New Exhibits at Graceland

It was announced this week that some new exhibits at Graceland will be opening up in the nest few months. Private Presley will be the name of one of them. It will focus on Elvis's time in the army and the first few months after he came back home. You will get to see some of his fatigues, uniforms, and other items from his army life. The other exhibit is called Elvis 68. It will focus on the NBC special, or what most people have came to know as the comeback special. It will feature suits from the show as well and never before seen pictures and documents. Also Graceland will offer a new VIP tour. You will get to see many things that you cant see on the normal tour. The original deed to Graceland, outfits, and other never before seen things from the archives. On this tour you will get to also see stuff from the working barn that most people have never got to see as part of the tour. It sounds like a lot of neat new stuff. I will for sure drop the sixty something for the VIP tour on my next trip. Make me want to go to Memphis now! Too bad I still have a hundred and eighty something days left till EW.

You Can't Say No In Acapulco

Tonight I am going to continue my reviews of the movie soundtracks. I am going to talk a little bit about the music in Fun In Acapulco. The movie and soundtrack came out in 1963. The soundtracks from the previous two films Girls! Girls! Girls! and It Happened At The Worlds Fair had not done so well. They almost decided not to even do a soundtrack for the movie. What a poor decision that would have been. You will notice with this soundtrack and with the ones that fallow, the material and quality work would go downhill. Some movies still had standout performances from time to time, but never a great soundtrack from start to finish. Fun In had elven tracks on the original album and two bonus songs. Elvis's voice was still great and it was a shame he was not given better songs, or he was not doing some normal album releases still. A few songs do stand out to me in this movie. Bossa Nova Baby is a great song and one of my favorite movie songs ever. I also think You Can't Say No In Acapulco is a good song. Mexico and I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here are also fun songs in my opinion. The FTD release of the soundtrack is awesome as usual. The bonus tracks are pretty good. As usual I go nuts over the outtakes. Hearing Elvis craft a song and even cut up at times is pretty cool. I really enjoy the first couple of outtakes of You Can't Say No In Acapulco. Elvis seems to have a hard time with the first of the song. In the end it turns out great and is the one song in the movie that still gives you a hint of the great vocal ability Elvis possessed at the time. Fun In, not the best soundtrack ever but certainly a lot of fun. I would rank it in the middle of the pack as far as soundtracks go.

That's not alright

In September of last year ABC aired a special called Viva Las Vegas. I am not going to get into what it was about or my rant on it. Really it was just a bunch of today's singers doing Elvis songs. Faith Hill was on there and happened to do two songs. She is premiering two videos from that special today on her site. She did That's Alright Mama and Peace In The Vally. I am not a big fan of either one she did. Nothing against her, she is a pretty good singer I suppose. If you dig Faith you might like these songs. I have no love for her version of That's Alright. Her version of Peace In The Vally was a lot better in my opinion. I can handle her doing that one. I am cool with some people doing some Elvis songs to pay tribute, but pick wisely. If you want to check out the videos of these two songs be sure to visit faithhill.com.

CLYDE MCPHATTER

Clyde McPhatter was one of the best vocalist of all time. For my money he is the best. This is an Elvis blog, so you might ask why am I rambling about Mr. McPhatter. Not only do I think Clyde is one of the greatest, but so did Elvis. Elvis had so many influences, but a great deal of them where r&b singers or groups. In 1950 Mcphatter would join a group called Billy Ward and his Domino's. This group was known as a favorite of Elvis's when he was a teen. Mcphatter was on the track Sixty Minute Man which was a big hit and one of the first few songs that could be put under the label rock and roll. After a few more hits Clyde would quite the group. Despite being the lead on most of the songs and being the strongest singers, he made little money. He would then would form a group called the Drifters. They are without a doubt one of my favorite groups of all time. The early stuff really stands out to me. The reason is simply Clyde. He would have a few hits with the group including Money Honey and Such A Night. Two songs Elvis would go on to record. No doubt he has a impact On Elvis. McPhatter would soon leave the Drifters to start a solo career. He would record the hits A Lovers Question and The Treasure Of Love. He never had a whole lot of success as a solo artist. McPhatter past away in 1972 at the age of 39 due to several health issues. McPhatter never has got the credit he deserved for whatever reason. Many of the great pure vocalist of the 50's and early 60's get overlooked for the most part. In early days when Elvis was asked who his favorite singer was he replied that is was Clyde McPhatter. I am with Elvis. McPhatter was truly something great.

