www.elvis-presley.website

The ultimate site about the king of the analogue age

 

Just two weeks after "Kiss Me Quick" / "Suspicion" RCA Victor released the next single of the king. To promote his forthcoming motion picture "Viva Las Vegas" the new 45 featured the title song and a cover version of Ray Charles' "What'd I Say". On May 9th "Viva Las Vegas" entered the "Hot 100", had a run of seven weeks and peaked at number 29. "What'd I Say" followed on May 23rd, was listed for six weeks and made it to number 21. On the domestic market the single sold a million copies and was certified with a Gold Award by the RIAA in 1992. Worldwide two million units went over the sales counters, which translates to 300 million paid streams. Commercially the single followed the new trend. Elvis Presley was still able to sell records, but the sales giants could be accounted for by the new generation of stars. In contrast to the 1960s "What'd I Say" accumulates just 1.8 million streams on Spotify while "Viva Las Vegas" became quite popular and clocks in at around 90 million streams.

The cover was made up with a promo shot for the accordant movie, in which Elvis looked somewhat artificial. Of course RCA Victor didn't forget to advertise the extended player with another four songs from "Viva Las Vegas".

The single can't be found on the streaming platforms, but both songs are available on the album "Elvis' Gold Records - Volume 4" (1968). "What'd I Say" was included on RCA's original release, "Viva Las Vegas" was added to the digital version by Sony Music Entertainment.

 

Viva Las Vegas

On June 10, 1963 Elvis and his band tried to record "Viva Las Vegas", but gave up after a single take. On the next day they continued their work with a different arrangement and recorded six further takes. The final one was chosen for release. Because the producer continued the numbering the master is take number 7. The song was written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman and can easily be regarded as one of the king's best movie tunes. Since 1964 it has been covered many times and became somewhat of the anthem of Vegas. In 1970 RCA Victor released the song on the boxed set "Worldwide 50 Gold Award Hits - Volume 1".

What'd I Say

Because the decision to include "What'd I Say" in the movie was made at the last minute, it was recorded on August 30, 1963 in a separate session. Elvis needed four takes to reach a satisfactory result. The song was written by Ray Charles, who scored his first major hit with it in the summer of 1959. Back in those days Elvis would have produced a steaming r&b performance, too, but in 1963 the result wasn't much more than an uptempo popsong with the backup singers sounding a tad hysterical. RCA released "What'd I Say" in 1968 on "Elvis' Gold Records - Volume 4".

 

Verdict

At the time the audience favored "What'd I Say", but over the years "Viva Las Vegas" became somewhat of the anthem of Sin City and is regarded a true classic today.

 (C) RCA Records