Search - Elvis Presley :: Girl Happy

A classic soundtrack from the mid 60s

Petter Sellers | 12/28/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Girl Happy is a soundtrack that holds a lot of delightful background information apart from its overall pleasant listening experience.

The background information comes to us through the CD package booklet and lets us in incidents like the 36 takes of "Do Not Disturb" that had to be covered in order to have the final acceptable level. During a segment of that track's takes we hear the sound engineer say to Elvis that they already have a partial demo that is ok. Elvis, immediately responds that ok is not acceptable therefore more takes need to be reckoned with. On another incident, during the recording of "Spring Fever" we hear the sound engineer convey to Elvis that the specific song needs to come across with a happier, (no pun intended here due to the album title) feeling. The comment continues and the sound engineer says that maybe his mind is somewhere else.

Overall, the album presents a list of songs that are somewhat indifferent and even the most electrifying performance by Elvis does not attach any merit to them.

But do hold on, because there are some excellent pieces as well like the tender "Puppet On A String" the sensual "Do Not Disturb" the grooviest in terms of lyrics and music "Girl Happy" and the best of them all "Spring Fever".

A very large omission remains the cover of "Spring Fever" between Elvis and Shelley, with boy - girl respectively vocal backgrounds, which is the highlight of the film. Let's hope for a latter surfacing of this cover on a future CD project.

The song "Girl Happy" is further presented in its original slow tempo version which is equally if not more effective than the speeded track that appeared on the original album.

A must have for every collector.

"

Girl Happy

GEM | Minot, ND United States | 03/13/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"It was fun music back in 1965 and it's still fun music today. That's all it was ever meant to be. The music promoted the movies. The movies promoted the music. Both Elvis and the "Colonel" became

very rich. I very much enjoyed this album back in the day and still do today. Glad they're finally getting around to releasing some of these soundtracks singlely with much improved sound."

A couple of good songs, but mostly lame

Anton Karidian | Tennessee | 04/05/2010

(2 out of 5 stars)

"As a big Elvis fan I hate to see his lesser material like this GIRL HAPPY soundtrack promoted the way many reviews do, because that just hurts Elvis's image. GIRL HAPPY is one of his so-so films, but actually would have been quite enjoyable except for the lame songs he was forced to sing for it. In fact, in Susan Doll's interesting book Films of Elvis Presley, she relates that as "Girl Happy" was in production, Elvis complained about the "mediocre pop tunes" that filled this and so many of his movies by the mid-1960s. The director suggested that Elvis take acting classes to improve his chances in Hollywood, but alas, Elvis never followed through on that. However, even though the overall soundtrack to "Girl Happy" is less than memorable, there ARE a couple of decent songs here, namely, "Puppet On a String" and "Wolf Call." Some of his best movie music can be found on the CDs King Creole (1958 Film), Loving You, Blue Hawaii, Jailhouse Rock/Love Me Tender, The Essential Elvis: The First Movies, and Viva Las Vegas [Soundtrack], while a pretty good 2-CD set of songs spanning his entire movie career is Elvis at the Movies."