Robbed hit of the week 7/31/23 - Elvis Presley & Junkie XL's "A Little Less Conversation"...

 

 

"A Little Less Conversation" - Elvis Presley and Junkie XL

from the albums ELV1S: 30 #1 Hits (2002) and Radio JXL: A Broadcast From The Computer Hell Cabin (2003)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #50 

 

You know, in the years I've done either the Song Of The Day series or its Robbed Hits companion, I've never covered the biggest act in the entire rock era. That ends now.

 

This week's "robbed hit" comes from Elvis Presley, who was born in Tupelo, Mississippi on meager means in the 1930's and 40's. By his teenage years his family moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where by the end of high school Elvis immersed himself in country and R&B music. The legend story goes that Presley entered Sun Studio, run by Sam Phillips, to make a vinyl record for his mother.  Phillips liked his voice and the potential to translate R&B records through a "white filter" to make it more palatable to what was considered the "mainstream" of the day. Assembling a band including bassist Bill Black, Presley recorded the song "That's All Right", which got a lot of notice, making the top-40 on the country chart (not in Billboard magazine, whose genre list was small, but Music Vendor).in 1954.

 

With guitarist Scotty Moore and drummer D.J. Fontana making the act a trio behind Presley, they recorded more singles for Sun, and in 1955 the song "I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone" paired with "Baby Let's Play House" went to #5 on Billboard's Country Singles chart. That was followed by "I Forgot To Remember To Forget", which spent five weeks at #5 on the Country Singles chart. 

By this point, Elvis had taken on Colonel Tom Parker (not an actual American colonel but a Dutch-born music promoter), who would eventually dominate the business of being Elvis Presley. RCA Records bought out his Sun contract, Parker took over as manager and put Elvis on television, and as 1956 started Presley released his first proper single on the label, "Heartbreak Hotel", which topped the Best Seller and Jukebox lists in Billboard (the "Hot 100" was a few years away) for eight weeks, and topped the country chart for seventeen. It even hit the R&B Chart at #3. Later that year, the single that had "Don't Be Cruel" on one side and "Hound Dog" on the other took eleven weeks at the top of those list, setting a record that wouldn't be broken on the Hot 100 until the 1990s. His self-titled debut album, which came out in March of 1956, spent ten weeks at #1 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums sales tally, marking the first "rock and roll" album to do so. And none of those #1 hits were even on the record, proving Presley's selling power. Through the rest of the decade, Elvis landed nine more #1 pop hits, with ballads like "Love Me Tender" all the way to raucous barn-burners like "Jailhouse Rock". Also, three full-length albums - his second disc Elvis, the soundtrack to his film debut Loving You, and his first Christmas Album - went to #1 on the sales charts. And this was even during the time Presley was conscripted into the Army. 

 

As the 60's began, and Elvis tour of duty ended, it was like he never left, since so much material was already recorded that he amassed six more top ten singles during that time. In 1960, at the second ever Grammy Awards, Elvis was nominated for three categories, with the rock sway of "A Fool Such As I" losing Record of the Year to Bobby Darin's neo-swing of "Mack The Knife", while the jump-blues pastiche "A Big Hunk O'Love", which topped the Hot 100 for two weeks was up for Best R&B Performance (which went to Dinah Washington for "What A Diff'rence a Day Makes") and Best Performance by a "Top-40 Artist" (which went home with Nat "King" Cole for "Midnight Flyer"). Presley definitely started the decade strong, with a string of four #1 hits on the Hot 100 with "Stuck On You", "It's Now Or Never", "Are You Lonesome Tonight?", and "Surrender". "Are You Lonesome Tonight" was nominated for three Grammy Awards: Record Of The Year (which went to easy-listening conductor Percy Faith for "Theme From A Summer Place"), Best Pop Vocal Performance (Ray Charles took that home for "Georgia On My Mind"), and Best Male Vocal Performance (also losing to Charles). At the same time, the soundtrack to his movie G.I. Blues, his third full-length movie tie-in, topped Billboard's sales chart for ten weeks even without a hit single (it was customary in those days to release the singles as stand-alones and then plopped onto greatest hits sets later). The soundtrack was also up for two Grammy Awards in 1961, Best Male Vocal Album (which went to Ray Charles again for The Genius Of Ray Charles, which again didn't have "Georgia On My Mind" on it) and Best Soundtrack Album (losing to Cole Porter's Can-Can starring Frank Sinatra and Shirley Maclaine). That same year, his campy single "(Marie's The Name) His Latest Flame" placed him on Billboard's Adult Contemporary for the first time at #2.

