Elvis' Weirdest Songs

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

I'm thinking 'Yoga Is As Yoga Does' and 'Dominic (The Impotent Bull)'... anyone got any more?

― , Wednesday, 2 March 2005 14:30 (twenty years ago)

Elvis doing "In The Ghetto" is pretty weird if you think about it.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 2 March 2005 14:39 (twenty years ago)

The rough guide to Elvis has a section on this.

― Masked Gazza, Wednesday, 2 March 2005 14:50 (twenty years ago)

"I slipped, I stumbled, I fell" is pretty weird.

― Jacob (Jacob), Wednesday, 2 March 2005 14:52 (twenty years ago)

Polk Salad Annie?

― jim (jim5et), Wednesday, 2 March 2005 14:54 (twenty years ago)

from the rough guide:

"Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce"
"Froggy Went A-Courtin'"
"He's Your Uncle Not Your Dad"
"Ito Eats"
"Life"
"Queen Washine's Papaya"
"Smorgasbord"
"Song of the Shrimp"
"There's No Room To Rhumbs In A Sports Car"
"Yoga Is As Yoga Does"

Lots of comments which I'm not typing out.

― Masked Gazza, Wednesday, 2 March 2005 14:58 (twenty years ago)

"Ft. Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce"
"Do The Clam"
"Ito Eats"
(xpost!)

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 2 March 2005 14:59 (twenty years ago)

"There's No Room To Rhumba In A Sports Car"

FFS.

― Masked Gazza, Wednesday, 2 March 2005 14:59 (twenty years ago)

"Yoga Is As Yoga Does"

You tell me just how I can take this yoga serious
When all it ever gives to me is a pain in my posteriors

Surely the next Elvis re-release?

― hobart paving (hobart paving), Wednesday, 2 March 2005 15:01 (twenty years ago)

For sheer weirdness, consider Clambake. Unless it's some filthy double entendre, Elvis appears to be demanding his freedom and independence from the establishment, which is trying to keep him down by preventing him from, uh, baking clams.

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Wednesday, 2 March 2005 15:02 (twenty years ago)

theres a guy with a 'weird elvis' folder on slsk, i noticed, last night

― ilkley lido (gareth), Wednesday, 2 March 2005 15:06 (twenty years ago)

Elvis doing "In The Ghetto" is pretty weird if you think about it.

Why is Elvis doing it any weirder than anyone else doing it?

I'm thinking of (people who've also done it):

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (now that's weird)
Bobbie Gentry
Merle Haggard
Sammy Davis Jr.
Dolly Parton
Cranberries
Natalie Merchant

― ffirehorse (firehorse), Wednesday, 2 March 2005 15:10 (twenty years ago)

"Lovin' Machine"

― Huk-L, Wednesday, 2 March 2005 15:23 (twenty years ago)

"They call your daddy Big Boots"

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 2 March 2005 15:35 (twenty years ago)

"Hey, Hey, Hey" from "Clambake" is fuckin' weird.

In fact, the whole "Clambake" soundtrack is weird shit. "Who Needs Money," which is in the movie but maybe not on the ST album, might be the strangest sequence in any movie I've ever seen.

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Wednesday, 2 March 2005 15:35 (twenty years ago)

The weirdest thing about "Yoga Is As Yoga Does" is that it's an oom-pah-pah song.

― Huk-L, Wednesday, 2 March 2005 15:41 (twenty years ago)

http://www.jordans-elvis-world.com/impemp/greatshit.htm

Here's a ref for yez.

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 2 March 2005 15:48 (twenty years ago)

If weird = spooky, nothing beats "Old Shep" -- an echoey dirge of a song, originally by Red Foley, with just Elvis at the mike and the Jordanaires keening softly in the background, about the narrator having to off his pet dog because he's old and infirm.

With hands that were trembling
I picked up my gun
And aimed it at Shep’s faithful head
I just couldn’t do it
I wanted to run
I wish they would shoot me instead

― ffirehorse (firehorse), Wednesday, 2 March 2005 16:39 (twenty years ago)

While I haven't seen the movie for years and do not own the soundtrack, there has to be some weird songs on the "Change of Habit" soundtrack. After all, Elvis plays a doctor who falls in love with Mary Tyler Moore, who is a nurse but is secretly also a nun. Besides that, the movie was made in the late 60s, so there are all sorts of vague flower power imagery that shows up. It would be an odd movie for anyone, but criminy...it's ELVIS!

Elvis movies are all pretty strange. He was always breaking into song while racing a motorcycle or on waterskiis.

