A comment about the Double Trouble song

[jurasic1968]

Today I listened to the Double Trouble song and saw the movie once again. Maybe Elvis realized he was in trouble with his career back then in 1966. What do you think?

[eligain]

Today I listened to the Double Trouble song and saw the movie once again. Maybe Elvis realized he was in trouble with his career back then in 1966. What do you think?

I don’t know but, I’ve always liked the song. I really didn’t discover the song until I got the Elvis In Hollywood TV album in 1976. It’s a fun song to sing karaoke to.

[jetblack]

At least Elvis was back in the studio recording music he loved during May 1966 with the 'How Great Thou Art' sessions.

The 'Double Trouble' soundtrack sessions must have felt like a step backwards in June 1966 but there are still gems to be found for this listener. 'There's So Much World To See' and 'City By Night' work for me.


Andy

[brian]

Today I listened to the Double Trouble song and saw the movie once again. Maybe Elvis realized he was in trouble with his career back then in 1966. What do you think?

Oh I think maybe it's safe to say that. In 1956 Elvis was on top of the world recording Heartbreak Hotel and Don't be cruel. Those songs were topping the charts. Then 10 years later he's recording Double Trouble, Old Macdonald and Yoga is as yoga does. Yeah maybe Elvis realized his career wasn't going well at the time. Paul Newman was in Hombre and Cool Hand Luke but Elvis was in Double Trouble. Yeah maybe Elvis realized his acting career wasn't going that well.

[Walter Hale 4]

Today I listened to the Double Trouble song and saw the movie once again. Maybe Elvis realized he was in trouble with his career back then in 1966. What do you think?

well he only agreed to record the songs to fulfill his hollywood contracts and by that time, did not believe they would be hit material potential. But lets not forget, 1966 was also the year that Elvis would record "How Great Thou Art" and other sacred tracks where he ultimately would merit a grammy award in 1967.

As for the movie, I like "Double Trouble" watching it as it opens the movie as opposed to just playing and listening to it on CD. The film itself wasn't bad.

[ForeverElvis]

Today I listened to the Double Trouble song and saw the movie once again. Maybe Elvis realized he was in trouble with his career back then in 1966. What do you think?

Oh I think maybe it's safe to say that. In 1956 Elvis was on top of the world recording Heartbreak Hotel and Don't be cruel. Those songs were topping the charts. Then 10 years later he's recording Double Trouble, Old Macdonald and Yoga is as yoga does. Yeah maybe Elvis realized his career wasn't going well at the time. Paul Newman was in Hombre and Cool Hand Luke but Elvis was in Double Trouble. Yeah maybe Elvis realized his acting career wasn't going that well.

He’d have to have been an idiot not to know. It’s just unfortunate he felt powerless to change it. If only he’d confided in another actor or two about the business and how it worked. It might have prompted him to make a change. But, what if this, what if that….. will never really know because he didn’t.

[minkahed]

Today I listened to the Double Trouble song and saw the movie once again. Maybe Elvis realized he was in trouble with his career back then in 1966. What do you think?

Oh I think maybe it's safe to say that. In 1956 Elvis was on top of the world recording Heartbreak Hotel and Don't be cruel. Those songs were topping the charts. Then 10 years later he's recording Double Trouble, Old Macdonald and Yoga is as yoga does. Yeah maybe Elvis realized his career wasn't going well at the time. Paul Newman was in Hombre and Cool Hand Luke but Elvis was in Double Trouble. Yeah maybe Elvis realized his acting career wasn't going that well.

He’d have to have been an idiot not to know. It’s just unfortunate he felt powerless to change it. If only he’d confided in another actor or two about the business and how it worked. It might have prompted him to make a change. But, what if this, what if that….. will never really know because he didn’t.

Possibly the reason Elvis asked Steve Binder on what he thought of his career in 1968!?

“In the toilet”, pretty spot on.

[brian]

In general when a singer or an actors career is in a slump or in decline they know it. They can tell. Elvis knew his career was in a slump and wasn't going well before he made Double Trouble. Jurasic should know this. Jurasic's never watched any documentaries or read any books where this is talked about. This has been talked about a lot.

[jurasic1968]

Jurasic read a lot of books about Elvis, I'll tell you for sure. Two were written by Jerry Hopkins and Peter Guralnick, to name only these writers. And Jurasic watched many documentaries about Elvis. And he saw all of Elvis's films at least twice.

[colonel snow]

There are various rejected versions known:

1 – Double trouble
Version written by Gerald Nelson.

2 – Double trouble
Written by Giant-Baum-Kaye in 1966.
Version # 1 – rejected
Version # 2 – sung by Bill Giant but according to the label it’s a new version.

3 – Double trouble (Wayne-Weisman)
The demo version is sung by P J Proby but not used.


colonel snow

[bajo]

I have always wondered why the didn't record "proper" versions of the songs. Ok to shorten them for the move score, but for the soundtrack album, they could have made them longer. Even loop them. Girl Happy is one that really goes out of the park when it comes to cutting songs short! I've always dreamed of finding tapes that somehow could have restored some tracks, like they did with the Kissin' Cousins FTD. But, the overall impression of Elvis' later soundtrack recordings were only: Taking care of business! Take the money and run! Still, on the Double Trouble FTD you may find a nice little gem, imo: Could I Fall In Love (T.6):smt020
The title song somehow offers you something that never really takes off!

