Loving You

Elvis Presley

RCA, 1957

http://www.elvis.com

REVIEW BY: David Bowling

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 02/17/2014

So what does a young, charismatic, and good looking singer who is the most successful musical artist in the country do for an encore? He heads to Hollywood to star in a movie, of course.

Loving You was a pieced together affair which included songs from the movie, previously released tracks from an EP, plus a couple more from the studio. It all added up to a very good album but was ultimately not of the quality of his first two groundbreaking studio albums. Nevertheless, Loving You, my_heart_sings_the_harmony_web_ad_alt_250 released in July of 1957, remained the number one album in the country for ten weeks. Even my mother had a copy of this album.

Elvis would make a seemingly unending string of mostly forgettable movies. They contained some excellent songs and a lot of what can best be described as filler. He would never have a song nominated for an Academy Award, even though there were certainly songs from many of his films that should have been so honored.

The album starts out on a strong note. “Mean Woman Blues” is an all-out rocker in the classic Presley tradition. “(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear” is the first of what would become a string of hit songs that would be halfway between rock and pop. It featured a catchy melody with a great smooth vocal and hit number one on the singles charts. “Loving You” was an effective ballad, both in the movie and on its own. “Got A Lot Of Living To Do” was another driving up-tempo song.

Elvis does as well as he can with “Lonesome Cowboy” and “Hot Dog.” The songs are weak and would be forerunners of his future film material. Elvis’ manager, Colonel Tom Parker, hired writers to churn out material for Elvis’ movies. Parker retained some of the rights and made millions.

The second half of the album finds Elvis experimenting with material from different styles of music. “Blueberry Hill” is a cover of the great Fats Domino song and while Elvis gives a good performance, I miss Fats. “Have I Told You Lately That I Love You” had been recorded by The Sons Of The Pioneers and Bing Crosby among others. Here, Elvis takes this old warhorse in a country direction and gives a wonderful performance. “I Need You So” by Ivory Joe Hunter and Cole Porter’s “True Love” are average performances for Elvis.

Loving You will be forever associated with Elvis’ movie material. Taken on its own, however, it does have some excellent moments and is still worth a listen now and then.

Rating: B+

User Rating: Not Yet Rated


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