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This morning, Capitol Records and UMe announced a title that unites two late titans of song. Glen Campbell Sings for The King arrives on November 16, premiering never-before-released recordings made by Campbell for his friend Presley. It will be released on CD, LP, digitally, and as a limited edition, 180-gram clear vinyl edition available exclusively at the artist's website.
Between 1964 and 1968, Glen was engaged by the songwriting team of Ben Weisman and Sid Wayne to record fully-produced studio versions of songs intended for Elvis. The King recorded more songs by Weisman than any other songwriter, cutting over 50 of the composer's tunes. Glen was asked to match Elvis' pitch and sound on these luxury demos; naturally, he also played guitar on the sessions.
Twelve of the 18 tracks on Glen Campbell Sings for The King were picked up and recorded by Elvis, including the title songs from his movies such as Spinout, Clambake, and Easy Come, Easy Go, the latter of which is streaming now. It's also available as an "instant grat" download to purchasers of the digital version of the album.
Presley himself appears on the album with the opening track, a posthumous duet on "We Call On Him." The gospel song is joined by country numbers, ballads, and rock-and-roll. (One of the tracks never recorded by Elvis, "Love on the Rocks," left Neil Diamond free to make the title his own years later!) The two artists first met as early as 1956. Author Alan Light writes in the liner notes, "With their genre-bending musical exploration and rural Southern roots, it's no surprise that Glen Campbell and Elvis Presley formed something of a mutual admiration society." Capitol also quotes Campbell: "Elvis and I were brought up the same humble way, picking cotton and looking at the north end of a south-bound mule. I saw him in the rough [at an early concert]...He was so electrifying." As Campbell ascended to the ranks of Los Angeles' top session guitarists, he played on one memorable Elvis session for the Viva Las Vegas soundtrack.
Glen and Elvis remained friends throughout their lifetimes, and Campbell even continued to record for Weisman and Wayne after his breakthrough to superstardom in 1967. This tribute to the remarkable talents of both artists arrives on November 16 from Capitol/UMe. You'll find the track listing and pre-order links below!
Glen Campbell Sings for The King (Capitol/UMe, 2018) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Link TBD)
- We Call On Him (A Duet With Elvis Presley) *
- Easy Come, Easy Go *
- Any Old Time
- Anyone Can Play
- I Got Love
- I'll Never Know *
- All I Needed Was The Rain *
- How Can You Lose What You Never Had *
- Spinout *
- Magic Fire
- I'll Be Back *
- Love On The Rocks
- Stay Away, Joe *
- Cross My Heart And Hope To Die *
- Clambake *
- There Is So Much World To See *
- Do The Clam *
- Restless
(*) Denotes song subsequently recorded by Elvis Presley
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I've been a Glen Campbell fan since I was 7 years old back in 1968 -- I can't wait to get this new release !!!
Here's a sample of "Easy Come, Easy Go" :
https://ume.lnk.to/GCSingsForTheKingEm?utm_source=ExactTarget&utm_medium=email&utm_content=https%3a%2f%2fUMe.lnk.to%2fGCSingsForTheKingEm&utm_campaign=22312140&utm_umg_et=89616784&ET_CID=22312140&ET_RID=89616784
A couple of thoughts reading the press release. First of all, Glen Campbell did not play guitar on Elvis' recording of the song "Viva Las Vegas" from the 1964 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film of the same name. During the production of the film after the pre-recording of the soundtrack was done, it was determined that they needed another song for Elvis to sing in the film and ultimately the film producers and Elvis chose to record a cover of Ray Charles' "What'd I Say" for the film. Glen Campbell played on the session in which Elvis recorded his version of "What'd I Say." This occurred on August 30, 1963 at Radio Recorders in Hollywood, CA. The pre-recording of the soundtrack took place on July 9-11, 1963, also at Radio Recorders. The primary guitarist during those July sessions was Billy Strange. It was during the July sessions that Elvis recorded the song "Viva Las Vegas" for the film of the same name.
The other thing the press release gets wrong is that Ben Weisman actually only wrote 56 songs that Elvis recorded. There was a book that Ben Weisman wrote back in the 1990s in which he listed 57 songs that he claimed that Elvis had recorded. However, on the list, he included a song titled "The Chautauqua" which was the original title to the 1969 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film, "The Trouble With Girls (And How To Get Into It)." The thing is that Elvis never recorded "The Chautauqua" (or at least a recording of it has never been located and officially released).
That said, I'm really looking forward to this release. There is a couple disapointments in the track listing. First, we don't get the original demo version by Glen on the song "We Call On Him." The other thing is I believe there are possibly a few other songs that Elvis recorded where Glen was involved on the demo recording that Elvis heard. Glen may not have sang on the demo necessarily but I believe he was involved in the production. According to Red West, he had a demo recording of a song he wrote (with the title suggested by Elvis) titled "That's Someone You Never Forget" that Elvis recorded on June 25-26, 1961 at RCA Studio B in Nashville, TN. Red claimed before he passed that the demo was recorded at Gold Star in Hollywood and Glen participated in the recording of the demo. Elvis' recording is very good and I would be curious to know if Glen sang on that demo as well, as it likely dates from sometime in 1961.