A new year, a new musical and a new soundtrack album. This one was called "Girl Happy" and entered the stores in March 1965. In its initial sales period it was retailed 300,000 times. The album entered the "Top LPs Chart" on April 17th, had a run of 31 weeks and peaked at number 8. The RIAA honored the domestic sales in 1992 with a Gold Award. In Great Britain "Girl Happy" also became a top 10 hit, worldwide the album sold 3.1 million copies. The physical sales translate to 465 million paid streams. Compared to the previously released "Roustabout" the sales had plunged by one third. In fact, "Girl Happy" was the king's worst selling longplayer since "A Date With Elvis" in 1959. On Spotify "Girl Happy" clocks in at a tad over 5 million streams, which is anything but a success either. However, the collection of old SUN recordigs and early RCA material became much more popular and was requested 138 million times.

The cover photo was one of the many pictures taken to promote the movie. Even though Elvis looks very good, his style was obviously outdated by now and had nothing in common with the look of the popular beat artists. To boost the sales, RCA Victor included a picture card.

On the streaming platforms "Girl Happy" is presented the way it was issued in 2016 as part of the set "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 soundtrack was produced at Radio Recorders in Hollywood/California between June 10th and 15th, 1964. The band consisted of Scotty Moore (guitar), D.J. Fontana (drums), Hilmer J. Timbrell (guitar), Thomas Tedesco (guitar), Bob Moore (bass), Murrey Harman (drums & percussion), Frank Carlson (drums & percussion), Floyd Cramer (piano) and Homer Randolph (saxophone). The harmony vocals were provided by The Jordanaires (Gordon Stoker, Hoyt Hawkins, Neal Matthews and Ray Walker), The Carol Lombard Singers (Carol Lombard, Gwen Johnson, Jacky Ward and B.J. Baker) as well as The Jubilee Four (Bill Johnson, George McFadden, Jimmy Adams and Ted Brooks). The sessions were produced by George Stoll and engineered by Dave Weichman.

Because the soundtrack was quite short, RCA Victor added a bonus song. In total the album had a running time of 24:16 minutes. The mix of the movie tunes was reminiscent of the "Kissin' Cousins" soundtrack. Elvis' voice was brought very much to the fore, there was little ambience and everything sounded quite dull.

In 2003 Follow That Dream Records released a collector's edition of "Girl Happy", that also included outtakes. For a review tap HERE.

The album starts with the title song of the movie. It was written by Doc Pomus and Norman Meadse and recorded by Elvis on June 10, 1964. He taped 13 takes and 5 insert-takes with the ending of the song. The master is a splice of take 13 and insert-take 4. "Girl Happy" is a nice popsong, in which the singer describes his ralationship with the ladies. Unfortunately someone thought the song would be even better if only the tempo was faster and that it simply could be done by speeding up the recording by 8%. Even worse was Elvis' approval of this humbug. He obviously didn't care to sound like a member of The Chipmunks.

The sun is shining and Rusty (Elvis) catches the "Spring Fever". The king recorded the song by Bill Giant, Bernie Baum and Florence Kaye on June 11, 1964 within 24 takes. "Spring Fever" isn't really bad, but it certainly doesn't stay with you.

The ballad with a touch of South American style was written by Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennett. The singer tells us about the alleged regulations of the "Fort Laudadale Chamber Of Commerce", which today would cause a truckload of legal actions for being sexist. The rhythm track was taped on June 11, 1964 within seven takes, four days later Elvis added his vocals. He finished it off in two attempts.

This song was composed by Victor Millrose and Leonore Rosenblatt, who later regarded the tune as crap. She was absolutely right , "Startin' Tonight" is not a good song and Elvis' voice sounds somewhat pressed. The music track was recorded on June 12, 1964, Elvis added his vocals two days later. He needed 4 takes to do so, the band had taped their part within 3 takes.

While the melody might be acceptable, the lyrics of this seductively meant song are downright embarrassing. Bill Giant, Bernie Baum and Florence Kaye didn't cover themselves with glory. The rhythm track was recorded on June 12, 1964 in 8 takes and two insert-takes. The final version was a splice of take 8 and insert-take 2. The vocal track was taped on June 15, 1964, the 5th take was used for the master.

Giant/Baum/Kaye did better with this ballad. It's also nothing to write home about, but at least it doesn't disturb. On June 11, 1964 Elvis had a hard time recording the tune. He needed no less than 36 takes!

Once more a lady has to be seduced, this time with a ballad in mid-tempo. Elvis recorded 11 takes on June 11, 1964. The master was spliced of the takes 9 and 11 and included a piano overdub, that was recorded on the same day. In total the song by Sid Wayne and Ben Weisman is ok.

Elvis recorded the track on June 10, 1964 within 13 takes. Six days later Bill Haley taped a cover version, which was released under the name "Yeah! She's Evil". Obviously nobody at Gladys Music regarded the song by Joy Byers a hit and so it was given to the competitors for a few bucks. I guess "The Meanest Girl In Town" was supposed to be rock'n'roll, but to me it's nothing but a hectic, mediocre popsong.

The track had been released in February as a forerunner of this album, but had stalled at number 21 of the "Hot 100" and sold less than a million copies worldwide. By 1965 the era of "vogue dances" was long gone, besides that the production was that lackluster, it bordered on unprofessional. Next to the awful mix, the right stereo channel suddenly was silenced during the instrumental part. "Do The Clam" was written by Sid Wayne, Ben Weisman and Dolores Fuller. On June 12, 1965 the band taped 5 takes of the music, three days later Elvis recorded two takes of the vocals. The master was a splice of take 5 (music) and take 2 (vocals).

In the winter of 1965 "Puppet On A String" was also released on a single, but only as a stopgap solution because the "Harum Scarum" soundtrack lacked anything that looked like a hit. RCA Victor simply coupled the ballad with "Wooden Heart" from the good old "G.I. Blues" album and sold another million units. To me the composition by Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennett is the highlight of this longplayer. Elvis recorded it on June 10, 1964 and needed 11 takes to get it right.

On June 11, 1964 the band needed two takes to record the music track for the song by Joy Byers. Four days later Elvis added his vocals within a single attempt. To put more effort into a tune like this would have been excessive.

The fans already knew the song from the b-side of "Do The Clam". Elvis had recorded "You'll Be Gone" on March 18, 1962 at RCA Studio B in Nashville/Tennessee and needed three takes to do so. The song was written by Red West, who was supported by Charlie Hodge and Elvis himself. The quality of "You'll Be Gone" exceeded  most of the movie songs and the track also sounded much better.