Dolores Fuller, Elvis 60´s movie songwriter!.

[Mike Windgren]

Hi there!! .

..

Dolores Agnes Fuller (March 10, 1923 – May 9, 2011), was an American actress and songwriter, best known as the one-time girlfriend of the low-budget film director Ed Wood.


Dolores Fuller.

Dolores Fuller was part of one of the most prolific Hollywood composers team (Fuller, Wayne & Weisman) that wrote songs for Elvis movies in the 60´s .


Sid Wayne, Elvis & Ben Weisman.

She co-wrote 12 songs for 10 different Elvis movies plus 1 studio album (Love Letters From Elvis):

-Rock-A-Hula Baby" (from the film Blue Hawaii, 1961)
-I Got Lucky" (from the film Kid Galahad, 1962)
-Steppin' Out of Line" (unused track from the Blue Hawaii sessions, first released on 1962 album Pot Luck)
-You Can't Say No in Acapulco" (from the film Fun in Acapulco, 1963)
-Beyond the Bend" (from the film It Happened at the World's Fair, 1963)
-Barefoot Ballad" (from the film Kissin' Cousins, 1964)
-Big Love, Big Heartache" (from the film Roustabout, 1964)
-Do the Clam" (from the film Girl Happy, 1965)
-Spinout" (from the film Spinout, 1966)
-I'll Take Love" (from the film Easy Come, Easy Go, 1967)
-Have a Happy" (from the film Change of Habit, 1969)
-Cindy, Cindy" (Love Letters from Elvis, 1971 studio album)


Super rare Fan Club cd release of Elvis Sings Dolores Fuller. Front cover. Released in 1997.


Super rare Fan Club cd release of Elvis Sings Dolores Fuller. Back cover. Released in 1997.

Recently on eBay, there was a picture of her for auction together with the original lyrics of the song: Do The Clam. It failed to sell....

P.S: Lyrics sheet looks fake!.


Do The Clam: Words and music by Dolores Fuller, Sid Wayne, and Ben Weisman.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/381120087799?ssPageName=STRK:MESINDXX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1436.l2649.


Do The Clam/You´ll Be Gone. RCA Victor 47-8500. Released in February 1965.

P.J.Proby was hired by Dolores Fuller to record many demos songs to be submitted for Elvis movies.


P.J.Proby.

..

..

P.J. Proby did many demos for songwriters Ben Weisman & Sid Wayne in the early 1960's. Also for Ruth Batchelor. Altogether about 25. A few have been released. The rest will one day also be out on cd but such a lot of detailed work (with copyright probs) needs to be done before they are legally free.It takes years to trace who worked on them & if they're still alive. Only a few of the 25 songs were actually chosen to be in any of those movies. Chosen or not they were still great songs!

Rumored demo records made by P.J.Proby for Elvis:

-King Of The Whole Wide World                              
-Riding The Rainbow                                    
-I Got Lucky
-Because Of Love                                          
-Thanks To The Rolling Sea                                  
-Happy Ending
-Echoes Of Love                                          
-It’s Carnival Time

Recently the bootleggers released a 5 cd book set: SILVER SCREEN TREASURES 1962-1965 Vol 1, which includes dozen of demos recordings written by Dolores Fuller for Elvis movies .



Beside writing for Elvis, she created her own record Company (Dee Dee Records) and launched the careers of Johnny Rivers & Tanya Tucker.


Johnny Rivers.

Elvis & Johnny Rivers were friends in Hollywood in the early 60´s.


Elvis & Johnny Rivers.

Elvis left the studio very pleased with the results, but “Memphis” was never released as a single – and Johnny Rivers was the reason. He and Elvis had jammed together on the song back in Bel Air. Rivers liked it so much he incorporated it into his repertoire at the Whiskey. In May 1964 a live version of the song hit the market and quickly went to #2 on the charts. That killed any chance of “Memphis” ever being an Elvis single......

Tanya Tucker.

Enjoy!. Bye for now .

Sources: http://www.thebluegrassspecial.com/archive/2011/june2011/dolores-fuller-obit.html / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolores_Fuller / http://www.pjproby.net/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1321829401/0 / http://www.elvis-history-blog.com/elvis-johnny-rivers.html / http://www.elvisblog.net/2007/05/06/elvis-and-johnny-rivers/ / http://elvispresleyphotos.com/cars-motorcycles.html

[drjohncarpenter]

Nice remembrance.

