King Creole (album)

King Creole is the sixth album by Elvis Presley, issued by RCA Victor, LPM 1884 in mono in September 1958, recorded in four days at Radio Recorders in Hollywood. It contains songs written and recorded expressly for the film, and peaked at number two on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart. It followed the film release by over ten weeks. It was certified Gold on July 15, 1999 by the Recording Industry Association of America.

Content

The bulk of the songs originated from the stable of writers contracted to Hill and Range, the publishing company jointly owned by Presley and Colonel Tom Parker: Fred Wise, Ben Weisman, Claude Demetrius, Aaron Schroeder, Sid Tepper, and Roy C. Bennett. Conspicuous in their relatively limited contribution were Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who had come to an impasse with the Colonel during the making of the previous movie, Jailhouse Rock (1957), in which they had practically dominated the musical proceedings. Furious over mere songwriters having such easy access to Presley without going through Parker's "proper channels," the Colonel closed off their avenue to his prize client, especially since the duo had also tried to influence Presley's film direction, pitching him an idea to do a gritty adaption of Nelson Algren's recent novel, A Walk on the Wild Side (1956), with Elia Kazan directing, and Leiber and Stoller providing the music. The Colonel put the kibosh on such notions, although echoes of the concept remained in the film, and the pair still managed to place three songs on the soundtrack, including the title track and "Trouble", arguably the film's best songs. Presley's performance of "Trouble" in the film alludes to Muddy Waters and Bo Diddley; he would return to the song for his tremendously successful 1968 television comeback special.

King Creole

King Creole is a 1958 American musical drama film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Elvis Presley, Carolyn Jones, and Walter Matthau. Produced by Hal B. Wallis and based on the 1952 novel A Stone for Danny Fisher by Harold Robbins, the film is about a nineteen-year-old who gets mixed up with crooks and involved with two women.

Presley later indicated that of all the characters he portrayed throughout his acting career, the role of Danny Fisher in King Creole was his favorite. To make the film, Presley was granted a 60-day deferment from January to March 1958 for beginning his military service. Location shooting in New Orleans was delayed several times by crowds of fans attracted by the stars, particularly Presley.

The film was released by Paramount Pictures on July 2, 1958, to both critical and commercial success. The critics were unanimous in their praise of Presley's performance. King Creole peaked at number five on the Variety box office earnings charts.

The soundtrack song "Hard-Headed Woman" reached number one on the Billboard pop singles chart, number two on the R&B chart, and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), while the soundtrack album peaked at number two on the Billboard album chart.

King Creole (song)

King Creole is a song written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. The song was and performed by Elvis Presley and recorded in 1958, and laid foundations to a musical drama film, King Creole. The song is based on King Creole, a Cajun guitar player from New Orleans who is proficient in all different styles of Rock-and-Roll.

Content

The song is about a man of Creole descent who is a freelancing street performer in New Orleans. The man in the song, who goes by the nickname of King Creole, is known for his style of solo guitar playing. It is said in the song that he "holds his guitar like a Tommy gun", which gives the notion that "King Creole" used a grip on his guitar which involved keeping the body of the guitar close to his center of his chest, therefore holding the neck of the guitar in an extended arm, though no information is given which arm he used. It can be inferred from the song that King Creole used an electric guitar, since the song mentions string bending and rock-and-roll, a genre not usually played as lead on the acoustic guitar. The song also states that King Creole played from a well-rounded song repertoire, and would play light, dark, serious, and nonsense music.

King Creole (Christer Sjögren album)

King Creole is an album by Christer Sjögren, released 15 February 2006. The albums consists of recordings of songs previously recorded by Elvis Presley.

Track listing

Contributors

Charts

References

External links