But in the midst of this, Parker was directing Elvis' career to become a film-making factory, churning out one popcorn flick after another. While the next soundtrack after G.I. Blues, the exotic romance trip of Blue Hawaii, was a huge success in 1961, spending twenty weeks at #1 on the Billboard Mono Albums chart (stereo and mono albums had separate lists, with Elvis topping the Stereo one for four), that was due to the fortunate inclusion of one of his best performances in the love ballad "Can't Help Falling In Love", which spent a week at #2 on the Hot 100. Blue Hawaii ended up getting a Grammy nomination again for Best Soundtrack Album, but it couldn't beat the companion to the West Side Story film. Also in 1961, he released the album-track-only Something For Everyone, which took three weeks at the top of the sales chart. He also scored a #1 pop singles hit in 1962 going back to his teeny-bopper era with "Good Luck Charm", but it would be his final chart-topper for years.

During the rest of the first half of the decade, Presley was churning out multiple films a year, with the companion soundtracks all at least making the albums sales top ten. Girls! Girls! Girls! had a classic hit in 1963 with "Return To Sender", but mostly the material on these records were declining sharply in quality. The one for Roustabout, which didn't have any hits, even went to #1 for a week in 1965. But it was more on fanbase than a result of the music itself. Although there was a rare top ten soundtrack hit with the laughable "Bossa Nova Baby" from Fun In Acapulco, his singles were definitely tanking in comparison to his legendary run, making the top-40 at times from name recognition alone. But instead, a nugget dug up from 1960 sessions for his second gospel album, "Crying In The Chapel", ended up becoming the biggest success of that period, going to #3 for a week in 1965. That song ended up on the How Great Thou Art set in 1967, which gave Elvis his first Grammy Award.

In time, with the constant flow of Elvis films, and the quality of them plummeting, even the fans broke from buying the soundtracks, with none of the six released in the second half of the 60's making the top ten. Even at the Grammys, his only showing was with the inspirational semi-gospel compilation You'll Never Walk Alone, which lost the "Sacred Music Performance" award to Jake Hess' Beautiful Island Of Somewhere. It looked like Elvis' bright star had dimmed to become a novelty "oldie" act.

Thankfully, Tom Parker had the idea of bringing Elvis back to television, and was blind (or dumb) to let his original vision of a Christmas special being completely thrown out by Presley and the show's producers. The resulting show in December of 1968, Elvis, forever now subtitled as The Comeback Special, had some big-budget numbers at the start. But by far the highlight of the program was Presley and his band in black gathered on a soundstage with the audience around them performing older hits with a fire that had never alighted in his movie performances. Scotty Moore and DJ Fontana from his original band played in that segment (Bill Black had passed already), and the banter between the old friends was palpable. At the end of the show, a new song, "If I Can Dream", closed, and was released as a single, rising to #12 on the Hot 100, his best showing since 1965. The Elvis - TV Special album, released in November of 1968, also brought the singer back to the Billboard 200 top ten at #8, going on to sell over a million copies. 

With a renewed artistic energy, Elvis went back to the studio to record his first proper studio album that wasn't a soundtrack or compilation since the beginning of the decade, From Elvis In Memphis, which is still heralded as one of his best (for me, it pretty much is). The single from the record, the gritty pop-blues of "In The Ghetto", took a week at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, and the album went to a respectable #13, selling over a half-million copies. Later that year, he released two stand-alone singles that made the top ten as well. The creative peak of "Suspicious Minds" which became his seventeenth and final Hot 100 #1 in America. That was followed by the poignant "Don't Cry Daddy", which rose to #6. 

While this musical renaissance in Elvis' life was happening, though, his desire to be back on stage brought Parker back heavily in the picture, with the promoter arranging for a series of shows in Las Vegas. After a successful set of shows in 1969, Presley came back for a grueling two-shows-a-night residency at the Hilton International hotel, and from those concerts the album On Stage was compiled. His first true live show record, it sold over a million, hit #13 on the Billboard 200, and spun off a top ten pop hit with the live rendition of "The Wonder Of You", which also went to #1 in the United Kingdom. 

However, the constant live shows, both in Vegas and elsewhere, started to have the same effect on Presley's music, which diluted the sounds to appeal to mass audiences. It started to be more about the spectacle, with special concerts at Madison Square Garden, Hawaii, and Memphis were rolled out, with the Aloha From Hawaii record topping the albums chart. He would still at times deliver some studio work that was more inspired, but his image was dominated by his outrageous live persona. Also his marriage to Priscilla fell apart during that time (I have definite thoughts about that whole relationship). 

