Elvis' last recorded song ever

Elvis' "Greatest S hit!!" was issued after the 1981 publication of "Elvis," Albert Goldman's shameful biography. It included a copy of a "prescription from Dr. Nick," dated August 15, 1977.

Although too young to comprehend it at the time, the LP was an angry response to all those who dismissed Elvis, the man and his music, after Goldman's book infected mainstream culture. Unlike that self-hating author, the people who made this record LOVED Elvis, and hated what was happening to his name and legacy.

The LP was also a big F-You to the RIAA and RCA. All the domestic import guys were getting busted and suddenly Elvis bootlegs were hard to find for a while. In a couple of years, the magic sprung anew from Europe, while RCA offered crap like Memories of Christmas.

Find Ger's recent topic on bootlegs, and you'll uncover more about this and many other classic "underground" Elvis records.

Wow, this has to be one of the most distasteful and disrespectful posts I've seen on either
FECC messageboard (old and new format)... if that's what you guys were going for... congratulations.

Wow, this has to be one of the most distasteful and disrespectful posts I've seen on either FECC messageboard (old and new format)... if that's what you guys were going for... congratulations.

Explain, Brad CANADA 2006, how exactly MY comments on this topic fit your description of "most distasteful and disrespectful posts"? Thanks.

Trust Doc to bring further eloquence and clarity to a thread, proving once again that he is the proverbial wheat amongst the proverbial chaff, and trust someone else to instantly roast him for it. Thanks, Doc. I didn't know the full background to the aforementioned record, but was confident it wasn't as bad as most of -- no, all of -- the fans I have encountered have made out. The bootleg market still has many reasons to exist. I'll certainly be investing in some items from said market later this year.

Wow, this has to be one of the most distasteful and disrespectful posts I've seen on either FECC messageboard (old and new format)... if that's what you guys were going for... congratulations.

Explain, Brad CANADA 2006, how exactly MY comments on this topic fit your description of "most distasteful and disrespectful posts"? Thanks.

Doc, my comments weren't directed at you... they just happen to fall after yours.
I was speaking of the entire post most directly relating to somewhere around the comment about Elvis on the toilet...

Doc, my comments weren't directed at you... they just happen to fall after yours.

Please take more care with such comments in the future.

Ernie What'sHisName on this site writes a review of that LP that seems to think it's just hilarious... :roll:

As Doc rightly reminds us, I recall Ger telling us the motivation behind the album (some kind of a revenge on RCA for busting a famed Elvis bootlegger) but anytime you put a coffin shot (real or otherwise) on the cover, you really lose me - and I like to think I have a dark sense of humor.


It was, however, a relief to learn what the real story was behind it.



http://www.elvis-collectors.com/forum/v ... sc&start=0

I remember seeing that LP back then and thinking, "what the &@**$?"

Last edited by Gregory Nolan Jr. on Mon Aug 21, 2006 7:53 pm, edited 3 times in total.

more songs to come out

THe album is in bad taste, so bad in fact, that that is the joke. There is some funny comments on the cover along with ads for other fake releases.
The songs are mainly movie songs(taken from the soundtrack) with some outtakes and "lonesome tonight" is the 1977 version, or part of it.

It also came with a lyric sheet of all the songs.

Because of the front cover, it probably didn't sell quite the amount of the usual bootleg, making it somewhat rarer than normal.
It came out with 2 different covers with slightly different "jokes" on them.

According to one elvis book there is a bootleg 45 of Elvis taking a pee.
I have never seen this 45, and don't even know if it's real or not.

THe album is in bad taste, so bad in fact, that that is the joke.

Yeah, bad taste, period. Anytime a "fan" (no matter how committed) resorts to a putting a coffin shot of Elvis on an LP, he's almost sunk as low as the cousin who took the shot for some extra cash.

Last edited by Gregory Nolan Jr. on Mon Aug 21, 2006 7:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Elvis' "Greatest S hit!!" was issued after the 1981 publication of "Elvis," Albert Goldman's shameful biography. It included a copy of a "prescription from Dr. Nick," dated August 15, 1977.

