Pot Luck (album)

Infobox Album
Name = Pot Luck
Type = studio
Longtype =
Artist = Elvis Presley


Released = June 5, 1962
Recorded = March 1961 to
March 1962
Genre = Rock
Length = 28:11
Label = RCA Records
Producer = Steve Sholes, Joseph Lilley
Reviews = Allmusic Rating|2.5|5 [http://wc09.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:3xfpxqy5ld6e link]
Last album = "Blue Hawaii"
(1961)
This album = "Pot Luck"
Next album = "Girls! Girls! Girls!"
(1962)

"Pot Luck with Elvis"" is the fifteenth album by Elvis Presley, released on RCA Records in mono and stereo, LPM/LSP 2523, in June of 1962. Recording sessions took place on March 22, 1961, at Radio Recorders in Hollywood, and on June 25 and October 15, 1961, and March 18 and March 19, 1962, at RCA Studio B in Nashville, Tennessee. It peaked at #4 on the Top Pop Albums chart.

Contents

The album is dominated by the writing team of Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, who had penned the chart-topping "Surrender" and the double-sided classic "(Marie's the Name of) His Latest Flame" backed with "Little Sister." The tracks "Kiss Me Quick" and "Suspicion" would be pulled off for a Top 40 single almost two years later in April, 1964. The rest of the tracks originated from regular Presley contributors such as Don Robertson, Otis Blackwell, and Paul Evans, with Blackwell's "(Such An) Easy Question" also being used as a single release in June of 1965 and climbing to #11 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart, during a time when Presley was involved mostly in feature film and soundtrack work. Presley's credit on "That's Someone You Never Forget, an intense ballad possibly sung in reminiscence of Presley's deceased mother Gladys, derived from his supply of the title to composer Red West. [Jorgensen, Ernst. "Elvis Presley, A Life In Music". New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998; ISBN 0-312-18572-3, p. 158] The song "Steppin' Out of Line" is an unused track from the sessions for "Blue Hawaii".

Although like its predecessors in 1960 and 1961 "Elvis Is Back!" and "Something For Everybody", Pot Luck easily made the top ten on the album chart, all three had been vastly outsold by the soundtrack albums "G.I. Blues" and "Blue Hawaii", a pattern that would continue to hold for Presley through the mid-1960s. [Ibid. p. 190] Obviously, the soundtracks had the advantage of the films as a promotional tool, but also the Colonel went against standard practice in the American record industry by refusing to include hit singles on albums, which would have likely increased sales. [Ibid. p. 190] As a result, Presley would concentrate on his movie career, and not make another non-soundtrack, non-gospel studio album for another seven years, until "From Elvis in Memphis".

The July 13, 1999, compact disc reissue altered the running order of the album, and included five bonus tracks in two sides of one single, one b-side, and two tracks from the 1965 compilation album LSP 3450, "Elvis for Everyone". The three single sides had been recorded at the sessions that yielded the balance of the album on March 18 and 19, 1962. One single had both sides written by the returning team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, while the b-side "You'll Be Gone," released on the flip of the ill-begotten attempt by RCA to instigate a new dance craze with the "Do the Clam" single in 1965, is the only song that Presley truly had a hand in composing, writing lyrics to a tune by his Memphis Mafia buddies Red West and Charlie Hodge. [Ibid. p. 172] Given the nature of the "Elvis for Everyone" LP, compiled from sessions spanning a ten-year stretch, RCA opted not to include it as part of its reissue program, appending its songs as bonus tracks to other albums as appropriate. Bonus tracks all recorded at Studio B in Nashville.

Personnel

* Elvis Presley – vocal, guitar
* Scotty Moore – guitar
* Hank Garland - guitar
* Tiny Timbrell - guitar
* Harold Bradley - guitar
* Grady Martin - guitar, vibes
* Floyd Cramer - piano, organ
* Dudley Brooks - piano
* Gordon Stoker - piano
* Bob Moore - bass
* D.J. Fontana - drums
* Buddy Harman – drums
* Millie Kirkham - backing vocal
* The Jordanaires - backing vocals
* Boots Randolph - saxophone

Track listing

ide One

References