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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