Request. Several tracks had appeared on film, but had not been issued on record before. "In My Way" had appeared in the 1961 film Wild in the Country, "Sound Advice" in the 1962 film Follow That Dream, and the traditional Neapolitan ballad "Santa Lucia" in the 1964 outing Viva Las Vegas. The remaining eight tracks had been unissued in any form. The Sun ballad "Tomorrow Night" had overdubs added for release on this album; it would not be officially issued in its original form for another two decades on the first attempt at an exhaustive Sun compilation, The Complete Sun Sessions in 1987.[5]
RCA had intended to include the unreleased Sun Records track "Tennessee Saturday Night," but withdrew it from the album and replaced it with "Tomorrow Night".[6] Neither has reference to a Presley Sun recording with this title ever been mentioned in any other source, nor has a Presley Sun recording with this title ever been discovered, although a song entitled "Tennessee Saturday Night" was slated for Loving You but not recorded.[7]
In its format as a compilation of mostly unissued leftovers from various sessions, and given its rather short running time, this album anticipated the Presley budget releases with a similar concept that would appear during the late 1960s and early 1970s on the RCA Camden label. RCA opted not to include it as part of its reissue program, appending its songs as bonus tracks to other albums as appropriate, with the overdubbed version of "Tomorrow Night" being ultimately replaced by the original Sun Records master version in general circulation.
Collective Personnel
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Track listing
Chart position taken from Billboard Hot 100
Side one
| Track | Recorded | Original EP Issue | Catalogue | Release Date | Chart Peak | Song Title | Writer(s) | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 2/1/58 | Your Cheatin' Heart | Hank Williams | 2:24 | ||||
| 2. | 8/8/60 | Elvis By Request | LPC 128 | 2/61 | #14 | Summer Kisses, Winter Tears | Fred Wise, Ben Weisman, Jack Lloyd | 2:17 |
| 3. | 5/26/63 | Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers | Dory Jones and Ollie Jones | 1:47 | ||||
| 4. | 11/7/60 | In My Way | Fred Wise and Ben Weisman | 1:19 | ||||
| 5. | 9/10/54 | Tomorrow Night | Sam Coslow and Wilhelm Grosz | 2:58 | ||||
| 6. | 1/12/64 | Memphis Tennessee | Chuck Berry | 2:08 |
Side two
| Track | Recorded | Song Title | Writer(s) | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 10/15/61 | For the Millionth and the Last Time | Roy C. Bennett and Sid Tepper | 2:05 |
| 2. | 11/7/60 | Forget Me Never | Fred Wise and Ben Weisman | 1:35 |
| 3. | 7/2/61 | Sound Advice | Bernie Baum, Bill Giant, Florence Kaye | 1:45 |
| 4. | 7/10/63 | Santa Lucia | Traditional | 1:11 |
| 5. | 10/15/61 | I Met Her Today | Hal Blair and Don Robertson | 2:42 |
| 6. | 2/24/57 | When It Rains, It Really Pours | William Emerson | 1:47 |
References
- ^ Allmusic review
- ^ Jorgensen, Ernst. Elvis Presley, A Life In Music. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998; ISBN 0-312-18572-3, p. 183.
- ^ Jorgensen, op. cit., p. 200.
- ^ Jorgensen, op. cit., p. 201.
- ^ Jorgensen, op. cit., p. 16.
- ^ Carr, Roy, and Farren, Mick. Elvis: The Illustrated Record. London: Harmony Books, 1982; p. 99.
- ^ Jorgensen, op. cit., p. 79.
