www.elvis-presley.website

The ultimate site about the king of the analogue age

 

In February 1962 RCA Victor released another single of the king. "Good Luck Charm" entered the "Hot 100" on March 17th at number 51, had a run of 13 weeks and became a number 1 hit. On the same day Billboard also listed "Anything That's Part Of You". The b-side stayed for eight weeks and climbed from number 70 to number 31. The ballad also entered the "Easy Listening Chart". Beginning on March 17th it was listed for eight weeks and peaked at number 6. In the US the single sold two million copies, which was honored by the RIAA with a Platinum Award in 1992. In Europe "Good Luck Charm" was also popular, especially in Norway. Here it stayed at the number one for eleven consecutive weeks. In Great Britain the song also became a number one hit. When BMG released the single again in 2005 (this time in the by then popular cd format), it once more became a hit and peaked at number 2 of the UK Charts. Worldwide "Good Luck Charm" / "Anything That's Part Of You" sold 4.5 million copies, which translates to 675 million paid streams. Commercially the king was at the top of his game.

The single is not available on the streaming platforms, but the songs can be found on the album "Elvis' Golden Records - Volume 3" (1963). In 2016 the complete Presley catalogue was restored and remastered by Vic Anesini for a boxed set of 60 compact discs called "The Album Collection". Sony Music Entertainment provides the streaming platforms with the same versions of the individual tracks, albeit in 24 bit/90 khz flac. That means, if the platform of your choice supports high resolution audio, you can enjoy the songs in the same quality Sony used to scan and master them. On Spotify, which has a market share of approximately 30% and is the only platform that publishes streaming figures, "Good Luck Charm" accumulates 37 million streams, "Anything That's Part Of You" clocks in at 2 million.

The cover was designed with a promo photo for the forthcoming movie "Follow That Dream" and showed the singer with his natural hair color.

 

Good Luck Charm

Elvis begs his loved one to be his talisman and I am pretty sure no ardent aficionado would have refused his plea. Aaron Schroeder and Wally Gold created this great piece of radio pop, which stays with you from the first second. I especially like the harmonies of Elvis and The Jordanaires. It's quite astonishing that they just needed four takes to record the song. They did so on October 15, 1961 at RCA Studio B in Nashville/Tennessee. RCA Victor released the track on "Elvis' Golden Records - Volume 3" (1963) and "Worldwide 50 Gold Award Hits - Volume 1" (1970).

Anything That's Part Of You

The ballad was recorded on the same day, but this time Elvis needed ten takes to get it right. The singer was just left by his loved one and now each and everyting reminds him of her. The king performs this song (written by the great Don Robertson) with so much sadness, that this feeling instantly transfers to the listener. I regard "Anything That's Part Of You" as one of the greatest tracks in the Presley catalogue. RCA Victor also released the song on "Elvis' Golden Records - Volume 3" (1963) and "Worldwide 50 Gold Award Hits - Volume 1" (1970).

 

Verdict

 Once again Elvis delivered a reference product of popular music. Two great songs, masterfully performed by a singer in his best voice ever.

 (C) RCA Victor