Just in time with the accordant movie RCA Victor released "Harum Scarum" in November 1965. On the 13th of the month the record entered Billboard's "Top LPs Chart", stayed for 23 weeks and peaked at number 8. In its initial sales period the long player was retailed 300,000 times and therefore a third more than the previously released "Elvis For Everyone". But in total "Harum Scarum" sold just 2.5 million units, which was half a million less than the predecessor and on the same level as "Girl Happy", the worst selling Presley album of the decade so far. Translated to the present the physical sales match 375 million paid streams of the complete album or 3.75 billion paid streams of individual tracks.

In 2016 the complete Presley catalogue was restored and remastered by Vic Anesini for a boxed set of 60 compact discs called "The Album Collection". Sony Music Entertainment provides the streaming platforms with the same versions of the individual albums (some of them offering bonus tracks), albeit in 24 bit/90 khz flac. That means, if the platform of your choice supports high resolution audio, you can enjoy the tracks in the same quality Sony used to scan and master them. On Spotify, which has a market share of approximately 30% and is the only platform that publishes streaming figures, "Harum Scarum" accumulates less than 2 million streams and therefore is the least popular Presley album. Without a connection to the movie, the music alone doesn't seem to interest anyone.

The art department of RCA Victor tryed to give the sleeve an "oriental" touch, which I liked very much when I was a kid. I remember seeing the album in a record store (yes, I am that old!) and wanting it badly just because of the artwork. However, because the photo was supposed to be on the left side and would have looked asymmetrical, it simply was flipped. I don't think many fans realized it at the time.

To push the sales the first edition of the album included a bonus photo.

The soundtrack was recorded between February 24th and 26th 1965 at RCA Studio B in Nashville/Tennessee. Because Elvis didn't show up on the final day, the musicians produced rhythm tracks, to which the king added his voice on March 9th. The sessions were produced by Fred Karger and Gene Nelson and engineered by Bill Vandevort. Elvis' band consisted of Scotty Moore (guitar), D.J. Fontana (drums), Thomas Martin (guitar), Charlie Hodge (guitar), Henry Strzelecki (bass), Kenneth Buttrey (drums), Floyd Cramer (piano), Rufus Long (flute) and Ralph Strobel (oboe). The harmony vocals were provided by The Jordanaires (Gordon Stoker, Hoyt Hawkins, Neal Matthews and Ray Walker). Hoyt Hawkins also played tambourine and Gene Nelson played congas. The audio mix matched the new standard for Presley soundtracks. The king's voice was brought extremely to the fore and everything sounded somewhat muddy. To lenghten the album RCA included two bonus songs. This time they were no leftovers from May 1963, but tracks that MGM had cut from the movie. Even with these additional songs the album runs just 24:14 minutes.

When Follow That Dream Records started their series of collector's editions in 2003 "Harum Scrarum" was one of the first editions. For a review tap HERE.

The album starts with a composition by Jimmie Crane, Vini Poncia jr. and Peter Andreoli. The music track was recorded on February 26, 1965, the vocals followed on March 9th. The master is a combination of take 2 (music track) and the takes 6 and 7 (vocal track). The singer praizes the beauty of the orient and is convinced that even Romeo wouldn't have stayed with Julia if he had traveled to this wonderful place. "Harem Holiday" is a mediocre uptempo tune. Good enough, but certainly no potential hit.

This love song is performed well, albeit a little more emotion from Elvis' side wouldn't have done the ballad any harm. He recorded it on February 25, 1965 within 12 takes. The writer of "My Desert Serenade" is Stanley Jay Gelber.

The beauty of the orient is praized once more, this time in form of a nice popsong by Bill Giant, Bernie Baum and Florence Kaye. Elvis recorded his part on March 9, 1965 (for the master the takes 7 and 8 were used), the music was taped on February 26th (here the producers went for take 3).

This romantic ballad was also written by Giant/Baum/Kaye and it was recorded on February 26th / March 9th, too. And once again Elvis didn't manage to deliver a satisfactory take. The vocals had to be spliced of the takes 3 and 5, the music track was the fifth attempt.

The singer is in love and considers the encounter with his loved one to be fate willed by God - in a single word "Kismet". Elvis recorded Sid Tepper's and Roy C. Bennett's song on February 25, 1965 within 5 takes. The melody is nice and the king performs the ballad well.

Elvis obviously had troubles to record this uptempo tune, delivered by the tireless trio Giant/Baum/Kaye. Even though he recorded 38 (!) takes of "Shake That Tambourine" not even one was usable for release. In the end the master had to be spliced of the takes 24 and 38. The recording was that time consuming, that this song was the only one taped on February 24, 1965. For a movie tune "Shake That Tamourine" is acceptable.

Here we have another fast song, albeit this time monotonous and somewhat hectic. It was written by Joy Byers and recorded by Elvis on February 25, 1965 within five takes.

The ballad matches the oriental theme of the movie and is a solid effort by Bill Giant, Bernie Baum and Florence Kaye. The king also performs it well, even though once again the master had to be spliced. This time the takes 11 and 16 were used to create a complete, releasable version. "Golden Coins" was recorded on February 26, 1965.

Joy Byers and Bob Johnston wrote this lovely ballad, in which the singer yearns for his loved one. Without doubt this is the best track of the whole album and it would have been even better, if Elvis had put a tad more emotion in his performance. By the way: Once again the king didn't manage to deliver a master take. The producers spliced the takes 3 and 4.

Elvis recorded the song on February 26, 1965 within six takes. "Animal Instinct" was written by Bill Giant, Bernie Baum and Florence Kaye and compares the courtship behavior of the singer to the fauna. The quality of this tune is not better or worse than the rest.

Guess who wrote the last song of this album. It was Bill Giant, Bernie Baum and Florence Kaye! Elvis recorded it on February 25, 1965 and needed five takes to get it right. I don't know why MGM cut "Wisdom Of The Ages" from the movie, because it's one of the best songs on this record.