Elvis and the Beatles 1 - Girl Happy

In this post we don't have one of the original versions of a song recorded by Presley. This is more of an exploration of the impact of the Beatles on an Elvis song and film.

The film Girl Happy was released in the UK summer 1965. It seemed to be the first and only movie to somehow, inherently acknowledge the advent of the Beatles. I could only find one reference to it on the internet though after much searching so lets look at that.

This is the quote I found " As influenced by "Beatlemania" and " The British Invasion of 1964", rock groups were the latest trend putting many solo performers at a disadvantage. With the box office success of "Hard Day's Night (1964) and expected success of "Help"(1965) three band member buddies, played by Gary Crosby - Bing Crosby's son), Jimmy Hawkins and Joby Baker, were added to the plot in order to enhance the film's appeal to a "newer' generation of rock fans and "teeny boppers". " http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059224/trivia

• The Beatles sound inherent in the song Girl Happy (especially the harmonies on the hook line) sounded more Beatles 1964 than the jingle jangle Beatles guitar riff sound of 1965 - eg Ticket to Ride.
• However the soundtrack for Girl Happy was recorded nearly a year before in Hollywood (Radio Recorders) between June 5th and July 8th. Can't Buy Me Love had topped the charts in April and A Hard Day's Night was released in June. So the songs and film would have been written earlier in 1964.
• As the above quote says, Bealtemania had broken through in the US in 1964 and on Sunday February 9, 1964, at 8 p.m., the Beatles made their first American debut on The Ed Sullivan Show.

To illustrate the impact this site says http://www.iamthebeatles.com/article1036.html

"In preparation for their appearance, CBS Television office on West-Fifty-Third Street in New York was overwhelmed by more than 50,000 requests for tickets to a studio that held 703. During their appearance, the Beatles sang five songs in the following order: All My Loving, Till There Was You, She Loves You, I Saw Her Standing There, and I Want To Hold Your Hand. On this night, 73 million people watched The Beatles. Their appearance had such an impact that most normal activities in America came to a standstill watching their performance. Criminal activity in most of the major cities and towns in America was put on hold, and getting a taxi or bus in New York was almost impossible, until their performance was over. Mass hysteria resulted wherever the Beatles appeared, and Beatlemania was created."

• The Beatles went on to appear, either in person or on video tape, eight more times on the Sullivan Show. In 1964 they also appeared on February 16th, This would be a live performance from their hotel in Miami Beach, Florida. (more on this soon in relation to Girl Happy). Feb 23rd and May 24th on the release of their movie A Hard Days Night. Result - 
• 
  " 1964 is the first year Elvis Presley did not reach the TOP 10 with any of the six singles he released that year."
  MGM sold the film "whose setting was the annual spring break festivities on the beaches of Fort Lauderdale, FL." so as " To take advantage of the popularity among college students of the Ft. Lauderdale Easter vacation, producer Joe Pasternak put together Girl Happy, a youth-oriented film combining Elvis Presley, Ft. Lauderdale, bikini-clad girls, and wacky dance crazes." MGM presented Girl Happy as "a beach party film ("Elvis brings his beat to the beach!" "Elvis jumps with the campus crowd to make the beach 'ball' bounce!") " (See Poster)
http://movies.elvispresley.com.au/girl_happy.shtml / http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_Happy
• It just so happens, that the Beatles second appearance on The Ed Sullivan show on February 16th was filmed on location in Miami where they happened to be playing. "
  
  
  
  
  The next time The Beatles appeared on the show was on February 16, 1964. This would be a live performance from their hotel in Miami Beach, Florida. In preparation for this appearance, The Beatles played to a live audience during the afternoon at the hotel, then at 8 p.m., played the Sullivan Show live performance via satellite. The Beatles sang six songs; She Loves You, This Boy, All My Loving, I Saw Her Standing There, From Me To You,and I Want To Hold Your Hand." . Fort Lauderdale ( where Girl Happy was located is only a little way from Miami)- coincidence or what? - see map.and Beatles video above.
  http://www.iamthebeatles.com/article1036.html
• 
  
• The plot - " Elvis stars as struggling pop singer Rusty Wells, whose musical combo works for a tough Chicago nightclub owner known as Big Frank. Big Frank's big weakness is his only daughter Valerie, who insists on spending her Easter vacation in sunny, sinful Ft. Lauderdale. Frank sends Rusty and his friends to Florida to keep an eye on Valerie without her knowing about it.Rusty attempts to pursue a few college coeds of his own, but he is constantly interrupted by the need to rescue Valerie from various Ft. Lauderdale loverboys. Naturally, Valerie, played by Shelley Fabares in her first Elvis Presley musical, falls in love with the smooth-talking Rusty." http://movies.elvispresley.com.au/girl_happy.shtml Light hearted youthful and musical comedy.
• At this stage Elvis was clearly disillusioned about the merits of making these types of musical comedies with low key songs as expressed behind the scenes to director Boris Segal http://movies.elvispresley.com.au/girl_happy.shtml 
  and wanted to record better material in the studio and make films without soundtracks. Economically the film soundtracks outsold the studio albums and the films acted like worldwide videos in the days before Presley started touring again. It's interesting to note that when Elvis finally met the Beatles in 1965 they jammed on Cilla Black's You're My World which was in the charts around the time of him recording the tracks for Girl Happy and Elvis knew the bass parts for I Feel Fine. Later he recorded tracks from this period such as You've Lost that Lovin Feeling and Yesterday. This sounds like an indication of his preferred choice of material during that period.
  The movie sound track is pretty awful and the choice of single - Do the Clam - was disappointing with it's out of date guitar sound lyrics. However the acoustic song Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce, although clearly a plot song, has a certain charm and interesting lyrics- perhaps a nod to the emerging Dylan sound although not worthy of Dylan himself,it might have been thought to appeal to young people of the time.
  With Girl Happy, the sound, especially in the harmonies of the hook line, are reminiscent of the Beatles 1964. It is also reminiscent Little Richard's The Girl Can't Help it which influenced the Beatles when they were starting out. The Little Richard no is of course much stronger material and works lyrically with that repeated line "The Girl Can't help it". However judging by alternate takes that have since been released the song was originally a lot slower. Girl Happy was speeded up by 8%, a studio trick employed by the Beatles themselves - but later on!

" For reasons unknown, several of Elvis' songs are slightly sped up, making his voice sound higher than usual. This is most noticeable on the title track. This error appears to have originated in the recording studio, as the RCA soundtrack album retains the sped up versions of the songs. A recording of "Girl Happy", mastered at the proper speed, would not be released until the 1990s. The explanation came afterwards that it was intentional and that it was supposed to give the title track an upbeat feeling that it lacked apparently in the original version. It has to be reminded that this soundtrack was recorded at the height of the Beatlemania in June 1964 and that the record company tried to give some "extra-youth" to Elvis by speeding up the tape. " http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059224/trivia