Frankie & Johnny – ELVIS PRESLEY***

Frankie & Johnny/Come Along/Petunia The Gardener’s Daughter/Chesay/What Every Woman Lives For/Look Out Broadway/Beginner’s Luck/Down By The Riverside & When The Saints Go Marching In/Shout It Out/Hard Luck/Please Don’t Stop Loving Me/Everybody Come Aboard

Sadly RCA continued to churn out sub par Elvis movies and soundtracks, with no less than three appearing in 1966, the first of these being the disappointing Frankie & Johnny. (US:20 UK:11)

"The movie was pretty bad, and the music isn't much better. There are two very good songs, which are Frankie & Johnny and Please Don't Stop Loving Me. These were, by no coincidence, the songs on the single released from the album. None of the others are all that good, although some of them are somewhat enjoyable."

"Save your money on this soundtrack. There was only one song that was new to my ears that was acceptable; other than this, it's typical Presley soundtrack fodder."

"Here we have Elvis present a new approach on the New Orleans sound, a far cry from King Creole. The title song, an old American classic, is actually given a powerful treatment and it holds pretty well on the top of the album."

"This soundtrack has only three tracks I care about, Frankie & Johnny (marginal), Beginner's Luck (truly a lost gem), and Hard Luck (lost semi-gem with flashes of classic). Still, the songs are mostly pretty weak."

"Many of the album's songs are meant to evoke the era of river boats and music calls, but they're campy, faux-Dixieland theatricality that doesn't survive the transition from film to soundtrack album. Elvis sounds as if he's being forced to march along to Down By The Riverside, though he loosens up for the second half of the medley with Saints Go Marching In."

"As far as the ballads go, in this album we are treated with more than the usual one or two. Beginner's Luck, and coming near the end strong and emotional Please Don't Stop Loving Me, are real cult classics that command repeat performances."

"Elvis digs in but there's very often a sense of strain and the almost embarrassingly intimate vocal reveals such discomfort. Still, he delivers some very rewarding sounds on something like the slow ballad, Beginner's Luck - this one is a masterpiece."