Friday, January 28, 2011

5 on Friday - Set 51














Travis at Trav's Thoughts invites everyone to lay down a short set of music that takes their fancies for his 5 on Friday meme.

This is the wrap-up to Elvis Month, so this week I'm looking at his wealth of movie soundtrack songs.

The King of Rock and Roll also had 31 film credits under his belt, all of which contained music with the one exception of Charro! I am an unabashed lover of Elvis movies, and it has always impressed me that he delivered the same intensity of performance to every song he recorded, whether it was a true gem like Are You Lonesome Tonight or one of the less noted of the 260 songs he featured in his films.

He hit his marks in literally hundreds of choreographed sequences, and delivered both in-studio recorded versions and then lip-synched soundstage filmed versions of these songs. Another reason why Elvis is truly The King.

1 - Guitar Man - From the Clambake soundtrack, 1967

So I slept in the hobo jungles
Roamed a thousand miles of track
Till I found myself in Mobile, Alabama
At a club they call Big Jack's

A little four-piece band was jammin
So I took my guitar and sat in
I showed them what a band would sound like
With a swinging little guitar man

Show 'em, son


- Jerry Reed Hubbard



2 - Got a Lot of Living to Do - From the Loving You soundtrack, 1957

Oh yes, I've got a lot of living to do
A whole lot of loving to do
Come on, baby
To make a party takes two

Oh yes, I've got a lot of living to do
A whole lot of loving to do
And there's no one who I'd rather do it with
Than you


- Schroeder / Weisman



3 - King of the Whole Wide World - From the Kid Galahad soundtrack, 1962

The rich man wants the princess
The poor man just wants a girl
But the man who can sing
When he hasn't got a thing
He's the king
Of the whole wide world


- Bachelor / Roberts



4 - Wooden Heart - From the G.I. Blues soundtrack, 1960

Can't you see I love you
Please don't break my heart in two
That's not hard to do
Cause I don't have a wooden heart

There's no strings upon
This love of mine
It was always you from the start

Treat me nice
Treat me good
Treat me like you really should
Cause I'm not made of wood
And I don't have a wooden heart


- Kaempfert / Twomey / Weisman / Wise, after Friedrich Silcher



5 - Jailhouse Rock - From the Jailhouse Rock soundtrack, 1957

The sad sack was sitting on a block of stone
Way over in the corner, weeping all alone
The warden said, hey buddy
Don't you be no square
If you can't find a partner
Use a wooden chair

Let's rock
Everybody, let's rock
Everybody in the whole cell block
Was dancing to the jailhouse rock


- Leiber / Stoller

11 comments:

Coco said...

Heavens, he was adorable! Somewhere in the deepest depths of my memory, I remember these movies. Time for a trip back in time to see those treasures again, I guess. Thank you for sharing!

Jennie Marsland said...

Julia, love, love, LOVE the new look! and the music as well.

Durward Discussion said...

My favorite for the songs and the acting was King Creole. It had an amazing soundtrack starting with the opening song Crawfish

Toni said...

I toured Graceland, oh yes I did too. ;) Love the new blog, btw.
Blessings,
Toni

Julia Phillips Smith said...

Coco - Completely adorable!

Jennie - Thanks!

Jamie - Thanks for the link - you are made of awesome.

Toni - Graceland is on that bucket list of mine.

Nessa said...

I used to love watching Elvis movies. I wished he was my kissing cousin.

Tara MacQueen said...

Not really a fan of The King but your blog made me look at him again and recognize the talent. Great design of the blog!! Looking forward to more, Tara

Akelamalu said...

GI Blues is my favourite Elvis film and I love 'Wooden Heart'. I will be visiting Graceland in May, look out for my photos of the place when I get back. ;)

I also love your new look blog Julia - very swish!

Mike Golch said...

cool tunes thanks for sharing.

Travis Cody said...

So many of his films were simply vehicles for record sales. But as talented as he was as a vocalist and musician, I always thought he was as talented as an actor. Given time, direction, and the appropriate roles, I think he would have been known as much as an actor as for his music.

And the blog looks fantastic! Excellent work on the new template.

Linda said...

Wooooo ... pretty new blog!

Ya know, I don't think that I ever seen a single Elvis Presley movie - ever!

Thanks for showing me a bit of what I've missed!