The Complete Lost Jailhouse Rock Songs (with Lyrics!)

[poormadpeter2]

About six years ago, the Doc created a topic about the song Young Hearts, originally intended for the movie Jailhouse Rock. That thread can be found at the following link:

https://www.elvis-collectors.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=57984&start=25&hilit=Quarters+Jailhouse

Now, we have more info on the songs that were intended for the movie. The source for all of the following items is The Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. While I will reproduce some of the items there, I will summarise others, so please take a look at their website, as there is much to enjoy and savour. What's more there are restrictions on the size of downloads, and so I resorted to snipping the main sections - and so the website is the best place to view this material in full. http://digitalcollections.oscars.org/cdm/

In correspondence dated April 25, 1957, MGM sent lyric sheets for eight songs "which are to be used" in the upcoming "untitled Presley Story" to the Motion Picture Association so that they could be passed under the Production Code.

april 25 1957.jpeg

On April 29, a reply was sent passing all those songs. On the same day, MGM sent a further approval request for Young Hearts (discussed in the Doc's topic, but we'll come back to it in a minute). These lyrics were passed on May 2. On May 7, What Have Ya Got to Lose was submitted (passed on May 8th). May 9th saw the submission of Baby I Don't Care and Don't Leave Me Now, passed on May 10.

This means that we now know the following songs were definitely considered for Jailhouse Rock:

Oh, My, You Lied (unknown composers)
I Want to Be Free
One More Day
Treat Me Nice
Young and Beautiful
Quarters, Nickels and Dimes (Tepper & Bennett - misnamed TOPPER & Bennett on the lyric sheet)
Mister Heartache (Dick and Bob Sherman)
Jailhouse Rock
Young Hearts (Tepper & Bennett)
What Have Ya Got to Lose (Edward Thomas & Fred Wise)
Baby I Don't Care
Don't Leave Me Now

At this stage, let's start filtering in the info from the Doc from his thread, linked to earlier:

A March 30, 1957 letter from publisher Jean Aberbach to Presley management presented the material prepared to date for possible use on the MGM film soundtrack:

Sid Tepper, Roy C. Bennett
Quarters, Nickles and Dimes
Young Hearts
One More Day

Jerry Lieber, Mike Stoller
Jailhouse Rock
Sands Of Time
Treat Me Nice
I Want To Be Free
Yeah, Yeah, Yeah

Ben Weisman
Lonesome Blue

Aaron Schroeder, Josephine Peoples
That Ain't Right

Rosemarie McCoy, Kelly Owens
Don't Be Afraid

Thanks to the memos to the MPA, we now know the songs marked in red were likely to have been discarded at some point between the letter he quotes from on March 30, and the time of the final memo I have mentioned on May 9th. True, some memos might be missing which could have included those songs, but considering how close together the memos are dated, this seems unlikely.

I haven't been able to find any recordings of the songs not included in the film, but the lyric sheets DO exist.

Let's start with Young Hearts. Back to the Doc's topic, where he lists the words for the Jim Reeves version as follows:

"Young Hearts"
(Sid Tepper, Roy C. Bennett)
© Anne Rachel Music, ASCAP

Young hearts can be foolish, and make a mistake

If they're not forgiven, young hearts can break

So kiss me my darling, hold me tight

Young lips make everything right

Young hearts can be crueler, young hearts can be blind

I'm sorry that mine dear, was one of that kind

If you can forgive me, kiss me and then

Our young hearts will be happy again

Young hearts can be foolish, and make a mistake

If they're not forgiven, young hearts can break

So kiss me my darling, hold me tight

Young lips make everything right

Young hearts can be crueler, young hearts can be blind

I'm sorry that mine dear, was one of that kind

If you can forgive me, kiss me and then

Our young hearts will be happy again

Note how those lyrics are altered compared to those that were submitted for the film. Note also that the film was, for a very short time, known as "Treat Me Nice" (top left hand corner of the lyric sheet). Also be aware that the dates on some of the lyric sheets do no correspond with when they were sent to the MPA:

young hearts.JPG

Here are the remaining songs:

what have ya got to lose.JPG

oh my you lied.JPG

quarters.JPG

[poormadpeter2]

Finally, we have Mister Heartache. It's interesting to see the Sherman Brothers listed as the composers of Mister Heartache, as they are most famous for writing Disney scores, most notably Mary Poppins and The Jungle Book.

mister heartache.JPG

Please note that what I have stated and shown within this thread is a just a fraction of what the Margaret Herrick have on Jailhouse Rock. There are well over 30 pages of this kind of material, nearly all of it centred around censorship - or requests for material to be passed. It's all interesting stuff - including the fact that the famous "beast in me" line had to be cut from the film before it was shown in Australia!