Not the finest songs Elvis ever recorded, but at least the best of them had a light, sweet feel, such as "I Got Lucky." And there are some who even claim "Do The Clam was a number one smash for The King in Japan back in '65."

[TeddyGirl]

Nice remembrance.

Not the finest songs Elvis ever recorded, but at least the best of them had a light, sweet feel, such as "I Got Lucky." And there are some who even claim "Do The Clam was a number one smash for The King in Japan back in '65."

Number 1 in Japan, Malaysia and Singapore

[TINML]

I know her as she was portrayed in the film Ed Wood, small world huh?

[Juan Luis]

Thank you Mike!

[westofmemphis]

P.J. Proby did many demos for songwriters Ben Weisman & Sid Wayne in the early 1960's. Also for Ruth Batchelor. Altogether about 25. A few have been released. The rest will one day also be out on cd but such a lot of detailed work (with copyright probs) needs to be done before they are legally free.It takes years to trace who worked on them & if they're still alive. Only a few of the 25 songs were actually chosen to be in any of those movies. Chosen or not they were still great songs!

Rumored demo records made by P.J.Proby for Elvis:

-King Of The Whole Wide World                              
-Riding The Rainbow                                    
-I Got Lucky
-Because Of Love                                          
-Thanks To The Rolling Sea                                  
-Happy Ending
-Echoes Of Love                                          
-It’s Carnival Time

In Ken Sharp's book Elvis Presley Writing For The King, Dolores Fuller said:

When I wrote songs for Elvis Hill & Range paid for our demos. On the demos that Ben (Weisman), Fred (Wise) and I did, we used Glen Campbell to sing them. He was doing that type of work at the time. This was before Glen made it.

[california boy]

Hi there!! .

..

Dolores Agnes Fuller (March 10, 1923 – May 9, 2011), was an American actress and songwriter, best known as the one-time girlfriend of the low-budget film director Ed Wood.


Dolores Fuller.

Dolores Fuller was part of one of the most prolific Hollywood composers team (Fuller, Wayne & Weisman) that wrote songs for Elvis movies in the 60´s .


Sid Wayne, Elvis & Ben Weisman.

She co-wrote 12 songs for 10 different Elvis movies plus 1 studio album (Love Letters From Elvis):

-Rock-A-Hula Baby" (from the film Blue Hawaii, 1961)
-I Got Lucky" (from the film Kid Galahad, 1962)
-Steppin' Out of Line" (unused track from the Blue Hawaii sessions, first released on 1962 album Pot Luck)
-You Can't Say No in Acapulco" (from the film Fun in Acapulco, 1963)
-Beyond the Bend" (from the film It Happened at the World's Fair, 1963)
-Barefoot Ballad" (from the film Kissin' Cousins, 1964)
-Big Love, Big Heartache" (from the film Roustabout, 1964)
-Do the Clam" (from the film Girl Happy, 1965)
-Spinout" (from the film Spinout, 1966)
-I'll Take Love" (from the film Easy Come, Easy Go, 1967)
-Have a Happy" (from the film Change of Habit, 1969)
-Cindy, Cindy" (Love Letters from Elvis, 1971 studio album)


Super rare Fan Club cd release of Elvis Sings Dolores Fuller. Front cover. Released in 1997.


Super rare Fan Club cd release of Elvis Sings Dolores Fuller. Back cover. Released in 1997.

Recently on eBay, there was a picture of her for auction together with the original lyrics of the song: Do The Clam. It failed to sell....

P.S: Lyrics sheet looks fake!.


Do The Clam: Words and music by Dolores Fuller, Sid Wayne, and Ben Weisman.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/381120087799?ssPageName=STRK:MESINDXX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1436.l2649.


Do The Clam/You´ll Be Gone. RCA Victor 47-8500. Released in February 1965.

P.J.Proby was hired by Dolores Fuller to record many demos songs to be submitted for Elvis movies.


P.J.Proby.

..

..

