“400 unreleased tracks” + other rumours from 1968

[Steve Morse]

(misleading) “News Of The Month” items from Strictly Elvis magazine, 1968

A new Elvis magazine was launched in the USA in the Spring of 1968 - Strictly Elvis, edited by Rocky Barra. He had certainly chosen a great time to start this venture and, for UK fans, used mainly just to Elvis Monthly, this was a new and somewhat closer angle on the rapidly developing Elvis scene that was the year 1978. One of the regular features was “News Of The Month” and, a year or so back, when researching something, I noticed a great many news items which history has proved to be (mostly) highly misleading !

So here they are - and I haven’t gone beyond the December 1968 issue.

May issue (inaugural issue)

“Rumors are getting stronger all of the time that RCA plans to release an EP of “Sun” recordings sometime this year.”

July issue

“Elvis’ new country and western album to be titled, ‘Winter in a Long, Hot Summer’.”

“A non-movie Elvis LP will be released in the future with some of the songs he sang before he was well known. Elvis fans all over the world have been requesting these collector’s items from RCA and it is finally happening.”

“One of the 3 or 4 numbers Elvis sings in “Live A Little, Love A Little” is a number called “The Edge of Eternity”, sung while Elvis is having a nightmare in the film.”

“NME, in England, said ‘Tupelo Mississippi Flash’ was to be Elvis’s next single, but two sides were released from ‘Speedway’, instead.”

August issue

“Elvis has re-recorded his 1955 hit, “Baby, Let’s Play House”. Several disk jockeys got hold of advance copies, but it hasn’t been released yet, and RCA doesn’t have plans to do so in the near future.”

September issue

“Still no information from RCA on the re-recording of “Baby Let’s Play House”, although several DJs all over the USA have copies and are playing them.”

“In the rumor department . . . the next sacred album will be titled, ‘My Garden of Prayer’.”

October issue

“NBC TV is still undecided on how long Elvis’ TV special will be. The last report was 90 minutes, but now NBC is thinking about a 2-hour special.”

“Rona Barrett, TV columnist, stated that NBC is trying to get Elvis to tape a DIFFERENT special for December 3 . . . reason, Elvis is too ‘suggestive’ “.

“It is reported that Elvis has over 400 unreleased tracks in the can (recorded but not released on record).”

“Elvis wears a fake beard in a ‘Live A Little, Love A Little’ scene. Elvis told some fans this is why he grew one for the current picture, ‘Charro’ .”

(Quoting Elvis) “Our deal with NBC has a movie tie-in. I’ll do a special a year for a few years and they’ll finance a movie for me”.

November issue

“(An) article in Variety recently stated 30 minutes of the Special were dropped because, ‘A Bordello scene’ was involved. The sponsors censored it . . . really now(!)”

December issue

“Elvis’ co-stars in ‘Chautauqua’ include John Carradine, Sherry North and Vincent Price. Also a cameo appearance of a TOP POLITICAL figure.”

“ ‘Suppose’ and ‘Five Sleepy Heads’ were featured in the Malaysian version of ‘Speedway’. Elvis sang FSH to the five children while putting them to bed at Nancy’s place ; and sang ‘Suppose’ to himself while he was cooking his dinner before Nancy came in with the flowers.”

“It was reported recently that Elvis recorded, ‘Woman Shy’, ‘If I Promise’, ‘Remembering’, ‘Jambalaya’, ‘Tiger By The Tail’ and ‘Too Much Monkey Business’* (*on the new Singer album . . . last track, side one).”
________________________________________________

Observations welcome. I always thought that “Winter in a Long, Hot Summer” was a great album title and have often thought about compiling a list of songs that would have fitted.

[Alexander]

That was a nice read, thanks Steve.

[RonBaker2003]

I could swear that I've seen the "Five Sleepy Heads" scene on tv when the movie was broadcast a few decades ago.

[ritchie valens]

Ive seen the Fsh clip too.I think Victoria Meyerink said she saw it in the film too.

[trouble_jw]

Some real interesting things there! Thanks for sharing.

[Steve Morse]

Some real interesting things there! Thanks for sharing.

It's a pity that not many others find this interesting, especially the rumoured recordings.

If anyone had stopped to think about it at the time, the 'report' of 400 unreleased tracks could not have been true by any normal logic, unless they were thinking of unreleased 'takes', which I doubt. In fact the figure would more likely have been in that ball park for released tracks.

