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Loving You (1957 film)

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For other uses, see Loving You (1957 film) (disambiguation).
Loving You
Directed byHal Kanter
Written byMary Agnes Thompson (story)
Herbert Baker & Hal Kanter (screenwriters)
Produced byHal B. Wallis
StarringElvis Presley
Dolores Hart
Lizabeth Scott
CinematographyCharles Lang
Edited byHoward A. Smith
Music byWalter Scharf
Distributed byParamount
Release dates
July 9, 1957
Running time
101 min.
LanguageEnglish

Loving You is an American motion picture directed by Hal Kanter, released by Paramount Pictures on July 9, 1957. The film stars Elvis Presley, Lizabeth Scott (in her final major film role) and Wendell Corey. It is Presley's second movie, his first in Technicolor and the first with Elvis as the primary focus. The story mirrors that of his own rise to fame, and Presley's mother and father appear as extras in the audience during the final song, "Got A Lot Of Livin' To Do." After his mother's death, Presley refused to ever watch the film again.

Primary Cast

Synopsis

In Presley's first picture, Love Me Tender, he acted in a supporting role as part of a larger story for the first and last time in his film career. His second film, Loving You, sets the precedent for the remaining two films he would make before going into the army, Jailhouse Rock and King Creole, that of a rising young singing star, and of the effects that fame has on him and the people around him.

Plot

Elvis Presley plays Deke Rivers, a delivery man who is discovered by publicist Glenda Markle (Lizabeth Scott) and country-western musician Tex Warner (Wendell Corey). Deke is a handsome young man with a fast car and even faster fists, but what really sets him apart is his voice and charisma. One day he's seen singing, and word quickly spreads of his talent throughout the small town in which he works.

Markle and Warner, believing in his potential, want to promote the talented newcomer to fame and fortune, giving him every break they feel he deserves. At first, Warner, a washed-up country music entertainer, sees Deke's addition to the act as merely a side act, and that Warner will return to the limelight. He learns the painful truth after Glenda tearfully tells him that the promoters she works with don't want Warner anymore...and that Deke is their only shot left at the big-time.

Deke, who has been resistant of the duo's efforts, agrees to join their traveling show after Glenda arranges to have him fired from his job. One day, while in a malt shop, Deke is approached by Wayne (Ken Becker), a young punk trying to get him to sing for his date. When his request is gently rebuffed by Deke's friend Skeeter, Wayne shoves him to the floor. To keep peace, Deke agrees to sing, drawing the applause of the patrons. When he finishes, he asks Wayne what he does for a living. Wayne tells Deke he works in automotive accessories with his father. Deke tells Wayne that he gets paid to sing, and he feels that Wayne should properly pay him by putting a new set of seatcovers on his car. Wayne asks him what color he wants, figuring yellow as his color of choice. Enraged at the implication that he's a coward, Deke viciously beats Wayne until he passes out slumped on the jukebox. However, Deke is not charged by police in the incident.

Romantic complications arise as Susan (Dolores Hart), another singer in the group, offers him devoted admiration as Glenda leads him on with promises of a golden future. However, Deke has major trust issues. He sees his singing as a hobby, and not a future, resisting Glenda's efforts to bring him forward, such as pandering to audiences. Glenda desperately tries to get close to him but to no avail. Fed up with what he feels are constant efforts by others to use him, Deke drives off one day, missing a gig.

Upset with what she feels was a careless abandonment, Glenda finally learns the truth when Deke takes her to a small burial ground one evening, after she demands an explanation for the missed gig. They come upon a stone bearing little more than the name "Deke Rivers", but the implication is clear...the real Deke Rivers was a lonely drifter buried by his friends, showing parallels between the two. Deke reveals to Glenda that he was brought up in an orphanage for most of his childhood, and that his real name is Jimmy Tompkins. He goes on to tell her that never having experienced the love of a family, he made a decision to break out one day and make it on his own. He happened on the gravestone, and said that he became Deke Rivers there, "burying" Jimmy Tompkins at the site.

Weeping at the depth of Deke's sad past, Glenda tells him that it's time for him to grow up and stop running away, and that his role in the show is the closest he will likely ever come to family. She reveals that she had him fired because she truly believed in him...something he's never really known. Hearing the truth in her words, Deke agrees to return to the show, which grows in popularity due to Deke's success.

Soundtrack

Untitled

Loving You is the third album by Elvis Presley, issued on RCA Victor Records in mono, LPM 1515, in July 1957. The exact release date, listed as July 1, is unconfirmed. It contains a combination of songs recorded for the film and previously released items, and recording sessions took place on January 15 through January 18 at the Paramount Pictures Scoring Stage, and on January 12, January 13, January 19, February 23, and February 24 at Radio Recorders in Hollywood. These are the first sessions where Steve Sholes is officially listed as producer. It spent ten weeks at #1 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart.

The soundtrack includes five songs composed expressly for the movie, from the writers providing stock for the Colonel's publishing company, Hill and Range. Mostly functional as per the requirements of any musical, in this case they give Presley numbers to perform during the film. A sixth song intended for but not appearing in the movie, "Don't Leave Me Now", was included on the album; a re-recording would appear on the EP with the soundtrack songs for his next film, Jailhouse Rock.

The previously released material comprises three songs from the EP Just For You, and both sides the single taken from the soundtrack, Presley's #1 hit "(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear" backed with the film's title track, "Loving You". Producer Hal Wallis liked "Teddy Bear" so much that he insisted it be included in the movie.[1] The swing era favorite "Blueberry Hill", covered by many had been recently a big hit for Fats Domino in 1956, and "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You ?", had been done previously by the Sons of the Pioneers as well as Bing Crosby with The Andrews Sisters. Cole Porter's last great standard, "True Love", written for the 1956 musical film High Society, also made the album, either to feature a straightforward romantic song, or to give Presley and The Jordanaires an excuse for some close harmony singing.

