ELVIS – LOVING YOU – Let’s Have A Party (Part.14)
In parallel with the song “(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear”, the title ballad also entered the Billboard chart. The song debuted at a rather distant, eighty-first position, but after a few weeks in the ranking it managed to move to a satisfactory, twentieth place. In total, Leiber and Stoller’s song spent twenty-two weeks on the list!
The single “(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear”/”Loving You” turned out to be an absolute hit of the summer of 1957. According to Alan Hanson in his study, on July 3, 1957, sales of the single in the United States alone exceeded the number of one million two hundred and fifty thousand copies! And as Variety magazine assured her, “it kept growing.”
Interestingly, the Billboard magazine, also published in the first week of July, writing about Presley and his achievements so far, noted that ” according to the calculations of the label (RCA, author’s note) Vicotr, this phenomenon (Elvis, author’s note) currently has as many as eight gold records and his most recent release is the singles ‘Teddy Bear’ and ‘Loving You’, which sold over 1,600,000 copies within two weeks of its release on June 11th ” 1*.
Equally popular as in the USA, Presley’s new single was also enjoyed overseas. In the UK, the film tracks of the 22-year-old Memphis singer reached number three with “(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear” and “Loving You” at number twenty-four.
As a curiosity, it is worth adding that in October 1957, the local branch of RCA released an additional single with recordings from the soundtrack of Presley’s second film – “(Let’s Have A) Party” and “Got A Lot O’ Livin’ To Do” .
Just for the sake of formality, it would be appropriate to write here that each of the above titles not only entered the British list, but also managed to reach its top positions in a short time.
And so, “(Let’s Have A) Party” recorded on the front page after a month ranked high in the second place (which, with a short break, it occupied for four weeks), while “Got A Lot O” placed on side B ‘Livin’ To Do’ charted at number seventeen on November 14, 1957.
While the single “(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear”/”Loving You” was taking the charts by storm, Elvis’ third LP “Loving You” (released under the catalog number LPM 1515) appeared in stores. The first album with a soundtrack from his film in his discography so far.
The premiere of the album, about which many years later Iman Lababedi from Rock.Nyc will write that ” this is not a bad album and the first four tracks on the first side are simply excellent “, took place on June 20, 1957.
The longplay, less than twenty-six and a half minutes long (recorded in mono) consisted of a total of twelve songs. Seven of them, placed on Side A, were from the film. The next five – “Blueberry Hill”, “True Love”, “Don’t Leave Me Now”, “Have I Told You Lately That I Love You” and “I Need You So”, from various recording sessions in which Elvis took part between January and February 1957. ” On the other side (Elvis, author’s note) presents his very unique vocal approach to five very well-known ballads ,” reads the cover of the album in question. “He is accompanied on all tracks by his three musicians – Bill Black on bass, Scotty Moore on guitar and DJ Fontana on drums. In addition, Elvis is also assisted by Dudley Brooks, a great pianist whom Elvis first met while working on ‘Loving You’ and has engaged him for every session since.
And finally, Elvis also receives support from The Jordanaires, the vocal quartet that has appeared on so many of his hit records .
Despite such an extensive announcement, the recordings on the back of “Loving You” were in fact only a supplement to the film material, the amount and duration of which turned out to be insufficient to fill the entire LP.
In later years, RCA often did the same for other Presley movie soundtracks.
However, many years after his death, the use of such a publishing policy was met with critical voices from listeners, who in their comments alleged that by placing the film songs and non-soundtrack material side by side, “‘Loving You’ is not a very coherent album. ” and feels like it was put together from several different EPs .
Therefore, as Bruce Eder of AllMusic.com writes, it’s best to look at it as another Elvis album and not as a ” misguided soundtrack “.
In 1957, when “Loving You” went on sale, no one thought in these terms. Just a few days after the premiere, the album began to disappear from store shelves and soon after debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 list.
At the end of the next month, and precisely in the listing of July 29, 1957, Presley’s film album was at the top of the aforementioned list, which it did not leave for the next … ten weeks!
The impressive, record-breaking results on the lists were also followed by excellent sales. It is estimated that the aforementioned longplay sold three hundred and fifty thousand copies in the United States alone! So comparable to Presley’s debut LP released in 1956.
In order to realize even more the fact that in the second half of the 1950s there was a great demand for various types of Elvis record releases, it should be added here that soon after the release of the longplay with the soundtrack, the RCA Victor label released two extended play discs, popular EPs with hits from the movie.
The first of them (although the title on the cover “Loving You. Vol. II” may suggest otherwise) was released on July 26, 1957 and sold in the amount of … five hundred thousand copies!
The sale of the next one (also released with the misleading title “Loving You. Vol. 1”), made on July 19 of the same year and supplemented with the non-film recording “True Love”, amounted to three hundred thousand copies!
In a similar, enthusiastic way, Presley’s new album was also received by his British fans, thanks to whom “Loving You” landed on the first place three times on the Official List of Most Popular Albums. For the first time, seven days after its debut in the list – immediately for two weeks – on September 7 and 14, and again on November 9, 1957. It is also worth noting that the album spent as many as twenty-four weeks in the British chart (it left the chart only on February 2, 1958) and during all this time it never went beyond the top five!
Less than a decade later, on April 9, 1968, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified the LP “Loving You” gold.
1. By the end of the year, sales of the single exceeded two million copies!
Information provided by EP Promised Land (Poland), Marius Ogieglo http://www.elvispromisedland.pl/
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