Customer Reviews

Spinout / Double Trouble

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In 1966, Presley's career was heading towards its nadir. But, a full blown artistic and commercial resurrection was only two years away and you can hear a hint of it's beginnings on the best tracks here.

Perhaps inspired by the committment he made in some recent studio sessions Elvis really gets it up here. He and the band, led by the legendary drummer Hal Blaine, rip off some joyful energetic performances. Things begin with a sexy rocker, "Stop,Look and Listen" that Elvis and the band take at a crash and burn tempo. Elvis' growl leading into the final verse is alone worth the price of the album. From there they transform a couple of mediocre tunes,"Adam and Evil", and "Spinout", into first rate rock n' roll. The best song Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman's "Never Say Yes" features Elvis packing in as much innuendo as he possibly can. Things are topped out with the joyful pop blues "I'll be back".

Unfortunately, the rest of the soundtrack features schlocky ballads and stupid novelties. Worse, the Double Trouble soundtrack has almost no worthwhile tracks, except maybe "City By Night".

It might be worth a serious fan's time to seek out the original vinyl version of Spinout that contained not only the tracks mentioned above but also three fine studio songs that include an excellent interpretation of Bob Dylan's "Tommorrow Is a Long Time". For Cd fans even this skimpy soundtrack proves that given decent material and some inspiration Elvis could be great at any time in his career.

You can tell Elvis is losing interest in acting and singing by the time you get to "Spinout" and "Double Trouble". There are a few gems on both soundtracks.

On "Spinout" the title track is a mild rocker, along with "Adam And Evil" and "Stop, Look And Listen". The ballads "Am I Ready" and "All That I Am" are both very good, but after that you have trouble finding a decent song.

On "Double Trouble", there are some pretty decent fast-paced songs in "Long Legged Girl", "Baby If You'll Give Me All Of Your Love" and even "Double Trouble", but you can tell most of the music isn't very inspired. "Could I Fall In Love" is a sappy ballad that is halfway OK, but I couldn't recommend much else. I can say that I can never sing the traditional "Old MacDonald" ever again after growing up listening to Elvis' comedic version on this album. It may be goofy, but it sure is unforgettable, catchy and funny!

When Elvis hung out with the Beatles in 1965, John Lennon was reported as saying to Elvis "When are you gonna do another Rock and Roll record? When you do, we'll buy that one". Though it would be a few more years till Elvis did just that, there's definitely more rock and roll going on in the "Spinout" soundtrack than any other Elvis soundtrack album from the 60's.

Recorded in that glorious summer of 1966 (the Beatles "Revolver, Beach Boys "Pet Sounds, Dylan's "Blonde on Blonde") "Spinout" is obviously not a great artistic statement by any means. Fans looking for that from Elvis during this time period should purchase the excellent "How Great Thou Art".

What "Spinout" DOES have is more fun, spirit, vibe and yes, rock and roll, to be found on any Elvis soundtrack record since the 1950's. Elvis sounds like he's having fun, and the band does too.

This record has a very "live" feel to it. From the opening track "Stop, Look and Listen", the drums are live and lively sounding, the bass booms, the guitars are groovy, and the vocals sound looser and more rock and roll than anything he'd done in some time. The production is also unusually good for an Elvis soundtrack album. Many of them sound pretty flat acoustically, whereas "Spinout" seems very bright, clear and powerful.

Sure the songs are a bit on the silly side lyrically, but the enthusiasm in the performances is what makes "Spinout" a great album. A good example here would be "Beach Shack" - an above average Elvis movie song, with pretty inane lyrics, is elevated to greatness just through the atmosphere of fun and the quality performances by Elvis and the band.

I own all of the Elvis soundtracks and "Spinout" is by far and away the best and most consistent listen.

The "Double Trouble" album, on the other hand, is back to business as usual. The production and sound quality aren't much to speak of and though there are a few good rockers on here - "Long Legged Girl with the Short Dress On" and "Double Trouble", most of the songs are more of the usual standard Elvis movie track variety. "Double Trouble" has the honor of containing two of the absolute best/worst Elvis movie songs: "Old MacDonald" and "I Love Only One Girl". These must be heard to be believed.

All in all, this is my favorite of the Double Feature reissue series. I recommend this as a great starting point for someone who's interested in checking out the better aspects of the 1960's Elvis soundtrack albums.

This is a great soundtrack to a good film. If you havent seen the film then the soundtrack wont mean very much to you, and to enjoy this album to it maximum you have to be a great fan of Elvis, this soundtrack is not for the part time elvis fan, its for the experienced elvis fans and collectors!

