King Creole [Remaster] (CD - 1958)

This is the soundtrack to Presley's fourth movie, restored to the original mono.

Personnel: Elvis Presley (vocals, guitar); Scotty Moore, Tiny Timbrell (guitar); Mahlon Clark (clarinet); Justin Gordon (saxophone); John Ed Buckner (trumpet); Elmer Schneider, Warren D. Smith (trombone); Dudley Brooks (piano); Ray Siegel (bass, tuba); Bill Black, Neal Matthews (bass); D.J. Fontana, Bernie Mattinson (drums); Gordon Stoker (bongos); Hoyt Hawkins (cymbals); Kitty White, The Jordanaires (background vocals).

Reissue producers: Ernst Mikael Jorgensen, Roger Semon.

Recorded at Radio Recorders and The Paramount Scoring Stage, Hollywood, California, January-February 1958.

Personnel: Elvis Presley (vocals, guitar).

Recording information: 01/15/1958-02/11/1958.

Elvis Presley's fourth movie, KING CREOLE, is by most critics' assessments his best. A good script, a strong supporting cast and an outstanding soundtrack contributed to provide Elvis with his best opportunity at serious film acting, and the King rose to the occasion. The legendary songwriting team of Leiber and Stoller contributed three songs to KING CREOLE, among them the title track and "Trouble," a number Presley would reprise with tremendous success during his 1969 comeback television special.

"Hard Headed Woman" is the soundtrack's biggest hit (it stayed atop the Billboard pop chart for two weeks), but the songs are uniformly strong throughout, and Presley sings with the mastery and dynamism characteristic of nearly all his 1950s recordings. In 1997 RCA reissued KING CREOLE with restored monophonic sound (previous reissues were marred by poor stereo remixes of the original tapes). The 1997 reissue includes several additional alternate takes, including an interesting rearrangement of the title track and two spare versions of "As Long As I Have You" that appeared in the movie but not on previous soundtrack releases. minimize