Elvis For Everyone

The title says it all. Still unable to get Elvis into the studio, RCA put together a collection of rejects, alternate takes, and miscellaneous leftovers (albeit many of them “left over” for no very good reason) taken from the full span of his career. It was billed as an anniversary album celebrating ten years of partnership between Elvis and RCA. Cover art used a different black-and-white cameo beside each title, while at the center stands a confidently self-satisfied Elvis, in full color, next to a superimposed cash register with Nipper, the RCA dog, perched on top. In case you missed the point, the back featured color shots of the covers of fifteen “Elvis World Wide $1,000,000 LP Albums,” with dollar figures placed above each one. At over $5 million, Blue Hawaii was the unchallenged champion. Elvis For Everyone (with initial sales of only 200,000 copies) was unlikely to take a place even on the bottom rung of the million-dollar ladder.