in January, Presley returned to Nashville to record a trio of studio tracks, two of which he had already worked on the previous May. “Ask Me” was a high-pitched ballad that Elvis tossed aside after struggling through two takes. He returned to it here to try and get it right, hoping it could be a single. A new song, “It Hurts Me,” was also recorded, taking five takes to perfect; it did everything “Ask Me” tried to do but better: They both have a basic structure and simple hook, but the latter song simply had better lyrics and a more manageable range.
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The other song they recorded—also a retry from the previous year’s session—was “Memphis, Tennessee.” The Chuck Berry rock-and-roller is a timeless tune that Elvis could have made his own at any year of his career. Why he waited so long to record it (Berry released it in 1959) is a mystery but with the right push, it easily could have been a big hit for him.
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Originally the song was going to release alongside “Kissin Cousins” as a double-A-side single but that was nixed when Elvis decided he wanted more time to perfect the song. “It Hurts Me” was released opposite “Kissin Cousins” in late January instead. After that, the plan was to pair “Memphis, Tennessee” with “Ask Me” and score a near-certain top ten hit, but in the end, the song ended up being tossed away on the Elvis For Everyone compilation album and was never given a 45 release. So what happened?
Johnny Rivers happened.
The wannabe/Elvis soundalike visited Graceland in May of 1964, not long before the “Memphis/Ask Me” single was scheduled to release. Rivers was given a sneak peek at the song and then, in an act of shamelessness, raced to his own studio to record his own version of the song. Copying everything from Elvis’s inflection to the arrangement of the backing band. Angry and hurt, Elvis canceled the 45 release and then watched as Rivers’ version peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 (Chuck Berry’s original never cracked the top 50). As much as it stung to be blindsided by a fellow performer, Johnny Rivers wasn’t the real threat to Elvis in 1964.
Beatlemania had arrived.
The Beatles reached number one for the first time on the February 1st edition of the Billboard Hot100, thanks to the strength of their single “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (which Lennon and McCartney wrote specifically to generate a hit in the US). That song held the number one spot until March 21st, when it was replaced by another Beatles song, “She Loves You.” That lasted for only two weeks however, before it was replaced at the top by another Beatles song “Can’t Buy Me Love.” That song held the top spot for a month, when Louie Armstrong’s “Hello Dolly” broke the streak. All told, the Beatles spent fourteen of the first eighteen months of the year at number one, with three different hits. And they also had “Love Me Do,” “A Hard Day’s Night” and “I Feel Fine” still to come in 1964, all of which would likewise reach number one. Suddenly, the Beatles were the biggest force to be reckoned with in music since Elvis himself exploded in 1957.
While the British Invasion was taking over the radio and Ed Sullivan’s TV show, Elvis was stuck in the doldrums of soundtracks with songs of little quality, meant to promote movies of little intrigue. He recorded the Roustabout soundtrack in March, knocking out eleven songs with little gusto. The theme for the movie was the Carnival, with Elvis playing a musician who helps a struggling carny family by singing and dancing blah blah blah. Songs such as “It’s Carnival Time” and “Carny Town” are self-explanatory. There was the obligatory Leiber/Stoller submission, a fun little ball of energy called “Little Egypt.” Like most of the writing duo’s songs lately, it was not a tune written originally for Elvis; the team wrote it for The Coasters (with whom they had a long business relationship), and their version is superior, if only because their harmonizing gives the song more depth than Elvis’s solo performance could. Still, Elvis did alright with the number and it was easily the only bright spot on the album.
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Other songs like “Big Love, Big Heartache” and “One Track Heart” sound more like parodies of Elvis hits. They sound like what a comedian imitating Elvis might sing as a joke. The title song was recorded in two different versions, the first (penned by Otis Blackwell, called “I’m a Roustabout”) was a rock and roll tune better than it had any right to be. The remake (simply titled “Roustabout”) was a mid-tempo go-nowhere pop tune. Naturally, the pop version was released and the rock version sat in a vault for decades.
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