Although too young to comprehend it at the time, the LP was an angry response to all those who dismissed Elvis, the man and his music, after Goldman's book infected mainstream culture. Unlike that self-hating author, the people who made this record LOVED Elvis, and hated what was happening to his name and legacy.

The LP was also a big F-You to the RIAA and RCA. All the domestic import guys were getting busted and suddenly Elvis bootlegs were hard to find for a while. In a couple of years, the magic sprung anew from Europe, while RCA offered crap like Memories of Christmas.

Find Ger's recent topic on bootlegs, and you'll uncover more about this and many other classic "underground" Elvis records.

Doc, I don't know how any true Elvis fan would even publish an album with Elvis in his coffin. Sorry, but the joke was lost on me.

Greatest Sh*t could have featured a good shot of Elvis on the cover, then I may have understood their intentions. Some of the songs were pretty poor, as far as quality went. The others I previously mentioned didn't deserve to be on there.

What a lowdown shot to use that picture. Perhaps they wanted to make a quick buck, regardless of any intention. I am an Elvis fan, as most of us are on here; but I would like to see any fan here who would have used that picture of Elvis in his casket as a dig at the Goldman book.

This bootleg did nothing for the true Elvis fans and nothing for the casual buyer who happened to purchase it. I find it distasteful to say the least, in fact a pile of sh*t.

The Goldman book did a lot of damage and no doubt so did the album.

Greg, sorry just seen your post. I was slow in the submission. Agree with you 100%.

What's being missed is that the cover is the point of the project.

The LP was a dark and ironic look at all that had happened to Elvis since the publication of Goldman's hateful biography, and a commentary on the revisionism which began to infilrate rock criticism of Elvis and his legacy.

It's "Produced by Albert Goldman," which is a joke that hits on several levels, if you bother to think about it.

And you both seem be unaware the LP cover is merely a pastiche of the front page of the National Enquirer in 1977. Talk about shock -- it made me sick to see it then, just weeks after Elvis' death. But as a parody cover in 1981, the shock well past, it underscored the concept.

I saw both the '77 rag and the '81 Lp, in both casew, thumbs down.


I like being dark and ironic, too, and see the "other levels" but never at Elvis' memory's expense, especially with all the piling on.

It did relieve me to finally know the story behind it.

Still, some projects are best kept "among friends and fellow fans."

I have grostesque CD compilation of all of Elvis' worst moments (gross charicature too ) that I bought once to take off the shelves...It's like the "Cut Me and I Bleed" comp, but with more embarassing moments..

I still have it. I plan on destroying it one day.

Last edited by Gregory Nolan Jr. on Mon Aug 21, 2006 7:54 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Still, some projects are best kept "among friends and fellow fans."

Who do you think bought the record, middle America?

Imagine the pressing numbers for this LP. If even 1/7000th of what was sold by the Enquirer in 1977, I'd be surprised.

Some people "got" this concept, some did not. You're in the latter category.

I was one of the ones that got the humor, only because I enjoy dark humor.

But if it was up to me, I would never have put the coffin picture on the cover. It is disrepectful no matter how you cut it.
For those that don't have it, just below the picture it states, "fat dead person". You can't get any more disrepectful than that, even if you are spoofing the Goldman book.

There are alot of "in" jokes all over the cover.
Some funny, some strained but its an album for the shelves.
A conversation piece from the bizarro world.

There's a track on the Greatest sh*t LP that I absolutely love:

Poison Ivy League

What a record!

Doc:

"Don't believe in Goldman
His type like a curse
Instant karma's going to get him
If I don't get him first"

Doc:

"Don't believe in Goldman
His type like a curse
Instant karma's going to get him
If I don't get him first"

kris:

You know
Like no one told you how
But you know
Though the king that howls has howled
But you feel like sentimental
But you don't care

I have grostesque CD compilation of all of Elvis' worst moments (gross charicature too ) that I bought once to take off the shelves...It's like the "Cut Me and I Bleed" comp, but with more embarassing moments..

