For many years, Elvis Presley was considered the undisputed King Of Rock 'N' Roll. Millions of albums sold, hit after hit after hit on the radio, and thousands of fans backing venues every night to see him perform, even towards the end of his career. OK, so maybe the movies were not very good, but surely he was nigh infallible, right?
Well, in 1982, a bootleg maker known merely as "Richard" decided to prove otherwise.
Thus was born a compilation called Elvis' Greatest Shit, an album full of the worst tracks from his movies and a couple of unfunny outtakes. One look at the cover (featuring the infamous photo of Presley in his coffin and a disgusting parody of the RCA Victor logo showing the dog throwing up) should be enough to warn any potential listener that they are for a painful trip. Considering the line of "50,000,000 Elvis Fan CAN Be Wrong," one may be convinced that "Richard" held Presley's fans in contempt. In reality, he wanted to show the people who worshipped the King to the point of ridiculousness that he was not perfect.
And sure enough, the songs are almost entirely rotten. "U.S. Male" is somewhat passable and the flubbed version of "Are You Lonesome Tonight," while not as famous as the better known flub, is entertaining. But other than that, it's cringe central. Such painful "gems" as "Confidence" (complete with an unlistenable children's choir) and "Yoga Is As Yoga Does" make one regret ever listening in the first place, and yet the disturbing fascination is enough to make some people, this idiot included, to keep going, hoping that it can't possibly get worse. Except it does: "He's Your Uncle, Not Your Dad" is a horrific song about the IRS (WHY?!), "Dominick The Impotent Bull" is so moronic that Elvis himself can be heard corpsing towards the end, and "Datin'" is another song so bad that Elvis starts laughing at the beginning of the song and has to do another take.
The problem with everything else is that it is so forgettable. Perhaps in his efforts to negate the supposed divinity of Elvis, "Richard" failed to see that "bad" doesn't always mean "memorable." True, this album is full of Elvis' worst, but it's also full of songs you won't remember the moment the next song starts. For being something considered one of the worst albums of all time, it doesn't feel remarkable enough to be such.
Due to some of the content on the cover, I will not be posting a video.
