Clambake (album)

Clambake
Soundtrack album by Elvis Presley
Released	October 10, 1967
Recorded	February and September 1967
Genre	Soundtrack
Length	29:36
Label	RCA Records
Producer	Jeff Alexander Felton Jarvis
Elvis Presley chronology
Double Trouble (1967) Clambake (1967) Elvis' Gold Records Volume 4 (1968)

Clambake is the thirtieth album by Elvis Presley, released on RCA Victor Records in mono and stereo, LPM/LSP 3893, in October 1967. Recording sessions took place at RCA Studio B in Nashville, Tennessee, on February 21, 22, and 23, 1967. Supplemental material sessions took place on September 10 and 11, 1967. It peaked at #40 on the Billboard 200.

Content

By the end of 1966, Presley no longer commanded the same level of sales or artistic respect as he had during the first ten years of his career.^[1] But Elvis had little enthusiasm at this juncture for more soundtrack sessions, the project already in jeopardy before it started.^[2] The sessions turned out a fiasco; of the eight songs recorded, two had been edited out of the film, and even with "How Can You Lose What You Never Had" restored to the soundtrack, that left an album of merely seven songs.^[3]

The album would prove to be a turning point in Presley's career. After many years of churning out forgettable songs for forgettable films, he was clearly past his prime. All realms of popular music had totally bypassed him during the 1960s while he had been 'lost in Hollywood'. So Presley decided to begin recording music written by accomplished songwriters. A session to record additional material in Hollywood was cancelled in August, rescheduled at RCA Studio B in September.^[4] Disregarding publishing control, Presley picked songs that appealed to him personally, including Eddy Arnold's country and western hit of 1956 "You Don't Know Me" and Jimmy Reed's 1960 rhythm and blues hit, "Big Boss Man." Both selections were issued as a single at the end of September before being added to the album, the A-side just barely making the Top 40.^[5] Presley also requested a song he had heard on the radio in Los Angeles by Jerry Reed, inviting Reed himself to duplicate the distinctive acoustic guitar part.^[6] They rousted Reed from a fishing-trip, who arrived to play on Presley's version of his own composition, "Guitar Man." After it was recorded, Reed refused to turn over the usual publishing percentages to Freddy Bienstock, another assault on the soundtrack formula that had been in place throughout the decade.^[7] Five songs were selected from this session to bring the album up to a total of twelve tracks.

Including this LP, of his fifteen albums since Pot Luck with Elvis in 1962, only three had not been film soundtracks: one was a compilation of hit singles, one a compilation of leftovers from a ten-year span of recording sessions, and only one a bona fide studio album, the gospel How Great Thou Art. Even with the five recent non-movie songs, including a hit single, Clambake sold less than 200,000 copies, faring worse than its predecessor Double Trouble which had been his lowest-charting album so far.^[8]

Personnel

• Elvis Presley - vocals
• The Jordanaires - backing vocals
• Millie Kirkham, Dolores Edgin, June Page, Priscilla Hubbard - backing vocals
• Boots Randolph, Norm Ray - saxophone
• Pete Drake - pedal steel guitar
• Scotty Moore, Harold Bradley, Chip Young - electric guitar
• Jerry Reed - guitar
• Charlie McCoy - electric guitar, organ, harmonica
• Floyd Cramer, Hoyt Hawkins - piano, organ
• Bob Moore - bass
• D.J. Fontana, Buddy Harman - drums

Track listing

Chart positions from Billboard Hot 100

Side one

Track	Recorded	Song Title	Writer(s)	Time
1.	9/10/67	Guitar Man	Jerry Reed	2:30
2.	2/22/67	Clambake	Ben Weisman and Sid Wayne	2:36
3.	2/22/67	Who Needs Money	Randy Starr	3:15
4.	2/21/67	A House That Has Everything	Roy C. Bennett and Sid Tepper	2:14
5.	2/22/67	Confidence	Roy C. Bennett and Sid Tepper	2:33
6.	2/22/67	Hey, Hey, Hey	Joy Byers	2:30

Side two

Track	Recorded	Catalogue	Release Date	Chart Peak	Song Title	Writer(s)	Time
1.	9/11/67	47-9341b	9/26/67	#44	You Don't Know Me	Cindy Walker and Eddy Arnold	2:27
2.	2/21/67				The Girl I Never Loved	Randy Starr	1:52
3.	2/21/67				How Can You Lose What You Never Had	Ben Weisman and Sid Wayne	2:27
4.	9/10/67	47-9341	9/26/67	#38	Big Boss Man	Luther Dixon and Al Smith	2:50
5.	9/11/67				Singing Tree	A.L. Owens and A.C. Solberg	2:17
6.	9/10/67				Just Call Me Lonesome	Rex Griffin	2:05

References

1. ^ Jorgensen, Ernst. Elvis Presley A Life in Music: The Complete Recording Sessions. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998; p. 225.
2. ^ Jorgensen, op. cit., p. 226.
3. ^ Jorgensen, op. cit., p. 231.
4. ^ Jorgensen, op. cit., pp. 233-234.
5. ^ Jorgensen, op. cit., p. 418.
6. ^ Jorgensen, op. cit., p. 235.
7. ^ Jorgensen, op. cit., p. 236.
8. ^ Jorgensen, op. cit., p. 240.

External links

• LPM-3893 Clambake Guide part of the The Elvis Presley Record Research Database
• LSP-3893 Clambake Guide part of the The Elvis Presley Record Research Database