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Home Music Command Performances: The Essential 60's Masters II

Elvis Presley - Command Performances: The Essential 60's Masters II

Command Performances: The Essential 60's Masters II Album Cover
 List Price: $29.98
Our Price: $29.98
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Manufacturer: Bmg / Elvis
Release Date: 1995-07-18
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Review
In the '60s Elvis made 27 movies, many interchangeable, but each had a built-in excuse for him to release a soundtrack. Individually they fail to advance the legend, but when the best of each is collected in one place, as here, the results are very rewarding. This two-CD set has 62 tracks, which makes it, for lack of a better word, essential. Much of it sounds fairly na(ve now, but that's only part of the inherent charm. The personality that Presley infuses into each track is incredible, and gives the listener an idea of why he earned the nickname "The King." --Scott Wilson
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Customer Reviews
Summary: Love Elvis songs makes you feel good
Overall Rating: Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5
Comment: I enjoy listening to any songs Elvis has sung. He is and always in my opinion is the best singer ever.
Summary: Very good collection of movie songs.
Overall Rating: Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5
Comment: Elvis Aron Presley wasted more talent than most people will ever have in their entire lives. It's no secret that many of his movie songs were downright awful. That anyone could do anything with much of this tripe is a testimony to Elvis' talent.

Well, what do we have on this CD set? It's a collection of songs from his 1960's movies, with each movie being represented by at least one song (with the exception of "Tickle Me" the soundtrack of which was made up entirely of songs from older Elvis albums-nothing new). This is a great idea; there are some very good songs and some bad ones as well. It's a mixed bag, but enjoyable.

I must question some of the choices, though. 'Blue Hawaii' is over-represented. Most Elvis fans will already have the soundtrack; why put 5 songs from that album on here? 'Roustabout' is also over-represented. Missing are two of Elvis' best movie songs: "C'mon Everybody (the movie version with Ann-Margret yelping!)" and "Rubberneckin'." How can anyone leave those two songs off?! I would also have liked to hear "Drums of the Islands" from "Paradise Hawaiian Style."

Although this set represents Elvis's 60's movies, it must not be thought of as a "Greatest Hits" album. Nor is this set for the casual Elvis fan or to introduce anyone to the King. For that, you'd be better off getting the CD "Can't Help Falling in Love: The Hollywood Hits" which truly is a greatest hits album and has some GREAT songs on it with little filler.

This CD set gets five stars not because it's the greatest music, but for the fact that it fills a niche for the avid Elvis fan--a little from a lot of his movies. A few minor criticisms, but it's fine nonetheless.

Finally, in the accompanying booklet, there is the famous photo of Elvis during the filming of "Follow that Dream", holding the machine-gun to Colonel Parker: Pull the trigger, Elvis, PULL THE TRIGGER!!!
Summary: Great - But Could Have Been Even Better
Overall Rating: Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5
Comment: Here are a healthy 62 cuts by The King AND a 22-page insert which includes fabulous liner notes written by Susan M. Doll, numerous photographs and poster reproductions, and a discography of the contents.

However, I have to agree with the other reviewers that some of the selections leave a bit to be desired - even bordering on "corny" as one points out. Yes, they were culled from his many films in that era, and this is, after all, the focus of the album. But instead of some of the fluff and an alternake take on Follow That Dream {I too ask "why?"), they could have included some quality tunes that remain hard to find today on CD.

These include the rocking Adam And Evil from Spinout and the smooth rendition of Aloha Oe from Blue Hawaii. Another is the Greensleeves-inspired Stay Away from Stay Away, Joe which is almost impossible to find today. The flipside of the single 45rpm U.S. Male in 1968, it was supposed to be on the LP Almost In Love in 1970, but instead they included Stay Away, Joe - an entirely different tune. A couple of more goodies in that vein would have been the seductive Relax from It Happened At The World's Fair, and Pocketful of Rainbows, a warm ballad from G.I. Blues.

You might get the impression from the sub-title - The Essential 60's Masters II - that there was a Volume I, but actually this is supposed to be a follow-up to the critically-acclaimed box-set From Nashville to Memphis.

The booklet alone is almost worth the price and in my case I was delighted to get King Of The Whole Wide World, Do The Clam, and Frankie And Johnnie all in one place. The first holds the unique distinction of rising to # 30 on the Billboard singles charts in 1962 despite never having been released as a single. It was part of a 6-selection EP.