The practice of RCA augmenting soundtrack recordings with extra songs from non-soundtrack studio sessions to bring up the running time of the LP to acceptable lengths would become a commonplace occurrence with Presley soundtracks through the 1960s.

The album was reisued for compact disc in an expanded edition on April 15, 1997, appending eight tracks to the original album. All tracks derive from the same sessions, with three alternate takes, the remaining track from the Just For You EP, three single sides including "Tell Me Why" which would wait almost nine years to be released, and a remake of the Sun master "When It Rains It Really Pours" also released much later, on the 1965 LP Elvis for Everyone. On January 11, 2005, Sony BMG reissued the album again, remastered using DSD technology with the six bonus tracks appended in standard fashion. A two-disc set was released on the Follow That Dream collectors label on January 12, 2006, with the bonus tracks and numerous additional takes.

Personnel

Track listing

Chart positions for singles taken from the Billboard Pop Singles chart; for albums from the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart; for EPA 4041 from the newly inaugurated 1957 EP chart

Side One

Track Recorded Catalogue Release Date Chart Peak Song Title Writer(s) Time
1. 1/13/57 Mean Woman Blues Claude Demetrius 2:15
2. 1/24/57 47-7000 7/11/57 #1 (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear Kal Mann and Bernie Lowe 1:45
3. 2/24/57 47-7000b 7/11/57 #28 Loving You Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller 2:12
4. 1/12/57 Got a Lot o' Livin' to Do Aaron Schroeder and Ben Weisman 2:31
5. 1/15-18/57 Lonesome Cowboy Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennett 3:07
6. 1/15-18/57 Hot Dog Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller 1:17

Side Two

Track Recorded Original EP Issue Catalogue Release Date Chart Peak Song Title Writer(s) Time
1. 1/22/57 Party Jessie Mae Robinson 1:26
2. 1/19/57 Just For You EPA 4041 4/57 #2 Blueberry Hill Vincent Rose, Al Lewis, Larry Stock 2:39
3. 2/23/57 True Love Cole Porter 2:05
4. 2/23/57 Don't Leave Me Now Aaron Schroeder and Ben Weisman 1:58
5. 1/19/57 Just For You EPA 4041 4/57 #2 Have I Told You Lately That I Love You? Johnny Russell and Scott Wiseman 2:31
6. 2/23/57 Just For You EPA 4041 4/57 #2 I Need You So Ivory Joe Hunter 2:37

1997 and 2005 Reissue Bonus Tracks

Track Recorded Original LP/EP Issue Catalogue Release Date Chart Peak Song Title Writer(s) Time
1. 1/12/57 47-8740 12/3/65 #33 Tell Me Why Titus Turner 2:05
2. 1/19/57 Just For You EPA 4041 4/57 #16 Is It So Strange Faron Young 2:28
3. 2/23/57 47-7410 10/21/58 #4 One Night Dave Bartholomew, Pearl King, Anita Steiman 2:29
4. 2/24/57 Elvis for Everyone LSP 3450 8/10/65 #10 When It Rains It Really Pours William Emerson 1:47
5. 2/23/57 47-7150b 1/7/58 #8 I Beg of You Rose Marie McCoy and Cliff Owens 1:50
6. 1/22/57 previously unreleased Party (alternate) Jessie Mae Robinson 1:07
7. 2/24/57 The King of Rock 'n' Roll RCA 66050-2 6/23/92 #159 Loving You (alternate) Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller 1:25
8. 1/12/57 previously unreleased Got A Lot O' Livin' to Do (alternate) Aaron Schroeder and Ben Weisman 1:20

2006 Follow That Dream Track Listing

Disc One

  1. "Mean Woman Blues"
  2. "(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear"
  3. "Loving You"
  4. "Got a Lot O' Livin' to Do"
  5. "Lonesome Cowboy"
  6. "Hot Dog"
  7. "Party"
  8. "Blueberry Hill"
  9. "True Love"
  10. "Don't Leave Me Now"
  11. "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You"
  12. "I Need You So"
  13. "One Night"
  14. "I Beg of You"
  15. "All Shook Up" (with Elvis' count-in)
  16. "That's When Your Heartaches Begin"
  17. "Tell Me Why"
  18. "Is It So Strange"
  19. "When It Rains, It Really Pours"
  20. "One Night (Of Sin)" (Alternate Version with Original Lyrics)
  21. "I Beg Of You" (Alternative Take)
  22. "Loving You" (End Version)
  23. "Party" (Alternate Master)
  24. "Loving You" (Main Version)
  25. "Loving You" (Farm Version)
  26. "Got A Lot O' Livin´ To Do!" (Finale)
  27. "Mean Woman Blues" (Version)
  28. "Loving You" (Main Version - Alternate)
  29. "Loving You" (Farm Version - Alternate)
  30. "Blueberry Hill" (From Acetate)
  31. "Got A Lot O' Livin' To Do!" (Main Version - From Acetate)

Disc Two: The February 14th Session

  • Loving You (Takes 1 - 12; Mono 'Farm Scene' Version)
  • Loving You (Takes 13 - 34; Mono Main Version)
  • Loving You (Takes 35 - 50)
  • Loving You (Takes 1 - 15; Binaural Main Version Takes)

Note

  1. ^ Guralnick, Peter. The King of Rock 'n' Roll: The Complete 50s Masters, 1992, insert booklet, p. 34.

References

  • Jorgenson, Ernst (1998). Elvis Presley: A Life In Music - The Complete Recording Sessions. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-18572-3
  • Loving You Special Edition FTD CD Information: http://shop.elvis.com.au/prod1295.htm
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