A new Elvis Presley documentary is heading to television screens this April, and an accompanying soundtrack album will arrive in a variety of formats that same month from Legacy Recordings and RCA Records. Elvis Presley: The Searcher, directed by Emmy and Grammy winner Thom Zimny and written by author/journalist Alan Light, traces the artistic evolution of the artist from his R&B and country beginnings through his final Jungle Room recording sessions at Graceland. The three-hour, two-part movie will premiere on April 14 on HBO, but before that, The Searcher (The Original Soundtrack) hits stores on April 6.
The Searcher will be available in various formats: an 18-track soundtrack CD, a 2-LP gatefold 12-inch vinyl edition, and a 3-CD collectible deluxe box set. The standard CD offers familiar Presley hits in new context, along with rare and alternate versions. The deluxe 3-CD set adds another 37 Elvis songs, plus a disc featuring selections from the original score composed by Pearl Jam's Mike McCready, the late Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' cover of "Wooden Heart," and music that inspired Elvis (including his mother Gladys singing "Home Sweet Home"). This edition includes a 40-page hardcover book with rare photos, liner notes by music historian and Petty biographer Warren Zanes, and a note from director Zimny. Petty appears in the documentary, as does Bruce Springsteen, a frequent Zimny collaborator.
The director confirms in his notes that "the soundtrack was in my mind from the beginning. I wasn't just making a film, I was thinking about the collection of recordings I would gather for a person who saw the film, who wanted to complete the experience, just as I always had. Thankfully, our friends at Sony gave me and the Searcher team the chance to create this collection. It's been in my mind for years now. To me, this collection is part of the film." Warren Zanes offers, "So, in this collection, one gets not a Greatest Hits package but a song-by-song, curated portrait of an artist...who very consistently and courageously gave himself to his performances, as if in the giving he might find some missing part of himself. The truth in his voice, in the end, was the sound of a searcher. Along the way, he built a catalogue as deep as any found in the broad and beautiful vistas of American music."
Priscilla Presley, Stax Records legend David Porter, director Zimny, producer Jon Landau, and moderator John Jackson (SVP A&R, Sony Music) will discuss the film and its remarkable subject at the 2018 SXSW Festival in March. The Searcher (Original Soundtrack) is due on April 6 from RCA/Legacy in various formats at the links below, and the documentary airs a little over a week later, April 14, on HBO. Check it out below!
Elvis Presley: The Searcher - The Original Soundtrack (RCA/Legacy, 2018)
CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada TBD
2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada TBD
3CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada TBD
* indicates track available on CD/2LP version
Disc 1
- Trouble/Guitar Man *
- My Baby Left Me *
- Baby, What You Want Me to Do
- Old Shep
- That's When Your Heartaches Begin
- That's All Right *
- Blue Moon of Kentucky
- Fool, Fool, Fool
- Tweedlee Dee
- Baby Let's Play House *
- Good Rockin' Tonight
- Trying to Get to You
- Blue Moon
- When It Rains It Pours
- Blue Christmas
- Heartbreak Hotel *
- Lawdy, Miss Clawdy *
- Money Honey
- Hound Dog *
- (There'll Be) Peace in the Valley (For Me)
- Crawfish *
- Trouble
- Farther Along
- Mona Lisa *
- Hide Thou Me
- Loving You (End Title Take 16)
- Lonely Man (Solo Version)
- Power of My Love
Disc 2
- Milky White Way *
- A Mess of Blues
- Fame and Fortune
- Love Me Tender/Witchcraft (Duet with Frank Sinatra)
- Like a Baby *
- Are You Lonesome Tonight? *
- It's Now or Never *
- Wooden Heart
- Swing Down Sweet Chariot
- Reconsider Baby
- Bossa Nova Baby
- C'mon Everybody
- Tomorrow is a Long Time *
- Take My Hand, Precious Lord
- Run On
- Baby, What You Want Me to Do
- Suspicious Minds (Take 6) *
- Baby Let's Play House (Rehearsal)
- Words (Rehearsal)
- That's All Right
- Never Been to Spain
- An American Trilogy
- You Gave Me a Mountain
- Burning Love (Rehearsal Version)
- Separate Ways (Rehearsal Version) *
- Hurt (Take 5) *
- If I Can Dream *
Disc 3
- Dissolution 2 - Mike McCready
- Satisfied - The Blackwood Brothers
- That's All Right - Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup
- She May Be Yours But She Comes to See Me Sometimes - Joe Hill Louis
- Mystery Train - Little Junior's Blue Flames
- Smokestack Lightning - Howlin' Wolf
- Rock-A-My Soul - The Blackwood Brothers
- Just Walkin' in the Rain - The Prisonaires
- Rocket 88 - Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats
- Write Me a Letter - The Ravens
- Blue Moon of Kentucky - Bill Monroe
- Ain't That Right - Eddie Snow
- Just Walkin' in the Rain - Johnnie Ray
- Lawdy Miss Clawdy - Lloyd Price
- Home Sweet Home - Gladys Presley
- Blowin' in the Wind - Odetta
- Tomorrow is a Long Time - Odetta
- The Weight - The Staple Singers
- Heartbreak Hotel - The Orlons
- Wooden Heart - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
- Rebound - Mike McCready
Daryl Restly says
http://www.elvisthemusic.com seems to list an additional track on Disc 3. It is track 14 "Lawdy, Miss Clawdy" by Lloyd Price.
http://www.elvisthemusic.com/elvis-presley-searcher-original-soundtrack-released-april-6/
Joe Marchese says
Thanks, Daryl! "Lawdy" is indeed on the set, and the track listing here has been amended. Thank you!
Joe says
Coincidently, I am now in the middle of reading Peter Guralnick's book "The Rise Of Elvis Presley: Last Train To Memphis" which covers Elvis's life from his birth until the Army. In it, it talks about a lot of the R and B, country, and gospel acts that influenced him, or performed alongside him. Looking forward to this doc.