. Five male vocal groups worked with Elvis on soundtracks recordings during his Hollywood years, they are: The Ken Darby Trio; The Jordanaires; The Mello Men; The Jubilee Four and finally The Four Amigos.
Much has been said & written about the other vocal groups but not much about “The Four Amigos”, which are almost unknown to many Elvis fans, until now…………
.The Four Amigos vocal group originated in Puerto Rico, was formed in the late 50´s and had a great success around the world in Casinos (Las Vegas & Lake Tahoe), Hotel Resorts (Hawaii), Clubs & TV Shows (Ed Sullivan, Steve Allen) etc.
The Four Amigos (Miguel Alcaide, Jose Vadis, Pedro Beirros & German Vega)
As we all know The Four Amigos Quartet was the support backing vocals for Elvis on two movies: Girl!, Girls!, Girls! (engineered by Thorne Nogar) & Fun In Acapulco (engineered by Dave Weichman).
Girls!, Girls!, Girls! (A Girl in Every Port working title) was released on November 21st, 1962 in USA and 1963 all around the world.
The recording session for Girls! Girls! Girls! took place at Radio Recorders in Hollywood on March 26-30, 1962.
Soundtrack recording session info: The Four Amigos: Miguel Alcaide , Jose Vadiz, Pedro Beirros, and Felix Melendez (German Vega?????).
P.S: It looks like "German Vega" was replaced on this recording session by "Felix Meléndez" as stated on the Elvis recording session website: http://www.elvisrecordings.com/s620326.htm. As no Musician Union papers are provided, after researching I can´t find any prove that Felix Meléndez was ever part of the group, so I take it as German Vega "Salinas" was in this recording session.
The songs that included their main backing vocals were: "Mama" & "We´ll Be Together".
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We´ll Be Together video.
http://www33.zippyshare.com/v/1399295/file.html
"Mama" complete Let´s be Friends Lp version.
Fun In Acapulco (Vacation in Acapulco working title) was released on November 27, 1963 in USA and 1964 all around the world.
The Fun In Acapulco LP, along with the accompanying film, would be Elvis´ last releases before the arrival of Beatlemania in USA at the beginning of 1964.
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Beatles arrives in USA February 7, 1964 JFK Airport.
The Recording sessions for Fun In Acapulco took place at Radio Recorders in Hollywood on January 22 and 23 and February 27, 1963.
Soundtrack recording session info: The Four Amigos (Miguel Alcaide “main singer/guitarist/composer”, Jose Vadis, Pedro Beirros & German Vega "Salinas").
They did almost all the vocal accompaniment on this soundtrack but as main vocal support they sang on: Vino, dinero y amor; I Think I´m Gonna Like It Here; The Bullfighter Was A Lady; El Toro; Margarita & Guadalajara.
Some outtakes not released by FTD were taken from old acetates and included in an obscure bootleg cd called "Elvis acetates Vol 1" by Memory Records in 2002.
Elvis Acetates Vol 1 cd.
There was a musical track recorded for Malagueña for possible use in the soundtrack during the recording sessions and is included in this cd.
For many years I though the song mentioned was the famous Spanish song: Malagueña Salerosa.
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Malagueña Salerosa video.
Wav audio rip of Malagueña Salerosa: http://www25.zippyshare.com/v/84593807/file.html
But later on I discovered the song was in fact Malagueña which had a version by Connie Francis in the sixties.
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Malagueña video by Connie Francis.
http://www57.zippyshare.com/v/74966411/file.html
Malagueña take 6 Wav audio rip taken from Elvis acetates Vol 1.
After all my researching I still prefer the song "Malagueña Salerosa" which as mentioned I though was submitted originally for this recording session but it think would have been a tough song for Elvis as he would have needed to use his falsetto voice a lot.
Marguerita written by Don Robertson is one of the great song on the soundtrack and it is even mentioned as one of Ernst Jorgensen favourites in one of his interviews back in the 90´s.
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Margarita video.
And now a little cool discovery I made recently, back in 1964 during one of their shows at The Hungry “I” in San Francisco, The Four Amigos sang a version of "Margarita". This recording is available on the LP called: The Four Amigos at the Hungry “I”. This is a great sounding LP, I am very surprised for the quality recording.
The Four Amigos at the Hungry "I" LP, San Francisco.
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Margarita 1964 live version by The Four amigos.
http://www19.zippyshare.com/v/41583900/file.html
Margarita Wav audio rip.
Although Elvis was in great shape vocally & physically during the recording of Girls! Girls! Girls!, I find him more vocally motivated during the recording of Fun in Acapulco & in top shape as well, he sang so beautiful, like a bird
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Elvis posing for a studio picture session for Fun In Acapulco.
You can even feel the great atmosphere they had there during the recordings, the engineer Dave Weichman was having a great time too and you can clearly hear him humming after some of the outtakes of Bullfighter Was A Lady, he was in awe!. Although no mention is about Miguel Alcaide playing guitar on this two sessions, I firmly think if further research would have made I am quite sure they would found that he took part as a guitar player. He was in fact one of the finest Spanish guitar player at the time and not using his guitar skills makes no sense.
http://www43.zippyshare.com/v/89835333/file.html
Bullfighter Was A Lady Wav audio rip.
Maybe the great emotional environment set during those recordings for Fun In Acapulco had to do with the soon arrival of Priscilla in USA on March 1963. Look at the picture posted on FECC back in February 2009 by our dear FECC member Desert Storm.
Picture of Elvis & Priscilla in March 1963.
Hope this topic is of your interest and your participation is greatly appreciated. Enjoy!. Bye for now
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. Bye for now 