Elvis Presley: "Good Luck Charm" / "Anything That's Part of You"

April 2, 1962 (1 week)

"Elvis Presley really wasn't trying anymore", states Tom Breihan at the start of his review of "Good Luck Charm", The King's seventeenth and, as it would turn out, penultimate American number one smash. I know what he means — and I don't think Elvis was the only one who was guilty of not giving much of a shit by this point either. Manager Colonel Tom Parker had been focused on Hollywood and the maximum profit he could squeeze out of the film industry, his client's acting chops be damned. The material he was being provided wasn't great either. But if you only bash one individual in Presley's camp for phoning it in then look no further than the turkey who designed the sleeve for "Good Luck Charm": the colours clash, the design is cheap, Elvis looks puffy and someone really should've sorted out his hair.

The one thing I'd say to refute Breihan is that he should've flipped the single over to hear B side "Anything That's a Part of You" (which happened to be co-credited as a double A alongside "Good Luck Charm" in Canada, as was the custom; this practice would come to an end by the time of Elvis' next CHUM chart topper). Honestly, it's pretty slight as well. The minimal arrangement suits the recording but, again, the composition is lacking somewhat. Yet, Elvis sounds pretty damn great on it. It's almost as if this twenty-seven year old who had clearly outgrown rock 'n' roll was looking to more mature gospel sounds as a possible way forward. Too bad no one cared to ask him.

Either that or he could've been more forthright. A recurring issue with Elvis is that the old bugger wouldn't or couldn't grow a pair when it came to his career. He had allowed the Colonel to call the shots for so long the very idea of standing up for himself wouldn't have even occurred to him most of the time. Handed something as unremarkable as "Good Luck Charm", he did his best with it but there's no question Elvis had left a great deal on the table; with "Anything That's Part of You" he was trying that much harder, probably because his heart was in it.Yet, the pop material that meant so little to him took precedence.

Yet, hiding in plain site was a way out: country-gospel wasn't going to prolong The King's status as a pop idol but it would have attracted that older audience that he and Tom Parker had sought following his discharge from military service. Singer Darlene Love would go on to befriend Presley at around the time of his acclaimed '68 Comeback Special, their bond forged by a mutual love of spiritual hymns. But these meetings were practically clandestine affairs: no one else wanted to know about this other side of Elvis, least of all his interfering manager.

"Anything That's Part of You" was by no means a one off. Gospel would gradually take on a more prominent role in the second half of Elvis' career, though it would be merely one side of his often overlooked musical catholicism. (What really makes From Elvis in Memphis such a brilliant album is that it's a collision of country, gospel, rockabilly and soul and, thus, a supreme document of The King's artistry) Just as Presley being a rock 'n' roll parody of himself sucked and serving up tenth rate soundtrack detritus sucked and becoming a grotesque stage show act sucked, a full on Born Again Elvis performing nothing but devotional material would have really sucked. Fortunately, he had little interest in being pigeonholed.

The pairing of "Good Luck Charm" with "Anything That's Part of You" adds little in the scheme of things to Elvis Presley's discography yet it's a significant release. On the one side, there's a torpor having set in; on the other, a roadmap, albeit one that wouldn't always be followed. Along the way, he would manage to wrest a degree of control away from the Colonel, abandon Hollywood and go back to the studios and concert halls where he belonged. Obviously his final years are tragic but at least he found a musical redemption along the way.

Score: 5