A Date with Elvis

A Date with Elvis is a compilation album by American singer and musician Elvis Presley, issued on RCA Victor Records (LPM 2011) in July 1959. The album compiled a selection of previously released material from multiple sessions at Sun, an August 1956 recording session at 20th Century Fox Stage One and two from Radio Recorders in Hollywood. The album reached #32 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart.

This article is about the Elvis Presley album. For the Cramps album, see A Date with Elvis (The Cramps album).
A Date with Elvis
Compilation album by
Elvis Presley
ReleasedJuly 24, 1959 (1959-07-24)
RecordedJune 1954 – April 1957
GenreRock and roll, rockabilly
Length22:58
LabelRCA Victor
ProducerSam Phillips (Sun recordings)
Steve Sholes (RCA recordings)
Elvis Presley chronology
For LP Fans Only
(1959)		 A Date with Elvis
(1959)		 Elvis' Gold Records - Volume 2
(1959)
Singles from A Date with Elvis
  1. "Good Rockin' Tonight"
    Released: September 22, 1954
  2. "Milkcow Blues Boogie"
    Released: January 8, 1955
  3. "Baby Let's Play House"
    Released: April 25, 1956
  4. "Young and Beautiful"
    Released: February 21, 1959[1]
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[2]
MusicHound[3]
Rough Guides[4]

Content

After Presley's induction into the army on March 24, 1958, RCA Victor 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 for rock 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 Victor wished to continue issuing albums by Presley given his sales record. Much of Presley's material had not been released on LP, and for this album RCA Victor collected material previously unavailable on album. Like its predecessor For LP Fans Only, this album featured tracks that had been issued on Sun Records with limited release, and were almost impossible to locate beyond certain parts of the south. However all 5 Sun singles were reissued by RCA Victor in November 1955 and remained in print through the 1970s. The remaining five tracks derived from three different EPs issued 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 Victor would squeeze one more album in 1959 out of previously issued material, the second hit 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.

Legacy

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

Reissues

RCA first reissued the original 10-track album on compact disc in 1989. The album is also available in the 2016 boxed set, Elvis Presley - The Complete RCA Album Collection.

Collective personnel

Track listing

Original release
Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Recording dateLength
1."Blue Moon of Kentucky"Bill MonroeJuly 7, 19542:02
2."Young And Beautiful"Aaron Schroeder, Abner SilverApril 30, 19572:02
3."(You're So Square) Baby I Don't Care"Jerry Leiber and Mike StollerApril 30, 19571:51
4."Milk Cow Blues Boogie"Kokomo ArnoldNovember 12, 19542:38
5."Baby Let's Play House"Arthur GunterFebruary 5, 19552:15
The Album Collection bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
15."Don't Leave Me Now (movie version)"2:05
16."Harbor Lights"2:36
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Recording dateLength
1."Good Rockin' Tonight"Roy BrownSeptember 10, 19542:12
2."Is It So Strange"Faron YoungJanuary 19, 19572:28
3."We're Gonna Move"Vera Matson, Elvis PresleyAugust 24, 19562:30
4."I Want To Be Free"Jerry Leiber and Mike StollerApril 30, 19572:12
5."I Forgot to Remember to Forget"Stan Kesler, Charlie FeathersJuly 11, 19552:28

UK, Australian and German reissue
No.TitleWriter(s)Recording dateLength
1."Blue Moon of Kentucky"Bill MonroeJuly 7, 19542:02
2."Milkcow Blues Boogie"Kokomo ArnoldNovember 12, 19542:38
3."Baby Let's Play House"Arthur GunterFebruary 5, 19552:15
4."I Don't Care if the Sun Don't Shine"Mack DavidSeptember 11, 19542:27
5."Tutti Frutti"Dorothy LaBostrie and Richard PennimanJanuary 31, 19561:58
6."I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You)"Howard Biggs and Joe ThomasJanuary 31, 19562:01
7."I Got a Woman"Ray Charles and Renald RichardJanuary 10, 19562:23
8."Good Rockin' Tonight"Roy BrownSeptember 11, 19542:12
9."Is It So Strange"Faron YoungJanuary 19, 19572:28
10."We're Gonna Move"Vera Matson and Elvis PresleyAugust 24, 19562:30
11."Blue Moon"Richard Rodgers and Lorenz HartAugust 19, 19542:31
12."Just Because"Sydney Robin, Bob Shelton, Joe SheltonSeptember 11, 19542:32
13."One-Sided Love Affair"Bill CampbellJanuary 30, 19562:09
14."Let Me"Vera Matson and Elvis PresleySeptember 4, 19562:08

Chart performance
Chart (1959) Peak
position
US Billboard 200 32
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References
  1. "Elvis Presley - Young And Beautiful". Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  2. Eder, Bruce. A Date with Elvis at AllMusic
  3. Graff, Gary; Durchholz, Daniel, eds. (1999). MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Farmington Hills, MI: Visible Ink Press. p. 892. ISBN 1-57859-061-2.
  4. Simpson, Paul (2004). The Rough Guide to Elvis. London: Rough Guides. p. 113. ISBN 1-84353-417-7.
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