[zolderopruiming1]

What I find odd is that when Bear Family Records releases box sets, these are loaded with unreleased songs.
However, so far RCA (BMG/Sony) have come up with about 20-30 unreleased Elvis songs in the past 35 years.
Why did other artists record so many songs that were shelved or why didn't Elvis?

[luckyjackson1]

What I find odd is that when Bear Family Records releases box sets, these are loaded with unreleased songs.
However, so far RCA (BMG/Sony) have come up with about 20-30 unreleased Elvis songs in the past 35 years.
Why did other artists record so many songs that were shelved or why didn't Elvis?

With some songs the marketing people virtually turned dirt into money. That's probably why his recordings of "Padre" and "Hey Jude" got released (and of course, to put together some hodge-podge ablums).

Anyway, a pretty funny read. I'll always dig out my "Elvis - His Life From A To Z" book and enjoy reading the rumours of the songs he allegedly recorded.

[Tony..]

What I find odd is that when Bear Family Records releases box sets, these are loaded with unreleased songs.
However, so far RCA (BMG/Sony) have come up with about 20-30 unreleased Elvis songs in the past 35 years.
Why did other artists record so many songs that were shelved or why didn't Elvis?

It was a 'policy' by cheapskate / tightass "Colonel" Tom Parker that nothing that was recorded should go to waste. Therefore a lot of recordings that WERE originally shelved were released on albums like "Elvis for everyone", "Lets be friends" and "Elvis sings Flaming Star" etc, etc.

[Harty]

Iam really interested in the "lost 400 songs" ...

[joshferrell]

maybe they meant 400 alt takes because that would make more sense (as we know with FTD) than 400 songs, however since Elvis had some songs erased in 1976 I wonder if he had OTHER sings erased in the past that we may not know about, also I'm wondering if they could be basing some of the songs listed from demos he received or something like that and they are just assuming he recorded them...

[zolderopruiming1]

Isn't there a book about (supposed) unreleased songs, called "Back on the mystery track" or something like that which takes care of a lot of rumoured-to-be-recorded titles?

[Steve Morse]

Isn't there a book about (supposed) unreleased songs, called "Back on the mystery track" or something like that which takes care of a lot of rumoured-to-be-recorded titles?

The softback 10" x 8", 80-page (including covers) book was called, "Off and Back on The Mystery Track" and was published by Edwin Meijers in March 1992. It's still a fascinating read, even though the majority of 'questions' have been answered during the succeeding 20 years.

Intriguingly, under an entry for, "Baby Let's Play House", it says :
"In the summer of 1968, Fan Clubs reported that RCA had scheduled a release of an Elvis Country & Western album entitled, "Winter In A Long Hot Summer", containing 13 tracks, including a country-styled remake of BLPH". Elsewhere it lists the song WIALHS as the album's title track.

I would love to know the story behind this album and remake that 'never were' !

[norrie]

The internet,particularly forums gets blamed for misinformation and the spreading of false rumours.It just goes to show this has been going well before we all got online.
The main difference is of course the false news is spread further,wider and quicker.


norrie

[A. C. van Kuijk]

I have read a lot of funny stuff in old books and magazines. Regarding to those articles Elvis was able to fly his own plane, spoke German and had invested in several businesses like hotels or cruise ships. I am pretty sure he could have done all these things, but unfortunately he just spent his time and money on other, less lucrative and less healthy things.

[rjm]

Isn't there a book about (supposed) unreleased songs, called "Back on the mystery track" or something like that which takes care of a lot of rumoured-to-be-recorded titles?

The softback 10" x 8", 80-page (including covers) book was called, "Off and Back on The Mystery Track" and was published by Edwin Meijers in March 1992. It's still a fascinating read, even though the majority of 'questions' have been answered during the succeeding 20 years.

Intriguingly, under an entry for, "Baby Let's Play House", it says :
"In the summer of 1968, Fan Clubs reported that RCA had scheduled a release of an Elvis Country & Western album entitled, "Winter In A Long Hot Summer", containing 13 tracks, including a country-styled remake of BLPH". Elsewhere it lists the song WIALHS as the album's title track.

I would love to know the story behind this album and remake that 'never were' !

Great title! Would have worked for FEIM.

The "top political figure"? Well, of course! Col. Tom's dearest confident! The outgoing POTUS, Lyndon Baines Johnson! Lotta time on his hands.

LBJ marched to the Col.'s tune, as always.

rjm