The gospel album "How Great Thou Art" was followed in June 1967 by the soundtrack of "Double Trouble", the king's forthcoming motion picture. Starting on June 20th Billboard listed the record on the "Top LPs Chart" for 20 weeks, but with sales of 200,000 units it didn't climb past number 47. Worldwide "Double Trouble" barely moved 1.6 million copies (according to the RIAA that's 240 million paid streams of the complete album, respectively 2.4 billion individual tracks) and therefore became the king's worst selling album to date. Since "Double Trouble" accumulates a tad over 3 million streams, it's now the fifth least requested Presley album on Spotify. Therefore one might say, the situation has improved.

The cover design was meant to match the title of the album, RCA Victor used a promo shot for the accordant movie. To raise the sales appeal the first edition also included a special collector's card, which featured a four years old picture made in conjunktion with the motion picture "Viva Las Vegas".

On the streaming platforms "Double Trouble" 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.

Because the soundtrack was rather short RCA Victor filled the album with several bonus songs. One of them had been cut from "Double Trouble", the others were left-overs from Mai 1963. Nevertheless the album was a short one, it runs for just 22:36 minutes.

The sessions for "Double Trouble" began on June 28, 1966 at Radio Recorders, but were moved the next day to MGM's own soundstage. The reason was the dissatisfation of the studio bosses with Elvis' lack of punctuality. They hoped to gain more control of the sessions and also were happy to save the rent for the studio. Unfortunately the vast sound stage was not appropriate for making records. In the end there was too much hiss on the tape, besides that Elvis' voice once again was brought too much to the fore and everything sounded somewhat muddy.

The sessions were produced by Jeffrey Alexander, the sound engineers were Dave Weichman (Radio Recorders), Aaron Rochin (MGM) and Lyle Burbridge (MGM). Elvis' band consisted of Scotty Moore (guitar), D.J. Fontana (drums), Hilmer J. Timbrell (guitar), Charlie McCoy (guitar and harmonica), Bob Moore (bass), Murrey Harman (drums), Floyd Cramer (piano), Pete Drake (steel guitar), Homer Randolph (saxophone) und Richard Noel (trombone). The harmony vocals were provided by The Jordanaires (Gordon Stoker, Hoyt Hawkins, Neal Matthews and Ray Walker).

"City By Night" and "Baby If You Give Me All Your Love" were overdubbed on July 14th at the MGM Soundstage. The session was produced by Jeffrey Alexander and engineered by Aaron Rochin and Lyle Burbridge. The musicians were Michael Deasy (guitar), Jerry Scheff (bass), Toxey French (drums), Michael Henderson (saxophone) und Wyan Parker (saxophone).

In 2004 Follow That Dream Records released a collector's edition of "Double Trouble", which also included outtakes. To read a review please tap HERE.

The singer is in love with two women and therefore he's in double trouble. The song was written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, who had delivered some excellent popsongs for Elvis in the early 1960s. The composers still wrote in the same style, so by 1967 a song like "Double Trouble" sounded somewhat old fashioned. However, it's a nice enough song and certainly not the worst of Elvis' movie tunes. The recording was made on June 29, 1966 at the MGM Soundstage, take 4 was chosen for post production and release. Because there was no proper finale the band and The Jordanaires recorded a separate workpart-take of the ending, which was spliced with take 4 to create a proper master.

Here we have another one of these mediocre movie tunes. Elvis recorded it on the same day as "Double Trouble" and needed five takes to do so. On July 14th a guitar was added. The author of the song is Joy Byers.

Elvis recorded the song on June 28, 1966 at Radio Recorders and added his harmony vocal two days later at the MGM Soundstage. And this is the problem, because the additional track included a lot of hiss and lowered the quality of the recording considerably. The ballad itself is a solid effort by Randy Starr.