― earlnash, Wednesday, 2 March 2005 17:15 (twenty years ago)

I have to say that for me, with one or two obvious exceptions, Elvis movies are like Bollywood movies- I'd rather watch the musical numbers out of context than sit through the whole damn thing from beginning to end.

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 2 March 2005 17:17 (twenty years ago)

The Clambake movie also features "Confidence" a grade Z ripoff of High Hopes that features the single worst Elvis vocal performance. Great movie, though.

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Wednesday, 2 March 2005 17:26 (twenty years ago)

"Little Sister" is weird and/or funny for the lines "she's mean and she's evil/ like a little ol' boll weevil" and the concept of chastising a girl because she might dump you like her sister did. sheesh.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 2 March 2005 17:30 (twenty years ago)

His version of "Old McDonald" is pretty damn weird -- he can't pronounce "Oink"!!!!

Actually the whole of this collection is odd:

http://shop.elvis.com.au/images/cd_elvissingsforchildren.jpg

― Mark (MarkR), Wednesday, 2 March 2005 17:36 (twenty years ago)

pigs in tupelo go "uhnk."

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 2 March 2005 17:37 (twenty years ago)

"Yoga Is As Yoga Does"
You tell me just how I can take this yoga serious
When all it ever gives to me is a pain in my posteriors
Surely the next Elvis re-release?

-- hobart paving

I'm seeing a Hype Williams video...

― Mark (MarkR), Wednesday, 2 March 2005 17:37 (twenty years ago)

xpost to Earl: Supposedly during a recording session for one of the movies, Elvis requested that the backing vocalists join him. Someone pointed out that in the flick, he'd be riding a motorcycle down the road while singing this particular song. Where were the singers supposed to be?

"The same damn place the band is," Elvis answered.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Thursday, 3 March 2005 04:22 (twenty years ago)

that last story, the one rickey recounts, is actually kind of profound. where does soundtrack music "come" from? what sounds on a soundtrack need to "come" from anywhere, and it what context?

anyway, elvis's "weirdest" songs are usually among his most boring!

i have that "elvis' greatest shit" LP, and it is phenomenally boring, although the cover is a blast.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 3 March 2005 06:28 (twenty years ago)

There's a live version of "Are You Lonesome Tonight" -- I think it may be on "Elvis' Greatest Shit" but it was also on an officially released RCA compilation, oddly enough -- where he cracks himself up by changing one of the lines in the second verse, and then can't stop laughing for the remainder of the song (well over two minutes). The first minute is pretty funny, and the second minute is a chilling warning of the dangers of drug abuse.

― Dr Benway (dr benway), Thursday, 3 March 2005 07:11 (twenty years ago)

And when you're done with the weird songs, the next logical step is
ihttp://www.gemelli.org/gully2/

― Dr Benway (dr benway), Thursday, 3 March 2005 07:15 (twenty years ago)

OK, I'll try one more time.
http://www.elvis.euweb.cz/ep70204.jpg

― Dr Benway (dr benway), Thursday, 3 March 2005 07:17 (twenty years ago)

I wonder if the Clambake stuff makes sense if'n you're familiar with a fella goes by the name of John Raitt

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Thursday, 3 March 2005 07:18 (twenty years ago)

it's on this weird 2disc live comp. there's also "hilarious" band introductions and other big e flubs.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 3 March 2005 07:32 (twenty years ago)

...don't forget the live albums where he pauses the song to do some karate moves for the benefit of the audience, and all you hear on the record are these swooshing sounds and "oo-ha!" etc....

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 3 March 2005 07:41 (twenty years ago)

there's a real early song called "just tell her jim said hello" - it's not a bad song but it's so weird hearing elvis pose as a "jim"!

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Thursday, 3 March 2005 07:53 (twenty years ago)

"that's tutt schiff any way you look at it"

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 3 March 2005 07:54 (twenty years ago)

That corpsing version of "Are You Lonesome Tonight" came out as a single in the UK in '82 and was a top 30 hit (complete with "Shit! 14 years down the drain, man" payoff). I always assumed he was cracking up at the palpably out-of-tune lead backing singer ("Sing it baby HAHAHAHAHAH!" etc.).

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 3 March 2005 08:26 (twenty years ago)

**There's a live version of "Are You Lonesome Tonight" -- I think it may be on "Elvis' Greatest Shit"**

That is is, as are most of the sdtrk ditties mentioned above. Times like this I wish my vinyl wasn't in storage. My copy of Elvis' Grt Sht came with a "prescription" -- dilaudid etc -- signed by Dr. Nick.

Girl Happy w/Do the Clam, Ft. Lauderdale COC et al is a CLASSIC.

― lovebug starski (lovebug starski), Thursday, 3 March 2005 11:33 (twenty years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.