A Date with Elvis

This article is about the Elvis Presley album. For the Cramps album, see A Date with Elvis (The Cramps album).
A Date with Elvis
Studio album by Elvis Presley
Released July 24, 1959 (1959-07-24)
Recorded June 1954 – April 1957
Genre Rock and roll, rockabilly
Length 22:58
Label RCA Victor
Producer Sam Phillips (Sun recordings)
Steve Sholes (RCA recordings)
Elvis Presley chronology
For LP Fans Only
(1959)		 A Date with Elvis
(1959)		 Elvis' Gold Records - Volume 2
(1959)
Singles from A Date with Elvis
  1. "I Forgot to Remember to Forget"
    Released: 20 December 1955
  2. "Good Rockin' Tonight"
    Released: 20 December 1955
  3. "Baby, Let's Play House"
    Released: 20 December 1955
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
MusicHound[2]
Rough Guides[3]

A Date with Elvis is the eighth album by Elvis Presley, issued on RCA Victor Records (LPM 2011) in July 1959. It is a selection of previously unreleased material from an August 1956 recording session at 20th Century Fox Stage One, two from Radio Recorders in Hollywood, and multiple sessions at Sun Studio. The album reached #32 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart.

Content

After Presley's induction into the army on March 24, 1958, RCA Victor and his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, were faced with the prospect of keeping his name before the public for two years with no possibility of live performances, no movies, and with few unissued marketable recordings in the vault. A recording session was arranged for two days in June, which yielded enough items for five more single sides, singles being the commercial focus for rock and roll in the 1950s. Four of those tracks would be issued on 45s in 1958 and 1959 during his absence while doing military service.

Presley, however, also did well in the albums market, all but one of his previous seven LPs charting no lower than #3, and RCA Victor wished to continue issuing albums by Presley given his sales record. Much of Presley's material had not been released on LP, and for this album RCA collected material previously unavailable on album. Like its predecessor For LP Fans Only, this album featured tracks that had been issued on Sun Records with limited release, and were almost impossible to locate beyond certain parts of the south. However all 5 Sun singles were reissued by RCA in November 1955 and remained in print through the 1970s. The remaining five tracks derived from three different EPs issued in 1956 and 1957.

Even by the standards of the late 1950s and early 1960s, where long-playing albums often ran to only about 35 minutes, this was a very short album at twenty-three minutes, and as such became the lowest charting Presley LP of the decade. RCA would squeeze one more album in 1959 out of previously issued material, the second singles collection, but it too would be a lower seller by previous standard. Presley would return from overseas in 1960 to commence proper recording again. This album also folds out to be a calendar for the year 1960.

A different version of the album, duplicating six tracks from the American release, but expanding the track list to a healthy fourteen, was issued in Australia on vinyl in September 1959. RCA issued the original 10-track album on compact disc in 1989. Audiophile CD recordings are available on import in the United States, including the version from Japan in 2005.

In 1986, The Cramps released an otherwise unrelated album also entitled A Date with Elvis.

Collective personnel

Track listing

Original release

Side one
No. TitleWriter(s)Recording date Length
1. "Blue Moon of Kentucky"  Bill MonroeJuly 7, 1954 2:02
2. "Young And Beautiful"  Aaron Schroeder and Abner SilverApril 30, 1957 2:02
3. "(You're So Square) Baby I Don't Care"  Jerry Leiber and Mike StollerApril 30, 1957 1:51
4. "Milk Cow Blues Boogie"  Kokomo ArnoldNovember 12, 1954 2:38
5. "Baby Let's Play House"  Arthur GunterFebruary 5, 1955 2:15
Side two
No. TitleWriter(s)Recording date Length
1. "Good Rockin' Tonight"  Roy BrownSeptember 10, 1954 2:12
2. "Is It So Strange"  Faron YoungJanuary 19, 1957 2:28
3. "We're Gonna Move"  Vera Matson and Elvis PresleyAugust 24, 1956 2:30
4. "I Want To Be Free"  Jerry Leiber and Mike StollerApril 30, 1957 2:12
5. "I Forgot to Remember to Forget"  Stan Kesler and Charlie FeathersJuly 11, 1955 2:28

UK, Australian and German reissue

No. TitleWriter(s)Recording date Length
1. "Blue Moon of Kentucky"  Bill MonroeJuly 7, 1954 2:02
2. "Milkcow Blues Boogie"  Kokomo ArnoldNovember 12, 1954 2:38
3. "Baby Let's Play House"  Arthur GunterFebruary 5, 1955 2:15
4. "I Don't Care if the Sun Don't Shine"  Mack DavidSeptember 11, 1954 2:27
5. "Tutti Frutti"  Dorothy LaBostrie and Richard PennimanJanuary 31, 1956 1:58
6. "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You)"  Howard Biggs and Joe ThomasJanuary 31, 1956 2:01
7. "I Got a Woman"  Ray Charles and Renald RichardJanuary 10, 1956 2:23
8. "Good Rockin' Tonight"  Roy BrownSeptember 11, 1954 2:12
9. "Is It So Strange"  Faron YoungJanuary 19, 1957 2:28
10. "We're Gonna Move"  Vera Matson and Elvis PresleyAugust 24, 1956 2:30
11. "Blue Moon"  Richard Rodgers and Lorenz HartAugust 19, 1954 2:31
12. "Just Because"  Sydney Robin, Bob Shelton, Joe SheltonSeptember 11, 1954 2:32
13. "One-Sided Love Affair"  Bill CampbellJanuary 30, 1956 2:09
14. "Let Me"  Vera Matson and Elvis PresleySeptember 4, 1956 2:08

Chart performance

Chart (1959) Peak
position
US Billboard Hot 200 32

References

  1. ↑ Eder, Bruce. A Date with Elvis at AllMusic
  2. ↑ Graff, Gary; Durchholz, Daniel (eds) (1999). MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Farmington Hills, MI: Visible Ink Press. p. 892. ISBN 1-57859-061-2.
  3. ↑ Simpson, Paul (2004). The Rough Guide to Elvis. London: Rough Guides. p. 113. ISBN 1-84353-417-7.

External links

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