On September 23, 1960 RCA Victor released the soundtrack of "G.I. Blues", the singer's comeback on the silver screen. With 750,000 copies retailed in the initial sales period Billboard listed the album on the "Top LPs Chart" for 111 weeks, ten of them at the number one spot. In 1963 the RIAA honored the domestic sales with a Gold Award, in 1992 the status was updated to Platinum. Abroad "G.I. Blues" was extremely popular, too. In Great Britain the record stayed at the number one of the UK Charts for 22 weeks, worldwide RCA Victor sold 7.5 million units. This translates to 1.13 billion paid streams of the complete album or 11.3 billion streams of individual tracks. Everyone in the business was quick to notice, that "G.I. Blues" sold twice as good as "Elvis Is Back!" and even surpassed top sellers like "Elvis' Christmas Album" and "Elvis' Golden Records". Besides the commercial success the album was also honored artistically. The Academy Of Recording Arts And Sciences nominated "G.I. Blues" for a Grammy in the cathegories "Best Vocal Performance, Male" and "Best Soundtrack Album From A Motion Picture". Today the popularity of the album has declined. With a tad over 200 million streams on Spotify it's still quite popular, but formerly much less successful albums like "Elvis" (1973) were streamed three times as much.

Consistent with the theme of the movie the record sleeve showes the singer in an Army uniform. The album has a running time of 26:35 minutes.

On the streaming platforms "G.I. Blues" is available as released on "The Album Collection" in 2016. Therefore "Tonight Is All Right For Love" is added as a bonus track. For this project all tracks were scanned with high-resolution equipment and remastered. Therefore the album can be presented with the golden Hi-Res emblem. The better sound of these versions is owed exclusively to the new mastering (the elimination of interfering noise). Because first one cannot turn an analogue recording into a high resolution recording just by scanning the tape with hd equipment and second even an old cd with 16 bit/44.1 kHz exceeds the auditory sense of a human being.

While Elvis had been in the Army, RCA Victor had made a deal with the labor union. Therefore all recordings for the movie, that were supposed to be released on a record, had to be made in a RCA studio. Besides that the union officials monitored, if all breaks had been taken. So the album was recorded at the RCA Studio in Hollywood/California. The sessions were produced by Joseph Lilley and engineered by Al Schmitt. The band consisted of Scotty Moore (guitar), Neal Matthews (guitar), Hilmer J. Timbrell (guitar, mandoline), Ray Siegel (bass), D.J. Fontana (drums), Frank Bode (drums), Dudley Brooks (piano), James Haskell (accordeon) and Hoyt Hawkins (tamourine). The harmony voices were provided by The Jordanaires (Gordon Stoker, Hoyt Hawkins, Neal Matthews and Ray Walker). Because Elvis didn't like the results, he had further sessions booked at Radio Recorders in Hollywood/California. That was not in compliance with the union agreement, but the singer couldn't have cared less. The consequence was...nothing! The personnel was the same, the only exception was drummer Frank Bode, who was substituted by Bernie Mattinson. Because there were copyright problems with "Tonight Is So Right For Love" in several countries, a similar song named "Tonight Is All Right For Love" was recorded, too.

Sony Music Entertainment's own collector's label payed much attention to "G.I. Blues" and released two special editions in 2012. The regular one includes the tracks of the original album plus outtakes of the sessions in April 1960. The second one, named "Cafe' Europa - G.I. Blues Volume 2" contains the masters in an unedited and remixed form as well as outtakes and masters of the sessions in May 1960. For reviews just tap HERE (volume 1) and HERE (volume 2).

The albums starts with Teutonic romance including an accordion. Sid Wayne and Abner Silver adapted "Barcarole" from "Hoffmanns Erzaehlungen" by Jeacques Offenbach and turned it into "Tonight Is So Right For Love". On April 27, 1960 Elvis recorded seven takes before he gave up and turned to "What's She Really Like" and "Frankfort Special". Some hours later he returned to the song by Wayne/Silver and taped another four takes. The final one was selected for release. It soon turned out that Offenbach's "Barcarole" was not in public domain all around the world and so Sid Wayne, Abner Silver and Joseph Lilley remodeled Johann Strauss' "Geschichten Aus Dem Wienerwald" to "Tonight Is All Right For Love". This time the king recorded 17 takes and two workpart-takes. The master was spliced of take 10 and workpart-take 2. As the titles suggest, both songs are quite similar and in each of them the singer wants to seduce a girl by romanticizing the beautiful night. Just like RCA Victor adjusted the album according to the local copyright, Paramount filmed both songs in the same setting and included either "Tonight Is So Right For Love" or "Tonight Is All Right For Love" in their movie. In the USA "Tonight Is All Right For Love" was released in 1974 on the album "A Legendary Performer - Volume 1". Today the streaming platforms feature the US version of "G.I. Blues" with "Tonight Is So Right For Love", but "Tonight Is All Right For Love" is included as a bonus track.

