For the first anniversary of the king's demise RCA released an album called "Elvis Sings For Children...And Grownups Too!". In August 1978 the record entered Billboard's "Top LPs Chart". It stayed for eleven weeks, but never made it past number 130. On the "Hot Country LPs Chart" the release feared much better, here it had a run of sixteen weeks and peaked at number 5. In 2011 the RIAA honored the domestic sales with a Gold Award, worldwide "Elvis Sings For Children...And Grown Ups, Too!" may have sold between a million and one and a half million copies. So today the release would have generated somewhat between 150 million and 225 million paid streams of the complete album or between 1.2 billion and 1.8 million paid streams of individual tracks.

Since all tracks are available elsewhere "Elvis Sings For Children...And Grown Ups, Too!" cannot be found on the streaming platforms.

Even though it just holds a single longplayer, RCA produced a fold-out cover. Inside we can find the lyrics of the songs, so we and our children can sing along to the king. The front cover features a photo of Elvis, which was shot in January or February 1970 in Las Vegas. On the back there is a smaller picture from the singer's 1973 summer tour. As a special gimmick the first pressing of "Elvis Sings For Children...And Grownups, Too!" the photo wasn't simply printed on the sleeve, but was a postcard, that could be removed. The cover includes "children's drawings" and messages like "To mommy from Timmy" or "To grandpa from Joan". This is a little inside-joke from Joan Deary (the producer of the album) and Tim Byron (the designer of the packaging).

As the title suggests, the album is a compilation of children's songs or tunes, which are or could be aimed at children. One exception aside, all the songs were originally featured in movies, that often included children as popular figures. Originally Colonel Parker had brought up the idea for such an album in late 1975, but was rejected by RCA at the time. With the demise of the singer the situation had changed and the project was realized. Why the management of the label thought, the first anniversary of Elvis' death might be the best time to release a compilation of children's songs, is not known. I certainly had preferred a boxed set like "Elvis Aron Presley" (1980) or "A Golden Celebration" (1985). Nevertheless the idea behind "Elvis Sings For Children...And Grown Ups, Too!" was original and the project was executed very well. RCA obviously spent some time and thought on this release.

The singer begs his loved one to be her Teddy Bear. Tigers are too rough and lions are not kind enough. For a performer, who was sold as a rebel and even the king of the wicked rock'n'roll music, lyrics like that were embarrassing. But the girls loved it and "Teddy Bear" became an evergreen. It's not really a children's song, but the lyrics could be construed as being sung from a mother or father to a kid.  In the 1970s Elvis mostly performed it in a medley with "Don't Be Cruel". Live recordings can be found on "Elvis As Recorded At Madison Square Garden" (1972) and "Elvis In Concert" (1977). RCA Victor also released the studio recording on the album "Loving You" (1957), the extended player "Loving You - Volume 1" (1957) and on the boxed set "Worldwide 50 Gold Award Hits - Volume 1" (1970). To promote "Elvis Sings For Children...And Grownups Too!", RCA released the single "Puppet On A String" / "Teddy Bear" in early August 1978. The record didn't chart on Billboard's "Hot 100", but was listed on their "Hot Country Singles Chart" for four weeks, peaking at number 78. To make it short: It wasn't a success at all.

In 1827 Friedrich Silcher adapted the German folk song "Muss I Denn, Muss I Denn Zum Staedtele Hinaus", 133 years later Fred Wise, Ben Weisman, Kay Twomey and Bert Kaempfert turned it into "Wooden Heart". Elvis recorded it on April 28, 1960 within four takes. Strangely though the writers didn't use the original German lyrics, but created new ones. They give the impression to have been translated with a mediocre software (just like my homepage). This one also isn't a children's song, but it's a nice sing-along, which often was intoned in kindergardens and schools in the old days. In Europe, Asia and South Africa RCA Victor released "Wooden Heart" on a single and sold more than 2 million copies in Germany alone! However, in the US the label stuck to the release on the album and left the number one hit to Joe Dowell. However in 1964 the track appeared on the flipside of "Blue Christmas" and a year later it could be found on the b-side of "Puppet On A String".

Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennet based their song on the "Wiegenlied" by Johannes Brahms. It was written for a scene of the movie Speedway, in which Steve (Elvis) puts five children to bed. Because MGM cut this particular scene from the film, RCA Victor labeled the track as "bonus song". The king recorded "Five Sleepy Heads" on June 20, 1967 within three takes. Brahms' original as well as the re-writing is a song to put children to sleep. So it fits here very well.

The ballad was written by Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennet and recorded by Elvis on June 10, 1964 within 11 takes. The narrator is in love and completely under the spell of his beloved one. Of course it was meant to be sung by one lover to another, but it also could be warbled to a child to tell it, that it's ones everything. It's a good song, without doubt the best one on the "Girl Happy" soundtrack. Therefore it was relesed on a single, combined with "Wooden Heart" from the film "GI Blues". In 1971 RCA Victor also released the track on the boxed set "The Other Sides - Worldwide Gold Award Hits Volume 2".

Elvis needed seven takes for this beautiful ballad, which was written by Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennett. It was taped on July 2, 1962 for the movie "Follow That Dream" and first appeared on the accordant soundtrack ep. In 1971 RCA's budget label CAMDEN also put it on an album named "C'mon Everybody". Once again this is a song about the beauty of a person of sexual interest, but one might interpret it innocently to be a tune about a child's beauty, too.

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. Elvis recorded it for his movie "Double Trouble", CAMDEN re-released "Old Mac Donald" in 1972 on the budget album "Elvis Sings Hits From His Movies - Volume 1"..

In the movie "It Happened At The World's Fair" the tune is sung by Elvis and Vicky Tiu, but on the album we just hear the voice of Mr. Presley. For whatever reason RCA thought it was a good idea to couple a Christmas song with this one and released it on the b-side of "If Every Day Was Like Christmas" in 1966. It was also included on the CAMDEN release "Elvis Sings Hits From His Movies - Volume 1" (1972). The king needed six takes for this song when he recorded it on September 22, 1962. The composers are Ben Raleigh and Mark Barkan.

This is supposed to be a children's song, but it has a somewhat creepy undertone. I can imagine this song in a thriller to accentuate a scene of a infanticide. However, it wasn't meant this way by Ruth Batchelor and Bob Roberts. Elvis recorded "Cotton Candy Land" on September 22nd and needed five attempts to reach a satisfactory take. This one is also from "It Happened At The World's Fair".

RCA released the song on "Elvis", the second longplayer of the singer. At the time "Old Shep" must have been a real surprise, because nobody expected a sad ballad about a boy and his dog from somebody, who was said to be the king of rock'n'roll. In fact Elvis loved "Old Shep" and sang this song since his childhood days. I like the track very much, because it's one of the very few ballads, that Elvis sang well at the time. In the 1950s he was really good at uptempo songs, but he simply lacked the technique to perform the slow tunes well. On September 2, 1956 the king recorded five takes of "Old Shep", but finally approved his first attempt for release. Because of a mistake some pressings of "Elvis" include take 5 of the song. Today these versions of the album are quite expensive. RCA Victor also released "Old Shep" on the ep "Elvis - Volume 2" (1956), CAMDEN included the sad ballad on the budget lp "Separate Ways" (1972). The song was written by Red Foley, who was also the first to release it.

In the movie "GI Blues" Tulsa (Elvis) sings the baby of one of his army buddies to sleep, in real life "Big Boots" caused the king some trouble. On April 8, 1960 he recorded four takes of the slow version, we are hearing on the album. After that he taped seven takes of a fast version. On May 6th there were two takes in medium tempo as well as six takes, four insert-takes and five composite-takes of the slow version. The final master was spliced of take 4 (April 28th), insert-take 4 (May 6th) and composite-take 3 (May 6th). In general the song by Sid Wayne and Sherman Edwards isn't bad, but withouth the accordant movie scene it appears somewhat strange.

The album ends with a track from "Change Of Habit". It was recorded at Decca Universal Studio in Hollywood/California on March 6, 1969. Elvis needed seven takes to reach a satisfactory result. The song was written by Ben Weisman and Buddy Kaye and can be compared to the many mediocre movie ballads of the mid-sixties. The tune was released in 1970 on CAMDEN's budget album "Let's Be Friends".