Music Hub
Register
Advertisement

A Date with Elvis is the eighth album by Elvis Presley, issued on RCA Victor Records (LPM 2011) in July 1959. It is a selection of previously unreleased material from an August 1956 recording session at 20th Century Fox Stage One, two from Radio Recorders in Hollywood, and multiple sessions at Sun Studio. The album reached #32 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart. It is currently out of print, but available on iTunes.

Contents[]

 [hide*1 Content

Content[edit][]

After Presley's induction into the army on March 24, 1958, RCA and his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, were faced with the prospect of keeping his name before the public for two years with no possibility of live performances, no movies, and with few unissued marketable recordings in the vault. A recording session was arranged for two days in June, which yielded enough items for five more single sides, singles being the commercial focus forrock and roll in the 1950s. Four of those tracks would be issued on 45s in 1958 and 1959 during his absence while doing military service.

Presley, however, also did well in the albums market, all but one of his previous seven LPs charting no lower than #3, and RCA wished to continue promoting albums by Presley given his sales record. Much of Presley's material had not been released on LP, and for this album RCA collected material previously unavailable on album. Like its predecessor For LP Fans Only, this album featured tracks that had been issued on Sun Recordswith limited release, and were almost impossible to locate beyond certain parts of the south. The remaining five tracks derived from three different EPsissued in 1956 and 1957.

Even by the standards of the late 1950s and early 1960s, where long-playing albums often ran to only about 35 minutes, this was a very short album at twenty-three minutes, and as such became the lowest charting Presley LP of the decade. RCA would squeeze one more album in 1959 out of previously issued material, the second singles collection, but it too would be a lower seller by previous standard. Presley would return from overseas in 1960 to commence proper recording again. This album also folds out to be a calendar for the year 1960.

A different version of the album, duplicating six tracks from the American release, but expanding the track list to a healthy fourteen, was issued in Australia on vinyl in September 1959. RCA issued the original 10 track album on compact disc in 1989. Audiophile CD recordings are available on import in the United States, including the version from Japan in 2005.

In 1986, The Cramps released an otherwise unrelated album also entitled A Date with Elvis.

Collective personnel[edit][]

Track listing[edit][]

Original release[edit][]

Side one
No. Title Writer(s) Recording date Length
1. "Blue Moon of Kentucky"   Bill Monroe July 7, 1954 2:02
2. "Young And Beautiful"   Aaron Schroeder and Abner Silver April 30, 1957 2:02
3. "(You're So Square) Baby I Don't Care"   Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller April 30, 1957 1:51
4. "Milkcow Blues Boogie"   Kokomo Arnold November 12, 1954 2:38
5. "Baby Let's Play House"   Arthur Gunter February 5, 1955 2:15
Side two
No. Title Writer(s) Recording date Length
1. "Good Rockin' Tonight"   Roy Brown September 10, 1954 2:12
2. "Is It So Strange"   Faron Young January 19, 1957 2:28
3. "We're Gonna Move"   Vera Matson and Elvis Presley August 24, 1956 2:30
4. "I Want To Be Free"   Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller April 30, 1957 2:12
5. "I Forgot to Remember to Forget"   Stan Kesler and Charlie Feathers July 11, 1955 2:28

Australian and German reissue[edit][]

No. Title Writer(s) Recording date Length
1. "Blue Moon of Kentucky"   Bill Monroe July 7, 1954 2:02
2. "Milkcow Blues Boogie"   Kokomo Arnold November 12, 1954 2:38
3. "Baby Let's Play House"   Arthur Gunter February 5, 1955 2:15
4. "I Don't Care if the Sun Don't Shine"   Mack David September 11, 1954 2:27
5. "Tutti Frutti"   Dorothy LaBostrie and Richard Penniman January 31, 1956 1:58
6. "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You)"   Howard Biggs and Joe Thomas January 31, 1956 2:01
7. "I Got a Woman"   Ray Charles and Renald Richard January 10, 1956 2:23
8. "Good Rockin' Tonight"   Roy Brown September 11, 1954 2:12
9. "Is It So Strange"   Faron Young January 19, 1957 2:28
10. "We're Gonna Move"   Vera Matson and Elvis Presley August 24, 1956 2:30
11. "Blue Moon"   Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart August 19, 1954 2:31
12. "Just Because"   Sydney Robin, Bob Shelton, Joe Shelton September 11, 1954 2:32
13. "One-Sided Love Affair"   Bill Campbell January 30, 1956 2:09
14. "Let Me"   Vera Matson and Elvis Presley September 4, 1956 2:08
Advertisement