| Blue Hawaii | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by Elvis Presley | ||||
| Released | October 1, 1961 | |||
| Recorded | 1961 | |||
| Genre | Rock and roll, hawaiian music | |||
| Length | 32:02 | |||
| Label | RCA Victor | |||
| Producer | Steve Sholes | |||
| Elvis Presley chronology | ||||
|
||||
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [1] |
Blue Hawaii is the fourteenth album by Elvis Presley, released on RCA Victor Records in mono and stereo, LPM/LSP 2426, in October 1961 - the exact date of October 1 is disputed. It is a soundtrack for Presley's film of the same name. Recording sessions took place at Radio Recorders in Hollywood on March 21, 22, and 23, 1961. It spent 20 weeks at the #1 slot and 39 weeks in the Top 10 on the US Top Pop Albums chart. It was certified Gold on 12/21/1961, Platinum and 2x Platinum on 3/27/1992 and 3x Platinum on 7/30/2002 by the RIAA. On the US Top Pop Albums chart Blue Hawaii is the #2 most successful album of the 1960ies, second only to West Side Story.
Contents |
RCA and the Colonel had initially planned a schedule of one soundtrack and one popular music release per year for Presley, in addition to the requisite four singles .[2] To coincide with the location of the film, touches of Hawaiian music were included, from instrumentation to the traditional song "Aloha 'Oe." The title song was taken from a similar film Waikiki Wedding starring Bing Crosby in 1937, and "Hawaiian Wedding Song" dates from a 1926 operetta.
The songs "Can't Help Falling In Love" and "Rock-A-Hula Baby" were pulled off the album for two sides of a single released the following month. The A-side "Can't Help Falling In Love," which would become the standard closer for an Elvis Presley concert in the 1970s, went to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, while the b-side charted independently at #23.
The Blue Hawaii soundtrack was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1961 in the category of Best Sound Track Album Or Recording Of Original Cast From A Motion Picture Or Television.
The success of this soundtrack and its predecessor G. I. Blues, both of which sold in much greater quantity than Presley's two regular releases of the time, Elvis Is Back! and Something for Everybody, set the pace for the rest of the decade.[3] The Colonel and Presley would focus on Elvis' film career, "normal" albums taking a back seat with only six during the 1960s against sixteen full-length soundtrack albums among 27 movies and the comeback special. Five songs from this album appear on the 1995 compendium of soundtrack recordings: the two sides of the single, "Blue Hawaii," "Hawaiian Wedding Song," and "Beach Boy Blues."
On April 29, 1997, RCA released a remastered and expanded version for compact disc with eight bonus tracks. All had been recorded during the sessions for the original album, and all were unreleased except for "Steppin' Out of Line" which appeared on Pot Luck with Elvis.
| Track | Recorded | Song Title | Writer(s) | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 3/22/61 | Blue Hawaii | Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger | 2:36 |
| 2. | 3/22/61 | Almost Always True | Ben Weisman and Fred Wise | 2:25 |
| 3. | 3/21/61 | Aloha 'Oe | Queen Lydia Lili'uokalani | 1:53 |
| 4. | 3/21/61 | No More | Don Robertson, Hal Blair and Sebastián Iradier[4] | 2:22 |
| 5. | 3/23/61 | Can't Help Falling in Love | George David Weiss, Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore | 3:01 |
| 6. | 3/23/61 | Rock-A-Hula Baby | Ben Weisman, Fred Wise, Dolores Fuller | 1:59 |
| 7. | 3/22/61 | Moonlight Swim | Ben Weisman and Sylvia Dee | 2:20 |
| Track | Recorded | Song Title | Writer(s) | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 3/21/61 | Ku-U-I-Po | George David Weiss, Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore | 2:23 |
| 2. | 3/22/61 | Ito Eats | Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennett | 1:23 |
| 3. | 3/21/61 | Slicin' Sand | Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennett | 1:36 |
| 4. | 3/21/61 | Hawaiian Sunset | Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennett | 2:32 |
| 5. | 3/23/61 | Beach Boy Blues | Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennett | 2:03 |
| 6. | 3/22/61 | Island Of Love | Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennett | 2:41 |
| 7. | 3/22/61 | Hawaiian Wedding Song | Al Hoffman, Charles King, Dick Manning | 2:48 |
Chart positions for albums from Billboard 200
| Track | Recorded | Album Title | Catalogue | Release date | Chart peak | Song title | Writer(s) | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 3/22/61 | Pot Luck with Elvis | LSP 2523 | 6/5/62 | #4 | Steppin' Out of Line | Ben Weisman, Fred Wise, Dolores Fuller | 1:53 |
| 2. | 3/23/61 | previously unreleased | Can't Help Falling in Love (alternate take) | George David Weiss, Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore | 1:54 | |||
| 3. | 3/21/61 | previously unreleased | Slicin' Sand (alternate take) | Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennett | 1:45 | |||
| 4. | 3/21/61 | previously unreleased | No More (alternate take) | Don Robertson and Hal Blair | 2:35 | |||
| 5. | 3/23/61 | previously unreleased | Rock-A-Hula Baby (alternate take) | Ben Weisman, Fred Wise, Dolores Fuller | 2:15 | |||
| 6. | 3/23/61 | previously unreleased | Beach Boy Blues (alternate take) | Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennett | 1:58 | |||
| 7. | 3/22/61 | previously unreleased | Steppin' Out of Line (alternate take) | Ben Weisman, Fred Wise, Dolores Fuller | 1:54 | |||
| 8. | 3/22/61 | previously unreleased | Blue Hawaii (alternate take) | Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger | 2:40 |
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1961 | Billboard Pop Albums (Billboard 200) (mono and stereo) | 1 |
| 1962 | UK Albums Chart[5] | |
| Billboard Pop Albums (Billboard 200) (mono and stereo) |
| Preceded by Judy at Carnegie Hall by Judy Garland |
Billboard 200 number-one album (mono) December 11, 1961 - May 4, 1962 |
Succeeded by West Side Story (soundtrack) by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim |
| Preceded by Stereo 35/MM by Enoch Light & the Light Brigade |
Billboard 200 number-one album (stereo) December 11, 1961 - January 12, 1962 |
Succeeded by Holiday Sing Along with Mitch by Mitch Miller |
| Preceded by Another Black and White Minstrel Show by George Mitchell Minstrels The Young Ones by Cliff Richard & The Shadows |
UK Albums Chart number-one album 6 January 1962 - 13 January 1962 24 February 1962 - 23 June 1962 |
Succeeded by The Young Ones by Cliff Richard & The Shadows West Side Story (soundtrack) by Leonard Bernstein and Steven Sondheim |