The Wannabes: Bootleg Remixes, Part One

When the "A Little Less Conversation" and "Rubberneckin'" remixes were released in 2002 and 2003, respectively, the underground mix scene quickly picked up on the scene and several remixes were released without the authorization of Sony/BMG or Elvis's estate.

Underground remixes began where most people would think they would: in clubs. DJ's mixed and "mashed" songs together or added their own sound effects or loops to an already existing master they had in their possession and would create their own customized version of the song.

With the rise of the internet, bootleg remixes, not just of Elvis, but of any artist in general, rose quickly into popularity, especially with easily obtainable and easy-access audio editing programs, and quick means of release, like video sites like YouTube.

The earliest of some of these "boot" remixes were alternate mixes of the already-released tracks "Little Less Conversation" and "Rubberneckin'." Skeewiff, a duo of DJs, were the first to make an unofficial remix of "ALLC," and instead of following JXL's lead and using the Comeback Special rerecording, they used the original master take from "Live a Little, Love a Little." The different in tone is astounding. Where JXL's mix has serious bite and begs to be danced to, Skeewiff's is far more laid back.



A "mash-up" is when you take one song's vocal track and lay it over a different song's background track, or vice-versa. Some results are disastrous, where others are surprisingly similar and work very well together, usually due to similarities in key changes. Simple audio editing can be used to match tempo together. An early bootleg Elvis mix mashed up the "Little Less Conversation" film master (I guess the remixers didn't realize that JXL used a different master) and combines it with the dance hit "Pump Up the Volume" by M/A/R/R/S.







A second underground mash-up, done around the same as the offical Rubberneckin' remixes, mashed up said track with Pink's "Feel Good Time" from the soundtrack to the film Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. Arguably the most "danceable" of all the tracks, it's a good combination of two very different songs.











This remix of Rubberneckin', interestingly enough, was created just PRIOR to release of the official remix by Paul Oakenfold and actually did chart in the UK, which is especially surprising, considering it wasn't offically endorsed by EPE or Sony. This remix is perhaps the most intriguing of all though, not just for that reason. The mix was created completely from elements within the multi-track tapes of the master recording. Nothing was added, everything simply rearranged. The other remixes here were likely done using an mp3 of a master track and editing that. However, this mix was created by Joseph Pirzada, who later became famous in the Elvis world for his UK-exclusive releases under the "Memphis Recording Studios" label that was basically an independent answer to Sony's Elvis-exclusive Follow That Dream label, which is headed by longtime Elvis recording "master," Ernst Jorgensen.

(NOTE: The audio on this video is the "Cognito" remix that charted in the UK, however, much like so many remixes online, and especially on YouTube, has been misattributed in its video description.)



Pirzada actually has, over time, acquired several master tapes and sources that are not only usually public unavailable, but sometimes even unavailable to even Sony/BMG. From a copy of the original master tracks of "Rubberneckin'," he created what became known as the "Rubberneckin' Groove Mix."

And a year later, when Elvis remix fans were begging for a new remix, when Sony/BMG didn't deliver, Joseph Pirzada did.

Second to None: The Rubberneckin' Saga

Elvis's 21st century comeback compilation, "Elv1s: 30 #1 Hits," was a massive seller, helped in large part by the popularity of the "A Little Less Conversation" remix and by a huge marketing scheme by Sony/BMG.

But the scope of Elvis's musical career was far too large for one 70 minute disc, so a follow-up was in order. Elvis: 2nd to None was released in 2003 in an attempt to ride the wave of Presley's newfound popularity with a younger generation who had known him only as the mockery their parents had made of him.

Elvis was everywhere again. In movies, on TV, and most important, on the radio, and not just on the oldies stations. Contemporary artists were speaking out about how Elvis had influenced them and their music. From hip-hop and punk to pop and soul, everyone seemed to be feeling the Elvis buzz.




Where the goal of #1 Hits was to make the end-all compilation of Elvis's top-charting hits from the US and UK, 2nd to None was definitely to show off the obscure side of Elvis. Many of the songs had long been ingrained in pop culture, like the movie song "Viva Las Vegas," or "Blue Suede Shoes," while others were less so, like "I Feel So Bad," and late 70's "Moody Blue."

The main two draws of the album were the long-lost master recording of an alternate theme song for Elvis's film "Roustabout," and the Paul Oakenfold remix of "Rubberneckin'."



The track was originally recorded during the 1969 Memphis recording sessions, when Elvis had recorded legendary tracks like "Suspicious Minds" and "In The Ghetto." The sessions are frequently hailed as Elvis's best in his entire career, and compared with his early sessions at Sun Records. Elvis had, for a year then, been riding a high brought on by the success of the NBC "Comeback" Special that had thrust him into the limelight again. The song itself, penned by Dory Jones and Bunny Warren, was a very 60's song, with groovy lyrics essentially about going on a drug trip, was recorded in a meager two takes, (three if you include a false start,) and originally relegated to the B-side of "Don't Cry Daddy." (Another Mac Davis song, for those into tidbits.)

However, it was also incorporated in the movie that was part of the deal Col. Parker and Elvis had signed with NBC for the TV Special, 1969's "Change of Habit," in which Elvis played a hip doctor who worked in the deep urban city and co-starred with Mary Tyler Moore. The song, with its driving bass beat, actually influenced the tone of the other movie's songs. "Change of Habit," "Let Us Pray," and "Have a Happy" all have a similar prominent bass part, though they were recorded at sessions far different from the Memphis sessions.



