Elvis Presley’s Kissin’ Cousins from 1964 isn’t one of the King’s best movies, but there’s still much to savour on its No.6-charting soundtrack album…
Words by Douglas McPherson
Kissin’ Cousins was the movie that gave fans two Elvises for the price of one. With the help of a wig and a change of accent, Presley played both black-haired Air Force pilot Josh and his blond hillbilly cousin Jodie.
Hillbillies were in vogue, thanks to the popularity of The Beverly Hillbillies on TV, and the film was an attempt to cash in on a thirst for culture-clash comedy. The plot follows an army mission to buy a plot of land to use as a missile site from a gun-toting family of mountain folk who don’t want outsiders messing with their moonshine-making territory.
Elvis, as Josh, is taken along in the hope that his distant family connection will help smooth the deal and, this being a musical comedy, falls for two of his comely‘kissin’ cousins’, Azalea (Yvonne Craig) and Selena Tatum (Pamela Austin) and has to choose between them. As Josh, meanwhile, he falls for army girl Midge, played by Cynthia Pepper. As if that wasn’t enough girls, the soldiers are also pursued by a marauding gang of scantily clad mountain women, the Kittyhawks.
Quick & Cheap
Produced by B-movie specialist Sam Katzman, the picture was made as quickly and cheaply as possible to balance out the cost of Viva Las Vegas (which was made first, but released after Kissin’ Cousins). The low budget shows and, being made in around three weeks, it has a hastily thrown-together feel.
The critics weren’t kind, with The New York Times calling it “tired, strained”, and The Monthly Film Bulletin singling out the “over-acting and straggling plot.” Variety generously noted that Presley “does as well as possible under the circumstances.”
Retrospectively, Kissin’ Cousins has come to be seen as the point where Elvis’ film career began to go bad. But the movie is not without a certain cartoonish charm, thanks to Elvis’ ever reliable way with a funny line. “What are you doing with my face?” as Jodie says when he meets his doppleganger.
Long before Tom Hardy beat himself up while playing both Kray twins in Legend, Elvis was wrestling with himself a moment later – and it’s hard not to smile at the spectacle.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the best part of the movie is the bright and breezy accompanying soundtrack, which was recorded in Nashville rather than Hollywood and has aged a lot better than the on-screen antics.
Two For The Price Of One
In keeping with the spirit of two Elvises, there are two completely different theme songs by different writers. Kissin’ Cousins (Number 2), which opens the album, was used over the film’s opening credits. Penned by Bernie Baum, Bill Giant and Florence Kaye, it’s a slice of smooth, swinging pop, perhaps closer in feel to the music of Bobby Darin than the rock’n’roll that made Elvis famous. At barely over a minute in length it doesn’t have time to outstay its welcome.
The other Kissin’ Cousins, used in a barn dance scene, is a punchier number, with a solidly 60s pop grooviness, and was written by Fred Wise and Randy Starr. Extracted as a single, it was the perfect vehicle for Elvis for the times and reached No.12 in the US and No.10 in the UK.
The second track on the album, and the first that Elvis sang on screen in the picture, is Smokey Mountain Boy composed by Lenore Rosenblatt and Victor Millrose. It’s one of the most cinematic scenes in the movie, with Elvis singing in a jeep at the front of an army column rolling along a mountain road and the beautiful scenery makes up for some of the more artificial-looking studio sets used later.
The song works just as well without the visuals thanks to its stirring military whistling and percussion. Although not as memorable as the “Hup, two, three, four” riff of G.I. Blues, it’s a worthy successor but in a more laid-back mood.
Singing On Screen
The team of Baum, Giant and Kaye had contributed songs to the last few Elvis movies, but here they seem to have been commissioned to write most of the soundtrack and their credit graces the next four tracks, which has the benefit of giving them a consistent feel.
The upbeat There’s Gold In The Mountains has a pleasing swing, plus just enough sax and piano to remind us of Elvis’ rock’n’roll roots. One Boy Two Little Girls is a dreamy ballad with a beat on which Presley delivers a top drawer vocal. Tender Feeling is a more sultry and seductive love song with the hint of a Latin rhythm, while the mid-pace Catchin’ On Fast has a groovy jazz feel.
Less palatable is Barefoot Ballad, a cod hillbilly number by Dolores Fuller and Larry Morris that Presley sings in the exaggerated twang of ‘cousin Jodie’. Let’s just say Elvis sounds better when he sings like Elvis.
Much better is Once Is Enough with its upbeat message about living your one life to the full: “If you live every sec, then what the heck, once is enough.”
Solid Soundtrack
Because there weren’t enough songs in the film to fill an album, Side Two treated fans to some bonuses. Anyone (Could Fall In Love With You) was omitted from the film, and quite inexplicably, because it’s an extremely appealing ballad delivered with tenderness by the King and one of the best things on the disc.
The record was rounded off with two tracks from an unrelated session. Echoes Of Love is a featherlight teen ballad that fits well with the movie tracks, while (It’s A) Long Lonely Highway finally unleashes Elvis the tough-hearted rocker and brings the album to a satisfying close.
Although the movie received a critical panning and took just $3 million at the box office, coming in at 26 on the year’s list of top grossers, its shoestring budget meant that it made a bigger profit than the glossier Viva Las Vegas, which was seen by more people but cost much more to make.
The soundtrack, meanwhile, reached a respectable No.6 on the Billboard chart. Over two decades it eventually earned a gold disc for 500,000 sales. Sixty years on, it bears more repeated listens than the film bears repeated watches.
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