#1 for weeks of March 20, and 27th, 1961.
Just from those first few seconds of music, I was expecting this to be the theme of Elvis' long lost James Bond crossover movie "Double-O-Presley" due to the uncanny resemblance to the famous James Bond Theme. Well, since this song was recorded a good month and a half before 007's theme was, this song got there first.
Despite the familiar riff, the rest of this song becomes something quite different. Just like "It's Now Or Never", "Surrender" is another Elvis song based on an old Italian ballad. The music features finger cymbals and a cha-cha rhythm which adds to the song's non-American origins.
While this song is still far removed from Elvis' original rockabilly sound, the tune is more upbeat than some of his previous #1 hits and just like "It's Now Or Never", it features quite a dynamic range of his voice. That was always the draw to his music and he certainly gives the song a great vocal performance.
If I had to nitpick, I would only add that this song got Elvis further into a more safe teen idol image as opposed to his genre-pioneering early sound. However, there's really not much else to say as in this early part of his life, it is very hard to find a song of his that I downright dislike.
Final Verdict - There really isn't much more that needs to be said that I haven't already mentioned in recent Elvis reviews. I'd certainly recommend listening to it because, even though he has certainly mellowed out, his one of a kind voice still makes the song a great listen.
Coming Up Next - "Blue Moon" by The Marcels.
Until Next Time - I'm Double-Oh-Rock.
No comments:
Post a Comment