Enjoy the topic, which I have narrowed down to the lost songs, and then head over to the website and check it out.

http://digitalcollections.oscars.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15759coll30/id/18639/show/18603

Meanwhile: do any of these lyrics seem familiar? Does anyone know if any of these lyrics were reworked into different songs that WERE recorded and released by somebody else?

[sitdown revamped]

Seems to be an ongoing thread here. Anyone ever recorded some of those discarded tunes? Except one more day which was song by a co-actor in the movie?

[Mister Moon]

Very interesting topic, PMP. Thank you.

"What Have Ya Got To Lose" was recorded in September 1957 by Sid King And The Five Strings for Columbia, and released shortly after as the b-side of their ninth and final single for the label :

Sid King 41019.jpg

..

[Davelee]

Very interesting topic, PMP. Thank you.

"What Have Ya Got To Lose" was recorded in September 1957 by Sid King And The Five Strings for Columbia, and released shortly after as the b-side of their ninth and final single for the label :

Sid King 41019.jpg

..

Love Sid King and the Five Strings.

Though the song by Sid is not one of my favs - I find it quite bland.

[drjohncarpenter]

Seems to be an ongoing thread here. Anyone ever recorded some of those discarded tunes? Except one more day which was song by a co-actor in the movie?

Besides the 1957 Sid King single of "What Have Ya Got To Lose" detailed by Mister Moon, as noted in my topic cited in the OP, "Young Hearts" was cut by Jim Reeves in 1957, but only released posthumously in 1965:

"Young Hearts" --> "Lost" Song from "Jailhouse Rock" !
https://www.elvis-collectors.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=57984


Leiber and Stoller's "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah" had been issued by an r&b artist in 1954:


..

Joe Liggins And His Orchestra "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah" (Mercury 70440, August 21, 1954)
Note: last name misspelled on label.

[poormadpeter2]

Very interesting topic, PMP. Thank you.

"What Have Ya Got To Lose" was recorded in September 1957 by Sid King And The Five Strings for Columbia, and released shortly after as the b-side of their ninth and final single for the label,

Great stuff, thanks. Pretty awful song, though!!

DJC wrote:
Leiber and Stoller's "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah" had been issued by an r&b artist in 1954:

Thanks. Would an earlier recording have been one of the reasons why it was discarded at some point during the April or May, I wonder? to my knowledge, none of the songs that made it to the 50s movies were covers. Hot Dog had been recorded prior to Elvis, but that version wasn't released until much later. Can't think of any others, though.

[drjohncarpenter]

Thanks. Would an earlier recording have been one of the reasons why it was discarded at some point during the April or May, I wonder? to my knowledge, none of the songs that made it to the 50s movies were covers. Hot Dog had been recorded prior to Elvis, but that version wasn't released until much later. Can't think of any others, though.

The only one that comes to mind is "We're Gonna Move," which is a thinly-veiled revision of singer Brother Claude Ely's "There's A Leak In This Old Building" (King 1282, November 1953).

[Steve Morse]

Very interesting topic, PMP. Thank you.

"What Have Ya Got To Lose" was recorded in September 1957 by Sid King And The Five Strings for Columbia, and released shortly after as the b-side of their ninth and final single for the label :

Sid King 41019.jpg

..

I like it - it's of its time. It's vaguely like Butterfly by Andy Williams.