Here the singer tells us about his girl's characteristics, of course they are all positive. The popsong in mid-tempo has a nice melody and is performed well. On May 27, 1960 Elvis recorded five takes before he gave up. He returned to the song on the next day and taped another 14 takes and three insert-takes. The master was spliced of the takes 14 and 3 (workpart). Because Joseph Lilley continued to count the takes (he labeled the first take of the second session with number 6 and the insert-takes with the numbers 20 to 22) the official splice is 19/22. "What's She Really Like" was also written by Sid Wayne and Abner Silver.

The narrator looks forward to arrive in a German city with a similar name (Frankfurt), especially the female inhabitants are evoking his anticipation. Elvis recorded the uptempo tune by Sid Wayne and Sherman Edwards on April 27, 1960. Because he didn't like the result, he re-recorded "Frankfort Special" on May 6, 1960 and needed ten takes to reach a satisfactory result. The interjections of The Jordanaires are supposed to evoke a German flair. In total the song is acceptable.

In 1827 Friedrich Silcher adapted the German folk song "Muss I Denn, Muss I Denn Zum Staedtele Hinaus", 133 years later Fred Wise, Ben Weisman, Kay Twomey and Bert Kaempfert turned it into "Wooden Heart". Elvis recorded it on April 28, 1960 within four takes. Strangely though the writers didn't use the original German lyrics, but created new ones. They give the impression to have been translated with a mediocre software (just like my homepage). In Europe, Asia and South Africa RCA Victor released "Wooden Heart" on a single and sold more than 2 million copies in Germany alone! However, in the US the label stuck to the release on the album and left the number one hit to Joe Dowell. To make up for the financial loss, RCA Victor finally released "Wooden Heart" in 1964 on the flipside of "Blue Christmas" as well as in 1965 on the b-side of "Puppet On A String".

The title song of the movie was written by Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennet. It was recorded on April 27, 1960, the master is a splice of the takes 7 and 10. The last mentioned one is a workpart-take. In the song the narrator bewailes his fate as a US soldier in Germany. In compliance with the theme of the movie the song has a military rhythm and features some German words. It's a funny song, I like it very much.

Elvis had some trouble to record "Pocketful Of Rainbows". On April 28, 1960 he tried 16 times and finally moved on to other songs without selecting a master. Later he taped another 12 takes, but still didn't archive a satisfactory result. On May 6th the king recorded 3 more takes and approved the final one for release. The ballad by Fred Wise and Ben Weisman is a lightweight affair, but certainly not a bad song at all.

This is one of the best songs of this album. Maybe it's because it wasn't written especially for the movie, but is a cover version of the recording by Joel Gray from 1958. Elvis taped "Shoppin' Around" on April 27, 1960 within 11 takes. Once again he didn't like the result and re-recorded the tune on May 6th. This time he tried seven times, the final attempt was selected as the master. The uptempo popsong was written by Sid Tepper, Roy C. Bennett and Aaron Schroeder. The narrator claims to have found the love of his life and therefore stopps his "Shoppin' Around".

The first surprise of this album was Elvis' performance of a German folk song. The second novelty is a children's song. In the movie Tulsa (Elvis) sings the baby of one of his army buddies to sleep, in real life "Big Boots" caused the king some trouble. On April 8, 1960 he recorded four takes of the slow version, we are hearing on the album. After that he taped seven takes of a fast version. On May 6th there were two takes in medium tempo as well as six takes, four insert-takes and five composite-takes of the slow version. The final master was spliced of take 4 (April 28th), insert-take 4 (May 6th) and composite-take 3 (May 6th). In general the song by Sid Wayne and Sherman Edwards isn't bad, but withouth the accordant movie scene it appears somewhat strange.

The same team also wrote "Didja' Ever". Here the singer laments the mishaps of life (cold water in the shower, no towel, etc.) and uses a military rhythm to stay in compliance with the theme of the film. Elvis recorded the typical movie tune on April 27, 1960 within two takes.

Elvis had recorded this rock'n'roll classic four years earlier, for "G.I. Blues" he taped another take on April 28, 1960. Compared to his original version the re-recording is very tame and sounds more like an uptempo country song.

This beautiful love song was penned by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman and was recorded on April 27, 1960 within 13 takes. Without doubt "Doin' The Best I Can" is not only the best song on this album, but also one of Elvis' best movie songs in general. Unfortunately this gem is often overlooked today.