I still have it. I plan on destroing it one day.

I have a better idea Greg. Get on photoshop, dig out the most unflattering photo of Elvis (Febuary 1977, Hollywood would be ideal), maybe add an extra eye in the middle of his head. A prescription would be good, but make sure you add a few noughts to the end of them. Ideally cut and paste a man with a white coat injecting Elvis in the rear. Then use your compilation CD (just mix up the tracks, to avoid copyright problems) and there you have it - don't worry everyone will see the 'joke' behind it. It could be called, Elvis Sh*t Again. Try contacting Wallmart to distribute it.

I hate the "genre" releases, but not that much.

Still, some projects are best kept "among friends and fellow fans."

Who do you think bought the record, middle America?

Imagine the pressing numbers for this LP. If even 1/7000th of what was sold by the Enquirer in 1977, I'd be surprised.

Some people "got" this concept, some did not. You're in the latter category.

I "get" the attempt at humor, but I draw the line on putting dead people (famous or otherwise) on the cover of an album. I even chuckled about some of the tracklist and even the title, but putting Elvis on the cover dead? I'd say the guy was letting his anger at Goldman and RCA get the better of him in the name of "dark" humor.

This "middle American" in fact saw the record in a shop himself back then, and recoiled as much as I did when I saw the National Insult rag years earlier.

Last edited by Gregory Nolan Jr. on Mon Aug 21, 2006 7:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I'm surprised the family member who took the photo hasn't written a book! Low down scum doesn't even describe them.

To reproduce that photo for an Elvis album says everything about the producers. I didn't even raise a smile at that cheap shot. Humour needs to be poking fun at Goldman and others but all that album does is poke fun at Elvis.

I disagree that in 1981 we had gotten over Elvis's death. It was four years since Elvis had passed away, that's not a long time. I still feel some sadness on August 16th every year - even 29 years after. I'm just a fan but I think that album wasn't published for anything else but a cheap shot at getting some money. That pile of sh*t wasn't aimed at any Elvis fan and wasn't made by any Elvis fans.

I thought this LP was a very funny SARCASTIC joke on Goldman and even Joan Deary...love the ads for the other LPs on the back!

Axe

PS - I miss Elvis too, but ya gotta be able to laugh...

You "love" an album that puts an actual picture of Elvis' corpse on the cover?

Do people hear themselves ? Or is nothing sacred in the name of revenge and / or "humor "? When slinging mud back at someone, you more often than not lower yourself to the level on the one you trying to combat.

Likewise, I was put off by the review on this site by Ernie Boyes, Jr. in his LP corner :

************************************

"This review had to come at some point, and I just can’t help but laugh when thinking of this LP!! “ Elvis’ Greatest Sh*t ” was released in 1980 on the Dog Vomit SUX-005 label. The funny thing is, the title of this LP is a very fair description!! A collection of most of Elvis’ worst songs, in excellent quality mind you, combined with a number of underhanded “ promotional remarks ” on the cover makes for a great laugh!! Weather or not the Dog Vomit Sux label is actually “ a subsidiary of Dead Obese Guy Enterprises ” is debatable…LOL!!

There are some fans who may be upset by any offensive remark aimed toward Elvis. Must it be reiterated that years of prescription drug abuse lead to the King’s demise, and that towards the end of his career, some concert stands were hard pressed to find a level of performance that was befitting the title of “ King of Rock N Roll ”?

While I am certainly not one to make fun of people (you mean dead people, Ernie- ) a little jeering aimed in the direction of a man who had become only a shadow of his former self and pilled himself into an early grave is not unwarranted considering the incredible irresponsibility that lead to the end of Elvis’ life. Elvis certainly was not the first, and unfortunately will not be the last; but a life of fame and fortune is not a license for any talented (or untalented for that matter ) individual to throw it all away.

"Ernie" assuming we even agree, so that's a license to put a cover of him dead on the cover?


