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March 2 1964
(+ means you need both    ~ means same material    °° means stereo or binaural    ° means mono)
(SFS = Short False Start | FS = False Start | LFS or BD (Breakdown) = Long False Start | PB (Playback) or Complete = Complete Take)

Radio Recorders Studio B - Hollywood, California
Soundtrack Session for Paramount's Roustabout
Paramount Producer : Joseph Lilley
Engineer : Dave Wiechman
(1.00pm - 6.40pm / 8.00pm - 11.35pm)

Musicians:   Backup Vocals:
Guitar: Scotty Moore The Jordanaires: Gordon Stoker; Neal Matthews; Hoyt Hawkins; Ray
Guitar: Billy Strange
Walker
Guitar: Hilmer J 'Tiny' Timbrell  
Guitar: Barney Kessel  
Bass: Bob Moore  
Drums: D.J. Fontana  
Drums: Murrey 'Buddy' Harman  
Piano: Floyd Cramer  
Saxophone: Homer 'Boots' Randolph  

Little Egypt
RPA3 5270
AO March 2 1964 (Mon)
Take 1        
Take 2        
Take 3        
Take 4        
Take 5        
Take 6        
Take 7        
Take 8        
Take 9        
Take 10        
Take 11        
Take 12        
Take 13        
Take 14        
Take 15 M 2:18 Record version (2:33 with count-in)
(used for composite movie version)
Complete Elvis Presley Masters 11 (Sony)°°~Fun At The Fair (Franklin
Mint Comp. Masters Collection 23)°°~Roustabout (remastered s'track)°°
~Roustabout (FTD)°°~Double Feat's - Love In Las Vegas / Roustabout°°
(master only)+Roustabout (FTD)°° (count-in)

Poison Ivy League
RPA3 5272
BO March 2 1964 (Mon)
Take 1        
Take 2        
Take 3        
Take 4        
Take 5        
Take 6        
Take 7 M 2:04 (2:19 with count-in) Complete Elvis Presley Masters 11 (Sony)°°~Fun At The Fair (Franklin
Mint Comp. Masters Collection 23)°°~Roustabout (remastered s'track)°°
~Roustabout (FTD)°°~Double Feat's - Love In Las Vegas / Roustabout°°
(master only)+Roustabout (FTD)°° (count-in)

Hard Knocks
RPA3 5267
CO March 2 1964 (Mon)
Take 1        
Take 2        
Take 3        
Take 4        
Take 5        
Take 6        
Take 7        
Take 8        
Take 9        
Take 10        
Take 11 M 1:42 Record version (1:53 with count-in) Complete Elvis Presley Masters 11 (Sony)°°~Fun At The Fair (Franklin
Mint Comp. Masters Collection 23)°°~Roustabout (remastered s'track)°°
~Roustabout (FTD)°°~Double Features - Love In Las Vegas / Roustabout°°
(master only)+Roustabout (FTD)°° (count-in)

Hard Knocks (dubdown)
CO  
Dub (M)   Dubdown to backing track - Elvis'
vocals removed from CO-11
(Vocal overdub on March 5 for
movie version
)
 

It's A Wonderful World
RPA3 5268
DO March 2 1964 (Mon)
Take 1        
Take 2        
Take 3        
Take 4        
Take 5        
Take 6        
Take 7        
Take 8        
Take 9        
Take 10        
Take 11        
Take 12        
Take 13 M 1:48 (2:07 with count-in) Complete Elvis Presley Masters 11 (Sony)°°~Fun At The Fair (Franklin
Mint Comp. Masters Collection 23)°°~Roustabout (remastered s'track)°°
~Roustabout (FTD)°°~Double Features - Love In Las Vegas / Roustabout°°
(master only)+Roustabout (FTD)°° (count-in)
Take 14        
Take 15        
Take 16        
Take 17 Complete 1:51 (instrumental) (2:01 with count-in) Hard Knocks (Venus)°° (1:55)~Acetate°+Roustabout (FTD)°°

Notes

The session tapes are lost.

The book Inside Roustabout shows a picture of a music sheet for 'Poison Ivy League', which shows an extra verse:-

The Rah Rah boys are full of football spirit
Its up to them to boost that old school name
Out on that football field they say they'll win it
But secretly they plan to dump the game
That poison ivy league, boys in that ivy league
Aint what they claim, they give me a pain
That poison ivy league...

There is an audible splice at 1:50 where it seems a verse has been edited out indicating that this extra verse may have actually been recorded, and then edited out of the final master, but as the tapes are still missing from these March sessions there is no way of knowing exactly what was recorded.

The master of 'Hard Knocks' (CO-11) was originally deemed unsuitable by Paramount, so it was dubbed down to a backing track by removing Elvis' vocals. Elvis then recorded a new vocal overdub to this backing track on March 5, which was used in the movie.

The song 'Shout It Out' was originally submitted to be used for the movie, but was eventually dropped in favour of 'Hard Knocks' being used instead. Other songs with demo's submitted, but not used were 'I Never Had It So Good' and 'Carnival Of Dreams'.

Shout It Out was eventually recorded for the movie Frankie And Johnny in 1965.

The last production number used at these sessions is "LO", which was for 'Wheels On My Heels', and the next number used is "NO", which is for the rhythm track for 'Roustabout ' on April 29. It is unknown what the missing "MO" production number could have been for.

An EPE auction in July / August 2010 however, has thrown up some questions regarding these sessions, as one of the lots had some of Elvis' personally owned acetates of demo's presented to be used in this movie. Looking at the acetates, an interesting thought has emerged that the missing "Track MO" from these sessions could have been reserved for 'Shout It Out.' When you look at the acetate it has "USED" written on it, where the others - 'Carnival Of Dreams' and 'I Never Had It So Good' clearly has "Demo - Not Elvis" written on them. This indicates that 'Shout It Out' could have actually been planned to be recorded, but then not used in the movie Roustabout, but as the tapes are still missing from these March sessions apart from the masters and takes used for masters, there is no way of knowing exactly what was recorded.

Update: At another EPE auction in 2016, more acetates from Roustabout were sold by Mary Lilley, daughter of Joseph Lilley, but there was no sign of an acetate of 'Shout It Out' by Elvis, recorded for the movie Roustabout!

In March of 2007, Sony decided to go through all of Elvis' masters. They retransferred everything and remastered all tracks including repairing as many clicks, pops, bad edits and dropouts as they could. They have used these newly mastered recordings on their new releases since 2007 including budget soundtracks, Legacy releases, the 30 disc Complete Elvis Presley Masters collection and the Franklin Mint package.

Thanks to Ernst Jørgensen and Erik Rasmussen for information regarding 'Hard Knocks'.


Session Logs
 
Recording Information
Roustabout
Roustabout
 


Acetates
Acetate
Little Egypt (record version)
Little Egypt
Acetate
Poison Ivy League
Poison Ivy League
Acetate
Hard Knocks (record version)
Hard Knocks (Record Version)

Acetate
It's A Wonderful World
It's A Wonderful World
Demo Acetates
Roustabout
Roustabout Demo Acetates
 


Music Sheets
Music Sheet
Little Egypt
Little Egypt (Thanks to Christopher Brown)
Music Sheet
Poison Ivy League
Poison Ivy League (Thanks to Glen Johnson)
Music Sheet
Hard Knocks
Hard Knocks

 
Music Sheet
It's A Wonderful World
It's A Wonderful World
 

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