elvis facts, easy come easy go 1 - 3

Easy Come, Easy Go 1 - 3

lvis's twenty-third film was "Easy Come, Easy Go." Other titles that were considered for this film were "Port of Call," "A Girl In Every Port," "Nice and Easy" and "Easy Does It." The story was written by Allan Weiss, who had written the scripts for five other Elvis movies. This film centered around Elvis's character Ted Jackson, a former Navy diver who helps a free-spirited woman find a lost sunken treasure.

It was directed by Emmy Award winner John Rich, who had directed Elvis in the film "Roustabout."
Mr. Rich has had an highly successful career producing and directing numerous TV series such as

"Our Miss Brooks," "Gunsmoke," "The Rifleman," "The Andy Griffith Show," "The Dick Van Dyke Show," "Gilligan's Island," "I Spy," "The Brady Bunch," "All In The Family," "Maude," "Good Times," "The Jeffersons," "Barney Miller," "Newhart" and "Murphy Brown."

"Easy Come, Easy Go" was Elvis's last film for Paramount and producer Hal Wallis as the business relationship Elvis and his manager Colonel Tom Parker had with Wallis and Paramount drew to a close. Elvis no longer had his heart in his movie career or the music soundtracks he had to record for them. Colonel's associate Freddy Bienstock was in charge of gathering the material for recording and even Colonel Parker, not known for worrying about artistic matters, was not impressed with the selection. He was aware of Elvis's disillusionment and became concerned about record sales given the lack of usable material. Colonel Parker pushed Mr. Bienstock to come up with better songs. Wallis was no longer anxious to please Elvis and he demanded that Elvis record at Paramount Studio's cavernous soundstage, even setting up daytime sessions - both factors uncomfortable to Elvis with his preference to have the intimacy of a recording studio and to record in the evening.

On September 28, 1966, Elvis reported late for wardrobe fittings and then was late to the recording session that day and the one the next day. Although this annoyed the Paramount executives and Elvis was making his point, he still was recording much earlier in the day than normal and the material was still less than desirable. He detested the song "She's A Machine" and it eventually was dropped from the movie. He got entourage member Red West, who had done some song writing, to change the lyrics of "Stop, You're Wrong" and it became "You Gotta Stop," which was used in the film. Backing tracks were laid down for "Leave My Woman Alone," but Elvis never recorded the vocal for it. Two instrumentals also were used in the movie - "Freak Out" and "Go-Go Jo." The resulting six-song extened-play single never charted and sold only 30,000 units. It was the last extended-play as that format was phased out and it was the least successful soundtrack of Elvis's career.