| King of America | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by The Costello Show featuring the Attractions and Confederates | ||||
| Released | February 21, 1986 | |||
| Recorded | Ocean Way, Sunset Sound & Sound Factory Studio Los Angeles, 1985-86 |
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| Genre | Americana, Folk Rock, New Wave | |||
| Length | 57:36 | |||
| Label | F-Beat (UK) Columbia (US) Demon (UK) (September 5, 1995 Reissue) Rykodisc (September 5, 1995 Reissue) Rhino (April 26, 2005 Reissue) Hip-O (May 1, 2007 Reissue) |
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| Producer | J. Henry (T-Bone) Burnett, Declan MacManus a.k.a (The Coward Brothers) | |||
| Elvis Costello chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [1] |
| Pitchfork Media | (8.7/10)[2] |
| Robert Christgau | (A-)[3] |
King of America is the tenth studio album by the British rock singer and songwriter Elvis Costello, released in 1986 in the United Kingdom as F-Beat ZL 70946, and in the United States as Columbia JC 40173. It was billed as by "The Costello Show featuring the Attractions and Confederates" in the UK and Europe and "The Costello Show featuring Elvis Costello" in North America. It peaked at #11 on the UK album chart, and at #39 on the Billboard 200.
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During late 1984 and early 1985, Costello undertook a series of solo tours, sharing the bill with musician T-Bone Burnett.[4] Costello and Burnett recorded a single together in early 1985, and ventured to imagine appropriate backing musicians for Costello's new songs.[5] They booked time at Ocean Way and Sunset Sound studios in Los Angeles, and assembled members of the TCB Band who had backed Elvis Presley in the 1970s (Costello being more familiar with their work on records by Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris).[6] Other sessions included the jazz bassist Ray Brown and New Orleans drummer Earl Palmer, and a group of musicians dubbed 'the Confederates,' featuring T-Bone Wolk, Mickey Curry, and producer Mitchell Froom.[7] Elvis' usual backing musicians The Attractions appear on only one track, "Suit of Lights," but would return to record in full Costello's next album, Blood & Chocolate.
In the album credits, Costello uses three different noms de plume for himself: his given name of Declan MacManus; his stage name of Elvis Costello; and the nickname awarded him by producer Nick Lowe earlier in his career, the Little Hands of Concrete, that last a reference to his habitual breaking of guitar strings during recording sessions.[8]
The cover of the 1964 hit single by The Animals "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" was released a single, and peaked at #33 on the UK singles chart but missed the Billboard Hot 100, as did the follow-up single released in America only, "Lovable." The single by Burnett and Costello as the Coward Brothers did not chart in either nation.
The album was released initially on vinyl in 1986, with the Rykodisc Records reissue arriving nine years later on a single compact disc with five bonus tracks, including the 1986 single by Costello and Burnett and credited to 'The Coward Brothers,' Elvis being Henry and T-Bone being Howard. These five tracks along with 16 others appeared as the second disc to the double-disc Rhino Records reissue in 2005. These reissues are out of print, the album reissued again by Universal Music Group after its acquisition of Costello's complete catalogue in 2006.
All tracks written by Declan MacManus except as noted; track timings taken from Rhino 2005 reissue.
Tracks 1-8 and 13 are solo demo recordings; tracks 15-21 are live recordings from The Broadway Theatre, New York City, 23 October 1986.