Review by Piers Beagley - Elvis Information Network
This is the twelfth FTD extended movie soundtrack, this time featuring the nine songs from Elvis' 1965 film Tickle Me, plus five other songs also considered by Colonel Parker. All of these songs had been released previously on other Elvis LPs.
In 2002 Castle Records in England produced a very collectable vinyl LP including a booklet and photos and this FTD is a similar release.
Tickle Me - (25 tracks, 54 minutes)
Elvis' eighteenth movie was a formula slap-stick comedy packed with gorgeous girls and set on a health ranch. A one-off production for Allied Artists, it actually saved the company from bankruptcy.
Kicking off with ‘(It’s A) Long Lonely Highway’ the soundtrack was an obvious improvement on the previous film Girl Happy that had only started showing in cinemas the previous month. Strangely though, it was Take 2 (album master) of ‘(It’s A) Long Lonely Highway’ which was used in the actual movie, but Take 1 (single master) was used on the EP!
Co-star Jocelyn Lane, who eventually married into Spanish royalty, is one of Elvis fans’ favourites.
In 1964, four years on from G.I. Blues, Elvis was fed-up with his lacklustre films and recent recordings and wanted more. In April 1964 he had met Larry Geller who inspired Elvis to begin on his own spiritual quest. Colonel Parker had not taken kindly to his cash-cow looking outside his usual closed boundaries and, by August, he and Elvis had a heated argument over his new spiritual interests. Elvis said to friends, "What happens in my life is my private business. It is none of the Colonel's affair."
Suspecting Joe Esposito of spying on him for the Colonel, Elvis sacked him as his foreman, replacing him with Marty Lacker.
To help save Allied Artists money, and still keep Elvis' salary at $750,000 (more than half the total budget!), Colonel Parker suggested to Elvis by letter that they use previous released album tracks that had never been issued on singles. This interesting letter, written by the Colonel who was suffering from a bad back in hospital, is featured in the booklet, part of which is shown below:
"I will not go into a lengthy explanation of what I had to do to explain the idea of using in this picture ten or twelve songs that you have already recorded .."
"As far as fitting them into the script you would be better off to let the studio fit them where they want them, than for you to take the responsibility of fitting them... "
"Forget about a title song, because it’s not necessary to have a title song in a picture. I would like to suggest for your serious consideration, and perhaps the closing scene, the beautiful ballad ‘There's Always Me’ as it would make a fantastic closing similar to what we have in Blue Hawaii. This is all I’m going to suggest because you know more about picking tunes than I do, but I know what I can sell best commercially..."
In the strained circumstances at the time, communications between Elvis and the Colonel were minimal and while Elvis ok'd the idea; the movie company chose the songs.
Musically in 1964, Elvis was also on a low. His last creative hit had been '(You’re The) Devil In Disguise' over a year earlier and The Beatles were driving the new pop scene. In a typical move that would only decrease the quality of the Tickle Me soundtrack, but increase his own earnings, the Colonel would only allow songs by Elvis' own publishers to be used in the soundtrack.
The FTD sleeve and booklet contains a mix of photos and memorabilia but no rare film outtake photos this time, nor disappointingly any close ups of sensational co-star Jocelyn Lane.
I also spotted a couple of errors on the cover. The sleeve wrongly shows 'Doc Pomus/Mort Shuman' as the composers of ‘I Feel That I've Known You Forever’, while the CD incorrectly states ‘Night Rider’ was written by 'Doc Pomus/Alan Jeffreys'. The short and sweet master of 'Dirty, Dirty Feeling' is indicated as running 03:35 which is also wrong as it runs just 1½ minutes and isn’t a special extended version.
Original releases
'Easy Question’/’It Feels So Right' was the first promotional single and makes #11 in the US charts. This single was not released in England which seems strange as ‘Crying in The Chapel’ had just made #1 there.
Tickle Me EP only made number 70 in the US charts.
Tickle Me Vol.2 EP also released in England but it did not chart.
'I'm Yours‘/’(It‘s A) Long Lonely Highway' was also released in the US as a single again making #11. It was not released in England.
Intriguingly, South Africa was the only country to release a Tickle Me soundtrack LP. The 2002 Castle/BMG vinyl LP featured eighteen of these songs plus two film trailers and this CD includes exactly the same tracks plus five 'bonus' songs.
Looking at the track listing, the only collectible rarity here is 'I'm Yours' (undubbed single master) which has never been released before in stereo, and would have been a great addition to this CD. Unfortunately though, what is listed as being the undubbed single master is only the complete Take 6 without the work part ending spliced to the end! It is interesting to compare the two single and album versions - the LP master has Elvis’ vocal double-tracked along with the spoken monologue which is a very different feel to the sparse single version which RCA released by mistake.
There are six Pot Luck masters featured here and if you collect Elvis FTD releases than you should already own all the tracks and the seven alternate takes.
However, if you like Elvis' smoother early sixties’ pop style, then this is a very enjoyable compilation and the audio quality is excellent with tracks taken from the best sources available.
(i.e. we do get the recent Elvis Is Back! remastered versions of those particular tracks.)
Notes for hardcore enthusiasts ...
It seems that new generation tape masters have been found for both the Something For Everybody and Pot Luck sessions which bodes well for their FTD “Classic Albums” future releases. However, there is a strange digital noise on the right hand channel on the fade out of ‘Just For Old Time Sake’ that is not on my original copy of Pot Luck.
‘Slowly But Surely’ master is the fabulous version in sparkling quality from the Fun In Acapulco FTD.
‘(It’s A) Long Lonely Highway’ and ‘Slowly But Surely’ outtakes were previously on the Long Lonely Highway FTD but both have slightly longer intros with more studio chatter on them here.
‘I Feel That I’ve Know You Forever’ however is missing the "Here we go" intro from Long Lonely Highway.
‘(It’s A) Long Lonely Highway’ (LP master) always seemed a little slow on the ‘60s box set and the speed has been corrected here. This is a great version, with a fabulous new sparkling audio remaster and also with a wide stereo mix.
‘Put The Blame On Me’ Takes 1 and 2 also have more studio chatter than on their previous release on Fame And Fortune. With his voice cracking at the end of a hard night’s recording, Elvis now says, "Whoo. Not so long since I’ve had it, let’s face it. OK, let’s try one more"
Verdict
With no new songs featured here there is little to explore and so it is slightly disappointing compared to the other FTD soundtrack releases.
Whether you want the compilation will just depend on your personal taste and whether you own the songs already. Unfortunately, there is also very little in the way of rare film photos in the booklet, although the Colonel's letter is truly fascinating.
Tickle Me however is a favourite film of a surprising number of Elvis fans and if you don’t own the previous release of the RCA/Castle LP then this does make a nice collectable souvenir.