Well worth a place in your musical library.

Summary: I went and bought myself a ticket and I sat down in the very first row.
Overall Rating: Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5
Comment: This is the companion collection to From Nashville To Memphis: The Essential 60's Masters. That collection featured ALL of Elvis' 60's non-soundtrack, non-gospel studio masters. This collection, on the other hand, only features a fraction of Elvis' 60's soundtrack masters. Which is a good thing, because a lot of those soundtrack recordings are pretty wretched. These 62 recordings are said to be the "best" of the movies. That's debateable, although there are certainly several classic recordings here, like "Wooden Heart", "Can't Help Falling in Love", "Return to Sender" and "Viva Las Vegas". On the other hand, there are number of less-than-classic songs, like "Because of Love", "One Boy, Two Little Girls", "Poison Ivy League" and "Easy Come, Easy Go". There are songs from every 60's Elvis movie, usually more than one song. For some reason, they included EVERY title song, no matter how bad some of them are. I could quibble with some of the other choices that were made, like only including two songs from the very good Viva Las Vegas soundtrack, while using four songs from the not very good Roustabout soundtrack. But this is still a good overview of the King of Hollywood's soundtrack material. I should mention that "Follow That Dream" (which is an awesome song), is NOT the "master" recording. It is an alternate take, because the stereo master has been lost, and they wanted to have the entire set in stereo. Hence, the stereo alternate take was used, rather than the mono master take.
Summary: A guilty pleasure
Overall Rating: Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5
Comment: Listen to this anthology and you know what "Col." "Tom" "Parker" was up to: he wanted to pattern his client's movie career after Der Bingle's. There were just three problems, however: First Bing was a natural actor, who only got better; Elvis's approach was largely limited to sulking, or variations thereof. Second Bing had all sorts of excellent co-stars and foils from Fred MacMurray to Fred Astaire to Bob Hope to Danny Kaye, not to mention his movable feast of leading ladies; The King almost always mounted his filmic throne alone. Third Bing had help from the likes of Ralph Rainger, Leo Robin, Johnny Burke, James Van Heusen, Johnny Mercer, Hoagy Carmichael, and untold other gifted songwriters who added immeasurably to his (and our) stockload of popular standards. Among the ways Albert Goldman punctured Elvis's rep in his gawdawful "bio" was by noting with malevolent glee that The King spent most of his movie career singing at half-mast the "immortal" (his word) Ben Weisman. To be sure thanks to the "Col." he was stuck with the anvil-banging hacks of Hill and Range, which didn't help El's mood; but we must wonder if anyone could have written him decent tunes, for "Parker"'s reasoning wasn't entirely bad: El, like Bing, had an extraordinarily beautiful and interesting voice -- more so, as he didn't have Jack Kapp forcing him to sing kiddie tunes -- and he needed songs to match; but the best of the sixties -- think Carole King or Burt Bacharach -- weren't quite right for Elvis, and at any rate he was at heart more a balladeer than a flat-out rocker, whatever people may think. (And whosoever believes Leiber and Stoller were the bee's knees hasn't heard "Bossa Nova Baby.") Besides at some point he had to sing with a big orchestra, or with sexy dames, and ditch that lowing bovine barbershop quartet the Jordanaires, but he didn't -- until it was too late, and he became the Elvis of self-inflicted ridicule.

Regardless these are two very entertaining discs, with some truly pleasing sounds; the best are the stand-up flag-wavers like the alternate of "Follow That Dream" and the unforgettable "Return to Sender", proving the hacks could occasionally write a decent tune even when shackled to The King's preposterous plots. That the album slowly grinds down as it reaches its inevitable conclusion reflects on how Elvis's film stardom slowly ground down, to the point he was accepting the bean counters' asinine advice on starting non-starter dance crazes ("Do the Clam"), or singing stupid unconvincing duets with a slightly stupider sounding version of himself ("Kissin' Cousins"). If I sound disrespectful (and I really don't mean to) it's that, for all its promise, Elvis's career amounted to so little, and every time we hear the still exciting magic of the fifties we can only gnash our teeth and wonder what might have been had "Col." "Parker" been prematurely and mercifully deported.
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