The final Presley-ep of 1957 was released on October 30th and was the soundtrack of the movie "Jailhouse Rock". On November 11th the record entered Billboard's "Best Selling EPs" chart and stayed for no less than 50 weeks. 28 of them "Jailhouse Rock" blocked the number one spot. In 1992 the RIAA honored the US sales with a Double Platinum Award, which means "Jailhouse Rock" had sold two million units on the domestic market. Because 40% of the king's records were retailed abroad, the global sales might touch the mark of three million copies (which equals 450 million paid streams of the complete record). Today "Jailhouse Rock" is regarded to be the most successful ep release ever.

The cover was designed with a promo photo for the accordant movie, the backside of the sleeve included a picture form the movie and liner notes.

On the streaming platforms the "Jailhouse Rock" ep cannot be found, because all the tracks are available on the regular albums of the king.

The soundtrack was recorded between April 30th and May 3rd, 1957 at Radio Recorders in Hollywood/California. Further tracks were taped on May 8th and 9th at the MGM Soundstage, which was also located in Hollywood. The sessions were produced by Jeffrey Alexander and engineered by Thorne Nogar (RCA) and Fred Mulculpin (MGM). The band consisted of Scotty Moore (guitar), Bill Black (bass), DJ Fontana (drums) and Dudley Brooks (piano). Elvis himself played guitar, piano (on "Don't Leave Me Now") and bass (on "Baby I Don't Care"). Mike Stoller played piano on "I Want To Be Free". The harmony vocals were provided by The Jordanaires (Gordon Stoker, Neal Matthews, Hoyt Hawkins and Hugh Jarrett). On July 30th "Treat Me Nice" was overdubbed with a guitar, played by Vincent Terri. This was done at the MGM Soundstage. On September 5, 1957 Elvis re-recorded the song at Radio Recorders. This version was used on the single and the extended player.

In 2009 Follow That Dream records released a collector's edition of "Jailhouse Rock", which also included several outtakes. The following year a second volume was released. Here the label presented the missing takes as well as another audio restauration of the masters. For reviews tap HERE (Jailhouse Rock - Volume 1) and HERE (Jailhouse Rock - Volume 2).

The legendary rock'n'roll song was taped on April 30, 1957 at Radio Recorders in Hollywood/California. Elvis recorded eight takes, of which only the numbers 4 and 5 are complete performances. Afterwards two pick up-takes were recorded, which started in the middle of the song. The final version was a splice of take 6 (a long false start) and pick up-take 2. When the song was released in September 1957, it reached the number one of the "Top 100", the "Country Best Seller Chart" and the "R&B Best Seller Chart". For me "Jailhouse Rock" is a masterpiece. A great melody, a driving rhythm and subversive lyrics (it's actually about a party of homosexuals, which was considered to be abnormal in the 50s of the last century). Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller had surpassed themselves with this song. Elvis' performance is unbeatable. Nobody ever came even close to his original recording, including Mr. Presley himself.

The ballad was written by Abner Silver and Aaron Schroeder and was recorded by Elvis on April 30, 1957. It wasn't an easy task for him, because he needed 22 attempts to get it right. I like "Young And Beautiful", but I am pretty sure, that the king would have sung it better in his later years.

"I Want To Be Free" was written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and taped by Elvis on May 3, 1957. First he recorded 11 takes, after that two additional pick up-takes of the songs' finale were produced. Further the king recorded five pick up-takes of an alternate finale. For the master take Jeffrey Alexander (the producer of the sessions) used take 11 and pickup-take 5 (alternate finale).

The song was already known form the album "Loving You", but this extended player featured a re-recording from May 9, 1957.