Easy Come, Easy Go (film)

Easy Come, Easy Go
Directed by John Rich
Robert Goodstein (Ass't)
Produced by Hal B. Wallis
Written by Allan Weiss & Anthony Lawrence
Starring Elvis Presley
Pat Priest
Music by Joseph J. Lilley
Cinematography William Margulies
Editing by Archie Marshek
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date(s) March 22, 1967
Running time 95 min.
Language English

Easy Come, Easy Go is a 1967 musical film comedy starring Elvis Presley. Hal Wallis produced the film for Paramount Pictures, his final movie for Elvis Presley, which co-starred Dodie Marshall, Pat Harrington, Jr., and Elsa Lanchester. The movie reached #50 on the Variety magazine national box office list in 1967.[1]

Easy Come, Easy Go, his twenty-third film, was released on March 22, a mere thirteen days before his twenty-fourth, Double Trouble .

Contents

Plot

Lieutenant Ted Jackson (Elvis Presley) is a former U.S. Navy frogman who divides his time between twin careers as a deep sea diver and nightclub singer. Ted discovers what he believes could be a fortune in Spanish gold aboard a sunken ship and sets out to rescue it with the help of go-go dancing yoga expert Jo Symington (Dodie Marshall) and friend Judd Whitman (Pat Harrington, Jr.). Gil Carey (Skip Ward), however, is also after the treasure and uses his girlfriend Dina Bishop (Pat Priest) to foil Ted's plans.

Elvis sings six songs in the movie, the title song, "I'll Take Love", "Sing You Children", "You Gotta Stop", "Yoga Is as Yoga Does" in a duet with Elsa Lanchester, and "The Love Machine".

Primary cast

Soundtrack

Easy Come, Easy Go
EP by Elvis Presley
Released March 1967
Recorded September 1966
Genre Soundtrack
Length 13:41
Label RCA Records
Producer Joseph Lilley

Recording sessions took place on September 28 and 29, 1966, at Paramount Studio in Hollywood, California. After the relative freedom of the Nashville sessions in May that yielded How Great Thou Art and other songs more to his taste, Presley was reportedly unhappy with the quality of the songs selected for the film, allegedly referring to the selections as "shit" during the recording session.[2] It is often reported[3][4] that Presley recorded "Leave My Woman Alone" for the film, but only an instrumental backing was ever recorded; Presley never recorded a vocal for the song.[5][6] Seven selections were recorded for the film; the song "She's A Machine" was not used in the movie, but would be released on Elvis Sings Flaming Star the following year.[7]

The remaining six appeared on an extended play single released to coincide with the March 1967 premiere of the film. It failed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, and sold fewer than 30,000 units total.[8] Given that the EP format was no longer a viable marketing medium, and the poor performance of Easy Come, Easy Go, it was the final release of new material by Presley in the EP format.[8]

Personnel

Track listing

Side one

Track Recorded Song Title Writers Time
1. 9/28/66 Easy Come, Easy Go Sid Wayne and Ben Weisman 2:07
2. 9/29/66 The Love Machine Chuck Taylor, Fred Burch, Gerald Nelson 2:10
3. 9/29/66 Yoga Is As Yoga Does Fred Burch and Gerald Nelson 2:51

Side two

Track Recorded Song Title Writers Time
1. 9/29/66 You Gotta Stop Bernie Baum, Bill Giant, Florence Kaye 2:20
2. 9/28/66 Sing You Children Fred Burch and Gerald Nelson 2:00
3. 9/28/66 I'll Take Love Dolores Fuller and Mark Barker 2:13

References

  1. ^ Adam Victor, The Elvis Encyclopedia. Overlook, 2008.
  2. ^ Carr, Roy, and Farren, Mick. Elvis: The Illustrated Record New York: Harmony Books, 1982: p. 107.
  3. ^ Worth, Fred L., and Tamerius, Steve D. Elvis: His Life from A to Z. New York: Contemporary Books, 1990; pp. 282, 426-427.
  4. ^ Carr and Farren, op. cit., p. 107
  5. ^ Jorgensen, Elvis Presley A Life in Music: The Complete Recording Sessions. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998; pp. 222-224
  6. ^ Elvis Recordings.com session entry, 'No Elvis Vocal'
  7. ^ Jorgensen, Elvis Presley A Life in Music: The Complete Recording Sessions. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998; p. 223.
  8. ^ a b Jorgensen, Elvis Presley A Life in Music: The Complete Recording Sessions. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998; p. 224.

External links

DVD Reviews
Films directed by John Rich