The new single was in fact an old one.
"There's Always Me" and "Judy" were available
since six years on the longplayer "Something For
Everybody". The 45 was shipped on August 8,
1967, on the 26th of the month Billboard listed
"There's Always Me" at number 90. The track
stayed on the "Hot 100" for six weeks and peaked
at number 56. On September 9, 1967 "Judy"
entered the hitparade at number 89. It had a run
of five weeks and made it to number 78. Inside
the US the single sold 300,000 copies, worldwide
RCA Victor was able to retail half a million
units. According to the RIAA this amount of
physical sales matches 75 million paid streams.
It was a good business, because both tracks had
earned their costs back years ago. But still
nobody could deny, that not even two years ago
re-releases like this had sold twice as much.
Today the most popular version of "There's
Always Me" is the remake, which features the
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. On Spotify it
accumulates around 6 million streams while the
original recording clocks in at 2 million.
"Judy" was listened to 1.7 million times.
Once again RCA used a promo photo for
"Spinout". To justify the re-release of two old
songs the label billed the single as "Summer
Vacation Special" and claimed to act "By Popular
Demand". Considering the sales, the demand
wasn't all that huge.
The single is not available on the streaming
platforms, but both songs can be found on the
album "Something For Everybody" (1961).
There's Always Me
"There's Always Me" was written
by Don Robertson. The narrator promises his
loved one to be always there, even though she
has a different partner isn't in love with him
at all. Elvis selected the 10th take for
release, and it's really a great one. His voice
sounds marvellous and one really believes his
love, his pain and his hope, that his feelings
will be answered someday.
Judy
Elvis needed eight takes to tape the song about
a person, who wants to convince his ex
girlfriend (Judy) to give up her new boyfriend
and return to him. For me, "Judy" is a perfect
popsong. The melody stays with you and the king
performs it very well. Much better than Teddy
Rendell, who was also the writer of the tune.
In 1969
Elvis rehearsed the tune for his stage comeback
in Las Vegas, but finally didn't use the song in
his concerts.
Verdict
The Presley fans already owned the songs
and for everyone else the single wasn't of
any interest, because the popmusic had
changed completely ever since the "British
invasion" several years ago. Nevertheless
the 45 featured two very good songs.
(C) RCA Records