Speedway (soundtrack)

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Speedway
File:Elvis Presley Speedway Stereo LP Cover with Hype Sticker.jpg
Original stereo cover still in shrink wrap with hype sticker
Soundtrack album by Elvis Presley
Released June 25, 1968
Recorded May 1963, June–September 1967, January 1968
Genre Rock, pop
Length 28:26
Label RCA Victor
Producer Jeff Alexander
Elvis Presley chronology
Elvis' Gold Records Volume 4
(1968)
Speedway
(1968)
Elvis Sings Flaming Star
(1968)
Singles from Speedway (soundtrack)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic 1/5 stars[1]

Speedway is the seventeenth soundtrack album by American singer and musician Elvis Presley, released by RCA Victor in mono and stereo, LPM/LSP 3989, on June 25, 1968.[2] It serves as the soundtrack album for the 1968 film Speedway starring Presley. Recording sessions took place at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios in Hollywood, California, on June 20 and 21, 1967. It peaked at number 82 on the Billboard 200.[3]

Speedway took over the new low for chart position and album sales by Presley, selling fewer than 100,000 copies, and jeopardizing his recording career.[4]:262 Much to his relief, it killed the soundtrack formula, this being the final Presley dramatic feature film to have a full soundtrack album. His last five movies of the decade — Stay Away, Joe, Live A Little, Love A Little, Charro!, The Trouble with Girls, and Change of Habit — concentrated on Presley the actor, not Presley the singer, with minimal song requirements.[4]:239, 243, 260, 261, 279 It is also the last Presley album to be released in both stereo and mono editions as mono was being phased out by the industry, thus making the rare mono pressing of Speedway (LPM-3989) a sought-after item among collectors[5]

Content

Eight tracks for Speedway were recorded at the sessions, with "Suppose", the only song that held interest for Elvis, dropped from the movie.[4]:229–230 Two tracks were pulled for a single, "Your Time Hasn't Come Yet Baby" with "Let Yourself Go" on its flipside, and both sides made the lower reaches of the Billboard Hot 100 (respectively numbers 72 and 71) but bombed sales-wise.[4]:244 "There Ain't Nothing Like A Song," rejected from the soundtrack for Spinout, was one of two songs that feature the lead vocals of Nancy Sinatra, here in duet with Presley.[4]:228 All her vocals, and her "Your Groovy Self," the only time a track without Elvis featured on any of his releases, were recorded at a separate session on June 26, produced by Lee Hazlewood.[6] Three leftover tracks, including one from the May 1963 "lost album" sessions, were unearthed to round out the album.

Reissues

Three songs from this album appear on Command Performances: The Essential 60s Masters II (1995): the two sides of the single and the title track.[7] In 2016 Speedway was reissued on the Follow That Dream label in a special 2-disc edition that contained the original album tracks along with numerous alternate takes.

Track listing

Side one
No. Title Recording date Length
1. "Speedway"   June 20, 1967 2:10
2. "There Ain't Nothing Like A Song" (duet with Nancy Sinatra) June 20, 1967 2:06
3. "Your Time Hasn't Come Yet, Baby"   June 20, 1967 1:49
4. "Who Are You (Who Am I?)"   June 20, 1967 2:32
5. "He's Your Uncle, Not Your Dad"   June 21, 1967 2:25
6. "Let Yourself Go"   June 21, 1967 2:56
Side two
No. Title Recording date Length
1. "Your Groovy Self" (solo by Nancy Sinatra) June 26, 1967 2:54
2. "Five Sleepy Heads" (bonus track) June 20, 1967 1:29
3. "Western Union" (bonus track) May 27, 1963 2:10
4. "Mine" (bonus track) September 10, 1967 2:36
5. "Goin' Home" (bonus track) January 15, 1968 2:23
6. "Suppose" (bonus track) June 20, 1967 2:01

Personnel

Charts

Chart (1968) Peak
position
Billboard Pop Albums 82

References

  1. Allmusic review
  2. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Jorgensen, Ernst. Elvis Presley A Life in Music: The Complete Recording Sessions. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998.
  5. Megocollector website
  6. Elvis Presley sessionography
  7. Command Performances: The Essential 60s Masters II at AllMusic

External links