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Roustabout
Roustabout
Soundtrack album by Elvis Presley
Released	October 20, 1964
Recorded	March 2 & 3, April 29, 1964
Studio	Radio Recorders (Hollywood)
Genre	Pop, rock and roll
Length	20:05
Label	RCA Victor
Producer	Joseph Lilley
Elvis Presley chronology

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	^[1]
Record Mirror	^[2]

Roustabout is the ninth soundtrack album by American singer and musician Elvis Presley, released on RCA Victor Records in mono and stereo, LPM/LSP 2999, in October 1964. It is the soundtrack to the 1964 film of the same name starring Presley. Recording sessions took place at Radio Recorders in Hollywood, California, on March 2 and 3, and April 29, 1964. It peaked at number one on the Billboard Top LPs chart.^[3] It was certified Gold on May 20, 1988 by the Recording Industry Association of America.^[4] The album would be Presley's final soundtrack to reach number one and his last number one album until 1973's Aloha From Hawaii: Via Satellite.^[3]

Production

Payments to Presley for each film amounted to between $225,000 to $1,000,000 up front, often half the budget for production, with a 50% share of the profits.^[5] These movies were being shot in sometimes as little as three weeks, with the complete scoring and recording of the soundtrack albums taking no more than two weeks.^[5] It fell to Freddy Bienstock, the assistant of Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, to ensure that the soundtrack songs fit into the profit equation with the publishing controlled by Elvis Presley Music or Gladys Music, the Hill and Range Publishing companies owned by Presley and Parker. As a result, successful writers such as Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, Otis Blackwell and Winfield Scott, and Don Robertson lost interest in adhering to the needs of the grind.^[5] It was interlocking self-promotion, causing one MGM employee to remark that the movies "didn't need titles. They could be numbered. They would still sell".^[5]

Blackwell and Scott in fact submitted a candidate for the title track, "I'm a Roustabout" recorded on March 3, only to find it substituted by a song from a different team of writers.^[6] This recording was eventually released by RCA on the 2003 compilation 2nd to None.^[7]

Presley and his coterie of top session musicians gamely plowed through all of this, and eleven songs were recorded for the twenty-minute soundtrack LP. Four songs from this album appeared on the 1995 soundtrack compilation, The Essential 60s Masters II: "Roustabout", "Little Egypt", "Poison Ivy League", and "There's a Brand New Day on the Horizon".^[8]

Track listing

Side one
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Recording date	Length
1.	"Roustabout"	Bernie Baum, Bill Giant, Florence Kaye	April 29, 1964	1:56
2.	"Little Egypt"	Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller	March 2, 1964	2:15
3.	"Poison Ivy League"	Bernie Baum, Bill Giant, Florence Kaye	March 2, 1964	2:02
4.	"Hard Knocks"	Joy Byers	March 2, 1964	1:42
5.	"It's a Wonderful World"	Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennett	March 2, 1964	1:48
6.	"Big Love Big Heartache"	Dolores Fuller, Lee Morris, Sonny Hendrix	March 3, 1964	1:57

Side two
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Recording date	Length
1.	"One Track Heart"	Bernie Baum, Bill Giant, Florence Kaye	March 3, 1964	2:15
2.	"It's Carnival Time"	Ben Weisman and Sid Wayne	March 3, 1964	1:32
3.	"Carny Town"	Fred Wise and Randy Starr	March 3, 1964	1:19
4.	"There's a Brand New Day on the Horizon"	Joy Byers	March 3, 1964	2:00
5.	"Wheels on My Heels"	Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennett	March 3, 1964	1:19

Personnel

Partial credits from Keith Flynn and Ernst Jorgensen's examination of session tapes and RCA and AFM/musicians' union paperwork.^[9]^[10]

Elvis Presley – lead vocals
The Jordanaires (Gordon Stoker, Neal Matthews, Hoyt Hawkins, Ray Walker) – backing vocals (except "Roustabout")
The Mello Men (Thurl Ravenscroft, Bill Lee, Bill Cole, Max Smith) – backing vocals (on "Roustabout")
Scotty Moore – electric rhythm guitar (except "Roustabout")
Billy Strange – electric lead guitar
Tiny Timbrell – rhythm guitar
Bob Moore – double bass (except "Roustabout")
Ray Siegel – double bass (on "Roustabout")
Floyd Cramer – piano (except "Roustabout")
Dudley Brooks – piano (on "Roustabout")
D. J. Fontana – drums (except "Roustabout")
Buddy Harman – drums (except "Roustabout")
Hal Blaine – drums (on "Roustabout")
Bernie Mattinson – drums (on "Roustabout")
Boots Randolph – saxophone (except "Roustabout")

Charts

Chart (1965)	Peak position
Billboard Pop Albums	1
Australian Albums Chart	2^[11]

Certifications


Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
United States (RIAA)^[12]	Gold	500,000^{^}
^{^} Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

^ Allmusic review
^ Jones, Peter; Jopling, Norman (30 January 1965). "Elvis Presley: Roustabout" (PDF). Record Mirror. No. 203. p. 11. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 April 2022. Retrieved 17 August 2022.
^ ^a ^b "Pop Albums". Elvis Presley: Official Site of the King of Rock 'n' Roll. Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc. 2013. Archived from the original on October 26, 2014. Retrieved May 21, 2013.
^ "Searchable database". RIAA. Recording Industry Association of America. 2013. Retrieved May 21, 2013. Note: Enter search for "Roustabout"
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Jorgensen, Ernst. Elvis Presley A Life in Music: The Complete Recording Sessions. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998; p. 198.
^ Jorgensen, op. cit., pp. 198-199.
^ "Events in Memphis - Elvis Presley News - Memphis, Tennessee". Elvis.com. Retrieved 2012-01-07.
^ Command Performances: The Essential 60s Masters II at AllMusic
^ Flynn, Keith; Jorgensen, Ernst. "Elvis Presley Recording Sessions: March 2, 1964". KeithFlynn.com. Retrieved October 16, 2024.
^ Flynn, Keith; Jorgensen, Ernst. "Elvis Presley Recording Sessions: March 2, 1964". KeithFlynn.com. Retrieved October 16, 2024.
^ https://charts.elvis.com.au/elvis-presley-australian-album-charts-list.html Elvis Presley Australian Albums Chart
^ "American album certifications – Elvis Presley – Roustabout". Recording Industry Association of America.