As is the case with most of Elvis Presley's '60's soundtracks, the two here run the gamut from the great to the insipid. "Spinout" is easily the better of the two; here at least some interesting rock n' roll is featured, although by 1966 standards (the same year as "Revolver" and "Pet Sounds") it's fairly retro. 'Stop Look And Listen', 'Spinout' and 'Never Say Yes' are still good enough to rank up with the best of his '60's movie songs and Elvis doesn't seem as bored with these tracks as he does on the lamer cuts like 'Beach Shack' and 'Smorgasbord'. The ballads are typically good; 'Am I Ready' and, especially, 'All That I Am' are actually quite memorable. "Double Trouble" doesn't fare as well. The sound quality is pretty laughable (but still better than "Easy Come Easy Go") and the songs themselves are mostly horrific. The only really decent cuts are 'City By Night', 'Long Legged Girl' and the ballad 'Could I Fall In Love'. Otherwise...not much here of interest to anyone outside of his rabid fan base. Who in the world suggested Elvis do 'Old MacDonald's Farm'?? All in all, both soundtracks are still much better than the films that spawned them, but thats not saying much.

it doesn't make a hoot what chart position a cd or single makes.good music is good music and this is good happy music.carefree and easy to listen to ,not deep and political or full of social statements.charts can be manipulated any way the media wants and at this time in ELVIS career the media was pushing english bands.so listen to the music and enjoy.Elvis was Elvis and he did not conform to the music that the media thought he should be making.That is what made him THE KING!

This Cd includes two of Elvis' less than stellar movie soundtracks, 1966's Spinout and 1967's Double Trouble. Spinout peaked at 18 on the US album chart while Double Trouble only managed to climb to 47. Three songs made the US singles chart, Spinout just made the top 40 while its flip side All That I Am just missed it peaking at 41. Long Legged Girl was a minor hit reaching 63. While the material is not that good, Elvis' performances are. Still this is recommended only for avid Elvis fans.

This CD consists of two Elvis soundtracks from 1966 and 1967. Elvis' career hadn't quite hit bottom at this point, but it was about to. He wasn't exactly getting prime material for his soundtracks, and it shows here. With the exception of "All That I Am", Spinout doesn't really have any good songs on it. But at least "Stop, Look and Listen", "Adam and Evil", "Never Say Yes" and "Spinout" are fun, in a dumb kind of way. On the other hand, "Beach Shack" and "Smorgasbord" are just flat out awful. As for Double Trouble, it's even worse. The only song here that is the least bit intriguing is "Long Legged Girl". Everything else is terrible, especially "Old McDonald" and "I Love Only One Girl". This CD is for Elvis completists only.

Despite what the critics say, there were groovy tunes even on Presley's most dismissable '60s fluff pieces, and this package has plenty of them. Along with some things I wish I never heard.

"Spinout" has a more contemporary sound than say, "Girl Happy" or "Roustabout", and perhaps with new co-worker/Evis fan Felton Jarvis on hand, we have a strong clue as to why Elvis sings *out* on the songs - there's something of that '50s Big El feel on the uptempos. The opener is called "Stop, Look, and Listen", and was a kind of "lost" hit for EP, as it found it's wway to Bill Haley and Ricky Nelson pressings.

"Adam and Evil" has a great baritone rumble from the amazing voice box - better watched as a production number, though.

"Am I Ready?" is a pure formula valentine, but Elvis' nuanced, gentle approach makes the light lyric work. This was in the "I Will" (McCartney, '68) genre, and should be recognized as worthwhile.

Of the embarrassments, well, the music keeps 'em afloat, for example, the impossible medium tempo "Smorgasboard" has some subtle temp changes and nifty gitbox effects. "Beach Shack" has Latin music attributes and it flows, but, again, the lyrics...wo!

"I'll Be Back" is an unofficial Charlie Hodge "head" arrangement, as he apparently recalled the 4/4 of "Money Honey" and applied it to this closing movie number. Another nice production number, as well.

If "Old MacDonald" was not used on the next soundtrack here, "Double Trouble", it may have brought my review to a clean *4*. Apparently against Elvis' wishes, the number was pressed. Pointis, the rest of the soundtrack is pretty darn good, even has some jazz entries like "City By Night" and "There's So Much World To See" (seems to be borrow a taste from a "Bye, Bye Birdie" opus).

The "Am I Ready?" ballad counterpart is "Could I Fall In Love?", a beautiful entry, written by Randi Starr. Elvis sings with himself, either in unison or in harmony, and any singer or songwriter would have to be impressed. Typically crying out for further development, but it succeeds.

Personal suggestion on "Double Trouble" tracks: listen only to the left channel (or the channel which has the rhythm section, not the backup sngers, as good as they are). It's a gas. (Wait, that expression belongs to "Spinout"...[pause]).

Simply Fantastic! I remember these on lp's during the 1960's Folks you can't go wrong on this CD Sound Is Super.