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On June 11th the group once again started to work at 7:00 pm. From 10:45 pm to 12:45 am they took a break before continuing until 5:00 am. Elvis, the singers and the musicians taped another three songs, afterwards the band recorded music tracks for "I've Got To Find My Baby" and "Ford Laudadale Chamber Of Commerce".  The band met again on June 12th to produce music tracks for "Startin' Tonight", "Do The Clam" and "Wolf Call". This session lasted from 7:00 pm to 10:40 pm. 

 

Cross My Heart And Hope To Die (takes 1-11)

The takes number 6 and 11 were used on the collector's edition of "Girl Happy", take 6 was also released on the compilation album "Out In Hollywood". The first try works well, but at the beginning of the second verse Elvis looses track. The producer deprecates the decrease of the tempo throughout the performance. Take 2 falls apart during the bridge. The next try falters a bit earlier, this time the group gets to the start of the bridge. The following two takes also falter during the bridge. The phrasing of the words appears to be tricky for Elvis. With take number 6 the group finally manages to put a complete performance on tape. However, during the next attempt the king looses track after 50 seconds or so. With the next tries he gets a bit further, but somehow it doesn't work. Take 10 is nothing more than a few bars of the intro, but number 11 is another complete rendition. Finally Elvis gives up, the master (which closes this part of the album) was spliced from the beginning of take 9 and take 11.

Spring Fever (takes 1-24)

Take 1 ends after 30 seconds, because Elvis has trouble to phrase the line "open your eyes, the sky is full of butterflies".  The second take is a short false start and a longer one. First the king has to clear his throat during the intro, then he misses his cue to start the second verse. Take 3 is another failed intro plus Elvis giving up after a few words. Finally the 4th attempt turns into a complete performance. Take 5 is preceded by some coordination and rehearsals. Nevertheless it ends right after the intro. With the next try the group gets a bit further, but now Elvis mispronounces the word "car". Take 7 is just the intro plus a few words from the king, number 8 crashes once again at the "grab a car" part. The king looses track and jokingly sings "let's grab a jet". The 9th try is ended by Elvis, who asks "Can you hear me, Dave?". I guess he got a little too far away from the microphone. Now The Jordanaires mess up the intro, but the producer keeps the tape rolling. But during the second verse the king gets lost in the lyrics and so the 10th take ends after a minute and 16 seconds. The next try works a lot better, but its falling apart right before the end of the performance. Bad luck....or lack of focus. The takes 12 and 13 are crashing around the minute mark, number 14 falters 20 seconds before the finale. Once again because of the lead vocalist. The next try is nothing but a messed up intro, but with take 16 the group accomplishes another complete performance. After two more false starts the 19th attempt seems to work out well. but then Elvis stops after the "let's grap a car or hop a bus" line. Take 20 breaks down after 1:52, because the king gets lost in the lyrics. The 21st walkthrough is a complete performance, but the king makes a minor mistake right at the start and the ending sounds rather insecure. Take 22 is not much more than a few bars, number 23 breaks down after a minute or so, because Elvis sings "grab a girl" instead of "grab a car". After letting out his frustration the king focuses himself and delivers a complete performance. Even the finale is performed as planned and so everyone settles for this take. FTD's collector's edition of the "Girl Happy" album includes the takes 4, 18, 19 and 21. Everything else is released for the first time.

Do Not Disturb (takes 1-36)

If anyone thought it was a long way to put "Spring Fever" on tape, he'd soon find out that the recording of "Do Not Disturb" would take even longer. An astonishing 36 (!) takes were needed to nail this simple ballad and no more than 3 of them were complete performances. Follow That Dream Records released the takes 24 to 27 as well as take 35 on their collector's edition of the "Girl Happy" album. To save the the fans from dying of boredom everything else was left in the vaults. But now we get the complete sessions and therfore we have to go through all of them. The majority of the attempts don't get past the mark of 45 seconds. During take 8 Elvis alters a line to "...tell the maid to get fucked", he doesn't make it through the entire song until the 27th attempt. The next one is successful, too, but then it takes the king another six false starts to churn out another complete performance. Take 36 became the master and the singer went home. As written before, the group stayed in the studio to produce two music tracks. 

 

 (C) Follow That Dream Records / Sony Music Entertainment