Bye bye rock n roll, hello pure pop from the King…
Released: June 20th 1957
Topped the chart:
1st September 1957 (for 2 weeks)
3rd November 1957 (for 1 week)
Three weeks total
In Baz Luhrmann’s entertaining but wildly inaccurate 2022 biopic Elvis, there is a scene where the subject performs a lascivious version of the song Trouble in Memphis. It causes a riot through its intensity and sexual bravado. Elvis is pulled off stage to be given a choice between army or prison, and it wouldn’t be until the end of the 60s that live music is ever this dangerous again.
Of course, in reality this didn’t happen- Elvis actually closed that show with Hound Dog, which received an enthusiastic but sensible response. He didn’t even know Trouble until 1968. But it’s a brilliant scene to explain in broad strokes what happened to Elvis in the late 50s, and where we are with his second number one album, Loving You.
While Elvis Presley fully showcases the wild and dangerous moves of a boy from Tupelo shaking his ass and performing Black music, this album and era is the Elvis performing Hound Dog to a nonplussed basset hound named Sherlock on national TV.
In many ways, this is because the team behind Presley had cracked the formula for what an Elvis record needed to be- where the self-titled debut saw them scrabbling around for anything suitable and basically making it up as they went along (thrillingly), singles like Don’t Be Cruel, I Want You, I Need You, I Love You and debut UK number one All Shook Up were enormous, and ensured Elvis was being moved into the arena of pure pop, birthing the concept as we know it today. We hadn’t arrived at Elvis’ naff 60s output yet, but his rock n roll era was done less than a year after it started.
So confident are the team in this new direction for Presley, that several songs on Loving You sound like parodies— (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear and Got a Lot O’ Livin’ to Do! are so Elvis in their delivery that he’s barely singing in known language anymore. Bass and drums are lower in the mix now, to be replaced by piano and close harmony vocals, taking the rhythm out of rhythm and blues.
But what saves Loving You is the sheer quality of the songs. Aside from an uninspired take on Blueberry Hill, the hit rate here is still exceptional, all performed with an irresistible slickness. Mean Woman Blues is an only-slightly-less-effective rerun of Blue Suede Shoes, complete with stinging guitar solos from Scotty Moore and band banter that launches the album into the stratosphere, bouncing back up there with (Let’s Have A) Party at the midway point.
Inevitably, the ballads bring us back down to Earth, but at times they are better paced and better recorded than the slower numbers on Elvis Presley. The Leiber-Stoller title track is a piano-led gospel take on Love Me Tender with gorgeous backing harmonies, while True Love feels like a forgotten doo-wop hymn arriving a bit late to the party, a better version than we heard from Bing Crosby on High Society months earlier. Perhaps best of all is closer I Need You So, a nakedly emotional plea that sees vocal leaps from Presley when the emotion just gets too much in the bridge. It might just be his best vocal performance up to this point.
Lonesome Cowboy is the song here that most defies categorisation, as its title suggests coming on as a Western soundtrack song, bursting into life with a John Ford vista, before settling down into something more clippity-cloppity. This song reveals that Loving You is actually the first dedicated film soundtrack in Elvis’ discography. These film releases and their forgotten soundtracks would further dilute his edgy brand, but that is a story for another day…
Score: 8/10
Where does Loving You sit in your Elvis album rankings? Do you agree that it stands as pop perfection from the era? How much sexy LP cover smoulder is too much sexy smoulder? Let us know in the comments…
Tracklisting:
1. Mean Woman Blues
2. (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear
3. Loving You
4. Got a Lot O’ Livin’ to Do!
5. Lonesome Cowboy
6. Hot Dog
7. Party
8. Blueberry Hill
9. True Love
10. Don't Leave Me Now
11. Have I Told You Lately That I Love You
12. I Need You So
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