G.I. Blues – ELVIS PRESLEY****

Tonight Is So Right For Love/What’s She Really Like/Frankfort Special/Wooden Heart/GI Blues/Pocketful Of Rainbows/Shoppin’ Around/Big Boots/Didja’ Ever/Blue Suede Shoes/Doin’ The Best I Can

G.I. Blues was one of Elvis Presley’s most successful soundtrack LPs, outselling his recent studio album. But critics claimed that some of the songs were mediocre in comparison. Includes the UK No. 1 hit single Wooden Heart. (US:1 UK:1)

“The performances from this album continued the trend toward a pure pop sound for Elvis. The title song, GI Blues is a toe-tapper and finds a mature Elvis giving a joyful performance. Pocketful Of Rainbows is an upbeat song with a smooth vocal that shows off Elvis’ new maturity. Wooden Heart was a number one song in just about every country in the world except the USA where it was not released as a single. Doin’ The Best I Can is a nice ballad that provides a good counterpoint to many of the uptempo songs. There is a new version of Blue Suede Shoes. While I prefer the original, Elvis could not really give a bad performance of this classic rocker.”

“Rock 'n' roll lite. Well, if you can call it rock 'n' roll, it's a lot more polite, polished up and commercialized, although the rhythm is there. But then again, the first rock 'n' roll movement was pretty dead by 1960 and I guess Elvis was trying to re-establish his career, moving with the times like many of his contemporaries.”

“In 1960, after he had left the army, Elvis made the album Elvis Is Back and it's brilliant. He also recorded these songs for his fifth movie a month or so later and they are vastly inferior and Elvis knew it. There are some OK things here but the major problem is that it sold twice as many copies as Elvis Is Back. No matter how good Elvis's non-movie stuff was - it didn't sell so well.”

“A huge selling album for Elvis, but in reality it only shows one side of him which is giving mediocre songs a very good treatment. Why it was much more successful than Elvis Is Back is beyond me. What is more depressing is that the success of the soundtrack set a trend for most of Elvis' music in the 60s. It's an OK album with a few good songs.”

“Like many of his soundtracks, this set includes several eminently forgettable pop songs, but Elvis still manages to charm.”