Elvis Presley in the '60s: 1964

1. Memphis Tennessee
2. Ask Me
3. It Hurts Me

So, 1964, 'Kissin' cousins' and 'Roustabout' then? Not quite, but we have to get revisionist. Elvis was changing. There's 3 songs on the box set from this year, stray tracks that somehow got put on tape. Thank God, and goddamn, why isn't there more of it. These 3 tracks foreshadow what was to come later in the decade.

'Memphis Tennessee' - a driving, fully contemporized monster version of Chuck Berry's classic. Elvis owns it. 'It hurts me' - country soul ballad before the genre was born. There's a chorus in there, 'He never loved your - he never will - and darling, he'll never change' - it tears me up in the best way.
'Ask me' - not as remarkable as the other two, okay but a little old hat.

So, of course, they released the old hat as a single - respectably reaching No. 12. They put the country soul classic on the b-side of 'Kissin' cousins' (cause that's what the public wants! acceptable rock'n'roll which sounds pretty old fashioned now). And they buried the driving rocker on 1965 odds and sods 'Elvis for everyone'. Some A&R.

The title track from 'Roustabout' is idiotic carefree pop.

But Elvis was changing.