Cats were born to give chicks fever - be it Fahrenheit or Centigrade

Continuing my trip back through the 1961 album charts.

26/02/61 : Elvis Is Back! - Elvis Presley

And following on from Frank, we have our fifth and final visit from the other guy that just won't leave us alone this year - although Elvis has offered more variety so I'm at least a bit intrigued as to what we've got here.

As has generally been the case for Elvis and Frank this year, this is the better offering of the final pair - but as with Frank, I've really had enough of the guy so didn't pay too much attention to it. However, I would say that "Fever" is a fine version with sparse instrumentation, "The Girl Of My Best Friend" is also decent (Cliff would have done a good version of this) and "Such A Night" is some excellent Elvis cheese. It's also (for me) surprisingly country/ballad because I was expecting more rock and roll on this - it's all more Elvis than I need, but he does have to get credit for the variety he's delivered across the year (and it feels strange to be crediting Elvis for variety).

We're at #16 in the charts this week on its last week ever in the charts - it was its fourth run with it first having charted in July '60 on a 22 week run. It only managed one week at #1 but it did have 13 weeks in the top three and 19 weeks in the top five. The top five this week were South Pacific, Elvis, George, Frank and Ray Conniff (the first time we've seen him in the upper reaches of the chart) and we have THREE new entries - The Everly Brothers (#7), Huckleberry Hound (#11) and Acker Bilk (#17).

Wikipedia tells us this is his fourth album, his first in stereo and his first since his return from the army (hence the title). These days it's mad to think that someone as famous as Elvis accepted the draft - weirder still that he had ten top 40 hits whilst he was in army (with previously recorded material that they stored up and drip-fed to the fans). It also tells us that this album was a different sound for him, moving more towards a "pop" sound (which obviously sounds nothing like today's pop sound). The critics were pretty mixed on the album at the time but they've warmed to it over time and they appreciate the growth that he shows from previous albums.

"Customers also listened to" Arnett Cobb and Caroline Says - you didn't expect that now, did you? Obviously they also listened to a million other Elvis albums, but I thought we'd make it a bit more interesting. As with Frank, I've had too much Elvis this year but I have to admit he's had a lot more variety in there than I was expecting.

19/02/61 - Quite mystifying
05/03/61 - Him again!

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