January 15, 2003

Can't Help Falling in Love: The Hollywood Hits helps answer the question, What happened to Elvis Presley? The pre-Army Elvis was a performer and recording artist who rocked white America the way it had never been rocked before. Post-Army, the so-called King was a B-movie actor who contributed songs to the soundtracks of the films he made. Between 1962 and 1968, he made an average of three films each year, a workload that in retrospect leaves little doubt why so much of his music from this period was so bad.

Can't Help starts out with great songs like "Jailhouse Rock" and "Treat Me Nice" (both from 1957's Jailhouse Rock), as well as "Loving You" and "(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear" (both from 1957's Loving You), but runs up on the rocks with tracks eight and nine, "Shoppin' Around" and "Wooden Heart" (from 1960's G.I. Blues, an olive branch from Hollywood to post-Hitler Germany complete with a verse in German), and pretty much stays there. Fans of Elvis kitsch who can't get enough of the cartoon figure who goes to Vegas to have "a swingin' time," as he boasted on the title track to Viva Las Vegas, should, this time around, just listen to the title tracks from Kissin' Cousins (1964) and Roustabout (1964).