50 years ago: Elvis Presley’s Blue Hawaii soundtrack hit #1 for 1st of 20 weeks

First posted 4/9/2008; updated 9/29/2020.

Blue Hawaii Elvis Presley

Released: October 1, 1961 Charted: October 23, 1961 Peak: 120 US, 118 UK, -- CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): 3.0 US, -- UK, 3.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: rock and roll

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Blue Hawaii [2:36] Almost Always True [2:25] Aloha Oe [1:53] No More [2:22] Can’t Help Falling in Love (Creatore/ Peretti/ Weiss) [3:01] (11/22/61, 2 US, 1 AC, 1 UK, 4 CN, 3 AU, sales: 1.6 million) Rock-a-Hula Baby [1:59] (12/4/61, 23 US, 3 UK) Moonlight Swim [2:20] Ku-U-I-Po [2:22] It Eats [1:23] Slicin' Sand [1:36] Hawaiian Sunset [2:32] Beach Boy Blues [2:03] Island of Love [2:41] Hawaiian Wedding Song [2:48] Total Running Time: 32:02

Rating: 3.319 out of 5.00 (average of 13 ratings) Awards:

About the Album: “After his return from military service, Elvis Presley’s movies, and the soundtracks to them, began taking on a formulaic quality – the early ones, however, such as G.I. Blues and this release, still had enough interest on the part of the makers and the singer, however, to make them attractive if flawed efforts.” BE This “soundtrack of what was to be Elvis’ biggest movie called for an Hawaiianesque flavor” NU “that doesn’t necessarily present Elvis in anything like his strongest musical setting.” BE “While Presley’s vocals are excellent throughout, much of the material is of a throwaway caliber.” NU But in between and around tracks like Aloha Oe and other pieces of music lifted from the local color, there are songs such as No More and, most importantly, Can’t Help Falling in Love (arguably the best song in any Elvis movie, and maybe the best song ever written for a rock & roll movie) that show him at his best – his singing was advancing with each passing month, and with the right material he was still one of the most compelling and charismatic vocalists on the planet, and here, for those two songs, he had the right material, which was more than enough.” BE “It was even enough to overcome the weakness of Rock-A-Hula Baby, a third-rate song” BE “as dumb as the title implies.” NU The song “became an international hit and proved that at this point, Elvis could probably have sung the telephone book and made it chart.” BE “The expanded edition is mostly filled out with the songs as arranged and mastered for their on-screen incarnations, which are slightly different in emphasis, texture, and accompaniment – even here, ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’ is different enough to justify the purchase of the special edition. The sound on all of this is impeccable, state of the art, and gives the singer his due and more in terms of fidelity and richness…This release captures Elvis’ singing at a point that – as the quality of the songs in his movies declined in the years to come – fans would soon regard as a golden age.” BE Notes: The 1997 CD reissue includes alternate takes of “Blue Hawaii,” “No More,” “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” “Rock-a-Hula Baby,” “Slicin’ Sand,” and “Beach Boy Blues.” Also included are two versions of “Steppin’ Out of Line,” a song not featured on the original soundtrack.

Resources and Related Links: Elvis Presley’s DMDB Encyclopedia entry BE Bruce Eder, All Music Guide NU Neal Umphred, All Music Guide