[Rockin_John]

Could I Fall In Love

[Yamaguchi.Y]

[Greystoke]

Today I listened to the Double Trouble song and saw the movie once again. Maybe Elvis realized he was in trouble with his career back then in 1966. What do you think?

I'm sure Elvis was aware of how his career was transpiring by this stage, then again, what did he expect?! Elvis was hardly making an effort to improve his fortunes in Hollywood, especially when lucrative new contracts were still being signed in 1966. He might have been frustrated about his career, and resigned to the notion that things weren't going to change for him. But at the very least he did make an effort to record new music in 1966. That was a step in the right direction.

Elvis had greater control over what he could record away from soundtrack material, and with sales on the decline, I think there was some realisation that he had to record better material. These sessions weren't likely to turn his career around, but I think Elvis needed something to stimulate his creativity by this time. And if he wasn't finding it in Hollywood, the recording studio was the place to be.

This said, Elvis wasn't at the nadir of his career in 1966, even though he was heading in that direction. Spinout was successful at the box office and its soundtrack album sold respectably well. However, Elvis's commercial fortunes and viability as a leading man and a recording artist took a sharp downturn in 1967. And he must have realised.

Unfortunately, Elvis didn't seem to know how to address challenges in his career that found him commercially in decline, and creatively out on a limb. Although I do think he channeled his energy wisely into making the How Great Thou Art album, and whilst there was an attempt to find better acting roles, this didn't result in much better films, and it certainly didn't restore Elvis's fortunes at the box office.

There's some interesting comments from Irwin Winkler, one of the producers on Double Trouble (along with Judd Bernard), about his experiences with Elvis, in his autobiography, "A Life In Music: Stories from 50 Years in Hollywood." In some respects, I think it rings true. And isn't dissimilar to what "yellowstone" recently posted with regards to Elvis and a small group of fans around him in the footage from 1975 from another topic.

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[Mike C]

Double Trouble is the last song written by both Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman that Elvis recorded.

[jurasic1968]

Right.

[TCB Band]

Greystoke, thanks for that information!! Very interesting and yet also sad and disappointing (for at least the information from the producer's memoir) at the same time.

MikeC, thanks for that interesting fun fact as well. Didn't they stop writing together shortly after this?

bajo, with regards to the length of this song in particular, maybe a saxophone solo could have extended it before another chorus (or prechorus/second half of verse --> chorus).

Does anyone know which one of the Jordanaires is providing the main harmony (vocal) part? Thanks in advance!!

[Greystoke]

Just an observation on something we've all seen, no doubt, but this quirky little image on some of the Double Trouble print advertisements is quite nice. Considering how banal and unexciting the publicity material was for this film. It's something that's very much akin to a comic strip, and once seen, it really stands out.

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[Mike C]

Love the LionPower Tag Line. Reminds me on this great promotional reel from 1967.



Here's the direct link to the Speedway Trailer. That's the legendary DJ Dan Ingram (then ruling afternoons at WABC AM in New York City) doing the voice over.

[Greystoke]

Love the LionPower Tag Line. Reminds me on this great promotional reel from 1967.



Here's the direct link to the Speedway Trailer. That's the legendary DJ Dan Ingram (then ruling afternoons at WABC AM in New York City) doing the voice over.

MGM found quite a catchy slogan with "Lionpower," and it was very prolific for their marketing campaigns in the late-sixties. That promotional reel is great.

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[Greystoke]

I'm sure this has been posted on previous topics with regards to Double Trouble, but I thought it was worth adding that some location work in Europe was specifically undertaken for this film, as opposed to using stock footage.

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Back at MGM, on what was known as "Copperfield Street" and "Copperfield Court," these areas of the backlot doubled for Belgium in both Double Trouble and The Singing Nun. This was also the location of Filby's Department Store in 1960's The Time Machine, amongst many other films. Which is the case for practically every film made on studio backlots. Backlots exist to be reused and re-dressed for different films. Copperfield Street and Copperfield Court were built for and named after the first film shot there, which was 1935's David Copperfield.

Outside of Filby's Department Store in The Time Machine.

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And the same street in Double Trouble.

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[Christopher Brown]

At the end of the trailer for MRS. BROWN YOU'VE GOT A LOVELY DAUGHTER at 13:37, there's a few bars of Nancy Sinatra's song from SPEEDWAY and a few bars of what sounds like SPEEDWAY to me. Love the photos above from THE TIME MACHINE. One of my favourite films I saw often as a kid, and still quite enjoy today.

[jurasic1968]

Agree.

[bajo]

Seeing this, I came to recall many a small clip within the movies where you could see Elvis really didn't want to be there. But, he was. He went to work and pulled it through! Can you imagine those scenes miming to a soundtrack, maybe not even liking the song you have to sing? Poor Elvis!

[jurasic1968]

It was just work. But with a lot of money.