P.J. Proby did many demos for songwriters Ben Weisman & Sid Wayne in the early 1960's. Also for Ruth Batchelor. Altogether about 25. A few have been released. The rest will one day also be out on cd but such a lot of detailed work (with copyright probs) needs to be done before they are legally free.It takes years to trace who worked on them & if they're still alive. Only a few of the 25 songs were actually chosen to be in any of those movies. Chosen or not they were still great songs!

Rumored demo records made by P.J.Proby for Elvis:

-King Of The Whole Wide World                              
-Riding The Rainbow                                    
-I Got Lucky
-Because Of Love                                          
-Thanks To The Rolling Sea                                  
-Happy Ending
-Echoes Of Love                                          
-It’s Carnival Time

Recently the bootleggers released a 5 cd book set: SILVER SCREEN TREASURES 1962-1965 Vol 1, which includes dozen of demos recordings written by Dolores Fuller for Elvis movies .



Beside writing for Elvis, she created her own record Company (Dee Dee Records) and launched the careers of Johnny Rivers & Tanya Tucker.


Johnny Rivers.

Elvis & Johnny Rivers were friends in Hollywood in the early 60´s.


Elvis & Johnny Rivers.

Elvis left the studio very pleased with the results, but “Memphis” was never released as a single – and Johnny Rivers was the reason. He and Elvis had jammed together on the song back in Bel Air. Rivers liked it so much he incorporated it into his repertoire at the Whiskey. In May 1964 a live version of the song hit the market and quickly went to #2 on the charts. That killed any chance of “Memphis” ever being an Elvis single......

Tanya Tucker.

Enjoy!. Bye for now .

Sources: http://www.thebluegrassspecial.com/archive/2011/june2011/dolores-fuller-obit.html / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolores_Fuller / http://www.pjproby.net/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1321829401/0 / http://www.elvis-history-blog.com/elvis-johnny-rivers.html / http://www.elvisblog.net/2007/05/06/elvis-and-johnny-rivers/ / http://elvispresleyphotos.com/cars-motorcycles.html

Thank you Mike for that

[MikeFromHolland]

.

Fantastic thread Mike! Thank you very much.




This book is to be recommended:

A Fuller Life: Hollywood, Ed Wood, and Me Paperback – September 17, 2016 (written in 2008)

For people familiar with Dolores Fuller only through her work and professional association with notorious 1950s film director Edward D. Wood, Jr., Hollywood, Ed Wood, and Me (A Fuller Life) will provide readers with a surprising revelation: throughout her career, Dolores has proven her talent and versatility in numerous facets of the entertainment industry. From fashion model, dancer, and actress to renowned songwriter and talent manager, she has done it all. In her autobiography, Dolores speaks honestly and with candor about her many triumphs, professional disappointments, and personal tragedies she has endured. Her remarkable story takes you on an unforgettable journey through her virtual partnership with Ed Wood during the making of his early films; her painful discovery of Wood's transvestitism; their eventual break-up; her songwriting for Elvis Presley; her discovery and nurturing of Johnny Rivers; and her heart-breaking experience with Tanya Tucker. Finally, Dolores reveals her true feelings towards Sarah Jessica Parker's unflattering performance of her in Tim Burton's Ed Wood (1994). Filled with fascinating and humorous anecdotes about the many famous people she has known throughout her long career, Dolores' autobiography reveals the informative and highly entertaining story of her fuller life.
https://www.amazon.com/Fuller-Life-Hollywood-Ed-Wood/dp/1593933045

.

[drjohncarpenter]

Nice remembrance.

Not the finest songs Elvis ever recorded, but at least the best of them had a light, sweet feel, such as "I Got Lucky." And there are some who even claim "Do The Clam was a number one smash for The King in Japan back in '65."

Number 1 in Japan, Malaysia and Singapore

Don't think so.

[TeddyGirl]

Nice remembrance.

Not the finest songs Elvis ever recorded, but at least the best of them had a light, sweet feel, such as "I Got Lucky." And there are some who even claim "Do The Clam was a number one smash for The King in Japan back in '65."

Number 1 in Japan, Malaysia and Singapore

Don't think so.

http://www.elvis-express.com/elvisradio_ukworldepsing.html

[drjohncarpenter]

Nice remembrance.

