On July 14, 1964 RCA Victor issued a single
of "Such A Night" and "Never Ending". On the
25th of the month "Such A Night" entered
Billboard's "Hot 100" at number 82, had a run of
eight weeks and peaked at number 16. In Great
Britain and The Netherlands the single made it
in the top 20, in Norway, Belgium, Ireland and
Australia the track even hit the top 10.
Worldwide the record sold 1.3 million units,
which equals 195 million paid streams.
Commercially the 45 was a huge success,
considering the facts that "Such A Night" was
available on the album "Elvis Is Back!" since
1960 and "Never Ending" was gathering dust in
the vaults for more than a year. With more than
18 million streams "Such A Night" remains a
popular Presley track on Spotify. One cannot say
the same about "Never Ending" since it generated
not even 600,000 streams.
The cover was designed with the same photo
that had graced the sleeve of "Love Me Tender" /
"Any Way You Want Me" back in 1956. To justify
the re-release of "Such A Night" the label
billed the single as "vacation special" and
claimed the release was due to "popular demand".
Maybe the popular Colonel Parker demanded the
release when he saw Conway Twitty's cover
version climbing up the charts.
The single is not available on the streaming
platforms. "Such A Night" can be heared on the
album "Elvis Is Back!" (1960) and "Never Ending"
was released by RCA Victor as a bonus song on
the soundtrack of "Double Trouble" (1967).
Such A Night
Elvis was a huge fan of Clyde McPhatter and so
he recorded his r&b hit "Such A Night" on April
4, 1960. The 5th take became the master. In 1976 the takes 2 and 3 of "Such A
Night" were issued on the album "A Legendary
Performer - Volume 2". Elvis didn't stray all
that much from McPhatter's performance, but his
(Elvis') version sounds more relaxed and the
balance between a suggestive undertone and
humorous exaggeration worked out better.
Never Ending
Elvis had recorded "Never
Ending" on May 26, 1963 at RCA Studio B in
Nashville/Tennessee within 3 takes. The nice,
uptempo popsong was written by Buddy Kaye and
Phil Springer.
Verdict
In contrast to "Kiss Me Quick" /
"Suspicion" this time the king was able to
jump on the bandwagon of another artist's
success and to sell over a million
additional records without having to do
anything. The songs themselves are very
good.
(C) RCA Records