Performing live became Elvis' focus, and while he scored two Grammys in the early 70s, they were both for gospel rarities like the He Touched Me album in 1972 and a live version of  the title track to his 1967 inspirational set "How Great Thou Art" for the Live On Stage In Memphis album. But with the constant touring came along with a quickly growing drug dependency, and a swift decline in his health overall. Aside from a final inspired comeback in "Burning Love", which had a week in the runner-up spot on the Hot 100  in 1972, radio had left him behind, and the general consciousness had again relegated his to a caricature of himself. He eventually succumbed to a combination of addiction and his own body issues and famously died in the bathroom of his Graceland mansion in the summer of 1977, just as his single "Way Down" had returned him to the top 20 on the Hot 100 and ended up topping the British singles chart. The album it came from, Moody Blue, ended up spending three weeks at #3 on the sales chart, going on to sell over two million copies. His final concerts were documented on the obvious cash-in Elvis In Concert, which also went top ten on the Billboard 200 at #5, and the cringy-to-listen-to double-disc set spinning off the top-40 pop hit version of the classic "My Way", which peaked at #22. Another song, "Softly As I Leave You", peaked at #6 on Billboard's Country chart, "bubbled under" the Hot 100 at #109, and was posthumously nominated for his final Grammy for Best Male Country Performance, losing to Willie Nelson's version of "Georgia On My Mind" (kind of ironic).

A long string of posthumous releases followed. A "remix" album of older tracks with Presley's voice laid on new productions and backing vocals, came in 1981, and from it Elvis' "final" top-40 Hot 100 hit, the title track "Guitar Man" (which originally went to #43 in 1968), went to #27, and topped Billboard's Country Singles chart.

Fast forward to the beginning of the new millennium, when RCA decided to revamp Elvis' legacy by re-releasing remaster compilations tailored for the CD era. The first, Elv1s: 30 #1 Hits, came out in the fall of 2002. But it was preceded by a new version of an obscure minor hit of his from his soundtrack days. "A Little Less Conversation", written by Mac Davis (or "Baby Don't Get Hooked On Me" fame) and Billy Strange, came from his 1968 movie Live A Little, Love A Little, which only had four songs from Elvis, and didn't even sport a soundtrack. At the time, coming right before Elvis' comeback special, the single tanked down at #69 on the Hot 100...

It was originally intended for the comeback special but ultimately left on the cutting room floor....

It was this scrapped version in a different key that would be remixed into a new creation by Dutch DJ/producer Tom Holkenborg, who recorded/played under the moniker Junkie XL (or JXL for short). He flitted around the new wave scene until evolving into the alternative dance music genre, releasing his debut album Saturday Teenage Kick in 1997, with the title track slipping on to the Dutch singles chart at #100. Tom, who got permission from Presley's estate to use his vocals and music from the special, remixed "A Little Less Conversation" for an ad campaign by Nike sneakers and sportswear in the spring of 2002. The result, billed as "Elvis vs JXL", got a hugely positive reaction, and by that summer it was released as a single, which became a worldwide smash, and even graced the American charts (though not as prominently). Junkie XL's version doesn't cloud Elvis in club sounds, but frames the funky special version with punched-up percussion and edits to make it sound current. It was fun, the song wasn't so well know so it didn't seem like a grave dig-up, and around the world Elvis' spirit found himself on top of the charts...

 Junkie XL's remix of "A Little Less Conversation" was massive internationally, topping the singles charts in Canada, Australia, Denmark, Hungary, the Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, where it spent an entire month at #1. It also made the top ten in Spain (#2), Romania (#2), Italy (#3), Austria (#3), Belgium (#3 Flanders/#8 Wallonia), France (#5), Croatia (#5), Finland (#6), Greece (#7), Germany (#8), and Poland (#9). However in the United States, the song stalled at the halfway mark on Billboard's Hot 100 in July of 2002. On the radio, it only placed on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 list at #26. It would be included in the Elv1s: 30 #1 Hits validated by its British #1 placing that October. The compilation topped the Billboard 200 sales tally for three weeks, going on to sell over six million copies. It would also appear on Junkie XL's Radio JXL album the following year. 

A year later, a second compilation of Elvis hits came out, 2nd To None, which again included a dance remix of a obscure Presley soundtrack hit. "Rubberneckin'", which was the B-side to the top ten hit "Don't Cry Daddy" in 1970, and got enough airplay to be listed on the chart with it. A new version mixed by British DJ Paul Oakenfold, arguably then a much more famous spinner, was able to climb to #5 in the United Kingdom, and made the top ten in Canada, Australia, Ireland, Denmark, and Finland. But again in America it stopped at #92 on the Hot 100. In 2004, a re-release of Presley's Sun single "That's All Right" sparked a re-interest when it went to #3 in the UK. That was followed by a series of CD single reissue of Elvis' past hits placed 16 of them in the top ten on the British charts. 

As for Junkie XL, he had another top-40 hit in his homeland of the Netherlands with the Radio JXL album with a a collaboration with soul icon Solomon Burke's "Catch Up To My Step" (#40). In 2010 his album Booming Back At You went to #11 on the Dance Albums chart in Billboard. From the set two singles made Billboard's Dance Club Play chart, with a remake of Siouxsie and the Banshees' "Cities In Dust" making it to #19 in 2008. Holkenborg since has been more know for his soundtrack work. Which fits, since the Elvis biopic that came out in 2022 included this remix of "Conversation".

(7/10)