On the same day Elvis invited the Beatles up to his home on 565 Perugia Way in Los Angeles, a most legendary rock 'n' roll event, an unusual column appeared in a local Michigan newspaper.
Fee-fi-fo Fiebig! The story appeared to be inspired by a showing of "Tickle Me" at the local theatre.
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Of course "Help!" was also selling tickets that long-ago summer.
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Sometimes, things happen for a reason.
Perhaps this little review can be called kismet!
FRANKLY FIEBIG
By JIM FIEBIG
(Times Herald Reporter)
The king began his reign a decade before the Beatles even dreamed of crawling out of the English woodwork.
Yea, before Ringo gnawed on his first drum stick, he was.
Elvis.
And after those English insects are robbed of their talent by some scissors-toting Delilah, Presley will still be gliding across the movie screen. But it won't be the same.
Drunken with unfounded nostalgia recently, I put on my blue suede shoes (Keep offa mah), buttoned down my collar, rolled the sleeves up twice and cut out for one of his new movies romantically entitled: "Tickle Me."
Elvis, you ain't nothin' but a hound dog any more. You're not cool. You're not even swell.
He used an echo chamber.
Hearing my old idol use an echo chamber for his songs is like discovering that Hoss Cartwright wears lifts.
It's having the invisible wire snap in the first act of Peter Pan. It was heartbreak hotel. But there's more. Elvis doesn't wiggle now. The only person to ever have his body banned in Boston never even twitched a hip.
Just a puppy-dog-eyed hairy mannequin that slurs.
As I walked dejectedly from the theatre, it happened. A guy stepped on my blue suede shoes.
The comedy in that review is that the music in Tickle Me was all really good quality Elvis music. UA, as I recall, was in serious trouble, so rather than commission new material, and recording sessions, they got permission to use previously recorded Elvis tracks, meaning we got to hear real Elvis music in a movie. I do get what he says though in that because of this, the recordings do sound different.
Elvis himself quotes Tickle Me as one of the movies he made that he felt had merit.
The comedy in that review is that the music in Tickle Me was all really good quality Elvis music. UA, as I recall, was in serious trouble, so rather than commission new material, and recording sessions, they got permission to use previously recorded Elvis tracks, meaning we got to hear real Elvis music in a movie. I do get what he says though in that because of this, the recordings do sound different.
Elvis himself quotes Tickle Me as one of the movies he made that he felt had merit.
Well, they were better than what was being submitted for his other soundtracks in that period, and certainly after.
A few months back I put together some "Tickle Me" information on another topic, including the audio and transcription of the interview where Presley gave the film a shout-out. Plus an amazing connection to another iconic production which debuted on TV in 1969 . . .
Always interesting to see how business decisions and profit margins affected what went on during Elvis' Hollywood slide in the mid-sixties.
But what was most interesting about "Tickle Me" was the fact that the songs heard were previously-issued studio creations, not from a soundtrack session. So the quality was a notch or two higher than what had been offered in the past few years. One song was taped on the Paramount soundstage for use in the film. There were even two tracks from Elvis Is Back! in the movie!
Elvis' co-star was the stunning Jocelyn Lane, perhaps second only to Ann-Margret in being his most charismatic film partner. She also did TV publicity for the film, which must've helped a bit with the box office.
Jocelyn Lane on "American Bandstand" (Syndicated, Saturday, July 17, 1965)
April and Nino, Duane Eddy and Jocelyn Lane are Dick Clark's special guests.
Disk jockey Kelly, of Minneapolis-St. Paul station KDWB, is Interviewed.
Songs are: "I'm Sweet On You," "Think of You," "Puddln'" and "Trash."
Also disagree about the idea Elvis lacked "conviction" when referencing "Tickle Me" in his 1972 MGM interview. He could've mentioned "Blue Hawaii" right off the bat if he was just searching for an example of a moneymaker. But he didn't. I transcribed the complete quote in another topic.
In a remarkable, private interview at MGM Studios in Culver City, "Elvis On Tour" co-director Bob Abel delved deeply into the singer's mediocre 1960s Hollywood career, and how it gave the impression Elvis did not care. Presley refutes this, and plainly details his private physical and emotional pain regarding his situation at that time.
Then Abel relates how his Hollywood impression of the singer completely changed when they met that year, and observing him on the concert stage. Yet, Elvis does stick up for some of his movie work before leaving the subject, and specifically cites "Tickle Me" as being "pure entertainment."
That's why when you get on stage, I think it's ...
It comes out.
It's honesty, it's real, it's, uh, it's you. I had, like I told you before, I had a completely different, different image of you until I met you, until I saw you in a live performance. And I think, uh, a lot of people do, they have an image like that.
Well, not, you know, not all the movies were, were that bad. I, I, uh, in-between I'd do something that, uh, was entertaining to people, it's just a pure entertainment nature, so, like "Tickle Me" or something like that, you know. They worked well on television.
A lot of people still watch them.
Yeah.
Best of all, the Allied Artists film was a major influence on the "Scooby-Doo" Saturday morning cartoon franchise, the movie apparently almost an exact template of the series, as created by Hanna-Barbera for CBS-TV in 1969.
Watch the film and then any of the first few seasons and you'll see.
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. Dr. John Carpenter, M.D. Stop, look and listen, baby <<--->> that's my philosophy!
The comedy in that review is that the music in Tickle Me was all really good quality Elvis music. UA, as I recall, was in serious trouble, so rather than commission new material, and recording sessions, they got permission to use previously recorded Elvis tracks, meaning we got to hear real Elvis music in a movie. I do get what he says though in that because of this, the recordings do sound different.
Elvis himself quotes Tickle Me as one of the movies he made that he felt had merit.
The good songs are buried under atrocious choreography and filming though.
