1961 Elvis Presley: Little Sister/His Latest Flame

Two sides from the pen of Pomus and Shuman, 'Little Sister' is pure rock and roll with a four on the floor backbeat and a stop start structure that's Led Zeppelin in microcosm. It's loud and raucous yet for all it's energy it already sounds more pastiche than the genuine article in 1961. Like a thieving magpie there's a bit of this ('Hound Dog's paws are all over Presley's vocal) and a bit of that (I can't help but hear Joe Moretti's guitar lines from 'Shakin' All Over' chiming away behind it all) but none of it gels into a fully satisfying statement of a song that particularly needed to be recorded. A famed version by Ry Cooder from 1979 trimmed the fat to show the lean quality of the song underneath, but everybody here, Elvis included, sound like they're trying a bit too hard to do something they once made sound so effortless.

'His Latest Flame' was originally recorded by Del Shannon as a discordant clang that aimed for intensity but instead collapsed in on itself under the weight of everything turned up to eleven, including Shannon's histrionic vocal. This time it's the turn of Presley to cut to the chase by stripping it down to its heartbeat of a shuffling Bo Diddley rockabilly rhythm that's so much grist to the Presley mill. Elvis doesn't need to break sweat to lasso this into submission so he doesn't bother, and the hammering beat belies the fact this is Presley's most laidback vocal in quite a while. Not that he's coasting, far from it; the bemused disbelief in his voice (a mile away from Shannon's angst) suits both the song's subject ("Would you believe that yesterday this girl was in my arms and swore to me, she'd be mine eternally") and the incredulity that such a thing could be happening to 'The King' at all. For us mortals, must have been heartening to know that even Elvis gets two timed sometimes.

'His Latest Flame' is one of my all time favourite Presley recordings, but the bottom line here is that there's nothing new going on in any of above. Both songs are derivative all the way, but as a boat steadying exercise after some scattershot singles that gave no clear indication of just where Presley was heading, it's just what was needed at this point in his career, a call back to his roots and the music that made him famous in the first place. And in that it's just fine.