Her personality unwinds just like a ball of twine
Continuing my trip back through the 1977 album charts.
09/10/77 : Moody Blue - Elvis Presley
Well this is unexpected. I knew The King died in '77, so I was expecting to see quite a few compilation albums that I could safely ignore - but this is actually a studio album, so I can't see any obvious reason to give it a swerve. I'm not expecting it to contain his finest work though...
It opens with a very overwrought version of "Unchained Melody" - surprisingly only the second time we've come across this track and all you need to know is that Robson & Jerome's version is better (and it's really not very good). It's safe to say he doesn't exactly dial back the drama at any point in the album (a lot of the songs are patently ridiculous), but he's giving the fans what they want and his voice is better than I was expecting it to be. I did quite like "Way Down" - I assumed it was an old track, but it was recorded for the first time for this album and I was also pleasantly surprised by "It's Easy For You" (written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, apparently). Provided you're in the mood for some cheese, this isn't a dreadful album but I don't think even his staunchest fan would claim that this is the album you'd pick out of his to start with.
We're at #7 in the charts this week on his eighth week of a fifteen week run, with it having peaked at #3 in its fifth and sixth weeks. The top five this week were the Diana Ross best-of, The Stranglers, Jean Michel Jarre, a Rolling Stones live album and Steely Dan - quite the mix of genres. The highest new entry this week was the decidedly peculiar Slim Whitman best-of - quite what anyone was doing listening to this in 1977 is unclear, but if we look in the top 30 we can also see albums from Connie Francis, Phil Spector, Frankie Laine, Don Williams and two more from Elvis, so nostalgia was obviously a big thing at this time.
Wikipedia tells us this is his 24th and final studio album - it's a mix of tracks recorded from various sessions, previous singles and live tracks, which makes you suspect the record company knew a good thing was coming to an end. In the US, it was pressed on blue vinyl (which was rare) to match the title but the rest of us had to make do with the normal black. The critics were pretty middling about it (there wasn't really any point in them having any opinion on it) and it did well commercially getting to #3 in the US, #2 in Canada and Sweden and #1 in New Zealand (obviously).
"Customers also listened to" a load of random Elvis-related albums by people who I've never heard of - it's a peculiar mix and I struggle to understand why anyone would listen to any of them instead of just listened to The King. He's produced some classic tracks over the years but "Way Down" is the only one on this album that comes close to approaching any of them - it wasn't an unpleasant listen, but more of a musical curio than anything else.
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