"Pot Luck with Elvis" is the fifteenth album by Elvis Presley, released on RCA Records in mono and stereo, LPM/LSP 2523, in June of 1962. Recording sessions took place on March 22, 1961, at Radio Recorders in Hollywood, and on June 25 and October 15, 1961, and March 18 and March 19, 1962, at RCA Studio B in Nashville, Tennessee. It peaked at #4 on the Top Pop Albums chart.
Contents
The album is dominated by the writing team of
Doc Pomus and
Mort Shuman, who had penned the chart-topping "
Surrender" and the
double-sided classic "
(Marie's the Name of) His Latest Flame" backed with "
Little Sister." The tracks "
Kiss Me Quick" and "
Suspicion" would be pulled off for a
Top 40 single almost two years later in April, 1964. The rest of the tracks originated from regular Presley contributors such as
Don Robertson,
Otis Blackwell, and
Paul Evans, with Blackwell's "
(Such An) Easy Question" also being used as a single release in June of 1965 and climbing to #11 on the
Billboard Pop Singles chart, during a time when Presley was involved mostly in
feature film and
soundtrack work. Presley's credit on "
That's Someone You Never Forget, an intense ballad possibly sung in reminiscence of Presley's deceased mother
Gladys, derived from his supply of the title to composer
Red West. The song "
Steppin' Out of Line" is an unused track from the sessions for
Blue Hawaii.
Although like its predecessors in 1960 and 1961 Elvis Is Back! and Something For Everybody, Pot Luck easily made the top ten on the album chart, all three had been vastly outsold by the soundtrack albums G.I. Blues and Blue Hawaii, a pattern that would continue to hold for Presley through the mid-1960s. Obviously, the soundtracks had the advantage of the films as a promotional tool, but also the Colonel went against standard practice in the American record industry by refusing to include hit singles on albums, which would have likely increased sales. As a result, Presley would concentrate on his movie career, and not make another non-soundtrack, non-gospel studio album for another seven years, until From Elvis in Memphis.
The July 13, 1999, compact disc reissue altered the running order of the album, and included five bonus tracks in two sides of one single, one b-side, and two tracks from the 1965 compilation album LSP 3450, Elvis for Everyone. The three single sides had been recorded at the sessions that yielded the balance of the album on March 18 and 19, 1962. One single had both sides written by the returning team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, while the b-side "You'll Be Gone," released on the flip of the ill-begotten attempt by RCA to instigate a new dance craze with the "Do the Clam" single in 1965, is the only song that Presley truly had a hand in composing, writing lyrics to a tune by his Memphis Mafia buddies Red West and Charlie Hodge. Given the nature of the Elvis for Everyone LP, compiled from sessions spanning a ten-year stretch, RCA opted not to include it as part of its reissue program, appending its songs as bonus tracks to other albums as appropriate. Bonus tracks all recorded at Studio B in Nashville.
Personnel
Track listing
Side One
Side Two
1999 Reissue with Bonus Tracks
Chart position for albums from Billboard Top Pop Albums chart; positions for singles from Billboard Pop Singles chart.
References
