On November 9, 1962 RCA Victor released "Girls! Girls! Girls!", the soundtrack of Elvis' forthcoming Paramount picture. Billboard started to list the album on the "Top LPs Charts" on December 8th. It stayed for 32 weeks and peaked at number 3. In its initial sales period the longplayer sold 600,000 copies, just a year after the release the US sales were honored with a Gold Award by the RIAA. Worldwide 4.5 million units were retailed, which translates to 675 million paid streams of the complete album or 6.75 billion paid streams of individual tracks. Even though "Girls! Girls! Girls!" couldn't compete with the sales monsters "GI Blues" and "Blue Hawaii", it surpassed the king's latest studio album "Pot Luck With Elvis" by a whopping 64% percent. Today "Girls! Girls! Girls! clocks in at 108 million streams on Spotify alone.

While the king had presented himself very casual on the cover of the aforementioned album, he now posed in much more conservative style. He wore a jacket, his hair was shorter and colored black again. The backside of the sleeve included two promo photos for "Girls! Girls! Girls!", an advertising for the movie and an ad for the previous four soundtrack albums of the king.

To push the sales, the first edition of the longplayer included a calendar for 1963 with additional promo pictures.

On the streaming platforms "Girls! Girls! Girls!" is available as released on December 21, 2022. I don't know if any further mixing or mastering has been done since 2016, when the core of the Presley albums was re-worked for "The Album Collection". 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.

The recording sessions were held at Radio Recorders in Hollywood/California from March 23rd to 28th, 1962. They were produced by Joseph Lilley and engineered by Thorn Nogar. Elvis' band consisted of Scotty Moore (guitar), DJ Fontana (drums), Hilmer J. Timbrel (guitar), Barney Kessel (guitar), Ray Siegel (bass), Hal Blaine (drums), Bernie Mattinson (drums), Harold Brown (organ), Dudley Brooks (piano) and Homer Randolph (saxophone and clarinette). The harmony vocals were provided by The Jordaniares (Gordeon Stoker, Neal Matthews, Hoyt Hawkins and Ray Walker) as well as The Amigos (Jose Vadis, Miguel Alcaide, Felix Melendes and Pedro Berrios). The movie version of "Earth Boy" also features Ginny and Elisabeth Tiu. According to RCA's internal documents the saxophone player Plas Johnson was booked on March 27, 1962. But when he was asked in an interview, he said, that he didn't play at these sessions. In total the album has a running time of 29:04 minutes.

In 2007 Follow That Dream Records released a collector's edition of "Girls! Girls! Girls!", which also included outtakes. For a review just tap HERE.

The title song of the movie was written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, the king recorded it on March 27th within three attempts. The narrator is surrounded by girls and doesn't even find time to eat. It's a funny song, even though lines like "...and when I pick up a sandwich to munch, a chrunchy chrunchety a chrunchety chrunch" are not all that sophisticated. "Girls! Girls! Girls!" wasn't an original, the first release was by The Coasters in 1961. However, they were not successful and their record never made it past number 96 on the "Hot 100". Elvis' version sounds more smooth and certainly belongs to the better movie tunes.

Bill Giant, Bernie Baum and Florence Kay had written "I Don't Wanna Be Tied" for the movie "Kid Galahad", but at the time the tune was rejected. It's a nice uptempo popsong in which the singer acknowledges, that he doesn't want to be "tied" in a long-term relationship. On March 28th Elvis recorded ten takes of the song and approved the 8th take for release.

This beautiful ballad didn't make it in the final cut of the movie, but RCA Victor didn't even label it as a bonus song. The fans already knew "Where Do You Come From" from the flipside of the single "Return To Sender". To the narrator his loved one is so overwhelming, that she simply must be out of this world. The lyrics are somewhat kitschy, but the melody and Elvis' performance are nothing but beautiful. On March 27, 1962 he needed 14 takes to deliver a perfect recording.

"I Don't Want To" was also missing from the final cut, but 18 seconds of the song appeared in the trailer. Similar to "I Don't Want To Be Tied" the singer doesn't want a long-term releationship, but this time he cannot help to admit his feelings for the lady. The song was written by Janice Torre and Fred Spielman (his real name was Fritz Spielman) and recorded by Elvis on March 26, 1962 within 3 takes.

The song is based on a Mexican traditional and had alread been a hit for Perry Como in 1952. At the time it was called "Tulips And Heather", ten years later Charles O' Curran and Dudley Brooks turned the tune into "We'll Be Together". Elvis recorded it on May 23, 1962. The session was scheduled, because the song was added at the last minute. For me, "We'll Be Together" is one of the king's best movie songs. Elvis needed eleven takes to record it, some lines are sung in Spanish. In 1972 CAMDEN used the track on the budget album "Burning Love And Hits From His Movies".

Here we have a typical movie tune from Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennett. Elvis taped it on March 27th within five takes. On the unedit tapes he can be heared saying "We can't spend too much time on this". He was definitely right.

This is another average movie song, once again written by Tepper/Bennett. Because Ross (Elvis) sings the tune with Ginny and Elisabeth Tiu, the composers added some Chinese sounds. In the movie the king even sings a few lines in that language. The record version was taped on March 28, 1962 within 9 takes. Afterwards Elvis recorded four additional takes for the movie, finally the track had to be spliced of the takes 2 and 4 as well as some additional overdubs.

The two weaker tracks are followed by "Return To Sender", which had been previously released on a single. Without doubt this is one of the best movie tunes. After an argument with his girlfriend the narrator apologizes twice, but the letter is returned every time. So he plannes to give it to her himself. If she returns it to him, he knows that it's over. While the Elvis of the 1970s would have presented a story like this in form of a sad ballad, his younger self comes up with an uptempo popsong. On March 27th the king needed just two takes to record the song by Otis Blackwell and Winfield Scott.

Today "Because Of Love" is almost forgotten, but nevertheless it's also one of Elvis' best movie tunes. It was written by Ruth Batchelor and Bob Roberts and recorded by Elvis on March 27, 1962 within six takes. It's a great, happy popsong that stays with you. Besides that the king's voice couldn't have sounded any better.

In the movie the song is performed when Ross (Elvis) and his crew return from the fishery. "Thaks To The Rolling Sea" sounds like a worker's song and therefore differs to the other tunes on this album. It was also written by Batchelor/Robert. On the record we hear the 5th take, the movie featured the 10th attempt, which was sung a-capella. The recording was done on March 26, 1962.

A little shrimp reads an ad for a free trip to New Orleans and a stay at the Grand Hotel...and jumps happily into the net. The lyrics are typical for a children's song, but musically I like this little calypso very much. On March 27, 1962 the king needed six takes to record the "Song Of The Shrimp", which was written by Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennett.

This one was also written by Tepper/Bennett and recorded on March 27th. But the tango appeared to be more of a challenge, because Elvis needed 12 attempts to deliver a releasable performance.

One might think this was the opening song of the king's final concerts, but it's another worker's song. It was written by Otis Blackwell and Winfield Scott. Elvis recorded it on March 26, 1962 within six takes.