In early June 1972 CAMDEN released "Elvis Sings Hits From His Movies - Volume 1". With sales of 130,000 copies the album entered the "Top LPs Chart" on July 8th, had a run of 15 weeks and peaked at number 87. 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. In contrast to the magazine the RIAA honored the sold copies and awarded "Elvis Sings Hits From His Movies - Volume 1" with Platinum (2004). Outside of the US the compilation was also received well, worldwide CAMDEN sold two million units. Translated to the present this amount of physical sales equals 300 million paid streams of the album or 3 billion paid streams of individual tracks. Therefore this collection of old movie tunes moved twice as much copies as "Elvis Now", the current studio album of the king.

The cover of the aforementioned longplayer had featured a photo taken during the "Elvis Summer Festival 1971" in Las Vegas. CAMDEN used a picture from the same show to give the collection of old tracks a current touch. On the backside the label used a concert picture from November 1970 and also showed the covers of the albums the songs on this compilation were taken from.

Because all these albums are available on the streaming platforms, a compilation like this is obsolete and Sony Music Entertainment waives a digital release of "Elvis Sings Hits From His Movies - Volume 1".

Back in 1972 the situation was different. There was no streaming and all the music had to be made available on physical sound carriers. If the sales were low, the records were not profitable and the labels stopped the production. CAMDEN made use of the situation and made some of the tracks available again. The concept of this compilation was to collect songs, that either had been released on singles or were based on popular melodies. The album also contained bonus songs, which have no connection to any movie, but they had been released as bonus songs on the original soundtrack albums. All that doesn't turn the tunes into hits, but never mind some marketing scam.

The basis for this release was a new contract with CAMDEN, that Elvis had signed in March 1972. Until the end of the year the label was entitled to release another three budget albums. The company granted an advance-payment of 180,000 USD (using the rough factor of 15 it would be around 2.7 million USD today), to be split 50/50 between the king and his manager.

The medley is supposed to have been written by Bill Giant, Bernie Baum and Florence Kaye, but of course it is nothing but a combination of two traditionals that simply were re-worked to create a new song in the legal sense. "Down By The Riverside" was originally sung by slaves at the time of the civil war and was also known as "Ain't Gonna Study War No More" and "Gonna Lay Down My Burden". The first known recording was made by The Fisk Jubilee Singers in 1920. "When The Saints Go Marchin' In" became popular as a funeral march in the southern states of the USA, but its origins go back to a Belgian chant. Once again the music track was recorded on May 12, 1965 and the vocal track followed a day later. The master is a combination of take 7 (music track) and take 4 (vocal track). The first release was in 1966 on the soundtrack album "Frankie And Johnny".

Elvis recorded this beautiful ballad on September 22, 1962, take nine was chosen to be the master. RCA Victor had released the song in 1963 on the flipside of "One Broken Heart For Sale" and on the album "It Happened At The World's Fair". Just the previous year it had been re-released on the boxed set "The Other Sides - Worldwide Gold Award Hits Volume 2" (1971). For Don Robertson, the writer of "They Remind Me Too Much Of You", it turned out to be a stroke of luck to have been booked as a pianist for these sessions. Because suddenly someone realized that the song was that similar to "Chapel In The Moonlight", that there might have been a copyright issue. Robertson could save his song from being skipped by making some adjustments. However, now it sounded very much like "Anything That's Part Of You". But because this one had also been written by Don, there was no danger of being sued. To me this is a great song which certainly wouldn't have been out of place on a regular studio album of the king.

In the movie "Clambake" Scott (Elvis) notices a discouraged girl on a slide - no doubt she needs confidence and it has to be given to her with a song. The unmotivated and clumsy performance of the king is topped off by an embarrassing bunch of adults, that tries to imitate a children's choir. Allegedly "Confidence" was written by Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennet, but it's a plain copy of "High Hopes". The music was recorded on February 22nd, the king's vocals followed the next day. On March 6th a vocal repair was recorded at Annex Studio, on September 19th June Page, Priscilla Hubbard, Dolores Edgin and Millie Kirkham faked the children's voices.

The traditional from the 19th century was also known as "Frankie And Albert". It exists in many different versions, but they all have in common that Frankie kills her lover Johnny (or Albert) because of jealousy. In some versions she lands in jail, in others she gets executed. Alex Gottlieb, Fred Karger and Ben Weisman adapted the traditional for Elvis, who recorded it on May 14, 1965 within six takes. "Frankie And Johnny" is one of my favorite movie tunes, because it differs from the usual ones and is performed very well. In 1966 RCA Victor released the song on the album "Frankie And Johnny" (what a surprise!) and on a single.

"Guitar Man" was released on a single and as a bonus song on the soundtrack album "Clambake". It was recorded on September 10, 1967. Elvis taped 12 takes of the song by Jerry Reed, who added his concise guitar play on the same day. The narrator chronicles his career as a musician and the king's enthusiasm for this song is obvious. For his tv special "SINGER presents Elvis" the king recorded a separate version of this song, which was featured on the long player "Elvis" in 1968.

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. Elvis recorded the song on June 29, 1966 at the MGM Soundstage. The fifth take became the master. RCA Victor released the track in 1967 on a single and on the album "Double Trouble". CAMDEN had used the song before on the budget lp "Almost In Love", but by 1972 that one was also out of print.

The ballad was written by Cindy Walker and Eddy Arnold, who also was the first to release "You Don't Know Me". On February 21, 1967 Elvis recorded twenty takes of the song, but the final attempt was only used for the movie "Clambake". On September 11th the king taped two more performances, the record master was a splice of the first attempt and the final bars of the second one. Elvis performs "You Don't Know Me" very well and it certainly wouldn't have been out of place on a regular studio album. RCA Victor also released the song on the flipside of "Big Boss Man".

The king needed six takes for the children's song when he recorded it on September 22, 1962. The composers are Ben Raleigh and Mark Barkan. "How Would You Like To Be" first appeared on the soundtrack album "It Happened At The World's Fair", later it could also be found on the b-side of "If Every Day Was Like Christmas".

The song was written by Al Smith and Luther Dixon and released by Jimmy Reed in 1960. Elvis recorded his version on September 10, 1967 within eleven takes. The narrator confronts his boss and tells him that he slave-drives him by letting him work all around the clock. The king sounds quite aressive and performs the r&b styled number extremely well. The track was released on a single and as a bonus song on the "Clambake" soundtrack. For his television special "SINGER presents Elvis" he re-recorded "Big Boss Man" and also performed it during his concerts from 1974 to 1977.