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| Soundtrack Recordings for Paramount's King Creole January 15-16 and 23, 1958: Radio Recorders February 11, 1958: Paramount Soundstage, Hollywood |
| The draft notice hit like a bomb. Elvis had to go back to the draft board to petition for a deferment in order to save the production of King Creole. And since any plans for live work and recording sessions would be derailed once he entered the army, now they would all have to work overtime to get as much done as they could before the deadline. King Creole gave Elvis his most challenging movie role yet. Based on the Harold Robbins novel A Stone for Danny Fisher, it presented an opportunity to work with the acclaimed Hungarian-born director Michael Curtiz (whose work included Casablanca) and placed Elvis alongside accomplished actors such as Carolyn Jones, Walter Matthau, and Dean Jagger. The music was to be an integral part of this serious and rather dark story of a young singer (in the novel he'd been a boxer) trying to make it in the nightclubs of New Orleans. Traditional New Orleans music had its own very specific African-American roots, and Elvis always pointed to New Orleans R&B (Fats Domino was probably its leading exemplar) as instumental to his development. But Elvis hadn't gone over that well in New Orleans when he appeared there three times in 1955, and the Memphis brand of rock 'n' roll was very different from the New Orleans tradition. To help create an authentic Dixieland sound, Paramount hired some of L.A.'s best session players for the recording: a four-piece brass section augmented by bass player Ray Siegel, who doubled on tuba. Elvis's own band was supplemented again by piano player Dudley Brooks, and by a second drummer at an extra recording date later when the complexity and variety of the rhythms proved too much for Bill Black and D.J. to handle. With fourteen musicians in the band, this was by far the largest group Elvis had ever worked with in the studio, but for engineer Thorne Nogar it would be business as usual. Elvis's support team included Paramount musical director Charles O'Curran as well as Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who had just signed on as producers for RCA. As Elvis's favorite writers of the moment they brought material to the session, along with other Elvis Presley Music regulars like Aaron Schroeder and Claude DeMetrius, who sent in two infectious rock 'n' roll originals. The ver-dependable Ben Weisman and his partner, Fred Wise, came up with "Danny" as a proposed title cut, along with several other new songs. The session opened with Claude DeMetrius's "Hard Headed Woman." Driven by a catchy, horn-driven arrangement that captured the spirit of New Orleans while retaining the basic rock 'n' roll trio flavor, "Hard Headed Woman" was a sure success, but it was topped by Leiber and Stoller's "Trouble," a Muddy Waters-style stoptime blues whose classic opening--"If you're looking for trouble, you've come to the right place"--was perfect for the rebel Danny Fisher. Leiber and Stoller were on the West Coast on another business, but they came by on the first day to help with the arrangements on their own songs, and it's more than likely that they lent a hand on some of the other tunes. "Hard Headed Woman" and "Trouble," along with "Dixieland Rocks," "New Orleans," and "King Creole," became the nucleus of a unique soundtrack for Elvis. If singer and band were looking for trouble, they found it in "King Creole"; its double-time pace particularly challenged the newly returned Scotty and D.J., and though they made it through eighteen takes no one could agree on which was the best. In the end the third and final takes were transferred to the master reel, giving Elvis a chance to review them later on. First released as single-side A "Hard Headed Woman/Don't Ask Me Why", recorded January 15, 1958, peaked at number two. *The Complete Recording Sessions by Ernst Jorgensen* |
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| Well a hard headed woman, a soft hearted man been the cause of trouble ever since the world began. Oh yeah, ever since the world began a hard headed woman been a thorn in the side of man. Now Adam told to Eve, "Listen here to me, don't you let me catch you messin' round that apple tree." Oh yeah, ever since the world began a hard headed woman been a thorn in the side of man. Oh yeah, ever since the world began a hard headed woman been a thorn in the side of man. Now Samson told Delilah loud and clear, "Keep your cotton pickin' fingers out my curly hair." Oh yeah, ever since the world began a hard headed woman been a thorn in the side of man. I heard about a king who was doin' swell till he started playing with that evil Jezebel. Oh yeah, ever since the world began a hard headed woman been a thorn in the side of man. I got a woman, a head like a rock. If she ever went away I'd cry around the clock. Oh yeah, ever since the world began a hard headed woman been a thorn in the side of man. Words & music: Claude DeMetrius |
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