The third budget album of 1971 was called "I Got Lucky" and hit the stores in October. With sales of 100,000 copies the album entered Billboard's "Top LPs Chart" on November 27th, had a run of eight weeks and peaked at number 104. This was caused by the low price. To avoid "bought" chart successes by price dumping, Billboard calculated the charts by using the value in USD. The RIAA honored the sold units and awarded "I Got Lucky" with Gold (2004) and Platinum (2011). Worldwide the album sold two million copies, which equals 300 million paid streams of the complete album or 3 billion paid streams of individual tracks. Just like the previous budget release "C'mon Everybody", this one also outsold the king's latest studio album "Love Letters From Elvis". Today the situation isn't much different. On Spotify the budget album clocks in at more than 28 million streams while "Love Letters From Elvis" was requested just 14 million times.

To give the album a current touch CAMDEN put a concert photo from November 1970 on the cover, even though the album contained movie tunes of the 1960s. The backcover was used to promote four other budget releases.

On the streaming platforms "I Got Lucky" is presented the way it was issued in 2016 as part of the set "The Album Collection". As bonus tracks the digital version also includes "You're The Boss" and "Come What May". 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. 

"I Got Lucky" was designed as the second volume of "C'mon Everybody" and included the rest of the tracks from the extended players "Follow That Dream" (1962), "Kid Galahad" (1962), "Viva Las Vegas" (1964) and "Easy Come, Easy Go" (1967). As a bonus the album also contained "Fools Fall In Love", the b-side of the meanwhile deleted single "Indescribably Blue". The running time of the compilation is 22:29 minutes.

The song was written by Dolores Fuller, Ben Weisman and Fred Wise. On October 27, 1961 Elvis recorded six takes and selected the final attempt for release. But then he decided to tape another two takes, revoked his decision and chose the 8th take as master. It was first released in 1962 on the ep "Kid Galahad". The following year RCA Victor coupled "I Got Lucky" on a single with "Girls! Girls! Girls!" for the German market.

Another nice, uptempo popsong, this time from the "Follow That Dream" soundtrack. "What A Wonderful Life" was penned by Sid Wayne and Jerry Livingston and recorded by Elvis within seven takes

The ballad is reminiscent of the saloon songs by Frank Sinatra and certainly wouldn't have been out of place on a regular studio album. Elvis obviously recognized the quality of the composition and invested twenty takes on July 10, 1963. Today "I Need Somebody To Lean On" is often overlooked, but the song by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman is one of the king's best movie tunes. It first appeared on the "Viva Las Vegas" ep in 1964.

This spoof of the current fad was also recorded on September 29th within 12 takes, the writers are Gerald Nelson and Fred Burch. The melody is reminiscent of a children's song and the verses make fun of several yoga positions. I have heared worse movie tunes, but directly after "I Need Somebody To Lean On" this is a big step down. "Yoga Is As Yoga Does" was originally featured on the soundtrack ep "Easy Come, Easy Go".

This one is from "Kid Galahad". On October 26, 1961 Elvis recorded nine takes, later another seven. The master was spliced of take seven of the second session and take nine of the first one. "Riding The Rainbow" is another happy-go-lucky-tune by Fred Wise and Ben Weisman.

The uptempo song was written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and was released for the first time in 1956 by The Drifters. Elvis recorded "Fools Fall In Love" on May 28, 1966 within five takes. It's a boisterous performance and pure joy to hear. The singer claims that only fools fall in love and latterly he's one of them. The track had been originally released in early 1967 on the b-side of "Indescribably Blue". The single had sold just a million copies and was deleted from the RCA catalogue in 1971. The a-side was available on the album "Elvis' Gold Records - Volume 4" (1968), now the fans were also able to get the other song on a longplayer.

In the movie "Easy Come, Easy Go" Ted (Elvis) visits the club of his buddy Judd (Pat Harrington jr), where a weel of fortune can be found. The prizes are dates with girls. Of course this invention has to be honored with a song, which was written by Gerald Nelson, Fred Burch and Chuck Taylor. Regarding the music and the performance it's an above average movie song, but the lyrics are somewhat strange. Obviously the girls have no problem dating each and every guy who wins them for an evening. WTF?!? However, Elvis recorded this male fantasy on September 29, 1966 and needed 12 takes to reach a satisfactory result.

Back to "Kid Galahad", which is the much better soundtrack. In Germany this was the b-side of "King Of The Whole Wide World". On October 26, 1961 Elvis needed 21 takes to record a satisfactory version of the ballad. The authors are Sherman Edwards and Hal David.

Because Elvis wasn't too pleased with the song by Bill Giant, Bernie Baum and Florence Kaye, he had Red West making some adjustments. However, he was given no credit for his work. The reason is unknown, but I guess it was a financial issue. The rhythm track was recorded on September 29th, Elvis added his vocals on the following day. In contrast to the king I regard "You Gotta Stop" to be a nice enough movie tune. It first appeared on the ep "Easy Come, Easy Go".