Not the finest songs Elvis ever recorded, but at least the best of them had a light, sweet feel, such as "I Got Lucky." And there are some who even claim "Do The Clam was a number one smash for The King in Japan back in '65."

Number 1 in Japan, Malaysia and Singapore

Don't think so.

http://www.elvis-express.com/elvisradio_ukworldepsing.html

Nice page, no sources on it, thus the statements are unverifiable, most especially for "Do The Clam."

[TJ]

The Billboard archives tell us that "Do the Clam" did indeed top the charts in at least two of those countries and did well in others. Dates given below refer to the Billboard issue that the info appeared in:

#1 - Malaysia (May 29, 1965)
#1 - Singapore (July 10, 1965)
#3 - Hong Kong (April 17, 1965)
#3 - Philippines (Jul 24, 1965).

The only mention of Japan that I could see was in the Jul 24, 1965 issue, which noted that the song was at #8. It seemed to drop out of the top ten after that. The Japanese chart might be slightly confusing though as it seems there wasn't an official public chart until 1967. The previous chart was made available to retailers, etc and I don't know whether that was what Billboard reported on. The #1 claim might relate to a different chart.

[Elton]

Thanks Mike for the extra info on the book from Dolores Fuller!

[drjohncarpenter]

The Billboard archives tell us that "Do the Clam" did indeed top the charts in at least two of those countries and did well in others. Dates given below refer to the Billboard issue that the info appeared in:

#1 - Malaysia (May 29, 1965)
#1 - Singapore (July 10, 1965)
#3 - Hong Kong (April 17, 1965)
#3 - Philippines (Jul 24, 1965).

The only mention of Japan that I could see was in the Jul 24, 1965 issue, which noted that the song was at #8. It seemed to drop out of the top ten after that. The Japanese chart might be slightly confusing though as it seems there wasn't an official public chart until 1967. The previous chart was made available to retailers, etc and I don't know whether that was what Billboard reported on. The #1 claim might relate to a different chart.

Looks like there ain't no way "Do The Clam was a number one smash for The King in Japan back in '65."

[jeanno]

The only sure thing about DO THE CLAM in 1965 is it was Elvis' worst release and most stupid recording to that point.

[TeddyGirl]

Nice remembrance.

Not the finest songs Elvis ever recorded, but at least the best of them had a light, sweet feel, such as "I Got Lucky." And there are some who even claim "Do The Clam was a number one smash for The King in Japan back in '65."

Number 1 in Japan, Malaysia and Singapore

Don't think so.

So now you stand two thirds corrected?

[brian]

No offense to Dolores Fuller but Elvis should never have been recording songs by her.

[MikeFromHolland]

No offense to Dolores Fuller but Elvis should never have been recording songs by her.

You know which songs Sid Wayne & Ben Weisman wrote without her, don't you?

.

[brian]

You know which songs Sid Wayne & Ben Weisman wrote without her, don't you?

I didn't mention them because the thread isn't about them.

[MikeFromHolland]

You know which songs Sid Wayne & Ben Weisman wrote without her, don't you?

I didn't mention them because the thread isn't about them.

Well, in that case I can tell you: most were worse

.

[colonel snow]

As stated the lyrics-sheet for Do the clam is fake; here is an lyrics-sheet by Dolores Fuller for the song I never had it so good (rejected song for the movie Roustabout.


colonel snow

[drjohncarpenter]

As stated the lyrics-sheet for Do the clam is fake; here is an lyrics-sheet by Dolores Fuller for the song I never had it so good (rejected song for the movie Roustabout.


colonel snow

Interesting. We also know that the Tepper and Bennett team also submitted a song with the same title.

But which one got approved by management and pressed to acetate for Elvis to consider?

[King Volcano]

I know her as she was portrayed in the film Ed Wood, small world huh?

That's a great movie, one of my all-time favourites.

Poor Johnny Rivers in that photo Mike posted, his motorcycle looks so crappy there next to Elvis' mean machine !

[drjohncarpenter]

You know, I always thought her name was Mulva Fuller.

[TINML]

You know, I always thought her name was Mulva Fuller.

And the actress that played Mulva in that episode played Priscilla Presley in Elvis & Me