Length 29:42 Artist Elvis Presley Label RCA Records Genres Rock music, Rock and roll | Elvis' Golden Records Volume 3
(1963) Fun in Acapulco
(1963) Release date 11 August 1963 Producer Stephen H. Sholes | |
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Released August 11, 1963 (1963-08-11) Recorded March 20, 1960 – March 19, 1962 Similar Elvis Presley albums, Rock music albums | ||
Elvis' Golden Records Volume 3 is a greatest hits album by American rock and roll singer Elvis Presley, released by RCA Victor as LPM/LSP-2765 on August 11, 1963. The album was the third volume of an eventual five volume collection, and his eighteenth altogether. It is a compilation of hit singles released in 1960, 1961, and 1962.
Contents
The album was originally released as a mono and stereo LP record and was reissued several times including a Compact Disc edition in 1997 that included six bonus tracks. It was certified Gold on November 1, 1966, and Platinum on March 27, 1992, by the Recording Industry Association of America.
Content
Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, envisioned a marketing strategy of alternating soundtrack albums with independent studio recordings, accompanied by singles. By mid-1963, Presley's studio albums had struggled while the soundtrack albums had all done brisk business. Sessions in late May had failed to produce material cohesive enough for a regular album, those tracks surfacing on singles and pell-mell on soundtracks and the Elvis for Everyone compilation. The immediate solution was another compilation of hit singles, the sales numbers proving the success of this interim strategy.
Golden Records Volume 3 comprises eight Top Five A-sides along with four b-sides which also made the Top 40, "Fame and Fortune", "I Gotta Know", "Little Sister", and "Anything That's Part of You". Five A-Sides, "Stuck on You", "It's Now or Never", "Are You Lonesome Tonight?", "Surrender", and "Good Luck Charm" went to #1. "It's Now or Never" had been adapted from the 1898 Neapolitan song "O Sole Mio," and "Are You Lonesome Tonight", a ballad from 1926, had been a rare request from Parker to Presley for Parker's wife. As with the other titles in the series, all singles in this compilation are certified by the RIAA as attaining gold status with sales of at least 500,000 copies.
The original 12-track album was first issued on compact disc by RCA in 1989. The July 15, 1997 CD reissue added six tracks, those being two album tracks, two songs originally issued on EP singles, another b-side, and the number two hit single "Can't Help Falling In Love" from the soundtrack to Blue Hawaii. "The Girl of My Best Friend" was taken from the album Elvis Is Back!, and "Wooden Heart" from the soundtrack to G.I. Blues. "Wooden Heart" would be reissued as a b-side twice, once in 1964 and again in 1965, and the b-side "Wild in the Country" is the title track to the film of the same name. The remaining pair of film songs, "Follow That Dream" and "King of the Whole Wide World", are respectively from the EP soundtracks to the Presley movies Follow That Dream and Kid Galahad. The album was reissued again with the bonus tracks removed and the original running order restored.
Original recordings produced by Steve Sholes, Joseph Lilley, Chet Atkins, Urban Thielmann, Jeff Alexander, and Hans J. Salter.
Track listing
Chart positions for singles taken from Billboard Pop Singles chart where noted.
Songs
1It's Now or Never3:18
2Stuck on You2:19
3Fame and Fortune2:32