Easy Come, Easy Go (film)

Easy Come, Easy Go

Theatrical release poster
Directed by John Rich
Produced by Hal B. Wallis
Written by
  • Allan Weiss
  • Anthony Lawrence
Starring
Music by Joseph J. Lilley
Cinematography William Margulies
Edited by Archie Marshek
Production
company
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release dates
  • March 22, 1967 (USA)
Running time
 95 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $2,000,000
Box office $1,950,000(US/ Canada)[1][2][3]

Easy Come, Easy Go is a 1967 American musical film comedy starring Elvis Presley. Hal Wallis produced the film for Paramount Pictures, and it was his final movie for Elvis Presley. The film co-starred Dodie Marshall, Pat Harrington, Jr., Pat Priest, Elsa Lanchester and Frank McHugh. (It was McHugh's last feature film.) The movie reached #50 on the Variety magazine national box office list in 1967.[4]

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

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".

Cast

Production

Paramount originally intended to make a movie called Easy Come Easy Go starring Jan and Dean with director Barry Shear but it was cancelled when the stars and several crew were injured in a train crash.[5]

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
Elvis Presley chronology

Tickle Me
(1965)		 Easy Come, Easy Go
(1967)

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.[6] It is often reported[7][8] 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.[9][10] 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.[11]

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.[12] 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.[12]

Personnel

Track listing

Side one
No. TitleWriter(s)Recording date Length
1. "Easy Come, Easy Go"  Sid Wayne and Ben WeismanSeptember 28, 1966 2:07
2. "The Love Machine"  Chuck Taylor, Fred Burch, Gerald NelsonSeptember 29, 1966 2:10
3. "Yoga Is As Yoga Does"  Fred Burch and Gerald NelsonSeptember 29, 1966 2:51
Side two
No. TitleWriter(s)Recording date Length
1. "You Gotta Stop"  Bernie Baum, Bill Giant, Florence KayeSeptember 29, 1966 2:20
2. "Sing You Children"  Fred Burch and Gerald NelsonSeptember 28, 1966 2:00
3. "I'll Take Love"  Dolores Fuller and Mark BarkerSeptember 28, 1966 2:13

References

  1. ↑ "Big Rental Films of 1967", Variety, 3 January 1968 p 25. Please note these figures refer to rentals accruing to the distributors.
  2. ↑ "Easy Come, Easy Go, Worldwide Box Office". Worldwide Box Office. Retrieved March 8, 2012.
  3. ↑ "Easy Come, Easy Go, Box Office Information". The Numbers. Retrieved March 8, 2012.
  4. ↑ Adam Victor, The Elvis Encyclopedia. Overlook, 2008.
  5. ↑ MOVIE CALL SHEET: Train Wreck Derails Film Martin, Betty. Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 11 Aug 1965: d12.
  6. ↑ Carr, Roy; Farren, Mick (1982). Elvis: The Illustrated Record. New York: Harmony Books. p. 107. ISBN 0517539799. ISBN 9780517539798
  7. ↑ Worth, Fred L., and Tamerius, Steve D. Elvis: His Life from A to Z. New York: Contemporary Books, 1990; pp. 282, 426-427.
  8. ↑ Carr and Farren, op. cit., p. 107
  9. ↑ Jorgensen, Elvis Presley A Life in Music: The Complete Recording Sessions. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998; pp. 222-224
  10. ↑ Elvis Recordings.com session entry, 'No Elvis Vocal'
  11. ↑ Jorgensen, Elvis Presley A Life in Music: The Complete Recording Sessions. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998; p. 223.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Jorgensen, Elvis Presley A Life in Music: The Complete Recording Sessions. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998; p. 224.

External links

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