And while I certainly would have hoped if Elvis had lived on he would have “ gotten his sh*t together ”, the answer is already present in the fact that in the years prior to 1977 he had had numerous opportunities to do just that…and had neither the will-power nor the inclination to do so. So the result of August 16th, 1977 is case in point of the proverb that “ one reaps what one sows ”.

The producers behind this LP pull out all of the stops, as if the purpose is simply to get a reaction and a ruffle out of those who don’t know when to laugh.

(Yes, we're all humorless if we don't like pictures of dead people on the cover of records... :roll: )

The sub-title of the LP is a good start: “ 50,000,000 Elvis Fans CAN Be Wrong ”; and lets continue with “ * denotes previously unreleased recording (mono) all other selections are the regular f---ed-up versions ”; and how about “ Extra Added Bonus !! Free Inside: A Prescription signed by Dr. Nick ”. And the back of the LP cover goes further with four fake adds for four fake albums: “ The Shower Sessions ”, “ The Elvis Comedy Album ”, “ Dead on Stage in Las Vegas, Aug 20th 1977 ”, and “ Vocal Duets ” ( featuring Former President Nixon ). T

his LP cover is graced with the photo of Elvis in his casket from the viewing at Graceland. I saw an interview with, I believe it was, the president of the National Enquirer at the time and as the story goes the tabloid paid one of Elvis’ step-brothers ( the sum of $20,000 I think ) to snap the photo of Elvis in his casket. Pretty sick, but so goes it.

"And so it goes?" Basic humanity should require anyone to condemn such a record, "spoof" or not.

There have been at least 4 pressings of this LP. I have two, the first is on semi gloss stock and has the front page of the psuedo-tabloid framed by a slightly gray surrounding, with the TCB logo, Bonus-bubble etc in red ink. On the back, the record label “ Dog Vomit ” logo ( I guess Nipper either had a bad bowl of Alpo the night before, or doesn’t like Enrique Caruso playing on the Victrola…hence barfing into the horn of the Victrola ), the LP title and three of the star graphics in red.

This LP is black vinyl and the label is black with silver text with large “ Dog Vomit ” text and graphic. The second version I have is on glossy stock, the border surrounding the psuedo-tabloid is much darker gray, and overall the graphics are much darker; the red ink used on front and back is more of a maroon shade. This LP is on green splash swirl vinyl ( per the “ Limited Edition Coloured Vinyl ” sticker on the front cover ), the label is red with black text in exactly the same layout as the other version I have. The trail-off designations are completely different between the two versions.

A third version of the LP that I know of has the cover of the first one as described above, but the LP label is blank white. A fourth version of this LP is credited to the RCA Victim label; the front cover has the border around the psuedo-tabloid in green, with the TCB logo and Bonus-bubble in green on the front and the RCA Victim label logo with barfing-Nipper in green on the back; along with one of the stars to the left of the LP title and the series of stars below the “ Miracle Surface ” advertisement. The LP label is black with silver text, credited to RCA Victim. All three versions of the LP that have label graphics have the script “ The King of Rock ‘N’ Roll??? You’ve gotta be kidding! ” under the barfing Nipper logo…CLASSIC!!

Side 1: (1) Old MacDonald Had A Farm – waste of time (2) Ito Eats – silly song from Blue Hawaii (3) There’s No Room to Rumba in a Sports Car – what kid of crap is this? (4) Confidence – at least the kids singing along sound cute (5) Yoga is as Yoga Does – ugh!! (6) Song of the Shrimp – stupid (7) US Male – good tongue in cheek song from the sessions with Jerry Reed ( 8 ) Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce – bad movie song (9) Signs of the Zodiac – another bad movie song (10) The Bullfighter was a Lady – a third bad movie song ( I’m running out of negative adjectives ) (11) Wolf Call – HORRIBLE (12) Can’t Help Falling In Love – opps, got some fun stuff here with an alternate take of the movie version.