IMAGE OF THE WEEK

In August of 1969 Elvis would make his comeback to the stage at the International Hotel In Las Vegas. This picture is from one of the shows during that engagement.

Vince's Top Five

1. Little Egypt
2. Don't Be Cruel
3. All Shook Up
4. Trouble/Guitar Man (68' Comeback)
5. Blue Moon Of Kentucky

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS MAN?

Have you seen this man anywhere? Vince has dropped off the face of the earth. If you can provide any information on his whereabouts please contact us here at Have A Clambake. A reward will be given out. The reward will be a VHS copy of Harum Scarum.

January 28 1963

On this day in 1963 the principal photography on Fun In Acapulco began at Paramount Studios.This is one of the coolest movies ever. So tonight it is going to be about Fun In. I will be back later on with some kind of thoughts on the movie or soundtrack.

Guadalajara, guadalajara...Guadalajara, guadalajaraTienes el alma de provincianaHueles a limpio a rosa tempranaAve de jara fresca del rioSon mil palomos to case rioGuadalajara, guadalajaraSabes a pura tierra mojada(ay!! ja ja, ay, ja ja,aj! ja, ja..ay!! ja ja)Aj!!! colomitos lejanos....aj!!!..ojitos de agua hermanosAy colomitos inolvidables, inolvidables como las tardesEn que la lluvia, des de la loma, ir nos hacia, hasta zapopamAy!! misermano..ay-ja-ja...mexicano...Ay colomitos inolvidables, inolvidables como las tardesEn que la lluvia, des de la loma, ir nos hacia, hasta zapopam

Edwards Top 5 of the week

My top five favorite Elvis songs for the week are....

1.Love Me
2.Baby Lets Play House
3.Reconsider Baby
4.Kiss Me Quick
5.Moody Blue

Soundtracks

I have did a review or two of the movie soundtracks. I will continue to do that until I do all thirty one movies. I am going to go ahead and let you in on what I view as his best. I will also let you know what my personal favorites are.
I ranked the best soundtracks based on a combination of Elvis's voice quality, production, arrangements, and material.
1.Blue Hawaii
2.GI Blues
3.Viva Las Vegas
4.Tickle Me
5.Girls!Girls!Girls!

Here is a list of my top five favorites.
1.Blue Hawaii
2.It Happened At The Worlds Fair
3.Tickle Me
4.Girl Happy
5.GI Blues

I will continue to do my reviews and go in depth on each movies music.

NOTE: I do not include the 50's movies when I am talking about these list on the movies and soundtracks. Those four movies stand alone. I will try to rant about my reasons on that later to clear that up.

Lets Have a Party

This morning I am watching a classic. Loving You would be Elvis's second film, which was shot in 1957. Elvis would play Deke Rivers a delivery boy who has some musical talent who ends up making it big. Elvis is with a group of performers that are traveling around as part of a show. The lady who put him in the show is the manager and love interest of the shows biggest star. Deke ends up being so big he steps out from the group because he does not need them. Deke ends up not knowing if he even wants to preform anymore. You can tell Elvis is still pretty raw as an actor in this movie. However you see a big difference from Love me Tender. He would share his first on screen kiss with Jana Lund in this movie. Dolores Hart was the love interest of Elvis's in this movie. She would also go on to appear with Elvis in King Creole. She has always been a favorite of mine because she is so pretty but seems to have an innocence about her. Scotty Moore,DJ Fontana, and Bill Black would also make their onscreen debuts in this movie. The soundtrack is pretty solid. The soundtrack would be made up of seven songs. My favorites being Mean Woman Blues and the classic Teddy Bear. As far as quality goes, this is one of the ten best movies Elvis made. Interesting note that Elvis would never watch this movie. His mother and father appear in the film. He could not stand to see his mother on film after her death.

The Collection grows

Last week I went crazy and dropped a hundred dollars on Elvis movie posters. It was money well spent. I got replica prints of the original movies posters from Kid Galahad,Girls!Girls!Girls!, It Happened At The Worlds Fair, and King Creole. The Creole poster is the alternate one used back in 58. I will post pics of them when I get them framed and put on the wall. These things are a steal at only 24.99 a pop. I have been looking for these for quite some time. I am really pumped over the IT poster since it is my favorite movie. They have several others that I hope to get in the coming months.