This 1997 reissue of BLUE HAWAII is remixed and remastered from the original three-track master tapes and includes 8 extra tracks.
Personnel: Elvis Presley (vocals); Scotty Moore, Hank Garland, Tiny Timbrell (guitar); Alvino Rey (steel guitar); Fred Tavares, Bernie Lewis (ukelele); George Fields (harmonica); Boots Randolph (saxophone); Floyd Cramer (piano); Dudley Brooks (piano, celeste); Bob Moore (bass); D.J. Fontana, Hal Blaine, Bernie Mattinson (drums); The Jordanaires, The Surfers (background vocals).
Reissue producers: Ernst Mikael Jorgensen, Roger Semon.
Recorded at Radio Recorders, Hollywood, California, in March 1961.
Elvis' theatrical ouevre found him portraying singing busboys, singing prizefighters, even a singing doctor in love with a nun, all of which makes his role as the heir to a pineapple fortune in "Blue Hawaii" sound positively prosaic. But Elvis and Hawaii were made for each other like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and "Blue Hawaii" became one of his most successful movies. The soundtrack was the No. 1 record in the U.S. for an astonishing 20 weeks, making it Elvis' most commercially successful LP, and one of the most successful LPs of all time.
Like most of Elvis' soundtracks, the album contains some real gems surrounded by some real dross. This 1997 reissue is remastered and remixed from the original master tapes, and includes several extra tracks. Amid such frivolities as "Rock-A-Hula Baby" (co-written by Ed Wood's girlfriend Dolores Fuller) are classic tracks like "Can't Help Falling In Love." The reissue adds the actual on-screen version of this prime Elvis ballad.