Side 2: (1) He’s Your Uncle Not Your Dad – crap (2) Scratch My Back Then I’ll Scratch Yours – could the title for this pathetic song be any longer? (3) The Walls Have Ears – NO THEY DON’T…and if they do, hopefully no one is playing this song!! (4) Poison Ivy League – shall I say crappy again? (5) Beach Boy Blues – actually an OK song (6) Dominic the Impotent Bull – need I say any more!!! (7) Queenie Wahine’s Papaya – truly the best of the worst!! ( 8 ) Do the Clam (Clambake) Medley – why did they bother?…either one are bad enough on their own!! (9) Datin’ – stupid song, but classic bored-Elvis sounding like a laughing wino!! (10) Are You Lonesome Tonight – the 1977-laughing version that is quite sad, unlike the flat-out hysterical 1969-laughing version.

Now if I were to update this LP I would swap a few selections out. “ US Male ”, “ Can’t Help Falling in Love ”, “ Beach Boy Blues ”, “ Are You Lonesome Tonight? ” don’t meet a level low enough to be included here. But I have hand selected any of the following tunes as replacements, and my picks for the highly awaited Volume 2!!

It's a good thing you're anonymous, "Ernie".

Do the Vega, I’ve Got to Find My Baby, Do the Clam, Petunia the Gardener’s Daughter, Smorgasbord, Shake That Tambourine, She’s A Machine, Clambake, The Wiffenpoof Song, Easy Come-Easy Go, The Love Machine, Double Trouble, Adam and Evil, Beach Shack, A Dog’s Life, Stop Where You Are, Harem Holiday, Wisdom of the Ages, Kismet, Animal Instinct, Hard Knocks, Carney Town, Barefoot Ballad, We’re Coming in Loaded, Cotton Candy Land, Steadfast Loyal and True, Hey Jude ( great song, but Elvis’ version just sucks ), Patch It Up, Love Song of the Year, Three Corn Patches, Have A Happy.

So there you have it, for the most part, this certainly is “Elvis’ Greatest Sh*t”!! "

-Ernie Boyes Jr.

***********************
Who was that clown? Come forward, "Ernie."

Last edited by Gregory Nolan Jr. on Sun Aug 20, 2006 10:24 pm, edited 3 times in total.

I said I love the ads on the back, Greg.

You may not agree with my opinion, but that doesn't make me a bad guy.

This was a bootleg, not an RCA release...and the whole concept of the LP was meant as a joke...not on Elvis, either.

Sacred? Things are as they are. You can laugh or cry about it...your choice. Elvis wasn't God...and no matter what gets written, released, or said about Elvis, it doesn't change what he means to me. My life goes on as usual.

I'm more offended that the coffin picture was even taken in the first place...but since it was, well, like I said, things are as they are.

I truly don't understand what the big deal is...

Axe

Yeah, he's only dead. It's not like his family might even hear about it.



It's very simple: you don't put dead people on the cover of Lp record albums, not the least a mostly-beloved singer. No one deserves that, not Tiny Tim, not anyone. It's obviously beyond being in bad taste, pure and simple or is that something that we also cannot agree upon?

Even at his worst, he brought much joy to fans for years. I'd say the same about John Lennon or Bing Crosby, or a drug-addicted homeless person.

It's just basic human decency. Putting it on an LP (as obscure as it was) was an outrageously tasteles attempt at humor. "Fans" should know better, no matter how many heroic escapes he was responsible for.

Chuckle to yourself (and not all of my humor is "PC" either) but it's beyond low to have issued this. I don't mean to get on a high-horse, but this LP seriously pisses me off.

And if I found out about it, as I did at the time as a young fan, then surely Lisa Marie did as well. It wasn't that obscure if I saw it in a record shop.

I don't say this makes you a bad guy but I'm asking you to think through what you're saying.

I am as critical of Elvis' lowlights and mistakes as anyone, so you're not talking to a fan who can't take criticism of the guy. This is one of those instances where there should be no gray area. Put a picture of someone dead on a cover of a record, and all other discussions about the merit of such a "humor" release should be off the table.

Last edited by Gregory Nolan Jr. on Mon Aug 21, 2006 7:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.