[Mister Moon]

I can't find any evidence that Leiber & Stoller's "Sands Of Time" was ever recorded by some other artist/s, at least under that title. It's certainly not listed on their website's alphabetical discography :

http://www.leiberstoller.com/Discography.html


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


This is a bit off-topic, but "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah" by Joe Liggins is a fantastic record. However, it's probably derivative of a scorchin' Ruth Brown single from 1951, "Shine On (Big Bright Moon, Shine On)", that went unnoticed at the time, but maybe not by Jerry and Mike.

I bet that's good old Mike on Liggins' record doing his best to impersonate legendary Atlantic sideman Vann Walls, who played piano on Ruth Brown's single :

Ruth Brown 948 -.jpg

..

[colonel snow]

According to this song index:

Young hearts - Oh my lied - What have ya got to lose were selected for the movie but finally noy used.


colonel snow

[colonel snow]

Here the lyrics-card with Young and beautiful

colonel snow

[poormadpeter2]

According to this song index:

Young hearts - Oh my lied - What have ya got to lose were selected for the movie but finally noy used.


colonel snow

Thanks. That raises an interesting point, after looking at keith's site as well. Numbers were assigned to Oh My You Lied and What Have Ya Got to Lose for recording on May 9th and 10th respectively, and Young Hearts on May 7. In each case, just a couple of days after the memo to the MPA. Mister Heartache and Quarters, Nickels and Dimes never made it that far, despite being submitted to the MPA on April 25 - five days prior to the sessions.

[colonel snow]

Yeah, yeah, yeah

In the past I've read somewhere that the song was selected for the movie Viva Las Vegas but not recorded.
I happened more that a song wasn't used in a movie (Jailhouse rock) but turned up in one of the next movies.

The song was recorded by Joe Loggins; I don't have more information.


colonel snow

[Mister Moon]

Yeah, yeah, yeah

In the past I've read somewhere that the song was selected for the movie Viva Las Vegas but not recorded.
I happened more that a song wasn't used in a movie (Jailhouse rock) but turned up in one of the next movies.

The song was recorded by Joe Loggins; I don't have more information.

Thanks for the additional information, colonel.

Please note that Joe's correct surname was "Liggins", although, as drjohncarpenter noted, the above Mercury single misspelled it as "Liggens" on the label.

In 1954, when that single was released, he was already a veteran of the R&B scene (his 1945 record "The Honeydripper" is classic). His younger brother, Jimmy Liggins, was also popular, but not so much :


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Liggins

Joe Liggins 70440.jpg

[jetblack]

I happened more that a song wasn't used in a movie (Jailhouse rock) but turned up in one of the next movies.
colonel snow

'Dirty, Dirty Feeling' come to mind. Submitted for 'King Creole' (1958), recorded for the 'Elvis Is Back' album (1960) and used in 'Tickle Me' (1965).

Andy

[colonel snow]

I happened more that a song wasn't used in a movie (Jailhouse rock) but turned up in one of the next movies.
colonel snow

'Dirty, Dirty Feeling' come to mind. Submitted for 'King Creole' (1958), recorded for the 'Elvis Is Back' album (1960) and used in 'Tickle Me' (1965).

Andy

More examples from selected songs from a movie but released in one of the next movies:
Please don't stop lovin' me - from Harem holiday to Frankie and Johnny;
Shout it out - from Roustabout to Frankie and Johnny;


colonel snow

[poormadpeter2]

I happened more that a song wasn't used in a movie (Jailhouse rock) but turned up in one of the next movies.
colonel snow

'Dirty, Dirty Feeling' come to mind. Submitted for 'King Creole' (1958), recorded for the 'Elvis Is Back' album (1960) and used in 'Tickle Me' (1965).

Andy

More examples from selected songs from a movie but released in one of the next movies:
Please don't stop lovin' me - from Harem holiday to Frankie and Johnny;
Shout it out - from Roustabout to Frankie and Johnny;


colonel snow

A Whistling Tune

[drjohncarpenter]

Yeah, yeah, yeah

In the past I've read somewhere that the song was selected for the movie Viva Las Vegas but not recorded.
I happened more that a song wasn't used in a movie (Jailhouse rock) but turned up in one of the next movies.

The song was recorded by Joe Loggins; I don't have more information.


colonel snow

Scroll back up to post #5 for accurate information on the artist and song, and a YouTube video of the 1954 release.