The singer tells us about the hardships of his search for the girl with the long legs and the short frock. The rocking melody and the edgy electric guitar were supposed to sound modern, but still "Long Legged Girl (With The Short Dress On)" never leaves the level of a mediocre movie tune. To promote the soundtrack RCA Victor released the track in advance on a single, CAMDEN re-used it on the budget albums "Almost In Love" (1970) and "Elvis Sings Hits From His Movies - Volume 1" (1972). Elvis recorded the song on June 29, 1966 at the MGM Soundstage. The fifth take became the master.

Because Elvis arrived late at Radio Recorders on June 28th, the band produced a rhythm track of "City By Night". The jazzy song didn't seem to challenge anyone, because the third attempt was already considered a master take. Two days later, this time at the MGM Soundstage, Elvis added his vocals. He recorded ten takes, finally choosing number 5 as master take. For whatever reason take 10 was also copied to the master reel and labeled "alternate master". The song was written by Bill Giant, Bernie Baum and Florence Kaye. "City By Night" is definitely one of the better movie tunes.

The children's song is based on a title from the opera "The Kingdom Of Birds", written in 1720. Later versions were "The Farm Yard, Or The Merry Green Fields" (1908), Ohio (Old Macdougal Had A Farm) (1917) and "Old Missouri" (1922). The oldest known recording was made in 1925 by The Sam Patterson Trio. Here it was already named "Old Mac Donald Had A Farm". Later the song was also recorded by Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald or Elvis Presley. He did it on June 29, 1966 at the MGM Soundstage. The master was a combination of take 3 (rhythm track), take 7 (vocal track) and a vocal repair recorded on June 30th. The tune was re-written by Randy Starr, which legally created a new song that could be published on its own. CAMDEN released "Old Mac Donald" in 1972 on the budget album "Elvis Sings Hits From His Movies - Volume 1".

Here we have another adaption of an old song. "Aupres De Ma Bonde" was sung by the French infantry in the days of Louis XIV and originally is a children's song. This time Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennett took care of creating a legally new song. The result was called "I Love Only One Girl" and recorded by Elvis on June 29th within just two takes. The singer announces to love only one girl - in every town. Amongst others our spare time Casanova has a girlfriend in Germany. She is named Brunhilda and lives in Frankfurt on the Rhine! In fact the city is located on the Main, but who cares about geography in a Presley movie? This track was also re-released by CAMDEN, this time on "Burning Love And Hits From His Movies" (1972).

On June 28, 1966 Elvis recorded ten takes of "There's So Much World To See" and selected the final attempt for release. After doing so he recorded another version, that was supposed to be used in the movie and was overdubbed with strings on November 17th. In the end RCA Victor didn't use the record version, but the same track as MGM. "There's So Much World To See" was written by Sid Wayne and Ben Weisman. The singer tells his loved one, that he cannot settle down because he hasn't seen enough of the world yet. It's not a great song, but nice enough.

This song was penned by the same team and recorded by Elvis on June 29, 1966 at the MGM Soundstage. Five takes were put on tape, finally the king choose the third one for release. Originally "It Won't Be Long" was supposed to be used in "Double Trouble". When MGM decided against it, RCA Victor simply labeled it as "bonus song".

Many fans already knew the song from the b-side of the single "Such A Night", released by RCA Victor in 1964. Elvis had recorded "Never Ending" on May 26, 1963 at RCA Studio B in Nashville/Tennessee within 3 takes. The nice, uptempo popsong was written by Buddy Kaye and Phil Springer.

This one had also been issued on the b-side of a single, this time "Tell Me Why" in late 1965. The track was penned by Paul Evans and Fred Tobias, Elvis had recorded it on May 27, 1963 at RCA Studio B in Nashville/Tennessee. The master was created by lengthening the second take.

Originally Don Robertson had written the song for Johnny Cash, but he refused it. So it was offered to Elvis, who recorded it on May 26, 1963 at RCA Studio B in Nashville/Tennessee within a single take. I like that popsong very much, to me it's the highlight of this album. By 1967, however, the sound was already outdated. CAMDEN re-released "What Now, What Next, Where To" in 1972 on the budget album "Separate Ways".