When, in 2003, Sony/BMG and EPE teamed up for a second hits compilation to follow "30 #1 Hits," they sent the word out to many successful DJ's that they wanted to include another remix, this time with "Rubberneckin'," which was from around the same timeframe as "A Little Less Conversation" had been recorded, and had pretty much the same level of obscurity.

They received several submissions back, and from three that they endorsed, only one became the official single that was released to the mainstream public and included on the 2nd to None package, and that was the one produced by veteran DJ Paul Oakenfold. The song became an overseas hit again, much like "A Little Less Conversation," only this time, the King himself was actually included in the promo video that went with it.



The video itself stirred up minor controversy within the Elvis community due to the female dancer flashing her panties at the camera, but the song enjoyed decent radio play and gained fairly good ground on the charts around the world. The song was later included in several films and TV shows, much like "ALLC" was. But what very few people were aware of, was that Sony/BMG had approved the release of two of the other remixes done at the time.

One remix, produced by DJ Jason Nevins, was released online as a digital-download only. It featured a heavy beat and a more prominent guitar riff, focusing less on the "groove" and more on the "grit." For some unknown reason, the remix was even released with a "Parental Advisory: Explicit Content" notice, although there's nothing in the track to indicate any reason for that designation.

The other was released through a website accessible only by purchasing a special Elvis-themed phone card available only at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club in the United States. A special code on the back allowed you to enter a site that had a few exclusive videos, desktop backgrounds, and two preview tracks from 2nd to None, "Viva Las Vegas," "Blue Suede Shoes," and this remix, produced by a Canadian duo called DNA Project.

(NOTE: I am in the process of reuploading the below remix)

This version of the song, interestingly, has not been found anywhere else online and is actually my personal mp3. The original .wma file was lost when the computer I downloaded it on crashed, and my only backup of the song was a cassette tape I had made from holding a tape recorder up to the speakers of my computer. (I was 14 years old at the time, mind you!) This is a digitized version of that cassette tape recording, and from what I can find, the only copy of the song available on the internet.

"Rubberneckin'" was certainly a very obscure track that was prime for remixing, and after it came out, some Elvis fans kept crying for another remix of another late 60's track, while others, steeply opposed to the concept of remixes, begged Sony/BMG and EPE not to release another. And they wouldn't... for another long five years...

The One That Started It All...

In 1968, a young and aspiring singer-songwriter was just beginning his career. Another, more veteran performer was beginning to pull his from the depths of a decade-long slump.

The singer-songwriter was Mac Davis, who hailed from Lubbock, Texas, and had yet to cut a full-fledged record yet. He would later put out several hit albums as a country-pop crossover act in the seventies and eighties.

The performer was, of course, the legendary Elvis Presley, having just come out of a very un-creative year, at least publicly speaking. 1967 had him star in three films: Clambake, Speedway, and Stay Away, Joe. In the same year, Elvis had recorded "He's Your Uncle, Not Your Dad" and the Jerry Reed classic "Guitar Man." Guitar Man was relegated to B-Side of the Clambake soundtrack album as one of Col. Parker's "bonus tracks."

But 1968 was a turning point for both men. Earlier that year, Elvis starred in "Live A Little, Love A Little," a trippy film based on the novel "Kiss My Firm But Pliant Lips." The sole single release from the film was the bland ballad "Almost in Love," sided with a song Mac Davis had co-written with Billy Strange, titled "A Little Less Conversation." Davis had originally written the song with Aretha Franklin in mind, as a bluesier pace than Elvis later recorded it.





But when the opportunity came up to write a song for a scene in which Elvis seduces a woman obsessed with horoscopes and fateful alignments, Davis submitted the song with hopes for its inclusion. The other song that Elvis actually recorded for this scene was a ballad called "Let's Forget About The Stars," but it was moved to the soundtrack of the western film "Charro!," was subsequently dropped from that, and later simply relegated to the compilation album "Let's Be Friends."





Later that year, Elvis starred in his now-classic "Comeback" NBC television special. Though Col. Parker wanted a Christmas-themed show exclusively, director Steve Binder had different ideas for Elvis, and, hiring Billy Strange as musical arranger for the special, set out to help the King reclaim his career.



The last section of the show was a mini-movie featuring a medley of some of Elvis' previous songs in a semi-autobiographical order. The original concept of the special was to intersperse this content with live concert footage, linking it all together with a re-recording of "A Little Less Conversation." In the end, the idea was dropped and the recording remained unreleased until 1998's "Memories: The Comeback Special" CD.

In 2002, preparing for the Nike Football (Soccer in the United States) World Tournament, Nike funded a massive international marketing campaign featuring the world's best football players going head to head in caged matches. For the background track, they hired Dutch DJ Junkie XL (Real Name Tom Holkenberg) to create a hip dance track that would be open and accessible to fans of football around the world. He had heard the master track of "A Little Less Conversation" a year earlier when it had been used in the soundtrack of the remake of "Ocean's Eleven," and, with Elvis's estate's approval, used the '68 Comeback Re-recording to create the track that changed the entire public's perception of Elvis in the 21st century.





The track shot up the charts around the world, hitting number one in over 16 European nations, including the UK. In the United States, the song topped a singles sales list (as US charts have now converted to basing their stats on radio airplay rather than actual consumer purchase of singles.)

Since its release, it has been featured in at least ten feature films and several television programs, most notably the show "Las Vegas," in which the remix serves as the show's theme song and the popularized song, which had only reached #69 on the charts when first released on 1968, became the song practically synonymous with Elvis Presley and the public image of Elvis, a fat singer in a jumpsuit, changed practically overnight again to a young, hip, talented artist that left the world a great cultural legacy.