Elvis: Power At The Box Office (1964 article)

[The fool]

Elvis: Power At The Box Office
by Bob Rolontz
Music Business, November 21, 1964

[drjohncarpenter]

As always, you post something well worth reading and looking at. Thank you for your latest share.

Music Business might well have been a PR shill for the movie studios, as Bob Rolontz's article reads like an extended ad for the new Paramount film, "Roustabout." The one striking part of the piece is his claim that "only a year and a half ago Elvis' picture career ... was on the downgrade" until the "blockbuster" releases of "Viva Las Vegas" and "Kissin' Cousins." So the decline was noted by some as early as the beginning of 1963. Interesting indeed!

Equally fascinating is that Bob Rolontz enjoyed a career as the founder of the Groove record label, producer of artists like Charles Mingus, editor at Billboard magazine, and a record executive for the Atlantic label. He passed away on June 14, 2000.

http://variety.com/2000/scene/people-news/bob-rolontz-1117796860/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groove_Records
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/bob-rolontz-mn0000474386/credits

Thanks again.

[The fool]

As always, you post something well worth reading and looking at. Thank you for your latest share.

You´re welcome. Roustabout was the last No. 1 album before Aloha. How come Roustabout went to No. 1 on the charts? I have never cared about that album. It´s one of the worst of Elvis´ career. So how is it possible that it went to number one?

[drjohncarpenter]

As always, you post something well worth reading and looking at. Thank you for your latest share.

You´re welcome. Roustabout was the last No. 1 album before Aloha. How come Roustabout went to No. 1 on the charts? I have never cared about that album. It´s one of the worst of Elvis´ career. So how is it possible that it went to number one?

The Roustabout LP may sit in the middle of the pack of 18 film soundtrack LPs, rather than near the bottom. But it is indeed only listenable for a handful of tracks. My suspicion is that the strong promotion for the holiday film release, coupled with the great and ongoing success of "Viva Las Vegas," helped fuel record sales. Had there been a soundtrack album for "Viva Las Vegas," I am certain it would have hit #1, and perhaps precluded the later disc from doing as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_Presley_albums_discography#Soundtracks

[poormadpeter2]

As always, you post something well worth reading and looking at. Thank you for your latest share.

Music Business might well have been a PR shill for the movie studios, as Bob Rolontz's article reads like an extended ad for the new Paramount film, "Roustabout." The one striking part of the piece is his claim that "only a year and a half ago Elvis' picture career ... was on the downgrade" until the "blockbuster" releases of "Viva Las Vegas" and "Kissin' Cousins." So the decline was noted by some as early as the beginning of 1963. Interesting indeed!

Equally fascinating is that Bob Rolontz enjoyed a career as the founder of the Groove record label, producer of artists like Charles Mingus, editor at Billboard magazine, and a record executive for the Atlantic label. He passed away on June 14, 2000.

http://variety.com/2000/scene/people-news/bob-rolontz-1117796860/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groove_Records
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/bob-rolontz-mn0000474386/credits

Thanks again.

It is highly unlikely that this would be a PR exercise for the movie studios, not least because it raves about Viva Las Vegas (and, to a lesser extent, Kissin' Cousins) as much as Roustabout - and they were made for different studios to Roustabout. So that makes no sense. As for the comments about downturn in business - the reviews for GGG and World's Fair were considerably weaker than those for the films which came directly before and directly after, with other critics commenting that Fun in Acapulco showed a marked improvement over them. However, the criticisms were generally aimed at the script rather than Elvis or the music.